A step in the right direction
The knives were out for Steve McClaren before last night’s game against Estonia. Some shockingly dull, mundane and unimaginative displays against Macedonia, Croatia and Israel – three qualifying matches which yielded one point and no goals whatsoever – had left Euro 2008 qualification hopes hanging by a thread. A slightly improved performance against the mighty Andorra, and a reasonable draw in a friendly against an under-strength Brazil side, hadn’t masked the overall air of depression and angst.
Frank Lampard was booed by his own supporters against Brazil, whilst the return of David Beckham to the fold in a dramatic U-turn by Steve McClaren was seen by many commentators in the media as a big mistake. Surely Beckham was a relic from the past, a symbol of the ultimately shambolic Eriksson reign. Any authority McClaren had over his players would be eroded by the return of such a global megastar.
A sense of urgency
Under the weight of such pressure, the fact that England actually went out with a high tempo, passed the ball around and knocked some quality balls into the box in the first half hour was a cause for celebration. The 11 on the field actually looked like they finally understood the gravity of the team’s situation in Group E – five points behind the leaders Croatia, and games fast running out.
Estonia did what many people expected them to do – put most of the team behind the ball, tackle like demons and try to force the England team into hurried errors and mis-placed passes. They were actually pretty attacking-minded, compared to the incredibly negative and cynical Andorra – some breaks forward had a good level of pace about them, which briefly threatened to cause embarrassment.
After 35 minutes, however, with the score still at 0-0, the match did look like it could be yet another one of ‘those nights’ – one characterised by plenty of English effort, but serious shortcomings in flair and imagination.
No alarms and no surprises
Then, a genuine flash of skill, and a moment which long-suffering followers of England could finally get excited about. Crouch flicked on, Joe Cole gathered, spun and shot with arrow-like precision, and it was 1-0. You could almost feel the relief.
The 2nd half started slowly, but the returning Beckham, battling against a twisted ankle, stamped his mark on proceedings with two quality crosses which led to goals. Crouch and Owen were the lucky recipients of Beckham’s trademark whipped-in delivery, and suddenly it was all very comfortable.
The foot was taken off the gas in the last 25 minutes, perhaps unsurprisingly. Crouch’s needless booking, which rules him out of the next qualifying game, was annoying, and the embarrassment of being only the second team to concede against Estonia this century was just avoided, thanks to some perceptive genius on the goal-line from John Terry in injury time.
However, this was a victory with many encouraging aspects. The sorely missed Michael Owen will have been boosted by his strike, not that he ever seems to doubt his ability to score in the big matches. The passing, tempo and commitment was there, the midfield looked stable, and Robinson had little to seriously worry him. For once, after all the mundane slogging of so much of the qualifying campaign, England managed to emphasise the gulf in class and stamp a certain degree of authority on a game, and not get paralysed by fear or a lack of imagination. Something which looked like it should be incredibly comfortable on paper had actually turned into a comfortable experience in reality – a rare occurrence indeed in the last few years of England matches.
Four of England’s last five games in the group are at home, and all of sudden, a path has opened up through the group. Qualification is no longer a hopelessly distant possibility, but something which the mighty new Wembley could actually propel the team to achieve.
Time for some perspective
The most important thing when talking about an England match, however, is a sense of perspective. Sure, newspapers have to sell copies, and get an ‘angle’ that will lend itself to dramatic headlines and punchy copy. The constant boom and bust cycle that we’re in when talking about England’s performances is ridiculous, however.
Beat a halfway decent team and world glory is just around the corner, according to many of the tabloids. The hysteria whipped up by the papers before pretty much every major tournament over the last decade has been getting out of hand. What have England ultimately achieved over the last 40 years? A million hard luck stories, shootout agonies, sendings off and near misses… and absolutely nothing in the way of hard silverware.
The truth, perhaps, is too prosaic for the papers to entertain – that England are an average team with a couple of world-class players at most, which can get by to a certain extent with the classic traditions of grit and bloody-minded determination, but which struggles whenever it comes up against genuine class and flair. It’s a lost cause, really – if England do make it to Euro 2008, the hype machine will whir up again, and I’ll undoubtedly get swept along with the bravado once more, against my better judgement.
Last night, England beat an extremely limited team with a competent, professional display that had few alarms and a pleasing lack of controversy. The return of Owen and Beckham to the fold is a significant reason to be cheerful, although whether Becks will be sharp enough for the cut and thrust of international football when he hotfoots it over to the dubious charms of US competition with LA Galaxy is another matter entirely.
That argument is for another day, however. Let’s enjoy last night’s win for what it was, look to the future with cautious optimism, but remember that the rollercoaster ride the England team takes its supporters on will have plenty more ups and downs before we can safely book our tickets for Austria and Switzerland.
An opinion piece by Dom Brookman - MSN Homepage Editor
June 7, 2007
