ENGLAND COME UP SHORT, IRISH DREAMS FADE

 

 

England vs Brazil is a match that always gets people's attention and the last time we played them, it was to open the new Wembley in a friendly in '07. The resulting 1-1 draw was one of our better displays in the McLaren era though. Drawing with Brazil is always seen as a good result, they're probably the last truly invincible team for us. Put it this way, the last time we beat them was under the old Wembley Twin Towers. It wasn't even a vintage Brazil side we were facing. Bobby Robson was the manager and he had his eye on the 1990 World Cup. With World in Motion in the background, Gary Lineker hit a first half winner to take care of business.

This time around, well having wrapped up qualification, what better team was there for Fabio's men to test themselves out against than the sambaistas? Thing is though, for whatever reason some rich sheikh decided he wanted the game on his turf so to the Khalifa International Stadium we went. Injuries did us no favours whatsoever, we wound up going with Lescott and Upson in central defence, Brown right back, Barry and Jenas centre mid,James Milner made his international debut at left mid and Rooney and Bent were up front with the United assasin captaining England for the first time. The stadium certainly looked impressive and with only months to go before the big tournament - it was a much needed acid test.

Early on we looked to be doing the business and wound up having plenty of chances but weren't able to put any of them away. What chances the Brazilians had on the other hand, turned out to be nothing that Foster couldn't deal with and the guy that can't even hold down a regular place at United did a great job here. In the meantime England kept attacking and we really should have had a free kick but it wasn't given. It was Brazil that wound up finishing the half strongly but overall, we were certainly the better of the two sides in the first half. That was certainly impressive enough, question was, could we build on that in the second half?

The answer turned out to be no. We were immediately outclassed in in the 47th minute with Elano smoothly finding the head of Milnar and our net bulged. Then Brazil could have made it two, but they sent their penalty sky high. Overall though we really weren't in the picture in the latter stages of this game, despite all the fresh legs we brought on late on counted for nothing as the game slowly wound itself down to another Brazil win. We had been beaten fair and square by the known masters of quality football. And yet, it wasn't a complete disgrace. Still, it was a reality check to those who think we'll win the whole tournament. Still, seven months to go.

As for the Republic of Ireland, well they've made it to a World Cup qualifying playoff tie for the first time since '02, when they had Mick McCarthy as manager and Roy Keane as captain. They found themselves in an intercontinental playoff with Iran. They won the first leg 2-0 at their old Lansdowne Road ground with Ian Harte getting one of the goals. Iran struck back in the second leg with a 1-0 win but the Irish still went through 2-1 on aggregate and went on to do a pretty solid job in the World Cup, despite losing Keano after he and McCarthy butted heads. Still it's been a bummer that the men in green haven't even got to this stage of a World Cup since.

The last time the Republic faced France was in UEFA qualifying Group 4 for the 2006 World Cup. Their first encounter was actually pretty impressive with the Irish, by now managed by Brian Kerr, holding Les Bleus to a 0-0 draw at the Stade de France. Things didn't go so well when they got to Lansdowne Road though, the French beat the men in green 1-0 after grabbing a second half winner. Overall it had been a solid campaign from the Irish. However it proved to be a tight group and while the French qualified for the main tournament and even reached the final, the Irish were left in 4th, which really meant "better luck next time".

This time around, the Irish managed to hire Geovanni Trappatoni as their manager and while automatic qualification proved a step too far for the veteran Italian gaffer, the playoffs looked like a good route to South Africa. Slight problem, the French had under performed in their group and they weren't the opposition the Irish had in mind. Still, they had to be beaten and so we had a World Cup UEFA qualifying playoff 1st leg match at the traditional Gaelic spots arena of Croke Park. The Irish went 3-5-2 with Shay Given in goal, John O'Shea, Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger in defence, Glen Whelan right mid, Keith Andrews, Liam Lawrence and Kevin Kilbane centre mid, Damien Duff left mid with Robbie Keane(veteran of '02) as captain alongside Wolves Kevin Doyle up front.

Well the French did a pretty solid display in the early stages and the fact that they were able to hit the net early on shows how nervous the Irish defence were. However the 'goal' didn't stand and on other occasions, the Irish were just lucky the French didn't have their shooting boots on. When the Irish did attack though they were seriously impressive and should have taken the lead but Stoke's Lawrence had his shot deflected away an inch from the line and the half went on to end goalless. Overall, the Irish had nothing to complain about but they realistically needed at least one second half goal as a cushion going into the second leg.

The French stepped up a gear though early on in the second though and though the Irish quickly responded, overall they found themselves holding on for dear life. The French tried claiming a penalty with the match still goalless and though they didn't get it, "Trap" as he's known to the Irish fans was clearly running out of ideas. Finally in the 72nd minute Youann Gourcuff set up Nicolas Anelka and the Chelsea assasin's shot took a deflection on the way in. The French could have got a second but wound up somehow blasting the balll skywards from close range. Bottom line, the Irish have blown their big opportunity, surely this tie belongs to France.

Elsewhere, other playoffs were going down. Russia beat Slovenia 2-1 at the Luziniki Stadium but I can't see Guus Hiddink being too happy with that result, Slovenia could still nick it. Greece drew 0-0 with Ukraine at the Karaiskakis Stadium. That's not as bad as what the Irish came up with but it still leaves the Greeks at the mercy of their opponents in the 2nd leg, Ukraine to go through there. Portugal beat Bosnia 1-0 at the Magalhaes Pessoa stadium. Even given their injuries the Portuguese should have done a better job than that. The Bosnians may in theory be the inferior side but that sort of result can certainly be overhauled. Bottom line, these ties aren't done yet.

In the meantime, Scotland faced Wales in a friendly at the Cardiff City stadium. Things certainly didn't go to plan for the Scots as the Welsh pretty much won the game in the first half with David Edwards, Simon Church and Aaron Ramsey hitting the net for the home side. That resulted in booe from the Scots fans at half time and the Scottish second half display wasn't good enough to quell though, despite some decent opportunities late on. That result cost Scotland gaffer George Burley his job and the biggest unanswered question is, do the Scots even have the players to reach a major tournament nowadays? If the answer is "no" then you have to wonder what went wrong.

Elsewhere, Northern Ireland faced Serbia at Windsor Park. The Serbs had the first real opportunity though the home side seemed to give as good as they got early on untill the visitors started to prove themselves the superior side before half time. That superiority translated into a goal for Danko Lazovic. NI got an opportunity to equalise not long afterwards but couldn't and the Serbs came close to getting a second before the game was done. Not the best of results for NI, particularly as they were hoping this would be a morale booster. Still, it was against a team that are off to South Africa so maybe things could have gone worse for NI!.

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