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It would have been funny if he wasn't out of the world cup. It was quite funny that we (the crowd) didn't really know who'd scored so we just had to boo every Belarus player.
Anyway, I was at the Belarus game, I'll copy and paste my thoughts from the game from CG.
England B 1 - 2 Belarus
I am still wondering how England managed to lose this game.
England started off 4-4-2 with Carrick and Jenas holding and Downing and Lennon really pushing forward on the wings. Crouchy dropped deep to link up from midfield. It wasn't really a great success. Jenas was fairly average most of the time, and only really livened up when he ventured forward. He'd obviously been told to sit as that didn't happen very often.
Crouch and Lennon were excellent. Crouch really impressed me a huge amount, he looked like the most comfortable player on the pitch. Great control, a few effective tricks and most good moves went through him. Had the ball in the net after 10 minutes but it was ruled offside. When Crouch went off England were noticably much worse.
Lennon was also excellent. He beat men so often down the right wing that both left sided players for Belarus were booked, and one got sent off for second yellow. A great option from the bench. His end product was slightly lacking though. Downing was very disappointing. And after I bigged him up to Maroule too.
Towards the end of the first half Jenas ventured forward a couple of times and looked a lot more exciting, eventually scoring from a rebound when Owen hit the bar from a free kick. Owen was very quiet, obviously not quite fit yet. It's good he has another two matchs before the first game.
After half time Belarus scored a bizarre goal that came from England 3rd choice keeper fudging a kick, digging his foot into the ground and sending the ball straight to a Belarus forward who scored into the empty net as Green lay injured. Looks like he'll miss the world cup (sad for him but if you had to choose a player to get injured in a friendly and miss the world cup, 3rd choice keeper isn't the worst option)
Theo Walcott came on for the last half hour to a huge ovation. Looked lively when he could find space, tested the keeper with a volley, but Belarus played very deep and denied him space to run into. They played high up the pitch when Crouch was on to stop him getting knock downs in the area and it'd have been interesting to see them deal with both problems at the same time.
With 10 minutes to go, after many substitutions, England look a bit confused and go to sleep. 10 man Belarus take the lead through an excellent goal from Kornilenko and England never looked like having any idea how to get one back, or much inclination to really try.
Michael Dawson did come on for a quick cameo though and he looked very solid. Also Joe Cole did two absolutely shocking dives to try and win penalties. Really blantant stuff. Must work harder at subtlety in diving.
All in all England lost a match they dominated and didn't make enough real chances with their posession to win it, but there were some definite positives in terms of potential in the squad, notably from Lennon.
Anyway, I was at the Belarus game, I'll copy and paste my thoughts from the game from CG.
England B 1 - 2 Belarus
I am still wondering how England managed to lose this game.
England started off 4-4-2 with Carrick and Jenas holding and Downing and Lennon really pushing forward on the wings. Crouchy dropped deep to link up from midfield. It wasn't really a great success. Jenas was fairly average most of the time, and only really livened up when he ventured forward. He'd obviously been told to sit as that didn't happen very often.
Crouch and Lennon were excellent. Crouch really impressed me a huge amount, he looked like the most comfortable player on the pitch. Great control, a few effective tricks and most good moves went through him. Had the ball in the net after 10 minutes but it was ruled offside. When Crouch went off England were noticably much worse.
Lennon was also excellent. He beat men so often down the right wing that both left sided players for Belarus were booked, and one got sent off for second yellow. A great option from the bench. His end product was slightly lacking though. Downing was very disappointing. And after I bigged him up to Maroule too.
Towards the end of the first half Jenas ventured forward a couple of times and looked a lot more exciting, eventually scoring from a rebound when Owen hit the bar from a free kick. Owen was very quiet, obviously not quite fit yet. It's good he has another two matchs before the first game.
After half time Belarus scored a bizarre goal that came from England 3rd choice keeper fudging a kick, digging his foot into the ground and sending the ball straight to a Belarus forward who scored into the empty net as Green lay injured. Looks like he'll miss the world cup (sad for him but if you had to choose a player to get injured in a friendly and miss the world cup, 3rd choice keeper isn't the worst option)
Theo Walcott came on for the last half hour to a huge ovation. Looked lively when he could find space, tested the keeper with a volley, but Belarus played very deep and denied him space to run into. They played high up the pitch when Crouch was on to stop him getting knock downs in the area and it'd have been interesting to see them deal with both problems at the same time.
With 10 minutes to go, after many substitutions, England look a bit confused and go to sleep. 10 man Belarus take the lead through an excellent goal from Kornilenko and England never looked like having any idea how to get one back, or much inclination to really try.
Michael Dawson did come on for a quick cameo though and he looked very solid. Also Joe Cole did two absolutely shocking dives to try and win penalties. Really blantant stuff. Must work harder at subtlety in diving.
All in all England lost a match they dominated and didn't make enough real chances with their posession to win it, but there were some definite positives in terms of potential in the squad, notably from Lennon.
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