ENGLAND BACK TO WINNING WAYS

 

Early March, I realise it's been a while since I've hung out with my old south London crew other than overnighting at my best mate's place for online meetups. So, I have a look around, find that there are still tickets available for an England vs Slovakia friendly at the end of the month. Fast forward a few weeks and I've got a rucksack on my back, heading to Exeter Central station, and after hanging around the platform for 20 mins, I'm off to Waterloo. For some reason we stopped in Yeovil for 20 mins but the real laugh of the journey came when I went through so many stations for places I knew from my previous life in the London burbs! It was like..."I had driving lesssons there...I used to go to the cinema there...I used to hangout there...I got stuck in a park there...I cycled there..."

Anyway, I arrive at Waterloo and track down this guy:

Name's Sam, and as he'd say "we've known each other for 'time'" Since our early secondary school days in '94 to be precise. He still lives in the London burbs and is now a trainee paramedic with the London ambulance service. We have each other's backs no questions asked. And he was the only one of my crew that had the Saturday free. So from Waterloo it's down the Tube via Baker Street to Wembleywith plenty of time to spare. This was a good thing. We didn't have our match tickets yet, they had apparently got lost in the post. Find ticket office, find back of rediculously long queue. Get to front of queue...pick up our tickets....that were registered to the wrong address in the first place!

As for the match itself, well our only previous history with Slovakia was in Euro 2004 qualifying group 7, with Sven as manager. The opening game was at Tehelne Pole and after our lowly opponents took the lead with me watching in the South Bank University student union bar, England turned the game round and Michael Owen hit the winner. The return game was at the Riverside. Again Slovakia took the lead and this time Owen, then playing for Liverpool got both second half goals. Slovakia, seemingly the football-poor neighbours of the Czechs had still given us two decent matches but we made it to Portgual that time round, they certainly didn't.

Back to the present though and wel...Wembley is Wembley, it always looks awesome(even if Sam still prefers the old twin towers). Of course the biggest unanswered question was why did this match need to be played? The only guess was that Fabio needed his guys to get match practice in before the resumption of our World Cup qualifying campaign. And a chance to get used to winning again. Other than that...well it provided a match that Sam and I could actually get to relatively cheaply. As for the team, well it was Terry and Upson in central defence, Lennon right mid, Barry and Lampard centre mid, Gerrard left mid, Rooney and Heskey up front.

Well England didn't hang around in attacking the visitors and though the first attack was repelled, in the 7th minute some slick passing round the box led to Heskey getting England's first goal of 2009! After that well, we had two significant problems. Firstly, a string of strikers seemed to get themselves injured. Secondly when the Slovakians did managed to get an attack going, our defence didn't look the smoothest, Miroslav Kharhan proving more of a problem than he should have done. We did in fact hit the net ourselves a second time but it got ruled out for offside. Overall, an allright performance but not vintage, we were hoping for more in the second half.

Well before Sam got back with his burger and chips the Slovakians had what was probably their best chance of the match. Of course the Three Lions were given more of an overhaul and we hit the net again, though again it was ruled out for offside. Finally though we got a second goal to count when Becks(on as a sub) crossed the ball to Rooney in the 70th minute and the United assasin headed in from close range. Then Fabio changed formation and it looked like we'd shut up shop. Not so much. First, another sub, Carrick set up Lampard for England's third in the 82nd minute and then Lampard set up Wayne for his second in injury time. In the end it was nice and smooth and easy.

There was also world Cup qualifying action taking place, though nothing in England's UEFA qualifying group 6. In the meantime, getting stuck in a crowd scene outside Wembley Park tube was messy, unfortunately there weren't any pubs outside the ground that we could bolt into. Eventually we got on a Tube, then it was back to Waterloo and out to Sam's place in Hampton. Still, we came out of that match pretty confident that we'd collect three points in the next competitive match. England top the group anyway, five points ahead of nearest competitors Croatia. Having shaken off the hangover from the Spain game, it is still surely South Africa here we come.

Elsewhere in group 9, Scotland faced the Netherlands in the Amsterdam Arena. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar opened the scoring for the Dutch with Robin van Persie making it two before half time. The injury depleted Scots were getting a serious reality check. George Burley would snark before the end of the match given that his guys did hit the net but the goal wasn't given. In the mean time Dirk Kuyt got a penalty from that point the match was pretty much over. That leaves Scotland dropping down to 3rd place in the group, level on points with second placed Iceland and the playoff mixer but with a -1 goal difference deficit. The playoffs at least are still workable but the Scots need to get back to winning ways ASAP!

In UEFA qualifying group 4, Wales faced Finland at the Millenium Stadium. Things did not exactly got to plan for John Toshack's crew, despite them having the slightly better first half, Jonotan Johansson opened the scoring for the visiting side. Finland then continued to take over the game and despite the Welsh having some decent new young players now, it looked as though this wouldn't be one of their finest hours. Shefki Kuqi finished them off in the dying moments of the match. That leaves the Welsh dropping down to fourth in the group, three points behind Russia and the playoff mixer and it's the Russians that have a game in hand.

In UEFA qualifying group 3, Northern Ireland faced Poland at Windsor Park. Warren Feeney opened the scoring for NI with Ireneusz Jelen equalising for Poland despite the fact that Nigel Worthington's team was definately the stronger of the two. Johnathon Evans then scored his first international goal to put Northern Ireland back in front before a Mikel Zulakow own goal seemed to seal the game for the home side. Marek Saganowski got a consooation goal for the Poles but this'll still go down as an awesome result for NI! Particularly as it amazingly leaves them top of the group, a point ahead of nearest challengers Slovakia even though the East European side have two games in hand. As things stand, Northern Ireland are on course for South Africa!

In UEFA qualifying group 8, the Republic of Ireland faced Bulgaria at Croke Park. Richard Dunne opened the scoring for the Irish almost immediately and they retained their lead till half time despite Bulgaria having the better game. The Irish looked as though they might close out the game in the second half though...untill Kevin Kilbane put in an own goal! The Irish had some good opportunities late on, but this will probably go down as two points dropped. That means that the Irish remain second in the group, on course for the playoff mixer. They are two points behind Italy and a direct route to South Africa but seven points ahead of Bulgaria and non qualification.

So now we take a look at the playoff mixer and in this virtual group we currently have Hungary, Switzerland, Slovakia, Russia, Bosnia, Croatia, Lithuania, the Republic of Ireland and Iceland. The main team of interest in that bunch are the Irish. And amazingly the men in green are not only seven points ahead of 9th placed Iceland as things stand but they actually top the playoff mixer, surely making them one of the favourites to reach South Africa by this route. In short, we currently have two British Isles sides on course for South Africa(including England) and a third team heading for the playoffs. Things don't look so bad, even if there is a way to go.

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