More of a populist flirt with Southgate
Doha. Talents came, talents were seen, and talents prevailed.
Gareth Southgate’s selection of the starting eleven may have been motivated more by rotation rather than populism.
But England had fun when they ran up their neck and rubbed my little brother.
Phil Foden! Marcus Rashford! The chants can be heard from England 5,500 kilometers away, all the way from here to Doha.
Ahead of the decisive group stage match, there was a lot of talk about the Welshman’s motivation. How can big brother hatred give them enough strength to rise from the ground where they have been driven since the slam dunk against Iran last week.
90 minutes plus extra time later, it can be seen that volume – and above all quality – trumps this kind of competition. I’m not sure Wells really believed that in the first place. Or they even tried.
Meeting with ancient ancestors
Matches against a younger brother are of course nothing new to England. The first football battle against Wales was actually set, if I know the Islands correctly, on a January day in 1879 making the encounter the third oldest international match in history.
In June last year, thousands of rejuvenated Scots invaded London, and it was a relatively classy EC match that ended 0-0. However, never before have two British teams faced each other in a World Cup final as they did on a warm November evening at the Ahmed Ali Stadium.
Plus, with a more sedate audience than ever. Something that can be seen in the statistics on the number of arrested British supporters last week – zero. However, the Englishman next to us on the press stand was in bad form with the keepers at half time.
USA game plan hacked
Gareth Southgate has made some welcome changes to his starting line-up, but it wasn’t based on populism. In this sense, he is not Roy Hodgson. The fact that Foden and Rashford were added may have had to do with the turnover as England were doing well in the table despite the desert game against the USA. Jordan Henderson has been pushed to balance the midfield better.
But the person who felt relieved after a little rest refused to move. Harry Kane’s pursuit of the first goal continued, and not even his ankle twice the size could stop him.
how did it go The first half turned out as many of us had feared. It’s a rather sweet affair as Rob Page appears to have rummaged through the USA chest and appropriated an old Gregg Berhalter game plan from last Friday that has now been applied to Wales.
This meant Gareth Bale took a step down and formed a 4-4-2 when the Green Dragons didn’t catch the ball. Which they never did. The result was that England once again ended up in a kind of no-man’s-land.
flashed to
The times the English flickered to Kane was late (among other things a nice center pass for Rashford) or a slightly deeper pass by Phil Foden combined effectively with Kyle Walker. On both occasions the juniors pulled the ball over Danny Ward’s goal.
Wales certainly wasn’t happy that it was Walker who started at right-back in place of Kieran Trippier. There was no chance for Dan James to use his speed. Looks like Kiefer Moore has already gone on vacation for Christmas.
Marcus Rashford thought it was necessary to break the deadlock when he put the ball into a free-kick position just outside the penalty area and cut it in. Poor Ward couldn’t help but laugh when the ball came behind him, a real hit.
Not worth it
Center back Ben Davies then dribbled, whereupon Kane snatched the ball from his club mate and delivered it sideways. Foden appeared at the far post and scored 2-0.
In Monday’s press conference, Southgate stressed that he does not deal with charity and that the entire squad cannot count on playing time. With clear control of the game, he threw plays to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Callum Wilson and Calvin Phillips. The latter was then scored with the assist as Rashford netted his second goal of the night, this time from the right.
England won the group, Wales finished last and didn’t deserve to advance either. The country’s first World Cup in 64 years didn’t go as planned and it’s very likely that this will be the last time we see Gareth Bale. It’s likely Aaron Ramsey will be too, but he doesn’t feel like losing too much.
Today won the will category. Or the question is whether England was more determined to show what it was after the criticism in the meeting with the United States. Regardless, the talent is giving the national team captain a real headache ahead of the next round of 16 – just as the nation wants it to be.