ENGLAND v TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: indepth analysis
The thing about football is that there are two teams playing, and both those teams want to win.
Some, previous to the Trinidad game, seem to have forgotten this. England were just supposed to walk onto the pitch have a bit of a kick around and then score several goals. Trinidad's part was merely to provide a party atmosphere and then good humouredly let England have their win.
Ah funny little Trinidad, how honoured they must feel to be playing England. Funny little team. Now play nice and hand over those goals chaps!
Well that funny little team had already held Sweden to a goalless draw and managed to keep England there for 83 minutes. And do you know why? Because Trinidad wanted to bloody win. They didn't want to just turn up and be everyone's pet team to be patronised and smiled about, they wanted to bloody win matches.
England did what England needed to do. They took Trinidad seriously, and as the captain said after the match, they stuck to their game plan and finally broke them down.
True, I would rather they not have left it quite so late to score, but they were finally creating chances a good twenty to thirty minutes before the goals. And with a team with the quality of England if you create enough chances the balls will go in. The players believed that, even if it was slightly harder for those of us watching to believe.
So, Scribbles is happy. She recognises professionalism when she sees it. And she much approved of Stevie Gerrard's goal.
9 comments:
I think i was watching a rather different game.. but that is the joy of football support and opinion.
For me, the negatives: quite simply, the fact that a team is trying to win does not and should not mask their deficiencies. Trinidad rank below Jamaica, and the Reggae boys looked mighty deficient the other week. Given also too that the 47th placed ranking that Trinidad carry is supported by playing the same CONCACAF teams that got Mexico to 4th and the USA to 5th, one can safely assume 47th is grossly inflated. They wanted to win, but pub teams want to win. What England did was waste the ball by long balling it, wasting the skills of Cole, Lampard and Gerrard for significant parts of the first hour. They were no dimensional, and Crouch indicated that he is actually what we wanted him to be - a shock player for teams not used to it, NOT the attacking option to play against a bunch of massive central defenders...
But think of the positives. That was so poor it has got to hopefully wake the whole team out of a collective slumber, we were reminded that Terry is potentially the best central defender in the world, and Robinson has 10 days to learn to catch before his howlers really matter. We've even got a free meaningless game against Sweden where we can experiment to our hearts content. Lets hope the Swede uses it wisely...
Yes, there were deficencies in the England game. I believe the phrase most used last night was "fucking pass it" closely run with "why is there no one there to fucking pass it to?"
Mr Scribbles doesn't like swearing, so his most used phrase was "Villa scum" aimed mostly I believe at commentator Gareth Southgate.
he'll be glad to know he can use the 'villa' expression at Mellberg then on Tuesday night, as well as laugh at the fact that the Villa spent money on Allback!
You know what - last night made me think that calamity would be better in goal, but actually, we really could use a good Russell Hoult right now. He doesnt come out to catch things against people half a foot taller..
I hope we get those fancy dan Argies in the next round. 3-0 to the Ingerlund.
1) USA rank above Italy- and Mexico above Argentina in the FIFA rankings
2) Germany & Brasil haven't played particularly well, but won games because they don't panic, they believe in their abilities- it's good to see this attitude from the England team.
3) T&T could easily have been tonked by 5 or 6 if the finishing had been up to its normal standards- but it wasn't, they worked hard and played above their normal levels. Fair play to them but the reason why Sancho plays for Gillingham and terry for Chelsea is that Terry can do it week in/week out.
4) You said Mr Scribbles doesn't swear but then said he said V@?~ Scum. Surely that is paradoxical.
The fact is that England are multi-millionaires and Trinidad's team are mostly several levels lower, one of whom can't get a start for Falkirk. England ought to be able to thrash Trinidad, but far from outclassed them, and didn't create that many chances. By far the best player on the field was a 35-year old bloke playing out of position and who arguably peaked in 1999. Says something about England's 'stars'.
The comment about doing it week in, week out, pretty much answers that igor. You honestly believe Stern John is a better striker than Wayne Rooney?
What about Brazil, does the Australia match mean they aren't really all that much cop either?
Millions would be interested to hear why.
What I'm referring to is the fact that England are a collection of good, though overrated, players who make a decidedly average team. The responsibility for this lies on the 4-million salaried manager who gets the worst out of his players. Beenhakker, on the other hand, has got his Trinidad players playing out of their skins in a well-organised fashion.
Brazil have some great players, but are very much over-rated as a team, and would anyone argue that Ronaldo is better than Crouch at present?
Oh, people - you are so deep into it. I feel verwhelmed by pity.
BRAZIL FOREVER!
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