England thump Israel 3-0 (Report and Goal Videos)
A comfortable, confident home win for England. McClaren’s men were seldom worried; Israel did nothing to exploit that gap that opened sometimes in front of England defence and with a defend-first policy, they were always going to be losing.
The biggest positive out of England’s win was the assured performances of the players brought in - Michael Owen is improving with every game, Shaun Wright-Phillips is good enough to oust David Beckham, Gareth Barry has effectively eliminated Michael Carrick’s chances for the near future and Micah Richards is simply unbelievable.
Goal Videos
England 1-0 Israel (Shaun Wright-Phillips)
England 2-0 Israel (Michael Owen)
England 3-0 Israel (Micah Richards)
The Good
Micah Richards - He’s just 19, which means he’ll be an integral part of this team for at least the next 10 years. He needs more experience to be considered a regular but all signs point to a bright future.
Shaun Wright-Phillips - A fast winger who can hug the touchline AND cut inside when necessary. England were missing Lennon but we don’t miss the Spurs man anymore thanks to SWP. SWP is more experienced than Lennon, but the sheer fact that we now have two young, quality right-wingers is cause for celebration.
Gareth Barry - To be honest, he wasn’t pushed by Israel and if there was ever going to be any game for him to stake his claim for England, a home game against Israel was it. It was good to see him minimise errors and lay on killer passes and assists for his team mates. Hargreaves will replace him, but Barry gives us depth and quality as well.
Ashley Cole - Always gives his 100% on the pitch and it showed in his willingness to overlap Joe Cole and go at it by himself on the left wing. He would do better with a regular winger ahead of him but he coped well.
Michael Owen - Finally got a goal, and a cracking one at that.
The Bad
Lack of tactical discipline - the one or two times Israel burst through, England players were caught out of position. There was a situation early in the first half when Gerrard chased the ball to the right touchline, lost it, and left a gap open in central midfield ahead of Terry and Ferdinand that no one moved to fill (Barry was a bit up the field, SWP had followed Gerrard and Joe Cole was too far away). It’s a minor detail but it was this sort of small errors that led to that defeat against Germany. Not sure if Macca has it in him to drill tactics in his players - he might benefit from watch a video of the Italy vs France qualifier and learn from two smart coaches (or the recent Villa vs Liverpool and Villa vs Chelsea games).
Terry & Ferdinand - Excellent defenders but neither player does the ‘hatchetman’ job very well. At United Rio has Vidic diving in and doing the dirty work, at Chelsea Terry has Carvalho. Playing for England, these two often stay stranded in their positions allowing midfielders and strikers in front of them enough room to pass the ball around and thread it through. One of the two should be more aggressive and move in to clear the danger, or barring that Barry / Hargreaves should stay rooted in front of the defence (the way Carrick did it for United last season).
Joe Cole - He’s a fantastic player and one I like a lot. However, if he’s going to keep cutting in and not go down the wing, England are going to suffer against better teams.
Heskey - He did well, but here’s the thing. If you discount the need for ‘height’ up front, then you can have Richards / Rio / Terry be the muscle for dead-ball situations and have a fast, clinical finisher alongside Owen who can use his pace to unsettle defenders. It’s an alternative solution but not a bad one considering that England have only one proven tall striker (Crouch) and that Becks is now out as long as SWP keeps playing like this (so no big crosser there either).
Euro 2008 Qualifying, Group E Standings
Team, Played, Points
Croatia, 8, 20
Russia, 8, 18
England, 8, 17
Israel, 9, 17
Macedonia, 8, 7
Estonia, 9, 3
Andorra, 8, 0
England have two games to play against Russia - if they can win the home game on Wednesday and take a point off the return leg in October, they’re more or less through to Euro 2008. Wednesday’s match, therefore, is England’s chance to keep qualification in their own hands.
Match Preview
England take Israel on at Wembley on Saturday, 8th September 2007 in a must-win match that will be the toughest game Steve McClaren will have had so far as manager (it gets worse harder when England take on Russia 4 days later). It’s not so much the failure to live up to expectations (that’s England for you) but the fact that England have visibly gone backwards since the 2006 World Cup.
There were good signs against Germany - Carrick and Robinson apart, the team played half-decently. If they play the same way as they did against Germany, if Hargreaves is fit and plays in midfield and if Robinson can keep his wits about him (seeing as McClaren will persist with him), then England will beat Israel comfortably. It doesn’t make them a good team, but they have a good shot of winning as long as they cut down on the defensive mistakes.
Part of me wants England to fail - it will at least allow me to enjoy Euro 2008 as a neutral and avoid the painful torture of watching England’s players mindnumbingly trudge towards slaughter.
But there’s no use looking so far ahead. The equation for England is quite simple - beat Israel and Russia at home. 6 points and England will be favourites for 2nd place, seeing as the last 3 games will be at Wembley. It’s these two games that will ‘keep England in the hunt’, so here’s to hoping that the players sort themselves out.
England Squad
P Neville and A Smith - both ex Man Utd players and two players I love for their commitment to the cause - shouldn’t be in this squad.
Goalkeepers: P Robinson, D James, S Carson
Defenders: M Richards, W Brown, R Ferdinand, J Terry, A Cole, J Lescott, P Neville, N Shorey
Midfielders: D Bentley, S Gerrard, F Lampard, J Cole, S Wright-Phillips, M Carrick, G Barry, S Downing, O Hargreaves
Strikers: A Smith, M Owen, P Crouch, A Johnson, J Defoe, A Young, E Heskey
Israel Squad
Aouate, Davidovitch, Strauber, Ben Haim, Benado, Gershon, Ziv, Sprungin, Saban, Strul, Antebi, Benayoun, Badier, Alberman, Tal, Zandberg, Yamuz, Itzhaki, Golan, Balili, Collauti, Barda, Katan.
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Jermaine Pennant, anyone?
I’m a bit curious myself on why Pennant wasn’t included, but apparently McClaren values Bentley and Young ahead of him. Pennant is hard-working and guileful but is he technically better than those two?
I was quite optimistic about us until I read this article:
http://cwoff.com/blog/sport/football/2007-09-05/the-problem-with-england/
I hope Becks could play.. At least 15 minutes? And by the way,WHO’S CAPTAINING!!!!!..
Becks can’t play, and Terry, if fit, will be captain (otherwise Owen will get it).
Do you know if the game is going to be broadcasted in the US? If yes, what channel is boradcasting it?
I agree with the fact that Carson should get the runout…the boy has proven himself the past two seasons playing savior behind woeful, woeful back lines. However, I think Carrick and Hargreaves should still sit together in midfield. This holds the ball in Israel’s half and gives the wingers plenty of space to create and make diagonal runs. I propose an alternative to the big-little pairing: Owen up top, with Young and SWP coming in from the left and right respectively, while Cole sits deeper behind Owen to bring the ball up. Thoughts?
Gil, it’s only available on pay-per-view in the US. Try finding a pub that’s airing it.
I just don’t get why people are picking on Alan Smith..he laid 2 excellent easy chances for Micheal Owen who missed both horribly..if anything its Owen who dosent deserve a start..also with OH and lamps effectively out Carrick should start obviously..he wasn’t spectactular against Germany but he at leasts helps keep possession…best team
Paul Robinson
Micah Richards, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole
Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Carrick, Steven Gerrard, J Cole
Allan Smith, M Owen
what time is the game
[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! This post is about the Israel qualifier in March 2007 - for the recent qualifying game (September 2007), see this article: England vs Israel, 8th Sep 07, Wembley. [...]
Good show by England. Very pleased to see Gareth Barry involved in all 3 goals. Hope he keeps his place in the squad along with SWP(it would be a tough call between these two for man of the match). For once Mclaren showed some inventive thinking and took some bold decisions. And lastly it looks like the obvious became even more obvious,that is, drop Frank Lampard, keep gerrard in his favourite place and you can see the english team go places
Like one commentator said during the match, it is not about finding the best player for each position, rather find the best combination for the team. Thats what Mclaren did yesterday. Heskey-Owen was a proven combination at Anfield. The midfield was tight and so was the defence. It was the best performance by England in a long time and hope this keeps going………….
I am impressed with Gareth Barry’s performance and that is one more potent option for England in Euro 2008.
I think Carvalho is the ball-playing defender and Terry does the dirty work and the last ditch tackling/diving (even goal keeping) for Chelsea. Carvalho moves forward when Terry’s around (if you remember his goal against United when they beat us 3-0)
Anyway, between Terry and Ferdinand it’s more a case of understanding (which is kinda surprising considering they’ve played together a lot these days.)
RR - agreed, that’s what I thought too initially, but that would then mean that Rio and Terry are the perfect fit (what with Rio itching to go forward). Quite obviously they’re having a problem, and the fact that they’ve played together a lot just points to a breakdown in preparation on the training ground.
At any rate, something that needs to be corrected.
I have written an article on my website about Johnny Cash and the “Ring Of Fire” song which England fans were singing yesterday.
Where did the idea for song come from?
CARSON
RICHARDS TERRY FERDINAND COLE
HARGREAVES
BECKHAM(IF DEFENDRS
IN OPPOSING TEAM ARE SLOW)
SWP(IF DEFENDERS ARE FAST)
j.cole
LAMPARD/GERRAD rooney
OWEN
Hmmmm sorry but not totally convinced with the performance i reckon pennant should be brought in SWP is better but i reckon Pennant is better than Bentley (or am i just being biased
)
You are right we definately have to improve tactically though
As a Liverpool fan, I have to say, yes, I do think you’re being a little biased. Pennant’s fine, but he’s probably our worst starter, and the only thing he does better than Bentley is run fast. Plus when Beckham’s not playing (and I think it’s clear now that he shouldn’t be playing much anymore), Bentley’s England’s next best set-piece taker.
I didn’t actually get to see the match from college in America, but it’s sounds like things went well…is anyone else not sure whether to be happy or disappointed? If this is the start of a new era of bold choices by McLaren and agressive play by England, then great, but if it’s just a temporary thing that puts a band aid over the problems with the team, then…well, not so great.
Pennant is improving all the time i feel he had been our best player this season he is a great player now and if he is our worst starter then it just shows how strong our sqaud is!