review of england v hugary

o.k. first 40 mins was what we are going to have to expect in the sweden game, they play the same sort of counter attacking football as hungary only they have ljungberg and ibrahimovic so they should provide a sterner test. then england eventually come to life in the last5 mins of first half. i dont care what anyone says but england are the best team in the world, when it comes to attacking set plays. beckham's delivery combined with attacking runs into the box can cunjor us a goal from no where.

gerro's dive for the pen was what all bloody continental footballers do anyway, so why shouldnt our players start doing it?

still no answer to the midfield holding position, carragher did good but his passing was limited to backwards and sideways, not enough penetrating balls. bloody hargreaves? eriksson wants a good spankin from nancy for playing this waste of space, lost the ball everytime he got it. why oh why is he not giving micheal carrick a chance

positives on the night were, joe cole, he seems to be our most creative player with rooney missing. great running with the ball. set up crouch and was unlucky to see his first half header come back off the post.

peter crouch held the ball up well when he came on and took his goal very well, bad celebration though

apart from those two, becks (set peices apart) ok, lamps under par, the rest had a pretty average game, stevie g needs another go in that position on saturday.

i think the form we showed in the second half will carry us through the group stages but we'll need to step up a gear if we want to go further

yonjy, wass football columnist, live from stoke

[FlibbleS]

STRONGLY DISAGREE

Crouch's celebration was a 10/10

First have was a typical England friendly, boring and of poor quality. No one stood out for me in the first half and only in the second half did we look like a team capable of doing something at the WC. Cole had a good second half on the left and Crouch came on and got his goal, but there were alot of negatives about the performance. Ashley Cole looked a shodow of his usual self (not long back from injury I know but his positional sense was poor), Lampard was anonymous (except for his penny miss), Owen may as wellhave played in goal, and although Beckham set up two goals with good balls into the box, his passing in the first half was woeful.

Hopefully Sven will give Downing and Lennon another run out against Jamaica and it will give Owen and Cole another game to gain their fitness.

all i can say is, if we play like we did in the 1st half in the WC we wnt make it thru the group
2nd half performance was better but still no where near gd enuf to win us the WC
if owen cnt raise his performance in the WC, then he shud be replaced by Bent or Defoe who i feel should take Owen Hargreaves place ( Bent in my opinion, on great form all season).

not realy a test was it and he did do a of swapin n changin wots with in playin carra in the holdin role hes 1 of the best defenders in the prem thats his pos all across the bak 4 not in midfield