Crap - where was Rio when the goal went in? Ball watching as always. And how many times did he give it away? Ferdinand is not a patch on what he was before the ban. Anyway, I think we defended fairly well (other than Ashley Cole), considering we had no-one playing at all in midfield - Frank was anonymous, Bridge didn't get forward, Becky faded more and more as the game went on and Butt was as usual playing nothing that resembled football!
Oh come on Matt.. You could say that about Rio as well on that goal. The truth is the ball was played from a corner and was allowed to bounce in the box which is absolutely sacrilege. Neither Terry nor Rio got anywhere near it. I suppose I could argue that the ball bounced on Rio's side, albeit only slightly, but the reality is that both of them stood and watched as Nicky Butt, (I think), tracked the runner into the box but made absolutely no contact with the ball. Nobody in the defence comes out covered in any great glory but to pick out one person and say it's all his fault doesn't make much sense. The truth is that the goal was a looping header over Robinson's head that went between he and whoever it was on the line. The guy on the line could have done better maybe or maybe Robinson could have been better positioned but both are probably a bit harsh. Bluntly it was a bit lucky but was typical of the sort of thing you get with defenders who aren't used to playing with each other. Something that was said by one of the 'pundits' last night, (Kenny Sansom?), that may have been true - I don't know - was that the England central defenders were marking zones on set pieces. It didn't look like it particularly to me but, other than that one occasion, we looked pretty solid. For all Spain's possession they only had about 2 or 3 shots on target in the entire game so we didn't actually defend too badly overall. Well, OK - that does sound a bit like the surgeon saying the operation was a success but the patient died but you know what I mean.
It's true that Spain didn't really make any forays into our penalty area, they just passed it around the midfield and occasionally dribbled down the wing, never really penetrated. Apart from an easy save from a Xavi longshot Robinson didn't have much to do other than the penalty. Even when we had Upson and Carragher - arguably the least talented centre back pairing Eriksson will ever have to field - we still didn't see the Spanish doing anything seriously threatening in the penalty area. As for the goal, it was Bridge on the near post who I blame, the entire reason he was there is to hack a ball like that away considering it was 6 inches away from him and was a floater. In fairness to him he didn't look fully match sharp, in a competitive game or with more games in the past month behind him he would have had that one. I thought Terry did ok, won a few good tackles, crunched Torres but I wouldn't say he showed that he should be a starter, very good to have him in the squad and as a ready replacement though. Not a weak link.
Fair shout, SO... to be fair, though, probably 50% of the team shouldn't really start on that showing.
The only problem really is that Sol is getting older, and has a recent boost of injuries. The Rio-Sol combo worked well in 02, and hasnt had a chance to really continue as much as it should due to the ban and whatnot. Sol will be 31, not too old to play by any means, but maybe playing one of our younger players with rio could get something going, or even a king-terry one day who knows. Although Tottenham did let 5 goals in against Arsenal
Terry is consistently the best performer in a Chelsea shirt, even with the arrival of Robben at Stamford Bridge. The fact that we don't see more of him on, say, MotD, is because great defending makes for shiity television. England's biggest unofficial Chelsea site (shameless plug here) has him as the fans' outstanding player of the season so far. http://www.cfcnet.co.uk/content/results_detail.asp?ID=4976 But I haven't yet seen JT reproduce his imperious club form for England. Of the 2 other centrebacks, Ferdinand suits him far better as a partner. EVen his greatest admirers couldn't say that JT had great pace: Rio, on the other hand, turns quickly and can sprint when he needs to. Terry and Campbell are not dissimilar in terms of style: they both read the game extremely well and rely on great positioning and anticipation. Campbell is becoming more and more prone to injury, which I sincerely hope will finally kill off the idea that Arsenal can defend worth a damn, and over the next two years I expect him to fade quietly out of international football. Terry may need to find a better understanding with Rio, tho.
I watched the game against Spain again last night including the goal. To be absolutely honest I think the main one's at fault were Beckham and Nicky Butt. Beckham was the one in front of the near post that should have been heading the ball away if it drops short. To be fair the ball starts out wide of the goal and is swung in towards it so it may have been a bit difficult to tell but the bottom line is that he's the guy responsible for clearing a short corner, he makes absolutely no move towards the ball while it's in the air and the ball hits the ground about 8-9 yards out from goal slightly off to the right and in front of the penalty spot when viewed from Paul Robinson's position. Once you let the ball bounce in the penalty area you're up sh!t creek. What happens then is that Lamps tracks an attackers run into the area and both he and the attacker run across JT's path to the ball, Rio is marking a guy off to the right of the goal, again, when viewed from the keepers positiona and his path to where the ball bounces is partially blocked by him. Nicky Butt is tracking the goal-scorers run but then the guy drops back and Butt loses him, continuing towards the goal whilst the scorer is now about 4-5 yards away from him so Butt make any attempt to make a challenge. As the ball is headed goalwards Raul jumps up directly in front of Robinson but it doesn't look like the ball touches him. He does, however, probably do enough to put Robinson off. Robinson and whoever's on the line, (possibly Bridge but it's a bit difficult to tell), fumble the ball and it goes in. Scrappy goal and it shouldn't have happened but, like I said, I think it says more about players not playing together than any failings of individuals. The truth is it was a lucky goal. The other thing I noticed watching the game, though, was that Rio does have a tendency to let people get across him at the moment. He let Raul get a header in on goal when the ball was played into the area at an angle once and tried to flick the ball away with the outside of his foot. What the hell he thought he was doing I don't know.
I've been a bit of a critic of Rio of late, but I have to say, he was magnificent last night, best game I've ever seen him play
Rio/campbell is the best partnership by a mile .Its a shame because for Terry because he would walk straight into the starting 11 of many top national sides.