England 3Wright-Phillips 20
Owen 49
Richards 66
Israel 0Venue: Wembley Stadium.
Att: 85,372.
Referee: Peter Vink, Netherlands.
England's 3 lions roared today, crushed a well disciplined Israeli side at Wembley in front of 85'000 fans, and in emphatic fashion.
Allegedly this was an injury depleted England side, but it did not show. Actually, in my opinion, due to the injuries throughout the squad, McClaren was forced to go for balance, rather than hope for something special from an individual. The balance proved a step too far for the Israeli's, who were made to look ordinary, due to them having to struggle throughout the match. Aside Benayoun, they were outclassed.
# Heskey dominated up front physically. Owen floated about as he prefers.
# Gerrard and Gareth Barry controlled the centre of midfeild.
# Joe Cole and Wright-Phillips were far too good out wide for the Israeli full backs. Especially Wright Phillips.
# At centre back, Rio and Terry complemented each other well.
# The right and left backs, ie Hyde and Ashley Cole, bombed forward at will, and did so at the right time, especialluy Micah Hyde.
# In goal, Robinson had little to do, and did his little bit plenty well enough.
Overall, an extremely important 3 points, backed by a very good performance, which should by rights, provide McClaren with some genuine selection headaches all over the pitch.
The Russians are next on wednesday at Wembley. A similar performance, from exactly the same players if selected, should be enough to overcome a well managed Russian side. Since the break up of the USSR,
the Russian national team have had less top players to pick from. Accordingly, while very well managed by
Guus Hiddink, the Russians are nowhere near as strong as their teams of the past.
Come on England!
England Team
Robinson
Richards
Ferdinand
Terry
A Cole
Barry
Gerrard (Neville 70)
Wright-Phillips (Bentley 83)
J Cole
Owen
Heskey (Johnson 70)
Booked: Terry 67
Israel Team
Aouate
Shpungin
Gershon
Ben Haim
Ziv
Benado (Golan 57)
Badir
Tal
Benayoun
Yitzhaki (Tamuz 46)
Katan (Zandberg 73)
Booked: Gershon 15, Benado 45, Ziv 55, Aouate 66
England 3 Israel 0♠
England 3 Israel 0 (bbc)
Posted at 7:15 PM, Saturday, September 08, 2007