England (2) 2 Brown 45, J. Cole 90
Czech Republic (1) 2 Baros 22, Jankulovski 48
Att. 69,738
Entrance: £45
Programme: £6
Mileage: 80/645
Match Report
Yet another England international at Wembley turns into pure frustration. So far the magnificence of their surroundings has never been duplicated on the pitch and of the seven matches seen at this stadium only one has been a decent game (against Croatia) and only one has seen a good England performance (against Russia).England managed to scrape an undeserved draw out of this International with a scrambled, scruffy injury time equaliser from substitute Joe Cole. At the time of the goal Wembley was a sea of empty seats as the majority of the near 70,000 crowd had made for the exits.
As a last warm-up for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers the outcome of this match might have been irrelevant, but the performance certainly leaves severe question marks as to the national side’s ability to get a result at their nemesis of the last campaign, Croatia.
Fabio Capello, almost inexplicably, drew positives from this performance, something that very few others could manage. Steven Gerrard, stuck out of the left, to the average punter seemed a waste, a real square peg in a round hole. Not according to Mr Capello, he played alongside Wayne Rooney behind Jermaine Defoe in a 4-3-2-1 formation. Sorry but he looked like a left winger to these untrained eyes.
Our old friend, the wally with the brolly, wrestled all his England managership with the conundrum that is the Frank Lampard/Gerrard inability to complement each other. Gareth Barry had for much of the time been surplus to requirements, but Barry’s good performances had led us to believe that a man of Capello’s single-mindedness would grasp the nettle and pick one or the other. But rather than perming two from three, Capello chose all three and in different ways all three were wasted. Barry did a satisfactory job as the holding player but his left footed creativity was lost further down the pitch. Lampard, whilst he didn‘t play badly and certainly didn‘t deserve the boos he received on substitution, failed to make any great impression.
Much though I hate to say it, David Beckham‘s time in an England shirt must be nearing its end. No one delivers a set piece like Beckham and from one of his corners Wes Brown rose to head England’s first half equaliser, but far too often his crosses were below the high standards he has set. The problem is that nobody has stepped up to the plate and put forward a convincing argument that they can replace Beckham.
England had fallen behind in the 22nd minute when Milan Baros was allowed to turn by captain John Terry and scored with the aid of a Ashley Cole deflection. Despite enjoying the lion’s share of the first half possession and forcing Petr Cech into several run-of-the-mill saves, England failed to find a cutting edge.
The second half managed to be even worse than the first. A beautifully curled free kick from Jankulovski, that Beckham in his prime would have been proud of, put the Czechs back in front in the 48th minute. The usual plethora of substitutions on both sides further disjointed the game and the visitors appeared to have done enough to win the match before Joe Cole’s late intervention. It was somewhat surprising, but fitting that the sponsors’ man of the match was selected from the opposition, something I have never known before.
We are now five games into Capello’s tenure and very little has changed. Nobody has emerged from the shadows to breathe new life into this stale carcass of the failed Euro qualifying squad. The tactics are equally as muddled as they were in Steve McClaren’s time. Without question England will breeze past Andorra next month, but four days later in Zagreb, Croatia will pose the biggest hurdle of the campaign, lose that one and we are on the back foot for the rest of the campaign. Time has now run out for Capello and the moment of truth is nearly upon us.
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