ENGLAND CELEBRATE IMPROVEMENT

 

(Image taken from BBC)

The Dutch are always going to cause us a headache whenever we play them. The last time we faced them was in a fairly sludgy 0-0 in '05 at Villa Park. The last time we faced them on their turf was more memorable, it involved Darius Vassell scoring on his debut back in '02 in the Amsterdam Arena. However that Euro 96 game, though unforgettable was the last time we beat the Dutch anywhere and as for beating them away from home, well it was Colin Bell who hit the winner and a young Johan Cryuff was in the opposition team. The year was 1969.

And on current form, we certainly weren't in any position to put things right. Steve McLaren did overhaul the side the played in the last Euro 2008 qualifiers to some extent with a return to 4-4-2 with Man City's Micah Richards at right back with Gary injured, and Rio and Terry in central defence. Gerrard at right mid, Joe Cole at left mid and Andrew Johnson backing up Rooney for our latest visit to the Amsterdam Arena. The hosts did give us a couple of gifts though, with neither van de Saar nor van Nistelroy playing.

Well the initial encounters proved that whatever had gone wrong in Croatia seemed to be fixed. This was certainly a more effective England and with the exception of the odd Dutch scare, they did have the majority of the attacking opportunities. Neither defence looked all that secure on occassion but it was the Dutch who always looked like they were going to give out first and in the 37th minute Joe Cole crossed the ball into the box and Rooney nudged it in for his first England goal of the McLaren era.

The second half proved to be more of the same with England not only keeping the Dutch backs against the wall but not even worrying about substitutions for a while. It was Marco van Basten who panicked first, probably regretting his decision not to pick the on form Ruud boy despite the ex-United assasin being on deadly form for Real Madrid. The fresh blood must have helped the Oranje though as they pushed hard for an equaliser in the last part of the game and in the 87th minute the England defence failed to deal with a long throw and Rafael van de Vaart found enough room to stuff the ball into the net. A dissapointing end to the game but the quality of the general performance was much needed.

That sort of performance will need to be kept up though when the Three Lions get back into Euro 2008 action as the other teams in Group E were able to take advantage of England's time out from the competition. First Russia beat Macedonia 2-0 in the City Stadium, then Croatia beat Israel 4-3 in the Ramat Gan Stadium. Israel may now be removed as a threat as a result of that but England still drop down to thid in the group, a point behind second place Russia.

Elsewhere in Group D the Republic of Ireland finally fit Euro 2008 form after beating San Marino 6-0 at Lansdowne Road. Sam Marino defender Davide Simoncini scored an og to open the scoring and then Charlton midfielder Andy Reid hit the net before Reading's Kevin Doyle made in three. The minows then goal finished off by a hat-trick from the main Irish assasin Robbie Keane to push the Irish up to fifth in the group though still six points behind the second place Czech Republic while the Welsh drop to sixth, one point behind the Irish.

Back to domestic matters for a while.

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