BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | England 3-0 Belarus
We didn’t play well in this game but simply knew too much for Belarus in the end. I’d had a bet on Peter Crouch to score a hat-trick so it didn’t help that we didn’t play better and score a few more. Belarus played some pleasing but ineffective football, the key thing being that they played the ball to feet. If you play to feet it means the other team has less time to close you down and so means you can create more space and thus more openings. Our passing is never so crisp or accurate and so opponents get the ball back to easily. We can’t fault what has been a great campaign (particularly the two wins over the crowing Croats). We are just going to have to be more careful in possession against the better teams.
The one bright spot was David Beckham. He stood out as the quality player on the pitch even though he was only on for 35 minutes and his passing put the rest of the team to shame. If he can play a forty yard ball to feet why can’t the rest of the team play one to someone ten yards away ?
Beckham’s quality shines through
BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | England 3-0 Belarus
We didn’t play well in this game but simply knew too much for Belarus in the end. I’d had a bet on Peter Crouch to score a hat-trick so it didn’t help that we didn’t play better and score a few more. Belarus played some pleasing but ineffective football, the key thing being that they played the ball to feet. If you play to feet it means the other team has less time to close you down and so means you can create more space and thus more openings. Our passing is never so crisp or accurate and so opponents get the ball back to easily. We can’t fault what has been a great campaign (particularly the two wins over the crowing Croats). We are just going to have to be more careful in possession against the better teams.
The one bright spot was David Beckham. He stood out as the quality player on the pitch even though he was only on for 35 minutes and his passing put the rest of the team to shame. If he can play a forty yard ball to feet why can’t the rest of the team play one to someone ten yards away ?
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