Can England stick with this? Is there anything to lose in simply going with the talent? This felt like a step closer. The balance was good here, Phillips a quiet source of strength, Bellingham the headline act. England dipped a little, then found their second wind. Bellingham got the second after another excellent move. Just after the half-hour England scored a lovely opening goal, a four-man move that turned on Bellingham’s delightful dinked pass to Marcus Rashford and a clever finish from Foden. Flower of Scotland was met with a full round of jeering, taunting arms-wide fight gestures on both sides. God Save The King was drowned out by a vast hail of boos which, purely as a piece of music, was arguably an upgrade. Now, who fancies a nice hot cup of The Past? Hampden did it nicely, with some cheery, under-stated pageantry. But the song remains the same.Īnd this was in its own way a perfect Britain: The Anger Years occasion. Through the afternoon the pubs around Glasgow Central train station had been host to a select horde of travelling fans offering the usual public service warnings about the perils of the Irish Republican Army, the Luftwaffe, and the social fabric of their host nation, soundtrack to English football’s cultural mission to the world. Southgate started Bellingham in the centre, his correct position in this team, any team and Foden on the right with some freedom to drift a little.Įngland started well, decorating this 150th anniversary game with a genuinely urgent performance. In front of that double pivot Bellingham, in particular, played like a high-spec six-litre footballing machine: super-mobile, physically dominant, taking the ball from any angle then surging off into the correct channel of space every time and just demonstrably the best player on the pitch.Īnd Southgate is of course right, just as he would be right to point out what happened at Hampden is that he created the architecture for that creative talent to function. But this was a kind of progress from the trapped energy of Wroclaw, based around the added stability of fielding Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice together in deep midfield. Or, stay honoring other popular things that come in pairs. Now that your twins are a little older, suit them up in twin Halloween costumes based on their favorite cartoon characters. Will it be allowed to flourish? How far can we go with this? Will Southgate actually get the credit he deserves for giving these two wonderful players the balance in deep midfield to flourish? These dynamic duos show that the best things (and Halloween costumes) really do come in pairs. But it is also a burden, responsibility to be discharged. And at times in the first half there was a sense of something stirring here, of patterns emerging, England’s two most talented attacking midfielders gambolling about the place with a sense of zip and glee and basic pleasure rarely associated with any England side in any of the preceding 150 years marked by this heritage friendly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |