McClaren wins World Cup in 1st Friendly!
England thrashed Greece today 4-0 and fans of England (myself included) hungry for an exciting, successful side should over-react. The positives:
Gerrard was rampant and creative on the right in the 1st half - he drove the entire England offense, which I thought might suffer from the loss of Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney .
Lampard, perhaps at McClaren's request, didn't wildly blast a free kick from 35 yards. Instead he took adv of Crouch's height in box with a chip, which led to the opening goal by Terry. Then Lamps scored - a little lucky perhaps, but it could have been a PK anyway.
Hargreaves - Man U will buy him now for sure, as Boris had suggested. Just more of same awesome work-rate, crunching tackles that he showed in Germany (and that Man U. has missed since Keane's demise). Great tackle on Samaras outside the box. Named man of the match - amazing for a defensive midfielder who had no goals or assists in 4-0 win. He had a really solid match, but I think the recent Hargreaves love-fest caused his choice over Stevie G, who was certainly man of the match in my view.
Rio - also continuing good form from WC - showing a bit of attacking flare, as well as solid positional and tactical defending. Not that Greece offered that much in the way of attack. Also, the dread/braids look is gone and I hope for good (I thought he looked like Nefertiti's ugly sister with them).
Crouch - awkard and effective.
Ashley Cole had 2 goal-line kick saves that would have made Ken Dryden proud, and ate up any through balls played on the deck.
A first half TKO is a strong statement ("you are not in the same league as us"), and surely helps to build confidence in the squad. And I think that is what England needs.
Btw, it was strange to hear a few England players attribute failure in Germany to "over-confidence." They never seemed over-confident to me - they seemed to lack confidence and belief (and creativity). And have been for as long as I have been watching them. I didn't think McClaren was man to instill that, but I like everything he has done thus far in his short tenure.
On the "let's take it down a notch" front, this is what England should do to 2nd tier European competition more often. (I know Greece is defending Euro champs, but that was pretty lucky and they didn't qualify for the World Cup.). Also, Greece's marking in their own box was atrocious.
The 2nd half was unimportant - England sat back a lot more, brought in some subs etc. Some concern was the defending on set pieces in both halves. Greece looked dangerous on them and probably should have scored at least 1 goal.
Lastly, some really nice referee work in this game.
Gerrard was rampant and creative on the right in the 1st half - he drove the entire England offense, which I thought might suffer from the loss of Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney .
Lampard, perhaps at McClaren's request, didn't wildly blast a free kick from 35 yards. Instead he took adv of Crouch's height in box with a chip, which led to the opening goal by Terry. Then Lamps scored - a little lucky perhaps, but it could have been a PK anyway.
Hargreaves - Man U will buy him now for sure, as Boris had suggested. Just more of same awesome work-rate, crunching tackles that he showed in Germany (and that Man U. has missed since Keane's demise). Great tackle on Samaras outside the box. Named man of the match - amazing for a defensive midfielder who had no goals or assists in 4-0 win. He had a really solid match, but I think the recent Hargreaves love-fest caused his choice over Stevie G, who was certainly man of the match in my view.
Rio - also continuing good form from WC - showing a bit of attacking flare, as well as solid positional and tactical defending. Not that Greece offered that much in the way of attack. Also, the dread/braids look is gone and I hope for good (I thought he looked like Nefertiti's ugly sister with them).
Crouch - awkard and effective.
Ashley Cole had 2 goal-line kick saves that would have made Ken Dryden proud, and ate up any through balls played on the deck.
A first half TKO is a strong statement ("you are not in the same league as us"), and surely helps to build confidence in the squad. And I think that is what England needs.
Btw, it was strange to hear a few England players attribute failure in Germany to "over-confidence." They never seemed over-confident to me - they seemed to lack confidence and belief (and creativity). And have been for as long as I have been watching them. I didn't think McClaren was man to instill that, but I like everything he has done thus far in his short tenure.
On the "let's take it down a notch" front, this is what England should do to 2nd tier European competition more often. (I know Greece is defending Euro champs, but that was pretty lucky and they didn't qualify for the World Cup.). Also, Greece's marking in their own box was atrocious.
The 2nd half was unimportant - England sat back a lot more, brought in some subs etc. Some concern was the defending on set pieces in both halves. Greece looked dangerous on them and probably should have scored at least 1 goal.
Lastly, some really nice referee work in this game.
posted by the idiot at 1:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home