Thursday, June 02, 2005
English tour aftermath
Regarding England's much-maligned tour of the US, I don't have too much to say that you can't find expressed elsewhere. Choice remarks come from Marc Connolly, Jen Chang, and the BBC's John May.
The US-England match was mediocre, but nonetheless provided a few bright rays of sunshine. For England, Kieran Richardson got two nice goals for the Three Lions and looks to be worth a run out for Manchester United next season every once in a while to spell Giggs. If he was a right footed player, I'd tell you not to expect to see him in an England shirt too much in the future. But with England's notorious problems on the left, it makes for an entirely different situation.
The only other English players that I thought performed well against the Yanks were Michael Carrick and Joe Cole. The former made no mistakes on the ball and showed great positioning throughout the match; the latter showcased his exceptional ability to dribble at people and create all sorts of problems for defenses. Of all the youngsters who appeared in Chicago, they're the ones I would say best improved their chances for making the WC06 squad (Cole's pretty much a lock anyway).
For the US, Clint Dempsey had a good second half, topped off by his goal. His first half was full of deer in the headlights moments. Cory Gibbs went toe-to-toe with the English lads and didn't back down. He was probably the strongest player on the field for the US, both tactically and physically. Eddie Pope, on the other hand, looked to be well on the downward slope of his international career. I noticed one poster on Big Soccer labelled the RSL defender, "WC06's Jeff Agoos." Let's hope not, but Saturday's performance doesn't instill confidence.
Up front, Landon Donovan needs to work on his finishing. It looked like he was pressing too much during the match. Josh Wolff looked dangerous going forward on the left a number of times, but his inability to get off any quality shots or passes once he pierced the 18 was embarrassing.
I also got a chance to catch the England-Colombia match in person at Giants Stadium. England played better overall, and was clearly boosted by the likes of Beckham and Owen. Colombia looked disorganized, particularly at the back (it's worth noting that Ivan Cordoba didn't play and Yepes was caught going forward quite a bit). All three English goals came about because of ridiculously poor marking. Props to Owen, though, whose finishing was clinical on each service.
All in all, I don't think much was gained out of the English tour for any of the competing sides. The US got a runabout before this weekend's qualifiers, which I guess is a good thing. But Arena doesn't have much to show for the game, except perhaps providing Dempsey with some top flight experience. In England's case, Eriksson learned that he needs to pay attention to Crouch, Jenas, Zat Knight, Richardson, and Carrick some more. I don't think he needed to come across the pond to do that, though. As for Colombia, I doubt they got much out of their lone game, either. I am admittedly less fluent in their squad that showed up at Giants Stadium, but I don't think the game will do much to improve their confidence ahead of the upcoming CONMEBOL matches.
So, my conclusion is that England's tour was a wash. It probably made sponsors happy and netted some revenue for the participating sides, but it did little to boost their prospects on the field. At a personal level, I enjoyed the one game I was able to see live. My evening was even topped off by an amazing, last-gasp Amado Guevara goal against the Fire, so I can't complain.
The US-England match was mediocre, but nonetheless provided a few bright rays of sunshine. For England, Kieran Richardson got two nice goals for the Three Lions and looks to be worth a run out for Manchester United next season every once in a while to spell Giggs. If he was a right footed player, I'd tell you not to expect to see him in an England shirt too much in the future. But with England's notorious problems on the left, it makes for an entirely different situation.
The only other English players that I thought performed well against the Yanks were Michael Carrick and Joe Cole. The former made no mistakes on the ball and showed great positioning throughout the match; the latter showcased his exceptional ability to dribble at people and create all sorts of problems for defenses. Of all the youngsters who appeared in Chicago, they're the ones I would say best improved their chances for making the WC06 squad (Cole's pretty much a lock anyway).
For the US, Clint Dempsey had a good second half, topped off by his goal. His first half was full of deer in the headlights moments. Cory Gibbs went toe-to-toe with the English lads and didn't back down. He was probably the strongest player on the field for the US, both tactically and physically. Eddie Pope, on the other hand, looked to be well on the downward slope of his international career. I noticed one poster on Big Soccer labelled the RSL defender, "WC06's Jeff Agoos." Let's hope not, but Saturday's performance doesn't instill confidence.
Up front, Landon Donovan needs to work on his finishing. It looked like he was pressing too much during the match. Josh Wolff looked dangerous going forward on the left a number of times, but his inability to get off any quality shots or passes once he pierced the 18 was embarrassing.
I also got a chance to catch the England-Colombia match in person at Giants Stadium. England played better overall, and was clearly boosted by the likes of Beckham and Owen. Colombia looked disorganized, particularly at the back (it's worth noting that Ivan Cordoba didn't play and Yepes was caught going forward quite a bit). All three English goals came about because of ridiculously poor marking. Props to Owen, though, whose finishing was clinical on each service.
All in all, I don't think much was gained out of the English tour for any of the competing sides. The US got a runabout before this weekend's qualifiers, which I guess is a good thing. But Arena doesn't have much to show for the game, except perhaps providing Dempsey with some top flight experience. In England's case, Eriksson learned that he needs to pay attention to Crouch, Jenas, Zat Knight, Richardson, and Carrick some more. I don't think he needed to come across the pond to do that, though. As for Colombia, I doubt they got much out of their lone game, either. I am admittedly less fluent in their squad that showed up at Giants Stadium, but I don't think the game will do much to improve their confidence ahead of the upcoming CONMEBOL matches.
So, my conclusion is that England's tour was a wash. It probably made sponsors happy and netted some revenue for the participating sides, but it did little to boost their prospects on the field. At a personal level, I enjoyed the one game I was able to see live. My evening was even topped off by an amazing, last-gasp Amado Guevara goal against the Fire, so I can't complain.
