Spain played very well in the first half and Xavi also looked very composed, like they were in a competitive game with their work rate and movement. They passed the ball around well in the second half, but didn't do so much with it. England looked very sluggish and petulant the whole game. Mostly looked like they didn't want to be there and couldn't be bothered to put the effort in. Butt in particular was shocking, looked an utter waste of space, giving the ball away and giving away free kicks. Get this nobhead out of the squad, time to play one of Hargreaves, Parker, Carrick or move Beckham to the centre (if he can be bothered to play). Bridge looked like he wasn't fit, asleep on the goal, if he'd been sharp he would have cleared that away. The ref was poor. How he missed that penalty on Smith in the second half yet gave that one on Raul in the first was ridiculous. I also thought he handled the discipline side badly. Robbo made a great save on the penalty, loved his reaction as well
final score.. 1-0.. not much to say about that game really.. terrible game.. We didnt really get any benefit from it... No standout performances at all..
I'm not quite sure what England will have learned from this game. It looks to me to be a wasted friendly. The subs were uninspired and the play on the pitch was stale. Hargreaves has been in good form for Bayern this season and didn't get a look in front of Butt, who has been steady for Newcastle but looked out of place against the top clubs (see his performance against Man Utd). I kind of want the 90 minutes back. The majority of the players seemed disinterested in being there and not particularly worried about the result and I think this is because at the moment the squad picks itself for '06. There are no positions up for grabs, no battle for anything other than LM, and even there Bridge is the only player who has shown any spark latley. I didn't think it was time to blooden some new players before this match but I think it is now. Perhaps the introduction of Downing would create some competitive atmosphere in the team. I'm just quite jaded by that performace.
Until Fifa punishes the guilty parties they will continue unforunately. I mean really punish them, not those little slaps they are good at dishing out.
The whole team was asleep .Beckham was playing for the hometeam until he got subbed .I agree that butt had a real stinker with his constant sloppy passing .Neville is usually dependable but in this game he didnt put a foot right the whole game .Owen never had any service for the whole 90 minutes. I think all the sh1te from the crowd overshadowed the 2nd half .Didnt really expect any of that to happen in this game .
I think we definitely did in terms of what doesn't work. The organisation on defensive set plays has been poor for a long time under Sven, hopefully this will be another wake up call for them to improve it. How can they have two players on the line when neither of them react to the ball? Why have so many players in their own box when they just get in each other's way? Midfield also needs to improve drastically, Becks doesn't have the pace to cover so much ground on the right side when he cuts infield as well. Butt ain't up to it and is not necessary any more, I'd rather Sven played someone in there who can pass it simply and won't throw himself into tackles which lead to free kicks. Gerrard is a very important player for England, perhaps our most important, but Sven needs to find a better backup for him than Butt. There are players out there who can do that and aren't called Phil Neville, so I'm hopeful on this one. Rooney has got a lot of passion which I like, but he needs to be able to handle teams which will look to exploit that and get him into trouble. Becks was similar a few years ago, the Argentines made him pay for it.
Only caught the last half hour of the game and that was enough. England looked woefull and unable to pass. Why is it that every so often we play this way? just like against Portugal.
OH MY GOODNESS. Sven just said on Five Live that England played well in the second half prepared to the first!!!!!!! And he said that the first half was to competitive for a friendly!!!!!! SVEN OUT.
I think it's an English curse. Whenever we finally get a world class or potential world class player he fvcks up his career.
Shite shite shite. Butt should never play for England again, not with the likes of Hargreaves, Carrick and Parker breathing down his neck. The way he continually gave the ball away was unforgivable, he looked way off the pace. Appalling. Beckham was crap, I lost count of the amount of times he just let the ball bounce off his boot back in the direction it came. He needs a slapping to get himself in order. Ashley Cole was shocking. Good save Robbo, James would have dived the other way. Amazing decision by the ref to award the penalty to Spain and not one to England but he didn't have a particuarly bad game. Lastly Spain should be banned forced to play their next 5 home games behind closed doors, racism should not be tolerated. I bet UEFA fine them £15,000 and tell them not to do it again though.
I dont know what went wrong with the defensive organisation .We were rock solid at the world cup back in 2002 .I think the team suffered when Rio was absent as well the fact that David James made the defence nervous with his erratic play . The midfield has been pretty good lately to be fair .I thought Becks had overcome his sh1te euro 2004 effort with some decent performances in the recent matches . Butt has done a good job for england in past games .He had a great game against the argies in the world cup .Hargreaves should certainly get a chance to be gerrards backup though. Rooney got hyped up by the sh1te talking in the press before the game. The spanish deffo wanted him to get sent off with the ludicrous play-acting. That push on casillas was a reaction to the press talk .I was hoping he would use those words to motivate himself for a good performance but it didnt work out .He looked gutted when he was subbed .I think sven shouldve waited till half time for that move.
Hopefully Rooney can get something out of this. Since he was subbed before halftime, maybe he can realize that his actions can't be tolerated. Its like Beckham all over again, im sure he doesnt want a whole country hating him like they hated Becks.....Cant believe he tore his arm-band off.
My player ratings: Robinson 7 A.Cole 5 J.Terry 6 Ferdinand 6 G.Neville 5 Bridge 6 Butt 3 Lampard 4 Beckham 4 Rooney 3 Owen 6 Worst performance ever!
The voice of reason speaks! Lets face it, no English player came out of this looking any good, except maybe Robinson for saving a penalty that shouldn't have been one. And Gary Neville was good too (I never thought I'd say those words!) Gerrard, Hargreaves, Parker, hell, I'd even accept Sean Davis if he was fit. Butt surely must end up on the scrap-heap now. And I know he didn't play, but Phil Neville having over 50 caps is a terrible indictment on our last 3 or 4 national coaches isn't it? Spain were by FAR the better team.
What a boring second half, Sven should have let Roonie stay, at least we could have seen some action. England performance was extremely poor, if this was Brazil instead of Spain you'd have lost by 4-5 goals. Spain played well, but even dominating the game we didn't look too dangerous. The racist chanting (well, the monkey noises, I don't know if other chants were racist) was something expected after all thas has been going on the last days. And don't forget this is El Santiago Bernabeu, home to the most racist fans in Spain (the Ultra Sur). Racist chanting is not common in La Liga like someone said, in fact I have never heard a racist chant in my team's stadium (San Mamés), and I don't think it's common in other stadiums (maybe with the exception of the Ultra Sur). On the other hand (and I don't want to sound like I'm defending anything that is remotely racist), you have to understand that a soccer stadium is like a moderator-free bigger version of the world rivalries forum, people who make the monkey noises don't have to be necessarily racists, they probabily just want to affect negatively rival players' performances, much like when people were chanting "gordo, gordo" (fat, fat) to Ronaldo, there were certainly people singing in the crowd who were way fatter than him. I'm not saying that racist chanting is good, but tell me when you find a chant to an opposing team (or player) that's not offensive.
it was a sh1t game but the reaction to the result is way over the top as usual .It was just a friendly game and a place where mistakes can be made. Shame about the off pitch stuff though.