BELARUS EMBARRASS B TEAM

 

 

Belarus. A former Soviet republic. A former Soviet Republic that has never made it to any major tournaments since coming into existence in the early 90s and furthermore has never come close to doing so. England had no history against them whatsoever prior to this week and their only claim to fame from my point of view was them beating Scotland 1-0 to effectivly deny Walter Smith's crew any chance of making it to Germany.

On the other hand matching up against them in the Madejski Stadium was merely an England B side. In other words, other than Peter Crouch it was made up of players who had something to prove. The question asked of Michael Owen was "how fit are you?". David James, Owen Hargreves, Aaron Lennon, Stewart Downing and others were asked "will you be of any use whatsoever in Germany?". The possible Three Lions debut of untested weapon and insane gamble Theo Walcott was also worth a look. And Belarus looked like the perfect lightweight oppisition to test such players out.

Well the first half started pretty solidly and even James was able to deal with Belarus's attacking efforts early on. Lennon was able to have multiple helpings of the Belarus defence though and we should have had a batch of penalties thoughout the half as the East Europeans got increasingly desperate. Crouch was the first England player to hit the net but got given offside but then in the 35th minute Downing fired in a cross and after a scramble it was Jermaine Jenas who slammed it in. OK performance so far with the promise of more to come.

At half time both sides changed goalies with Norwich's Robert Green allowed 45 minutes of action only to hit the deck in the 50th minute after injuring his pelvis. The match should really have been stopped but instead Sampdoria's Vitaly Kutezov hit the net and the goal stood. Exit Green, enter Liverpool reserve Scott Carson and England B tried their hand at retaking the lead. Both Walcott and Jermaine Defoe got sent on and though Walcott certainly proved his speed and fired a hot shot at the Belarus goalie and Sergey Ormelianchukgot sent off after two yellows it was the visitors that had the last laugh when Sergey Kornilenko hit the winner in the 81st minute.

Overall, I'm not sure what to make of this match. England B didn't play particularly badly and some players showed a lot of promise but surely the players involved should have been able to beat the likes of Belarus at home. On the other hand, the Belarus team play together more regularly than the England XI on display in Reading and one of the vistors goals shouldn't have counted while the other was conceded by a man who was loaned out by Liverpool. My thinking is to let the good and bad elements of the match cancel each other out and see what happens against Hungary.

As for the one guy that was never going to be available for this match, Wayne Rooney, well it's now been confirmed that he'll need another scan on June 14th, four days after the Paraquay match. He's therefore a scratch for the World Cup group stages but Sven's still hoping he'll be useful in the knockout stages. So we're now relying on Michael Owen in particular to hit top form and given that he didn't hit the net against Belerus, that gives him less than three weeks to scrape off what rust remains.

Elsewhere, Wales faced a Basque Country side with a mixed bag of first choice and back up players. The Basques proved to have a solid enough side and gave the Welsh the occassional headaches but smooth Welsh attacking play secured a 1-0 win with Giggsy getting the only goal and John Toshack happy with his side's win despite the unusual oppisition.

In the Giants Stadium, Northern Ireland started off a US tour with a match against Uruguay. The generally mental match had a few debutants in the Northern Ireland side. Uruguay won 1-0 thanks to a hot strike from Cadiz midfielder Fabian Estoyanoss and should hit the net a few times before the end of the match. Lawrie Sanchez's crew shouldn't have expected anything better though.

In Lansdowne Road, the Republic of Ireland also took on Souoth American opposition. Steve Staunton fielded an experimental side but after this match there are suggestions that he may have to go back to the drawing board before the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Chille won 1-0 with Manuel Itarra hitting a winner early on in the second half.

So, that puts on on the home straight to Germany with two friendlies to go.

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