Englands defence

[Easy 10]

With Terry and Ferdinand in place I thought the England defence did a really good job. They looked solid and unflustered and were dealing well with most of the balls into the box.
The first goal was partly down to Beckham letting his man get infront of him and party but to having a gooner midget on the line.
The second goal was down to Sol Campbell (Gooner) acting like a donkey and Ashley Cole (did I mention he's a gooner) wandering away from the post he was meant to be guarding.
In short, we looked fine until Arsenal went and cocked in up.

Run that by me again ? Dealing well with most of the balls into the box ? Our set piece defending was an absolute shambles ! I'd agree Beckham was certainly culpable for the first, but the speed the ball was whipped in from the header there was no way Cole was going to stop that going in, very harsh to blame him. The second goal was primarily down to Terry, who completely missed his header from the throw-in.

 

[Hannibal smith]

Terrific first half. Slick passing, plenty of movement, threats from all over the pitch particularly down the left, wonderful goal. Couldn't have asked for any more.

2nd half the Swedes really came out of the traps and put us on the back foot. The passing deteriorated, the defending from set pieces was bloody terrifying, and we ran out of steam. Thought we'd won it, but overall a draw was probably the right result.

Overall though, I'm encouraged by the display. We've shown that, given the right system with a holding midfielder, we CAN knock it about superbly. One passing movement in the first half was all of 20 passes, until the shot from the knock-back by Crouch was blocked. Had someone banged that in, it would've been EVERY BIT as good as that Argentina goal everyone is creaming over.

More to be positive about tonight. It really was a hell of a good match.

Spot on. I think I'm living in a parellel universe today with all the whinging and moaning about our performance last night.

Roll on Sunday.