England V Slovakia [Wed 11 June 03]

[Zygalski]

Wow, look! A football topic in the football section.

So what did you guys make of the match?
Awful first half and a little better in the second by England.

Mills was crap and has always been crap.
Shouldn't play again.

Sven's changes were decent.
Maybe would have liked to see Joe Cole on for Scholes near the end.

Slovakia could have had 3 in the first half so it was a lucky result.

Lampard nearly scored a great goal after switching feet but the keeper's hand deflected it very slightly.
Cole was poor in the first half and did better in the second.

Gerrard was amazing all round.

Owen missed too many chances but made up for it.

Rooney didn't look great. Don't know what was up with him.

Owen dived but Southgate should have got a penalty so that evened out.

Lampard deserved a goal when he was given offside wrongly.
"Oh it's that linesman again" indeed!!!
What a prat.
There were at least 2 and possibly 3 defenders in front of him.

I was willing the players who made good runs to beat the offside (eventually!) to lob the keeper but they kept rushing it.

The Slovakians were good at diving, shirt-pulling and general dodginess.

Exciting stuff though!
England need to improve.

[Zygalski]

Interesting stat in today's Sun:

Slovakia shots on target = 59

[wixon]

first half bad. second half good.

[real11]

When will Linesmen begin to understand the offside rule?
Lampard, Gerrard and Owen were outstanding

[rebusrahman]

I am very upset... because no one has mentioned Vassell. He made a real impact when he replaced Rooney. He had as much to do with England's win as Gerrard and Owen (well maybe not as much but his contribution should be noted).

[Zygalski]

Yes, he did much better than Rooney but he didn't really have any real shots, just half chances.
His running was great though.

I was expecting Vassell to knock in the rebound after Owen hit the bar but he was too far (covered the ground real quick though!).

His nutmeg was great.
Geezer had to cheat and pull him as he knew he was beaten by that express-train-style running of Vassell!!

[rebusrahman]

Well, we play one up front and one off. It's rare that both strikers in a partnership score equally/freely all the time? Like Jedi two always there is...a master and a pupil...

[Zygalski]

True it is, what say you.
Hmmmm!

[rebusrahman]

Also...what price Beckham? He was definitely missed no matter if you hate him or rate him.

[Zygalski]

Imagine if Beckham, Gerrard And Owen were missing.
They would have no chance.

Maybe they missed Nicky Butt more than Beckham last night?

[rebusrahman]

Don't think so. They missed a leader, discipline in position, some organisation and the ability to adapt if their game plan didn't work. Not much then!