June 2013 — England Matches

Hello everyone, welcome back to my Liverpool and England story. It may be the off season but there are still games to play, namely 7 in June with England. The large amount of games is due to our participation in the Fifa Confederations Cup. Before that though, we had two World Cup Qualifying games to play.

The first of these was against Cyprus, a game I expected us to win with ease. Despite this I fielded our strongest team and we had no injuries, so it really was our best team. We dominated right from the off and took the lead when Frank Lampard buried one of his trademark piledrivers. The Cyprus goalkeeper then scored an unfortunate own goal after great wing play from Ashley Young. Captain John Terry, yes, I haven’t sacked him, scored our third with a good header from a corner. Wayne Rooney completed the scoring with a cool finish, and completed a comfortable win.

The next game was the second qualifying match, away at Ireland, who we drew 0-0 with at Wembley. We looked the better team all the way through the game, and we went ahead when Gerrard’s through ball found Aaron Lennon, who slotted in. Rooney scored our second on the stroke of half time with a good finish, and we held on comfortably, Ireland never really troubled us.

Those two wins meant we were still sitting second, behind Switzerland, but with only one point between us I feel we have a great chance of finishing top.

Almost immediately after the Ireland game I had to select a 23 man squad and we flew out to the Fifa Confederations Cup, which was taking place in Brazil. We had been drawn in a group alongside Nigeria, Chile and New Zealand, and I fully expected us to qualify for the semi final. In the other group was Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Iran, so if we qualified we were very likely to face either Brazil or Argentina.

The first game was against Nigeria, who are probably the best team in the group, behind us. We started well, but Yakubu put Nigeria in front with a scrappy goal at the back post, following a corner. We reacted well and within 10 minutes we were level, Ashley Young scoring a beautiful curling shot, after cutting in from the left. We continued to play well, but I was worried Nigeria were going to hold us to a frustrating draw, but in the 69th minute Rio Ferdinand headed home from a corner to give us the victory.

The next game was against Chile, who had the creative Matias Fernandez in midfield and the dangerous Alexis Sanchez (my player at Liverpool) up front. I was worried about Terry and Ferdinand’s lack of pace against their lightning quick strikers, so Micah Richards came in for Ferdinand. I would have put him in earlier but he had to play at Full Back because Glen Johnson was serving a 3 match ban after getting sent off  against Austria in March. Sure enough my fears we confirmed when Sanchez raced onto a Fernandez through ball and finished past Foster. Once again we reacted well, John Terry equalised with a bullet header from a corner. Sanchez scored again just 6 minutes later he beat Terry to the ball, rounded Foster and put the ball into the empty net, to make it 2-1. We hit back immediately Peter Crouch headed in after great work from Lennon on the right wing. 10 minutes later we went ahead for the first time, Gerrard was allowed to much space from a corner and he headed past the goalkeeper to make it 3-2 inside half an hour. We dominated from then on, but I was very worried when Ashley Cole was sent off for what looked like a perfectly fair challenge. I needn’t have worried though, Peter Crouch got his second of the game right on half time, with a tap in from 5 yards. Gerrard scored his second in the 75th minute with a powerful effort to make it 5-2. Sanchez completed his hat-trick but, a minute later, so did Crouch, he scored a fantastic goal after beating his marker.

After that great game against Chile we were all but qualified for the Semi Final. I therefore decided to rest some players, as the opposition was New Zealand, and I was confident we could brush them aside. Jay Rodriguez, who I decided to take with us after scoring 26 league goals for Burnley, scored 4 very good goals. He scored a header, two placed finishes and a powerful effort from the edge of the area. Theo Walcott had opened the scoring in the 4th minute with a powerful shot and he grabbed his second with a tap in. Owen Hargreaves scored a beautiful free kick and Aaron Lennon scored as well with a placed shot. Chris Wood pulled one back for New Zealand in the 51st minute, but we had secured qualification with an emphatic 8-1 victory, and we had now scored 14 goals in our last two games.

The next game was sure to be much tougher, we were facing a very good Brazil side in the Semi Final. We never really got going in the game and, despite having more possession we only had 6 shots to their 12. Pato won the game for them in the 21st minute with a powerful shot after some good build up play. The closest we came was when Gerrard hit the post from 20 yards, but we didn’t deserve a goal and Brazil secured the victory quite comfortably.

So we were out at the Semi Final stage, but we still had one more game to play, the third place play off aginst Nigeria, who had been defeated by Argentina in the other Semi Final. Most of the players were still tired so I sent out a weakened team for this game, which I felt was a slightly pointless one. The game wasn’t a very good one to be honest, Nigeria didn’t create anything at all and we won the game thanks to a goal from Joe Cole, who cut inside and finished past the goalkeeper. We held on comfortably as Nigeria looked very toothless up front, and we secured third place.

Before this tournament we were ranked 1st in the world. I am sure that will drop now, but I feel it was a false position anyway as the likes of Brazil and Spain have more players of higher quality. The fans and FA seem to feel the same, as although they were disappointed with the loss to Brazil, they seemed to understand that Brazil are a better team and they aren’t particularly unhappy with me.

That’s how the tournament went folks, I have now returned to Liverpool and am on the look out for new signings, which I will inform you about shortly. On the England front, it feels like the end of an era with this England team. The World Cup is next year and players like Lampard, Ferdinand and Crouch probably won’t be in the team when it comes around.