England (1) 1 Lampard 9
Germany (2) 2 Kuranyi 26 Pander 40
Att. 86,113
Entrance: £45
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/782
Match Report
When Old Wembley opened it took 40 years for foreign opposition to go home victorious, sadly New Wembley only lasted 180 minutes. The very best of enemies left England’s new home with a undeserved 2-1 win, the winner being a cracking goal and previously the equaliser a Paul Robinson howler.There is no wisdom to the timing of this international date. Every year we are subjected to an August fixture, why? The Premiership is only two games old, the clubs hate the fixture (well they hate any England fixture to be fair) and the withdrawals, from both countries I must add, gave the impression of a reserve team match.
No England-Germany game can be classified as a friendly and these under-strength teams gave us a real match. Frank Lampard opened the scoring and generally had a good game following heavy criticism of recent performances. His goal was laid on by Micah Richards who had a splendid game confirming his early season form for Manchester City. England had by far the better of the early exchanges, so it was all the more disappointing that the Robinson howler let the Germans back into the game. Firstly a poor clearance failed to send the ball out of play, then he was hopelessly out of position for the ensuing cross that had him back-pedalling and tamely patting the ball back to the unmarked Kuranyi who tapped in from a yard. Chances then came and went for the home side before Pander struck a 30 yard screamer that gave Robinson no chance. Yet another chance fell to Michael Owen before half time and as the second half progressed, substitute Keiran Dyer passed up a couple of chances.
So England go into their next five qualifiers desperately needing either a change in luck or a change in personnel up front. Owen should get sharper, having played only 30 minutes of first team football, but who partners him is anybody’s guess. Smith doesn’t look the part and Defoe is too much alike. Perhaps the upcoming couple of weeks will offer a chance to Dean Ashton to prove his fitness and score the goals to impress., because in my opinion we need the bigger man for Owen to play off.We haven’t quite cracked the seating position at Wembley, this time we were in a much better position along the touchline, but unfortunately miles too high, for the next two games we get closer to the front of the same block. Once again the Wembley crowd failed to supply a vibrant atmosphere, not that the German fans didn’t try their best. Perhaps a competitive game is what is needed to raise the roof.
1 comment:
Not a good night, wife forgot my coat (August, I know), had to use brother-in-law's nerdy cagool, a jobsworth steward took all the tops of our drinks, one of wehick got spilt, lost a game we should have won, held up in the queue for the tube, missed our train by 5 seconds, 15 minute wait for the next one, roadworks on the M25 (4 lanes into 1), the magic of Wembley....
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