England 2 Holland 3

Match 50/11/937 - Wednesday, 29 February 2012 - International

England (0) 2 Cahill 85 Young 90
Holland (0) 3 Robben 57,90+3 Huntelaar 58
Att. 76,283

Entrance: £30
Programme: £6.00
Mileage: 100/3,908

Match Report

England moved into the time after Fabio Capello and, presumably, before Harry Redknapp with Stuart Pearce leading a relatively young England side into this largely one-sided friendly international against Holland. Capello, who had resigned in the wake of the row surrounding John Terry’s removal from the captaincy following alleged racial comments towards Anton Ferdinand, has left England in a void in the run-up to this summer’s European Championship.
Pearce was asked to step into the breach and chose Scott Parker to captain the side and shorn of strikers, Danny Welbeck and Steven Gerrard were initially chosen to spearhead the attack. Gerrard was only to last half-an-hour before being replaced by Daniel Sturridge, making it an even more youthful front line.

In the week previous, an agreement between European clubs and their governing body was struck whereby the number of international dates will be cut from 12 to nine, in effect this will end the mid-season friendly matches that cause so much consternation from the top club managers and stupor that was induced by the first half of this match would have had the paying public nodding their heads, or nodding off, in agreement.

So slow was the play, and the Dutch were more guilty than the home nation, that at one point I thought the game had been brought to a halt by the referee for a free kick, in fact he hadn’t, it was just that nobody on the field was actually moving!

At least the second half brought goals and a virtuoso performance from Arjen Robben, to give the 76,000 crowd some value for their money. Robben picked up a loose ball inside his own half on 57 minutes, he ran 40 yards in open space before a clever off-the-ball run from Klass Jan Huntelaar dragged Chris Smalling and Gary Cahill away, leaving Robben to power into the box and finish with aplomb past Joe Hart.

The game was seemingly over as a contest a minute later when Dirk Kuyt crossed for Huntelaar to head home. A sickening clash of heads with Smalling was encountered in the process of scoring and both players were forced from the pitch after a long stoppage, Smalling appeared unconscious with a gaping cut to the head, whilst Huntelaar suffered a loss of teeth.

Holland took their foot off the pedal again with their two goal lead and, as a result, England were allowed to fight their way back into the game. Sturridge should have scored before a through ball found the unlikely figure of Cahill who angled a shot into the far corner to reduce the deficit. Ashley Young then expertly lifted the ball over the diving body of Dutch keeper, Maarten Stekenlenburg from an incisive pass by his Manchester United teammate Phil Jones to draw the host’s level.

But the final word went to Robben, who curled in a shot from inside the area that took a deflection off Cahill’s shoulder to wrong foot Hart and deny England a draw that would have been flattering to say the least.

Let’s not forget the youthful nature of the England side against world top three opposition. There were encouraging performances from Sturridge, Adam Johnson for the hour that he was on the pitch, Welbeck and a typical hard working performance from Captain Parker.

The English FA cannot be seen to give up this summer’s championship as a lost cause, but we all know that just getting out of the group is going to be an achievement. Recent success at the younger levels have shown that there is talent coming through to replace the failed golden generation, I hope that the youngsters that featured in Stuart Pearce’s interim side, are allowed to experience a senior tournament under Capello’s successor and maybe the future will be brighter than this result may suggest.