There is finally some sunshine in England. I go for a walk as who knows when we'll see some more.
The Dutch play out a tough game with Poland and win it when they bring on the big man, the much maligned Weghorst. United finished third when they had the big lad, they finished nowhere without him. Big lads win games. Facts lads. Facts. The pundits chat about whether defenders can handle big lads these days and conclude they can't. Get on the Gaz-phone Gareth and get Madine on that bench England.
I don't watch much of the above, what with being outside. I do watch all of Denmark and Slovenia. First half Eriksen has me purring, not just for the glorious catharsis of his brilliantly taken goal (lets not mince words, he LITERALLY DIED for a bit last time round) but just about everything he does drips with class, every corner swinging dangerously, every pass weighted beautifully.
Slovenia offer the odd moment first half but play really well second half and score just after missing a great chance and hitting the post. It's deserved. Denmark look gutted.
Off the pitch I think about the following: Is an advert where the voiceover is 'It's squeeky cheese time' the most desperate link to football ever? Why are Lidl such a big thing in this tournament? Lidl is a shit Aldi (with admittedly better fresh baked goods) and thus they seem a bit incongruous when laid against all the other big names sponsoring the tournament. In the crowd, bouncing seems to be very 'in' this tournament. The Dutch were very bouncy in the little I saw and both the Danes and the Slovenes (?) were jumping up and down, whipped up by them weird blokes with a megaphone who don't watch the game.
The BBC kick off with a montage that is as brilliantly done as it is depressing. Lineker is wearing a t-shirt that is weirdly also a jumper. Rio looks a little sleep deprived and forgets the names of people. Micha Richard's hair is absolutely amazing and Cesc just sits there looking deeply classy which, obviously, he is, because he's from abroad. Joe Hart appears with strange wraps around one of his arms. It is inexplicable.
England are slick and quick and just at the point when you wonder if all this moving the ball is going to lead somewhere, Saka puts in a deflected cross and Bellingham thunders in and connects gorgeously with it. A simple but lovely goal.
It's all England until Stones and Walker get mixed up, pass it out of play and from the Serbia throw, England win it back, but Alexander-Arnold gifts it on a plate for Mitrovic to whistle it past the post. C'mon. Don't do stupid things. We've been good, but there's a little spell where Serbia look more in the game until a break and a terrific run from Walker that sees him slide it agonisingly across the face. England do that again, then have a really shaky moment from a cross into the box where Stones ends up frozen and awkward and the half is up.
The Serbian manager puts me in mind of someone who would be in a children's story about a man who owns a haunted barrel organ. He has a mischievous air about him, a little like Ancelotti. He gets a better tune out of his team at the start of the second half. They pin England in, they get in behind Stones, they force more mistakes from England.
15 minutes pass without a convincing England move. 15 becomes 20 and Serbia press. England are reduced to smacking the ball away to no one. Trent goes off. Gallagher comes on. England really need to carry the ball and scrap. Gallagher might be the box to box player to get us out. Pickford chucks in a random punch for no reason just to add a bit more sense of edginess to what is feeling increasingly nervy.
Bowen replaces Saka and immediately glides past his man with a little shimmy, floats a glorious ball in, Kane meets it with all the force of a steam hammer and the ball looks destined for the goal until the Serbian keeper throws up his hands and diverts the ball onto the bar.
It's a temporary respite. Pickford has to twist in the air and tip a long distance effort over the bar. From the resulting corner, Kane has to head an equally dangerous looking effort away from almost under the bar. There's a couple of really good crosses scrambled away. There's a long distance effort. There's a brilliant bit of play that gets them all the way from being penned in in the corner to bearing down on England's goal in about three passes.
Finally, there's a booming clearance from Pickford, his anger rising and showing in the wind up, kick and leap and then, the final whistle...
All a bit Blackpool. A good half, then the other team changed it up and everything looked sloppy and confused. It's a win though.
Onward!
You can follow MCLF on facebook or Twitter or use Follow.it to get posts sent to your email
MCLF has a Patreon programme where you can make the frankly stupid decision to pay some money to get absolutely no bonus content at all (euros accepted).
Alternatively if you appreciate the blog and judge it worth 1p or more, then a donation to one of the causes below which help kids and families in Blackpool would be grand and frankly, the better choice.
0 comments:
Post a Comment