ENGLAND BACK TO WINNING WAYS
The last time we faced Hungary was in a friendly back in '06. Sven Goran Erriccson was the gaffer for the encounter at Old Trafford. In the first half England did all the attacking but Hungary blocked everything we threw at them - including a penalty. Annoying. Then we decided to step up a few gears in the second half and Gerrard and Terry hit the net in quick succsession. Pal Dardai then pulled one back for Hungary by ripping the net off before Crouch finished the match off late on. Having watched the match at my grandparents place on what was technically my first day living in Exeter, the performance provided some optimism towards that year's World Cup.
Well, our performance in that World Cup turned out not to be up to scratch and when Fabio Capello took charge, our performances in the following tournament were even worse! So, Capello was left with a lot of rebuilding work to do. The Three Lions first order of business was to deal with a Hungarian side (that still aren't anywhere near a major tournament) at Wembley. Fabio was meant to field an experimental side for this one. His idea of experimental turned out to be a 4-3-2-1 with Hart in goal, Terry and Jagielka in central defence, Barry and Lampard in midfield, Gerrard, Man City's Adam Johnson(full England debut) and Walcott as midfield-attack link men and Rooney up front. Not enough players ditched for my liking but, hey.
Well England didn't hang around long in terms of hitting the net. Slight problem, that effort was offside. After that though England went on to play much smoother football than they had been on the whole in South Africa - yes half the players on display weren't there in South Africa but overall you had to wonder why we weren't able to play like that on the big stage. The boos were inevitable. What was more annoying though was our inability to find the net before half time. What we got was a bunch of players desperate to redeem themselves but if they weren't able to beat the likes of Hungary then the problem was bigger than previously thought.
Cue a half time overhaul which left us with a very inexperienced XI on the pitch. Then in the 62nd minute Zoltan Gera slipped away from our defence and fired in a shot that Jagielka appeared to put into his own net - appeared at least, the ball didn't actually cross the line. Still, og given. It wasn't long before we redeemed ourself though with Hungary blocking another attack in the 69th minute only for the ball to roll to Gerrard who scorched it in then sub Ashley Young set up the captain to run through the Hungarian defence and slot in his second goal in the 73rd. The Hungarians were seemingly in no mood to respond. A solid performance, to put smiles on our faces, even if only till the Euro 2012 qualifiers get underway.
Elsewhere, Scotland faced Sweden at the Rasunda Stadion. Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring for the Swedes early on and things really didn't go to plan for the Scots as Emir Bajrami made it two before half time. The Swedes then got a third goal in the second half thanks to Ola Toyonen and there was no chance of the Scots even getting a sniff of a comeback after that - this was mosat certainly a Swedish show - they got twice as many chances as the Scots. The Scots may have fielded an experimental XI but for Craig Levein this was still one hell of a reality check. Hopefully it isn't a bad omen towards their Euro 2012 qualification chances.
Wales faced Luxumbourg at the Parc y Scarlets. The visitors actually had a surprisingly competitive first have but still it was Wales that opened the scoring through David Cotteril before Joel Kitenge equalised for Luxumbourg. In the second half though, Wales pretty much took over. They retook the lead through a Joe Ledley penalty then pretty much ran riot. Andy King, Ashley Williams and Craig Bellamy all found thenet in the latter stages of the game. OK, so it was only Luxumbourg and even Wales can surely not have benefitted much from playing a friendly against them. Still, that sort of scoreline was a very impressive display.
Northern Ireland faced Montenegro at the Stadion Pod Goricom. The British side had a rough time of things in humid conditions and as a result their first half performance was dissapointing, while Radomir Djalovic opened the scoring for the home side. Things didn't improve in the second half with Djalovic getting his second goal and with NI running out of fuel, the home side could have got a third late on as they cruised to the finish line. This certainly was not what Nigel Worthington had in mind in what was supposed to be good preparation to face the Balkan sidews in his team's Euro 2012 qualification group - he clearly has a lot of work to do.
The Republic of Ireland faced Argentina at the Aviva Stadium. It was the first appearance for the men in green at their new home ground but the party was spoiled when Angel di Maria opened the scoring for the Argies. The first half turned out to be a livlier affair than the second half during which the Irish had a slight edge in a period where both sides overgauled themselves but overall the game found itself cruising to a halt. Not an ideal result for the Irish but I suppose if you're a fan on the men in green, losing to the likes of the Argies is no disgrace. Geovanni Trappotoni certainly seemds to think that his guys can recover from this.
Switching to domestic affairs and Exeter faced Championship Ipswich Town in the Carling Cup 1st round. The Grecians didn't disgrace themselves in the 1st half and certainly had a chance to take the lead but the game remained deadlocked at halftime. They then opened the scoring through Ryan Hartley only for Ipswich to turn the game round with goals from Ronan Murray and David Norris before Hartley equalised late on. Neither side was able to break the deadlock in the remaining minutes and the Grecians should have been impressed with their efforts in taking Roy Keane's side to extra time, it gave them another chance and mugging the Tractor Boys.
Extra time looked liable to be a bit of a zzz fest. What early chances there were fell to Ipswich and any thought of the Grecians taking things to penalties was dashed when Norris got his second goal for Keano's side. City never really looked like coming back from there, though they did have a couple of half decent efforts. Bottom line though, the extra period served as a reality check and Exeter took another early exit from the competition. That wasn't the main thing on City's fans minds though. Before the match it was announced that Adam Stansfield, a reliable assasin who had served the Grecians while battling against cancer had died at the age of 31. It is never right to lose someone at that age - for any reason. RIP!
(Image taken from Soccernet)
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