No, it's not a goal from the 70s, but Harry Kane's winner against the Lithuania U21s last night in Kaunas: [video=youtube;RqMoXmWWGEE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqMoXmWWGEE[/video] The hosts were holding firm and keeping a clean sheet, so Gareth Southgate had to stop being a tosser and bring on two Spurs players. Alex Pritchard came off the bench for his debut and Harry Kane got his fourth goal at that level. The cross came from Southampton's James Ward-Prowse. Tom Carroll played the full 90 minutes. The result was largely irrelevant, as England have already won the group and Lithuania can't qualify, but it's nice to see some of our youngsters getting a run out. The remaining fixture sees 1st play 2nd on Tuesday, as Moldova need to take at least a point or hope that Finland can't manage to get a 7 goal swing against San Marino. The draw for the play-offs takes place on Friday.
I'm really not confident about England's chances tonight. Got a feeling they will lose. Will the press finally turn on Woy?
Switzerland are ranked 9th in the FIFA list - ahead of France (10th), Italy (14th) - oh, and England, of course (20th).
On the other hand, England's record in qualifiers under Hodgson and Capello is admirable. It's a team that on paper should be slightly less crap than they are. Not having much emotional stake in this game, I think England will edge it.
Yes, qualification record is good. We always qualify well and do crap at the competitions. Anyone feeling the same is about to happen? Also heard one of those ultimate pundit clichés just now that really winds me up. It's when they say that playing international football is "a step up in class". NO IT ISN'T!!! They play against better players than Switzerland have every week in the PL!
Harry Kane continued his good recent form, scoring one and creating one as Tom Carroll captained the England U21s to an easy victory in Moldova. Alex Pritchard also made another late appearance from the bench, as Saido Berahino netted twice before our young forward finished off the scoring in a 3-0 win. Kane also put the ball into the net again, but it was ruled offside. That makes it 9 wins and a draw, comfortably winning the group and only conceding 3 goals, putting the side through to the play-offs for the Euros. The draw will be made on Friday and the two-legged ties will be played on the 8th and 14th of October.
Holland lost 2-1 to the Czech Republic despite bossing possession. Dutch managers seem particularly adept at this lately, don't they?
Wayne Rooney, England captain and manager England: Wayne Rooney calls player meetings to help team gel http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29138379
I see the had 68% possession but managed to create less chances. That's what happens when you spend all game passing between defenders
It's usually about trying to draw the opposition out and also to get your best attackers in the right positions for each attack. The trouble is that very few teams are against backs to the wall defending so your attackers have to outperform a greater number of defenders who are often playing on their own terms. We had it in the game against Liverpool, in the first half when there was only a goal in it the possession was 52/48 to us but in the second half the early second goal went in our possession was 70% because they knew we'd be desperate(needing a goal just to get back into the game) and they have the pace to hurt us on the counter so could do that whilst leaving numbers at the back and giving up midfield. Arsenal fans used to be very principled on this. You guys on the Beeb's 606 all seemed to think keeping the ball for ages and not defending leads was playing football the "right way". Wenger has become more and more savvy/cynical in recent years and you can see the rewards, Arsenal are now the ones doing a lot of counterattacking, playing 6 defenders to see out games and grabbing last minute goals when needed at the other end. Sometimes you're the better side and just unlucky though and I don't think you can make assumptions based on stats, particularly subjective ones like chances created.
Good to see so many of our players shining in age group competitions. Carroll captain of England U-21s sounds almost as good as captain of Germany's U-21s! Hey, wait a minute.... Left ****ing footed. It's too bad leading the league in goals + assists isn't good enough for Spurs. Thank God we kept Townsend instead, who's due to score his first intentional PL goal any decade now. My favorite critique of Gylfi was "he does nothing but score"--a bit of an exaggeration, but perhaps only a bit. Except if we sit him on the bench. Then he won't score. So that's what we did.
Adebayor scored for Togo, but the side lost to a late Ghana goal scored by Chelsea/Everton winger Christian Atsu. Probably good news all round for us, as he needs to get a few goals and his side look pretty unlikely to qualify for the ACN now, so we won't lose him for ages this time. We may well lose Bentaleb for the tournament though, as Algeria have won both of their group games so far, beating Mali and Ethiopia. We've got a lot of depth in central midfield, so I don't think that we'd feel his absence as badly. Might be a good experience for him, too.
Yeah, harsh for Ade but I'm glad Togo lost. Last thing we need is to lose a striker in January. Happy for him to score though, can only boost confidence so here's hoping he carries it into the Sunderland game.
Tom Carroll has been talking to the OS about his pride at being given the captaincy of the U21 side by Gareth Southgate: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/tom-u21-100914/ "I was absolutely buzzing when the manager told me, I couldn't take the smile off my face!" "We went over a few things before the game and he asked me if I'd be captain. I was delighted. Every player would want the chance to captain their country and to do it was amazing. "I let my parents know straight away. It was a proud moment." "It was the perfect way to finish qualifying. We played well, controlled the game and it was great to set-up Harry for his goal. I knew he was going to stick that chance away."
Highlights of the U21 game: [video=youtube;ykpzKP16sic]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykpzKP16sic[/video] 1st goal scored by Berahino, assisted by Redmond. 2nd goal scored by Berahino, assisted by Kane. 3rd goal scored by Kane, assisted by Carroll.