12 June 2003
Well, we won, but that was tinged with disappointment. Macedonia twice took the lead against the table-topping Turks, but eventually lost 3-2. This means that, all being well, by which I mean England and Turkey dropping no points before the match in Istanbul, we’ll need to draw at worst against Turkey to top the group. If we fail, we go into the play-offs. This team has only failed on one big occasion under Eriksson, but when it did, it failed in the limpest way imaginable.
England started in that fashion: shapeless, uncertain, and lacking rhythm. We don’t often start matches well, despite what Ian Wright says, and this was no exception. The match was compressed for the most part, and the diamond midfield pushed Phil Neville back into defence because of this. Gerrard was busy but not effective, one pass to Owen aside; Lampard was anonymous; Scholes showed his traditional ‘busy arms’ style of play without actually making tackles or passes.
We weren’t so hot in the rest of the park, either. Up front, Rooney was restricted, Owen wasteful. And at the back, Southgate and Upson were poor in the air, Mills reckless, Cole acceptable.
Then Slovakia scored. It was a similar situation to England’s equaliser in Bratislava: free kick wide on the left wing, swung in by a right-footer, over everybody and past the keeper. I’m inclined to blame David James, but watching the replay, he reacted as fast as he could once it was clear that everyone had missed it. To move earlier would have been criminal.
The goal was the catalyst for a period of exciting play. By the end of the half, Nemeth had missed one good chance and Igor Demo had missed four times, with England pushing forward and exposing themselves at the back. Owen had got behind the Slovakian defence four times and failed to do anything useful for England. Hargreaves was brought on for Danny Mills with four minutes to go, Phil Neville moving to right back and the midfield diamond flattening.
We began the second half poorly once more, but soon found our stride. Slovakia were fading a little after a disciplined first-half showing, and England were getting more joy, breaking in behind the Slovakian defence on several occasions but not really creating. Then the ball came to Owen on the edge of the box. He jinked past one defender with Vassell on hand, but charged on into the box and went down. If there was contact it was minimal, but this sort of thing is of no concern when it’s your own team. He walked up to the ball, the keeper dived left, Owen rolled it to his right.
Almost immediately, Hargreaves broke down the right and was body checked. Gerrard swung the kick in and Southgate looked set to meet it when he was hauled back. The referee failed to give a penalty, which could be seen as evening out the poor decision earlier. England were really piling on the pressure, and Lampard had the ball in the net after Southgate had driven a shot in. The linesman called offside incorrectly, and England had to continue pressing the Slovaks.
Owen’s second was a firm header from a Gerrard cross, darting between two motionless defenders to plant the ball past König. From then on it was just a question of whether or not England could score any more. Lampard and Gerrard were playing neat balls in behind the defence for the runs of Vassell, Owen, Hargreaves, and Cole (the left back!).
So we’re still in with a shout. We were missing key players and need to improve, but for now thoughts turn to cricket, rugby, and tennis. Tennis especially — I’ll try to bring Wimbledon to this site as best I can.