Thursday, March 1, 2012

International Friendly: England 2-3 Netherlands

England's Adam Johnson fights for the ball. (AP Images)

Well well, what have we here? Upheaval in the England camp? Who knew? This match was always going to prove a bit of an unknown to England supporters, but in the end, there might still be more questions than answers about the side headed into Euro 2012.

Caretaker manager and former Capello assistant Stuart Pearce threw out the first WTF moment of the proceedings by naming Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker as captain for the match. Odds had heavily favored Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, but Stu had other ideas. I personally was not down with this at all.

However, Parker did a pretty good job all match long, so I guess I can't complain. Stuart also made some other interesting choices, some of which worked out pretty well. In particular he gave starts to the Manchester City duo of Adam Johnson, who I've always liked for a spot in the Three Lions, and Micah Richards. These two combined rather well, and tested the Dutch defense, but the first half at Wembley ended scoreless.

The Netherlands are quite the contrast to England. They have the same coach that took them to the 2010 World Cup final, and 9 of the 11 starters from that final in the starting lineup for this match. In particular, Bayern Munich's Arjen Robben is pretty good, or a lot more than pretty good. He managed to put the Dutch up in the 57th minute, taking the ball off of Daniel Sturridge in the England end, then making Smalling and Cahill look foolish before drilling the ball by Joe Hart to make it 0-1. Just a minute later The Dutch went up 0-2, after Klass-Jan Huntelaar headed in a goal on the next attack. However, he bumped heads with Smalling, and both left the match. Smalling was taken to the hospital.

Credit to England though for trying to salvage something from what should have ended up being a dismal night. They almost waited too late. In the 87th minute, Cahill took a through ball from Leighton Baines and scored to make it 1-2, surprising what bit of the crowd was left in the stadium. Then in the 90th, Ashley Young converted another England through ball, this time from Phil Jones, and equalized at 2-2.

However the Dutch and Arjen Robben would have the last laugh. Robben snatched a goal in stoppage time, that partially deflected off of Gary Cahill, to give the Netherlands the 2-3 win.

So, can we have Harry now? Please?

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