England Blogs

John Motson' greatest game Part Two - 'England thump the Germans in their own back yard'

FFC Towers HQ — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:06:58 +0100

Football FanCast is looking back at the illustrious career of John Motson and picking out some his finest matches. The second instalment is the moment that Sven's England thumped the Germans in their own back yard.

They say all good things must come to an end and it certainly will be a sad day this evening, as John Motson takes his final bow at the Euro 2008 final.

As ‘Motty' falls into the backwaters of the BBC and contributes the odd 10min slot on Match of the Day, the days of Cup finals or key England games is well and truly a thing of the past and the mantle now likely passed to the low key Jonathon Pearce. It is a grave shame in my opinion and for the occasional faux pas or gaff, was still the best in the business and his departure will mark an end of an era.

Like most football fans, I grew up with Brian Moore, Barry Davies and of course John Motson. They were the voice of football, our Wikipedia of knowledge and were of far greater interest than the modern guys/gals now stepping up to the microphone.

John Motson has commentated on some of the greatest games on memory and we at Football FanCast are taking a look back at Mr Sheepskin's finest matches, from Alan Sunderland's last minute winner, Keith Houchen's diving header or of course Ricky Villa's magical solo goal back in 1981.

Today's focus is the glorious day for English football back in 2001, when England stuffed the Germans in their back yard.

I don't think I can ever remember a game when England displayed more passion, belief or will to win; we can hope that Fabio Capello can instil much the same in order to drag our national team off its feet.

CLICK HERE to view Part One - "Spurs made Ossie's dream come true"

Arsenal's Almunia, Chelsea' Cudicini - Why do England never exploit the International loopholes?

J11 Fanzine — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:56:55 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Matt Williams wonders why England is the only nation who fails to stretch the boundaries when it comes to selecting its football team.

Let me start off by posing you a question. What do the athletes Lennox Lewis, Greg Rusedski, Kevin Pietersen, Lesley Vainikolo and Alan Lamb all have in common? That's right; they've all represented England in their respective sports, despite being born elsewhere.

Another question. What's the connection between Patrick Vieira, Lukas Podolski, Marcos Senna, Deco, Mehmet Aurelio and Miroslav Klose? Again, the answer is quite similar; they are all footballers who are representing a country that they weren't born in. They are international football's ‘ringers' if you will.

You may have noticed from that second list that not one of those players mentioned are playing for England. And despite the fact that, as proved in question one, England teams in other sports are happy to play the ‘citizenship' card, English football has always tended to avoid the idea.

Yet with the foreign legion marching into the Premiership game at an uncontrollable rate, it's not as if Fabio Capello does not have the opportunity to ‘bend the rules'. Just one phone call and that problematic left side position could be sorted, with the call-up of Steed Malbranque. Gael Clichy, Arsenal left-back and included in the PFA's Team of the Season, will also be eligible to wear the Three Lions shirt by the end of the year. Maybe we wouldn't have had to put up with Paul Robinson in goal for such a long time if someone had just turned up with an England shirt and begging letter at Carlo Cudicini's or Manuel Almunia's house.

This issue has been brought back into the public eye during the Euro 2008 tournament, not just because of the players listed above, but because of a certain Colin Kazim-Richards, the part-English, part-Turkish forward. Now known as ‘Kazim Kazim', Richards will be representing Turkey in tonight's semi-final against Germany.

"I would have been happy to play for England or Turkey, but the call never came for the [England] under-21s." Richards recently told The Times. "Turkey knew my background and really made me feel welcome, even though I could barely speak a word of the language."

If Richards scores for the Turks tonight to put ‘his' country into the final of Europe's biggest international tournament, there will be no muted celebrations from Turkish fans. Richards has committed to their nation, and they'll happily accept him for it.

So why does it seem that England are the only country who aren't keen to do the same? Of course we do have Owen Hargreaves, but when he first joined the squad, people seemed so embarrassed that they had no clue who he was, that he was almost given the benefit of the doubt. It still also took a ‘player of the tournament' 2006 World Cup performance for the English public to fully accept him.

And that seems to be the problem for England in this area. Pride. We like our footballers to be pure British beef, with blood on their shirt, going out there to fight for Queen and country. We still want them to have names like Gary and David, who would happily go for a post-match lager and packet of pork scratchings if they weren't paid so much to keep their bodies in shape.

We don't want no namby-pamby foreigner on our left-side, no matter how much he'll improve the team and no matter how much he loves this country. We'd rather fail with Englishman than win with players named Carlo and Jeremie in our team.

Of course this is an over-exagerrated way of putting things. But there is something admirable about players like George Weah and Ryan Giggs, players who knew they would never play in an international tournament by sticking with their home countries, but whose national pride meant they did so anyway.

We also wonder whether Polish-born forwards Podolski and Klose's celebrations will be tinged with a hint of guilt if they win tonight, considering they contributed so effectively to thwart their country of origin in the group stages of the Euros. And we certainly don't care about Kazim-Richards now he's turned his back on Leytonstone for Istanbul.

The irony of it all is that realistically, Kazim-Richards would probably never be considered good enough to get in the England squad anyway. This was a player outshone by Rob Hulse and Adi Akinbyi during his spell at Sheffield United, for goodness sake.

But Kazim-Richards has been in Swizerland, playing in the Euro 2008 semis. Maybe if Carlo Cudicini was picked to play in goal against Croatia on that wet November night last year instead of Scott Carson, then England would be there too.

Semi Final Spain vs. Russia. 19.45

The Dutch and Italian's give England a lesson on how the game should be played!

Matt Kelly — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:55:51 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Matt Kelly felt that the performance of Holland and Italy last night was an example to us all and highlights the massive job that Fabio Capello has in rebuilding the national football team.

Italy against Holland wasn't just the return of total football on the international stage, but it was a lesson in football for everyone English.

Tonight's match (9^th June) was the perfect example of why we have absolutely no right to be playing in this summer European Championships. The game represented everything that is both wrong with the England's international football team, but at the same time everything that right with the English domestic game. Immediately the argument is raised that the reason for this is the number of international footballers that grace our pitches every weekend, however, out of the three players representing the Premiership last night, only one of them plays in an attacking role, and only one of them plays for a ‘big four' side.

Before Holland had taken the lead, both teams were fairly well matched. However what were evident was the qualities we so proudly associate with our domestic game, but which are so strongly lost on our international team that caught the eye.

The game was played with a fast tempo, both teams attacked and the game flowed from end to end with excitement that was evident for the full 90 minutes. What else was evident was the lack of qualities so often related to the football played outside England. Although both teams were tactically adept, there was not the slow build up play, and players were not given time to dwell in possession.

Holland's second goal was similar to that of Tevez' chance in the Champions League final, and so similar to the goals scored by teams such as Arsenal and Manchester United each Saturday in the Premiership an a goal all of the England footballers are familiar in conducting, for their clubs.

However the most striking aspect of the whole game was the performance of a number of individual players. For such an exciting and enthralling encounter to take place, a number of players from both teams must be on top form. And they were. Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andrea Pirlo, Hernan Gattuso. All of them turned up and put the type of performance that makes them so successful at club level.

This is one factor that is always a talking point following another disappointing performance from England. Players such as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who are so pleasing at club level, but cannot, make the same influence for their country. Both Holland and Italy's highest rated players ensured that both teams appeared calm and confident in their play. Neither team ran out of attacking options and were able to play in a number of different styles.

Whilst watching England there is always the feeling that the players, let alone the spectators do not really know what they are going to do with the ball - whereas last night there was the obvious sense of excitement and commitment of all players when playing for their country. (Note the Italian players singing the national anthem last night.)

Even though England are not in Austria and Switzerland this summer, after tonight I am no longer bothered. There was more than enough excitement on display to keep me entertained without having to watch England, and if they were here I would be extremely worried about yet again becoming the joke of another international competition.

Grp D Spain vs. Russia. 17:00

Grp D Greece vs. Sweden. 19:45

Who needs England when you have got Croatia?

Rob Facey — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:15:37 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Rob Facey cannot believe he put himself through 90mins of sheer torture yesterday and asks the question, "Who needs England, when you have Croatia?"

After watching Croatia labour to a dreadful 1-0 victory over Austria, you couldn't help wondering just how poor England was to lose to Slavan Bilic's side.

But, at the same time, after watching yesterdays result, I've got to ask: ‘who needs England when you have Croatia?' The ironies and similarities are endless and depressing in equal measure. See if you can spot any differences between the two from this rather crude match review from yesterday:

The players enter the arena showing a mixture of emotions. What is clearly meant to be determination comes across as a mixture of apathy, constipation and confusion as to why they are not in Ayia Napa. As the fans belt out the anthem, the players choose to pout into the camera lens rather than join in. But at least they look nice in their tracksuits.

As the game gets going it is clear the players are lining up in their usual 4-4-2 and good for them, why should they change? Despite the rest of the excelling with new formations; fusing wide men and lone strikers as well as holding and attacking midfielders to play a brand of stylish, attacking football, this team sticks with its tried and tested 4-4-2 even if it may not have the right players for the positions.

They are, as always, fancied by some to win the whole tournament. They start off with a relatively easy group game, against the lowest ranked team in the competition. They even score an early goal, a penalty no less, (OK, I admit, England would not have scored a penalty), and proceed to spend the next 80 minutes behind the ball, defending dreadfully and deciding against creating a decent attacking opportunity for the rest of the game.

At one stage it actually looks as if the ‘plucky minnows' can grab something from the game as the favourites do their best to make a complete hash of things as if they are competing for some footballing incapability benefit scheme. Sustained pressure from the minnows prompts a radical change in tactics - mainly a lot of pointing and shouting by the goalkeeper and defenders at nobody and about nothing in particular.

For the final 10 minutes everybody loses interest, including the players, and viewers at home spend their time channel hopping in the hope that they will stumble across a something that resembles entertainment, because they certainly weren't getting that from the football. Oh look, Time Team...

Eventually, after what seems like days, the final whistle ends and the players sink to their knees and kiss the ground as if they have won the whole tournament and also found a solution for third world debt. Post match, someone who can barely string a sentence together in English is then asked what he thought of the game and mumbles something about "lads", something along the lines of "110% for the whole 90 minutes" and "no such thing as an easy game at this level" by way of an excuse.

I ask you, who needs England when you have Croatia?

EUROS 2008 LIVE MATCH COMMENTARY: CLICK HERE

Grp C Romania vs. France. 17:00

Grp C Netherlands vs. Italy. 19:45

NB - Rob Facey is competing in our Bloggers Euro Championship so if you can give his article a rating in the voting box, it would be greatly appreciated.

Why England fans have been let down by the FA this summer?

Adam Thompson — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:06:55 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Adam Thompson cannot believe that the FA overlooked the prospect of a home nations tournament this summer.

As I prepare for another summer of overcast get together' at barbecues, rising fuel prices and a day by day countdown to next season's football. I can't help but think how much sweeter this summer would have been if my beloved England were participating in a competitive tournament. No not Euro 2008... I mean who wants to be there anyway (Not sour grapes at all) I'm talking about a Home nation international tournament. With not even a home nation's team playing in Austria and Switzerland the far North-West of Europe is going to have to settle with watching the rest of our continent have their party and prepare for a very bland and very boring footballing summer at home.

But how different this could have been, with England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all having the summer off - would it have not made sense to have given the public what wanted by having the return of the Home Nations tournament? I feel such annoyance at the respective Football Associations of these countries that we could not have got all five nations in a room sat down and said what about it?

There are reports however that all the home nations teams (Baring England of course) were going to participate in the ‘Celtic Cup' next year. This angers me as the English F.A would rather play the U.S.A at Wembley then fly half way around the world to play Trinidad and Tobago giving the excuse ‘We need Trinidad and Tobago on our side for the 2018 World Cup votes'- could this friendly have not taken place earlier in the season? The fact of the matter is the English F.A have sold England fans short. They had a fantastic opportunity to win back the faith of the English nation after the fiasco of building Wembley and the hiring of Steve McClaren. With interest in the national squad at it lowest in over 10 years, if anything a summer tournament would have proven more profitable, not only money wise but also in the terms of bridging the gap between those who watch the game and those who attempt to organise it.

If anything it has shown how the people in suits at the English F.A headquarters are so out of touch with what the real football fan craves by organising two friendlies that only drew viewing figures on the basis people tuned in for the BBC's Apprentice against the U.S.A and sod all being on TV at stupid past 10 on a Sunday night. Somewhere in the ‘genius' minds of the F.A thought these games would be a good idea, however I've compiled a list together why a home nations tournament would have made far more sense.

Organisation

We've known since the end of November that all 5 nations would be staying at home; clubs involved with Champions League have less time to prepare to trips to the back end of Romania, what's our excuse? Play each other once, each respective nation's home ground; the winner is the one with the most points after 4 games.

Merchandise

The money that this tournament would have produced would have not only helped the respective nations but the economy. Why else was Gordon Brown so favourable for it? The sales of shirts, gate receipts, television revenue, advertising etc. all would have been more money for the football associations to invest into grass roots what all are crying out for.

Tournament football

England are infamous bottlers at Tournaments and the other 4 nations haven't done much better, would a high pressured, high tempo series of games not be more of a challenge and better preparation towards competitive international football?

Trust

Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have listened to their fans as they plan a tournament and have even invited England into it. Then please tell me why we have ignored this. The FA had the chance to listen to England supporters call for this tournament to be played and they didn't. This would have been a major step for the F.A to reach out to the fans.

Its simple the English FA sold out, the two money spinning games in the last week, were drab, lacked excitement and even though it's good to stick one to our transatlantic cousins its still not like beating Scotland at Hampden Park. It was two fingers up at the fans. Why do we need play expensive games when the F.A can afford to put millions in the back pocket of Fabio Capello and waste exceptional amounts on a stadium?

In hindsight many will look back at the summer of 2008 and seen this as a golden chance for an agreement to be reached between 5 countries that are ever increasingly dividing. In my eyes and many fans eyes the question raised ‘why wasn't there a tournament?' and even though all blame cant go on the English F.A but the respective but with a little more communication I am confident in saying we could have had a series of games to have brought just as much excitement as the European championships.

Grp B Austria vs. Croatia. 18:00

Grp B Germany vs. Poland. 20:45

NB - Adam Thompson is competing in our Bloggers Euro Championship so if you can give his article a rating in the voting box, it would be greatly appreciated.

Has West Ham star earned the right for a second chance?

Rob Facey — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:31:36 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Rob Facey thinks that Dean Ashton deserves another chance to prove himself as an international striker after a slightly disappointing debut last weekend.

West Ham striker Dean Ashton knows that his international career didn't get off to the explosive start he would have liked, but knows that retaining his place in the squad is harder than initially breaking in.

His attitude has been first class since joining the Upton Park club from Norwich where he has been blighted by injuries. Capello rewarded his progress with a cap against Trinidad & Tobago last Sunday, but Ashton knows that if it wasn't for injury, sustained training with England in the past, he would have already been an established squad member.

"I waited a long time to play for England, considering I should have got my chance two years ago," Ashton told The Mirror.

"Now it is a case of knuckling down. I haven't proved anything yet.

"I have got to play well for West Ham next season to earn my place in the next squad and then go from there really.

"You only realise when you go away with England what a huge deal it is. It really struck me that you are a part of something unbelievable."

West Ham have rightly stuck by the player who has suffered from terrible injuries since his move from Norwich but was handed a five year contract last week. The Hammers clearly see Ashton as he focal point of the team - is it about time England took notice and followed suit?

At 24 he still has another 8 years or so to get used to travelling with England. By 2016 he will be 32 and it is unlikely that he would be involved after the tournament. Assuming that England qualifies, but can Ashton ever be the international striker England need - a replacement for Shearer perhaps?

What does he need to achieve with West Ham in order to make it impossible for Fabio Capello to leave him out of the squad in the interim? Where does Ashton fit into the England set up? Up front alongside Owen, Defoe or Rooney, or as part of a big and powerful frontline partnered with Peter Crouch?

Should he even feature at all? Do his injuries make him too big a risk to try and build around for the future?

Why we all should embrace Euro 2008!

chris_mackin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:19:26 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Chris Mackin cannot wait for Euro 2008 to kick off despite England's absence.

Deprived of the stars of the English game and forced to make do with Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas, Euro 2008 has been hiding gingerly under the kitchen table for a while now; mute and shivering, aware that even the slightest whimper will be enough to have itself hurled head first into the nearest orphanage, it has distanced itself altogether from the usual needy ‘look at me! Look at me!' pleading these tournaments usually come armed with and seems less than keen to extol its own virtues for fear of being met with at best tired apathy and at worst outright hostility.

There appears to be two ways of looking at the games from an English perspective; and even those not treating Euro 2008 with the cruel and violent hand of Pip's elder sister seem unable to raise their interest beyond the same nonchalant and humming indifference they'd greet an episode of ‘Everybody loves Raymond' they've already seen a thousand times before beginning on Paramount. "Might as well, if there's nothing else on" is hardly the attitude you'd expect a tournament featuring the exquisite talents of Alessandro Pirlo to meet but it certainly seems a prevalent one. "Who do you want to win?" people are asking through a midst of weary indifference, "oh, I don't know; that dancing dog's a bit of a laugh, init?" their friends are replying.

For your typical international football sceptic this reaction to England's lack of presence in the tournament seems like a remarkably odd and narrow minded way of approaching things. As for somebody who would rather go for a quiet drink and a few hands of cards with Wild Bill Hickok than actively support a team captained by Rio Ferdinand or John Terry I personally cannot wait for Saturday.

BBC deserve praise for standing by the tournament- especially when compared with ITV's cowardly desertion and subsequent denial of all knowledge- and though their ‘who will you be supporting?' campaign carries its self with the measured subtlety of a heavily armed drugs bust it does manage, inadvertently perhaps, to illustrate why all this bellyaching about England's non-inclusion In their traditional quarter final penalty shoot-out defeat is point missing hokum spouted by fools missing the point.

International football exists to give people something to do every couple of years. It's a splendid diversion; like a good test series, the new Batman film or the fixtures being announced for next year, it provides a charming bit of window dressing to the summer, a handy excuse to forget about overhyped music festivals and Wimbledon and spiteful season ticket renewal forms. Freed from the restrictive nature of club support one of the great advantages is the general sense of bouncy indifference you feel about the entire thing, a mood BBC's adverts have managed to capture almost despite themselves. It should not be a case of "England aren't it, ‘spose we'll just have to make do" it should be a case of "Great! England aren't around, let's enjoy ourselves".

"Oh, I'll support Italy for a while I suppose", is an oddly unique sensation when watching football, nobody sees their team knocked out of the third round of the F.A Cup and reasons they'll simply want Arsenal to win it, and one denied us when the media are forcing us to fret over England's limited options on the left and lack of genuine world class goalkeeper. Swamped in angst and heavily plagued with uncomfortable nationalism and tedious bandwagon hoppers shouting their uneducated opinions at you, tournaments featuring our boys invariably descend into bloated and unlovable affairs, arguments rage in hostile drinking establishments and the whole thing soon sinks to Littlejohn levels of grim unpleasantness.

How refreshing then that we can all put a fiver on Romania at forty to one- on the sneaky suspicion that their recent superiority over the Dutch coupled with ageing Italian and French squads may be enough to help them squeak through their group - before thoughtlessly ditching them without so much as a markedly insincere text message should they fold meekly in the group stages and plunge our hearts our money and our allegiances into Russia, whose skilled manager and impressive midfield should be enough to counter their less than stellar strike force.

There's a lot to look forward to. Austria included on the basis that they're joint hosts and because I've got to get somebody in the sweep, are apparently so hopelessly out of depth that there's been petitions lobbied to allow them exemption from the entire thing all together. Their suspiciously childlike note, littered with spelling mistakes and confused tenses, requesting their lack of inclusion on the dubious grounds of doctor's advice was harshly crumpled up and tossed into a waste paper bag by the malevolent P.E teachers at UEFA and unless they can pull themselves together and mumble something unconvincing about a forgotten towel they could be in serious trouble of humiliation. Lacking the requisite charming naivety and flamboyant fan base necessary for pat heading and patronizing their every flaw will be highlighted and exposed by stern faced pundits unflinching in their gloomy rigidity.

Germany's progress will be the usual arbitrary charade it always seems to be; they'll either be spectacularly awful and lose their three group games or spectacularly awful and reach the final, where they end up never apparently dependent on how they poorly actually perform, Croatia's chances will be hampered by me telling everybody to get on them on eighteens and though, with their central midfield and attacking options, there's no reason Spain shouldn't win it but how many times have we have we said that.

Whoever said there is no such thing as the beautiful game?

Is the writing on the wall for Chelsea ace?

Rob Facey — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:40:10 +0100

Football FanCast columnist Rob Facey reacts to Chris Waddle's view of the England midfield and wonders if the writing is on the wall for Frank Lampard.

Who to pair in the middle of England's midfield has been many a managers undoing. Since Paul Scholes' retirement the preferred partnership has been between Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Chelsea's Frank Lampard, two of the Premier League's outstanding performers.

While they are revered by fans of their clubs, both have failed to replicate their club form on an international level, and England legend Chris Waddle believes that the writing is on the wall for Frank Lampard.

"You're not going to get the balance right with Gerrard and Lampard. We know that, unless you play the three like Chelsea," Waddle told the BBC.

"But Capello wants to play a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1. Unfortunately for Frank Lampard, it's about getting the balance right."

Indeed, with Owen Hargreaves and Gareth Barry blossoming into outstanding players after years of neglect by the England set up, there are more options than ever available to Capello. But, as Waddle points out, England remain hamstrung by their inability to play effectively in any other formation.

"The one thing Capello has found hard - and he's probably been surprised about it - is that he's realised that technically we can only play one way.

Speaking of the 2010 World Cup Qualifying campaign which kicks off at the start of next season, Waddle had a clear picture of what the midfield should be.

"We can't afford to get a bad start. I think Barry gives a better balance and Hargreaves is the future."

But what will Capello do, surely we will not drop Lampard altogether? The midfielder was given a hard time following the 2006 World Cup and, as a key player in McClaren's spell, became the boo boy for some fans, despite scoring some vital goals in the group.

Will Capello drop Lampard for Barry? After making very safe choices with his team selections so far will it be time for Don Fabio to play hard ball as England look towards victory in South Africa?

Who said there is no such thing as the beautiful game?