England players had the last war cry

If you are not aware, the Argentinian players arrived at the Stade de Geneve in their team coach, chanting, dancing and allegedly singing derogative lyrics to a football song against the English team. Nice banter to boost the team for victory, though I'd expect with the talents of Javier Zanetti, Roberto Ayala, Juan Pablo Sorin, Juan Riquelme, Esteban Cambiasso, Hernan Crespo, potential youngster Lionel Messi, Maxi Rodriguez and Carlos Tevez, they needed to count on simple lyrics for confidence. Boost the team for victory, I said. Yes, they wanted to win this 'friendly'. So did England. I wish to forget about past matches, forget about the 'Hand of God', our victory in the WC2002, and the Falklands War, they have been well documented enough in the press. This is a friendly in terms of its status, no points, no competition, no knock-out stage, no trophy. Other than that, the game remains competitive.

The game began superbly, Argentina held most of the possession in the first 20-25mins, coming close and threatening well, though it was a bit uncomfortable to see England having to defend desperately when we could have avoided doing so if we kept a better shape at the back. John Terry started edgy but got better as the game progessed, Rio Ferdinand clearly an understudy, Wayne Bridge starting for the first time after his injury and looking some levels below the required fitness for such opponents. Wayne Rooney went on a run and brushed off by ayala, fairly so. Then he went closer still with a little dink to the far post. But he should not have been so deep over at the right wing in Beckham's way, giving away possession which led to Crespo's goal. Their dangerman was MOTM Riquelme, his pass across pitch found Rodriguez, who got past Bridge to square, the ball coming off Ferdinand's trailing right calf into Crespo's path. But Rooney was looking to make amends. England pressure kept at their opponents, and as Ayala inadvertently pushed the ball into the air, Beckham outjumped Sorin to head into Rooney's path, a fortuitous bounce found the ball past Roberto Abbondanzieri. The half ended an entertaining 1-1.

The main thing is that we came at the opponents, I wonder if it had anything to do with them being Argentina. Their players were said to have continued their chanting off the coach into the dressing room. Argentina staff members were said to have aimed insults at Beckham as both teams lined up to make their entrance. But we showed that when the going gets tough, we get going. We don't hang back stringing pass after pass to end up eventually breaking down, failing to thoroughly penetrate the defence. Thid time, we aimed to get back into the game, we were much better than before. Forget the Poland match, it wasn't fantastic while it served to stamp our Germany passage. This was much better, a better passionate response from the team. Argentina had a little more strength in their side while we were missing key full-backs. And I expected Sol Campbell to feature instead of Ferdinand, though to have done so may have effected the Man Utd defender's confidence.

For their threatening set-pieces, Riquelme delivered sweet crosses, from which we had no one designated to deal with and so they crept through, only to be averted from danger. Crespo had a goal disallowed from one when he shouldn't have had the opportunity in the first place. At times Riquelme dwelled on the ball with no fear, passes culminating from him to his teammates that put us under concerned pressure. Yet when we were under pressure, the defence aimed to block with vigour. Michael Owen had a quiet half despite having a header disallowed for offside. Steven Gerrard played the left-wing role with unease, didn't see him using that role to effect, for obvious reasons, and he welcomed the chance to bring Bridge into attack.

Come the second half, Argentina kept up the pressure. England had one change of Paul Konchesky for Bridge. A freekick some 30 yards out found Riquelme once again delivering a smart ball over to the right for Walter Samuel to head across, similar to Darren Fletcher's goal last week Sunday, the ball going in with Ayala making sure. At that time I felt we could buckle and see a 3-1 scoreline, but no, we kept up the pressure this time equal to the Argentinians. Ledley King was sacrificed for Joe Cole's introduction, and the Chelsea man was sharp on the left, meaning Gerrard came back into his usual position. Cole danced and stepped-over in front of his man and look more likely to break the defence. Argentina went very close to my predicted scoreline when a cross came over for Sorin to head, the sharp Paul Robinson keeping goal well by preventing the ball from just going over the line.

And we still kept going. Luke Young, who has done a good job deputising for Gary Neville, came off for Peter Crouch, with Gerrard now doing a right-back role. Mr Versatile, to think there were questions regarding his inclusion in the team after King and Frank Lampard's performance against Poland. Some 5mins of normal time remaining, Gerrard advanced into the Argentine half to send a cross over to Crouch and Owen, Owen moving behind the defence to purposely aim a downward header to bounce into the one space not covered. 2-2. And even after that, we still kept going. I felt we could actually win this, the way we kept going forward, Cole, Rooney, Gerrard, Beckham, Owen threatening. They must have sensed it too. 92nd minute, Cole chipped a ball into the box and Owen nodded a header into the corner. We had the final war cry.

If we had ended up losing, it would have been worth it to see us perform so much better, particularly in the second half, if not the whole game. This is a segment of the performance we can achieve with the current crop of players, and with the waiting talent on the bench and potentially lined up to come in, it can get much better. We are football fans, we know of the calibre England have, and a good deal of it can be put down to the influence of foreign players who have integrated into the football clubs, and foreign managers. There's a combination of foreign flair and English grit and yesterday it's influence combined well for the first time in a long time. Did we need to face stronger opposition in Argentina to play much better? We shouldn't do. We should want to get at sides from the kick-off but in the beginning of yesterday's match we still seemed concerned at gong forward and getting at our opponents for fear of failing and being criticised. The players have the talent, they should relax and play their usual game. It's why they are chosen. Currently the best manager in the top league, I would wager that even Jose Mourinho would be happy with a defeat provided his team played well and made chances at every opportunity.

I felt Lampard was not himself in the first half but he too became better the further he played. The same for Ferdinand. Our MOTM was a pick from Robinson and Beckham; one kept us in the game and the other kept going, inspirational to others. I would just shade it to Beckham. I don't know what it was but his game has improved much more, I hope he doesn't burn out leading up to Germany, that goes for the other players too. Yesterday, win, lose or draw, it was a good match with a better England response. The Argentinian side were mysteriously quiet on the coach from the stadium. God wasn't prepared to lend his hand, yet again.


RedsMan.