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For the likes of James Beattie, Paul Robinson, Ledley King, Paul Konchesky, and of course, Wayne Rooney, last-Wednesday's match against Australia at Upton Park was a dream-come-true for these young lads who after a number of fine performances in the league this season, they'd finally been given the oppurtunity to represent their country at senior level, and to show us all that the best is still yet to come from each individual. (And I'll bet that even England "regulars" Michael Owen ands David James felt a sense of relief to have been named also, after some performances of-late that have been non-too-pleasing for their supporters, to say the least!)
On the night, the majority of the England "new-boys" only got a good-45-minutes of play against a team that has the potential to perhaps one-day become one of the planet's best at international level (outside South America) within the next decade, or-so. And it was on that night that England saw defeat on home-soil for the first-time in quite a while (mainly because we hadn't played a fixture for quite-some-time, before then). But even if it was just a "Friendly", it still hurt badly to see our much talked-about highly-rated squad of national representitives out-played so-badly like many of our players had never even been beyond the terraces of a football stadium before!
It was very dissapointing, and head-coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has come under a lot of fire recently from all-over-the-place for his approch towards the match that night.
But even though we perhaps could - and should - have done better on the night, the Alan Shearer's and Bobby Moore's of the future felt proud to have finally earnt their first full England Caps (even if they didn't play even the full-90-minutes).
Since that dissapointing frustrate that has fuelled a lot of anger amongst the majority of England fans out-there who were looking-forward to stuffin'-the-Aussies and leaving them to fry like "shrimp" on another "barbie". Many who were once backing Mr.Eriksson to take us all-the-way in Japan and South Korea are now beginning to get a bit sceptical, with a growing concern of what really lies-ahead for England in the future, behind all the dreams and potential we have all assumed as being "reachable" with the arrival of such a big-name European manager.
But while we as the fans may be feeling a lot of different emotions, even today, nearly one-whole-week on after that defeat, I think it is now the youngsters who made the break-through into the first-team on that night we should now be paying more attention to, as the Premiership season begins to draw to its tense, nail-biting end for another year...
For the majority of those "lads" who made it onto the pitch on that chilly Wednesday night, returning to their "little" clubs away from all the fuss and hassle of "Championship Challenges" and "European Qualification", returning to their Southampton's, Everton's, and Charlton Athletic's will seem like a big-step-down to them after tasting the light of being ontop-of-the-world at international level. After realising that international football isn't always as great as you may believe it to be, and that it too can be a cruel side of the beautifull game - just like the Premiership, we may now see the likes of James Beattie begin to lose that extra "edge" over the others that got them their place in the squad in the first-place, as the time comes for them to face reallity once again, as they come crashing back down to Earth.
Aside from perhaps Arsenal's Francis Jeffers and Newcastle's Jermaine Jenas, every hopefull youngster out on the pitch that night will have been feeling quite different since the final-whistle was blown, and victory was confirmed, for the Aussies. The youngest, and least-experienced, of the players that did play no that night may now be feeling that perhaps they cannot make a difference to their country's success and fortune within the years to come, and that maybe they are not as-ready as everybody esle seemed to think, for the chance to pull-on an England jersey with those 3-Lions roaring proud. Did you see Southampton at the weekend? Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
Leeds United haven't had the greatest of campaigns this year under former-England-favourite Terry Venables, as Relegation is still a possibillity that the Yorkshiremen may soon have to face, if things do not start to improve soon, without any breaks or odd-patches of bad-form that have plagued their season so-far. Even without Robbie Fowler and Lee Bowyer they can still score goals with the now-envied Aussie duo of Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, but but while scoring goals can win you matches, it also helps that you do not conceed too many either; and that is a responsibillity held by both the goalkeeper, and his backline infront of him. The defence may start in the attack, but if they can go past them and through the midfield, there will only be 2-men and a goalkeeper to beat for the Thierry Henry or Ruud van Nistelrooy of today's game. And if your 'keeper isn't up for it, feeling down and less secure about himself after conceeding the defining-goal on his England debut (aka. Paul Robinson), then it seems quite unlikely that your team will go without conceeding as the bad-results start flooding-in, un-controlabley.
After a highly-dissapointing, yet eagerly-anticipated, England debut, will Paul Robinson ever be able to re-discover the solid-as-a-rock-like form that first gained him recognition from Sven-Goran Eriksson, after having secured his position as first-choice No.1 for Leeds over Nigel Martyn?
And although Everton are yet to have played a game since England's defeat to Australia, I can almost guarrentee that 17-year-old Wayne Rooney will have been effected by all this, in one-way, or another. The lad's only 17, making him England's youngest-ever debutant at only 111-days past his 17th Birthday, shattering Michael Owen's previous record. Some may believe that after recent critisism of the way he likes to do things, and how his way doesn't always work-out, that Sven-Goran Eriksson only played Rooney to break that `"Youngest International Player" record, getting his name mentioned in the good-books also, for choosing him. But you cannot deny that fact that the boy has had "Future England International" written all-over-him, ever since he made his debut as a 16-year-old, several months back with a brace in the League Cup. He's looked like something else, ever-since he struck that superb long-range-effort into the back of the net against Arsenal with so-little experience.
But I bet that even he, as a young, in-experienced "dreamer", would've expected better things to have come from that night at Upton Park last-night. And I'm not just talking about an England win here, after the sheer-speed months it has taken Wayne Rooney to have gone from a "youth team-nobody", to an "England international" on a full-time proffesional contract earning over £10,000-a-week.
Will his confidence be slightly shot after realising that he can do it for Everton, but not for his country? And with a lack of confidence on the pitch for "The Toffees", will we soon see Everton's good-run come to an end, purely because the man (well, "boy") who has saved them time-after-time doesn't believe in himself anymore, as much as he used to??
Each player who made his debut on the night is likely to have been effected in his own individual way, and I'm sure that we will begin to see soon (if we haven't already) how that will rub-off onto the players around them in their club-sides, perhaps even reducing the tension and action of the remaining few-months of the Premiership season. Certain players are going to feel bad after playing in the game against Australia, but just think how bad the others, like Scott Parker, who didn't even come off the bench, will be feeling after seeing all their mates run on, as they find themselves left-alone on a bench with first-half rejects like Michael Owen.
Many people have been critising Eriksson for playing with 2 different sides in one-game, and for perhaps bringing into our team too-many-youngsters at too-soon-a-time. And then there are the others, delighted to see Rooney, Jenas, Robinson and Beattie, finally given the chances they've clearly deserved.
You can moan about whether it was right-or-wrong to introduce the youngsters into international football in that way all you want, but it isn't gonna change anything. They have to learn it some-time (if you believe they can do it), so why not now, and then? But by introducing so-many new-faces in one-go like he did, I believe that Sven-Goran Eriksson - the man every-England fan but me seems to love - got it wrong on this occasion, and has stumped the progression of so-many young talents for the future, all-in-on-go. If he really DOES see them as potential stars for the future, then they each should've at least got the chance to play with 2-or-3 "regular" England players around them, and for a lot-longer than 45-minutes, also!
Why do you guys think Eriksson can do no wrong?!
These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in Texas!
It's like Grolsch; "you can't rush these things".
On the night, the majority of the England "new-boys" only got a good-45-minutes of play against a team that has the potential to perhaps one-day become one of the planet's best at international level (outside South America) within the next decade, or-so. And it was on that night that England saw defeat on home-soil for the first-time in quite a while (mainly because we hadn't played a fixture for quite-some-time, before then). But even if it was just a "Friendly", it still hurt badly to see our much talked-about highly-rated squad of national representitives out-played so-badly like many of our players had never even been beyond the terraces of a football stadium before!
It was very dissapointing, and head-coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has come under a lot of fire recently from all-over-the-place for his approch towards the match that night.
But even though we perhaps could - and should - have done better on the night, the Alan Shearer's and Bobby Moore's of the future felt proud to have finally earnt their first full England Caps (even if they didn't play even the full-90-minutes).
Since that dissapointing frustrate that has fuelled a lot of anger amongst the majority of England fans out-there who were looking-forward to stuffin'-the-Aussies and leaving them to fry like "shrimp" on another "barbie". Many who were once backing Mr.Eriksson to take us all-the-way in Japan and South Korea are now beginning to get a bit sceptical, with a growing concern of what really lies-ahead for England in the future, behind all the dreams and potential we have all assumed as being "reachable" with the arrival of such a big-name European manager.
But while we as the fans may be feeling a lot of different emotions, even today, nearly one-whole-week on after that defeat, I think it is now the youngsters who made the break-through into the first-team on that night we should now be paying more attention to, as the Premiership season begins to draw to its tense, nail-biting end for another year...
For the majority of those "lads" who made it onto the pitch on that chilly Wednesday night, returning to their "little" clubs away from all the fuss and hassle of "Championship Challenges" and "European Qualification", returning to their Southampton's, Everton's, and Charlton Athletic's will seem like a big-step-down to them after tasting the light of being ontop-of-the-world at international level. After realising that international football isn't always as great as you may believe it to be, and that it too can be a cruel side of the beautifull game - just like the Premiership, we may now see the likes of James Beattie begin to lose that extra "edge" over the others that got them their place in the squad in the first-place, as the time comes for them to face reallity once again, as they come crashing back down to Earth.
Aside from perhaps Arsenal's Francis Jeffers and Newcastle's Jermaine Jenas, every hopefull youngster out on the pitch that night will have been feeling quite different since the final-whistle was blown, and victory was confirmed, for the Aussies. The youngest, and least-experienced, of the players that did play no that night may now be feeling that perhaps they cannot make a difference to their country's success and fortune within the years to come, and that maybe they are not as-ready as everybody esle seemed to think, for the chance to pull-on an England jersey with those 3-Lions roaring proud. Did you see Southampton at the weekend? Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
Leeds United haven't had the greatest of campaigns this year under former-England-favourite Terry Venables, as Relegation is still a possibillity that the Yorkshiremen may soon have to face, if things do not start to improve soon, without any breaks or odd-patches of bad-form that have plagued their season so-far. Even without Robbie Fowler and Lee Bowyer they can still score goals with the now-envied Aussie duo of Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, but but while scoring goals can win you matches, it also helps that you do not conceed too many either; and that is a responsibillity held by both the goalkeeper, and his backline infront of him. The defence may start in the attack, but if they can go past them and through the midfield, there will only be 2-men and a goalkeeper to beat for the Thierry Henry or Ruud van Nistelrooy of today's game. And if your 'keeper isn't up for it, feeling down and less secure about himself after conceeding the defining-goal on his England debut (aka. Paul Robinson), then it seems quite unlikely that your team will go without conceeding as the bad-results start flooding-in, un-controlabley.
After a highly-dissapointing, yet eagerly-anticipated, England debut, will Paul Robinson ever be able to re-discover the solid-as-a-rock-like form that first gained him recognition from Sven-Goran Eriksson, after having secured his position as first-choice No.1 for Leeds over Nigel Martyn?
And although Everton are yet to have played a game since England's defeat to Australia, I can almost guarrentee that 17-year-old Wayne Rooney will have been effected by all this, in one-way, or another. The lad's only 17, making him England's youngest-ever debutant at only 111-days past his 17th Birthday, shattering Michael Owen's previous record. Some may believe that after recent critisism of the way he likes to do things, and how his way doesn't always work-out, that Sven-Goran Eriksson only played Rooney to break that `"Youngest International Player" record, getting his name mentioned in the good-books also, for choosing him. But you cannot deny that fact that the boy has had "Future England International" written all-over-him, ever since he made his debut as a 16-year-old, several months back with a brace in the League Cup. He's looked like something else, ever-since he struck that superb long-range-effort into the back of the net against Arsenal with so-little experience.
But I bet that even he, as a young, in-experienced "dreamer", would've expected better things to have come from that night at Upton Park last-night. And I'm not just talking about an England win here, after the sheer-speed months it has taken Wayne Rooney to have gone from a "youth team-nobody", to an "England international" on a full-time proffesional contract earning over £10,000-a-week.
Will his confidence be slightly shot after realising that he can do it for Everton, but not for his country? And with a lack of confidence on the pitch for "The Toffees", will we soon see Everton's good-run come to an end, purely because the man (well, "boy") who has saved them time-after-time doesn't believe in himself anymore, as much as he used to??
Each player who made his debut on the night is likely to have been effected in his own individual way, and I'm sure that we will begin to see soon (if we haven't already) how that will rub-off onto the players around them in their club-sides, perhaps even reducing the tension and action of the remaining few-months of the Premiership season. Certain players are going to feel bad after playing in the game against Australia, but just think how bad the others, like Scott Parker, who didn't even come off the bench, will be feeling after seeing all their mates run on, as they find themselves left-alone on a bench with first-half rejects like Michael Owen.
Many people have been critising Eriksson for playing with 2 different sides in one-game, and for perhaps bringing into our team too-many-youngsters at too-soon-a-time. And then there are the others, delighted to see Rooney, Jenas, Robinson and Beattie, finally given the chances they've clearly deserved.
You can moan about whether it was right-or-wrong to introduce the youngsters into international football in that way all you want, but it isn't gonna change anything. They have to learn it some-time (if you believe they can do it), so why not now, and then? But by introducing so-many new-faces in one-go like he did, I believe that Sven-Goran Eriksson - the man every-England fan but me seems to love - got it wrong on this occasion, and has stumped the progression of so-many young talents for the future, all-in-on-go. If he really DOES see them as potential stars for the future, then they each should've at least got the chance to play with 2-or-3 "regular" England players around them, and for a lot-longer than 45-minutes, also!
Why do you guys think Eriksson can do no wrong?!
These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in Texas!
It's like Grolsch; "you can't rush these things".
Austalia always play to win, whatever the circumstances. England wanted to win, but not as much as Australia did.
Solskjær wrote:
> These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a
> hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in
> Texas!
Har har.
I don't know why everyone is so worked up. It was a meaningless friendly where any one player only got 45 minutes. Our first team could have gone on to score 4 in the second half. We'll have to wait until the next competetive game to judge the squad.
> These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a
> hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in
> Texas!
Har har.
I don't know why everyone is so worked up. It was a meaningless friendly where any one player only got 45 minutes. Our first team could have gone on to score 4 in the second half. We'll have to wait until the next competetive game to judge the squad.
Solskjær wrote:
Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much
more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer
had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his
mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
James Beattie is a very good player who knows how to score goals. He may not be fast like Owen, and have the skill of Vassell, but there is no way that he shouldn't have had a call up. He plays with the style of Alan Shearer, who again was and still is an excellent striker. I feel that Beattie did not get any good service at all, and should of played in the second half.
This might of ruined the chance to play up front against Turkey, as how could Erikson of judged how good Beattie was in an England shirt, without any service. I mean look at how many people was criticising Shearer, when he was under going a bad spell. He was also not getting the service needed.
I also think that Beattie will find his scoring touch and perhaps be better than Shearer one day.
Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much
more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer
had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his
mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
James Beattie is a very good player who knows how to score goals. He may not be fast like Owen, and have the skill of Vassell, but there is no way that he shouldn't have had a call up. He plays with the style of Alan Shearer, who again was and still is an excellent striker. I feel that Beattie did not get any good service at all, and should of played in the second half.
This might of ruined the chance to play up front against Turkey, as how could Erikson of judged how good Beattie was in an England shirt, without any service. I mean look at how many people was criticising Shearer, when he was under going a bad spell. He was also not getting the service needed.
I also think that Beattie will find his scoring touch and perhaps be better than Shearer one day.
For the likes of James Beattie, Paul Robinson, Ledley King, Paul Konchesky, and of course, Wayne Rooney, last-Wednesday's match against Australia at Upton Park was a dream-come-true for these young lads who after a number of fine performances in the league this season, they'd finally been given the oppurtunity to represent their country at senior level, and to show us all that the best is still yet to come from each individual. (And I'll bet that even England "regulars" Michael Owen ands David James felt a sense of relief to have been named also, after some performances of-late that have been non-too-pleasing for their supporters, to say the least!)
On the night, the majority of the England "new-boys" only got a good-45-minutes of play against a team that has the potential to perhaps one-day become one of the planet's best at international level (outside South America) within the next decade, or-so. And it was on that night that England saw defeat on home-soil for the first-time in quite a while (mainly because we hadn't played a fixture for quite-some-time, before then). But even if it was just a "Friendly", it still hurt badly to see our much talked-about highly-rated squad of national representitives out-played so-badly like many of our players had never even been beyond the terraces of a football stadium before!
It was very dissapointing, and head-coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has come under a lot of fire recently from all-over-the-place for his approch towards the match that night.
But even though we perhaps could - and should - have done better on the night, the Alan Shearer's and Bobby Moore's of the future felt proud to have finally earnt their first full England Caps (even if they didn't play even the full-90-minutes).
Since that dissapointing frustrate that has fuelled a lot of anger amongst the majority of England fans out-there who were looking-forward to stuffin'-the-Aussies and leaving them to fry like "shrimp" on another "barbie". Many who were once backing Mr.Eriksson to take us all-the-way in Japan and South Korea are now beginning to get a bit sceptical, with a growing concern of what really lies-ahead for England in the future, behind all the dreams and potential we have all assumed as being "reachable" with the arrival of such a big-name European manager.
But while we as the fans may be feeling a lot of different emotions, even today, nearly one-whole-week on after that defeat, I think it is now the youngsters who made the break-through into the first-team on that night we should now be paying more attention to, as the Premiership season begins to draw to its tense, nail-biting end for another year...
For the majority of those "lads" who made it onto the pitch on that chilly Wednesday night, returning to their "little" clubs away from all the fuss and hassle of "Championship Challenges" and "European Qualification", returning to their Southampton's, Everton's, and Charlton Athletic's will seem like a big-step-down to them after tasting the light of being ontop-of-the-world at international level. After realising that international football isn't always as great as you may believe it to be, and that it too can be a cruel side of the beautifull game - just like the Premiership, we may now see the likes of James Beattie begin to lose that extra "edge" over the others that got them their place in the squad in the first-place, as the time comes for them to face reallity once again, as they come crashing back down to Earth.
Aside from perhaps Arsenal's Francis Jeffers and Newcastle's Jermaine Jenas, every hopefull youngster out on the pitch that night will have been feeling quite different since the final-whistle was blown, and victory was confirmed, for the Aussies. The youngest, and least-experienced, of the players that did play no that night may now be feeling that perhaps they cannot make a difference to their country's success and fortune within the years to come, and that maybe they are not as-ready as everybody esle seemed to think, for the chance to pull-on an England jersey with those 3-Lions roaring proud. Did you see Southampton at the weekend? Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
Leeds United haven't had the greatest of campaigns this year under former-England-favourite Terry Venables, as Relegation is still a possibillity that the Yorkshiremen may soon have to face, if things do not start to improve soon, without any breaks or odd-patches of bad-form that have plagued their season so-far. Even without Robbie Fowler and Lee Bowyer they can still score goals with the now-envied Aussie duo of Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, but but while scoring goals can win you matches, it also helps that you do not conceed too many either; and that is a responsibillity held by both the goalkeeper, and his backline infront of him. The defence may start in the attack, but if they can go past them and through the midfield, there will only be 2-men and a goalkeeper to beat for the Thierry Henry or Ruud van Nistelrooy of today's game. And if your 'keeper isn't up for it, feeling down and less secure about himself after conceeding the defining-goal on his England debut (aka. Paul Robinson), then it seems quite unlikely that your team will go without conceeding as the bad-results start flooding-in, un-controlabley.
After a highly-dissapointing, yet eagerly-anticipated, England debut, will Paul Robinson ever be able to re-discover the solid-as-a-rock-like form that first gained him recognition from Sven-Goran Eriksson, after having secured his position as first-choice No.1 for Leeds over Nigel Martyn?
And although Everton are yet to have played a game since England's defeat to Australia, I can almost guarrentee that 17-year-old Wayne Rooney will have been effected by all this, in one-way, or another. The lad's only 17, making him England's youngest-ever debutant at only 111-days past his 17th Birthday, shattering Michael Owen's previous record. Some may believe that after recent critisism of the way he likes to do things, and how his way doesn't always work-out, that Sven-Goran Eriksson only played Rooney to break that `"Youngest International Player" record, getting his name mentioned in the good-books also, for choosing him. But you cannot deny that fact that the boy has had "Future England International" written all-over-him, ever since he made his debut as a 16-year-old, several months back with a brace in the League Cup. He's looked like something else, ever-since he struck that superb long-range-effort into the back of the net against Arsenal with so-little experience.
But I bet that even he, as a young, in-experienced "dreamer", would've expected better things to have come from that night at Upton Park last-night. And I'm not just talking about an England win here, after the sheer-speed months it has taken Wayne Rooney to have gone from a "youth team-nobody", to an "England international" on a full-time proffesional contract earning over £10,000-a-week.
Will his confidence be slightly shot after realising that he can do it for Everton, but not for his country? And with a lack of confidence on the pitch for "The Toffees", will we soon see Everton's good-run come to an end, purely because the man (well, "boy") who has saved them time-after-time doesn't believe in himself anymore, as much as he used to??
Each player who made his debut on the night is likely to have been effected in his own individual way, and I'm sure that we will begin to see soon (if we haven't already) how that will rub-off onto the players around them in their club-sides, perhaps even reducing the tension and action of the remaining few-months of the Premiership season. Certain players are going to feel bad after playing in the game against Australia, but just think how bad the others, like Scott Parker, who didn't even come off the bench, will be feeling after seeing all their mates run on, as they find themselves left-alone on a bench with first-half rejects like Michael Owen.
Many people have been critising Eriksson for playing with 2 different sides in one-game, and for perhaps bringing into our team too-many-youngsters at too-soon-a-time. And then there are the others, delighted to see Rooney, Jenas, Robinson and Beattie, finally given the chances they've clearly deserved.
You can moan about whether it was right-or-wrong to introduce the youngsters into international football in that way all you want, but it isn't gonna change anything. They have to learn it some-time (if you believe they can do it), so why not now, and then? But by introducing so-many new-faces in one-go like he did, I believe that Sven-Goran Eriksson - the man every-England fan but me seems to love - got it wrong on this occasion, and has stumped the progression of so-many young talents for the future, all-in-on-go. If he really DOES see them as potential stars for the future, then they each should've at least got the chance to play with 2-or-3 "regular" England players around them, and for a lot-longer than 45-minutes, also!
Why do you guys think Eriksson can do no wrong?!
These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in Texas!
It's like Grolsch; "you can't rush these things".
On the night, the majority of the England "new-boys" only got a good-45-minutes of play against a team that has the potential to perhaps one-day become one of the planet's best at international level (outside South America) within the next decade, or-so. And it was on that night that England saw defeat on home-soil for the first-time in quite a while (mainly because we hadn't played a fixture for quite-some-time, before then). But even if it was just a "Friendly", it still hurt badly to see our much talked-about highly-rated squad of national representitives out-played so-badly like many of our players had never even been beyond the terraces of a football stadium before!
It was very dissapointing, and head-coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has come under a lot of fire recently from all-over-the-place for his approch towards the match that night.
But even though we perhaps could - and should - have done better on the night, the Alan Shearer's and Bobby Moore's of the future felt proud to have finally earnt their first full England Caps (even if they didn't play even the full-90-minutes).
Since that dissapointing frustrate that has fuelled a lot of anger amongst the majority of England fans out-there who were looking-forward to stuffin'-the-Aussies and leaving them to fry like "shrimp" on another "barbie". Many who were once backing Mr.Eriksson to take us all-the-way in Japan and South Korea are now beginning to get a bit sceptical, with a growing concern of what really lies-ahead for England in the future, behind all the dreams and potential we have all assumed as being "reachable" with the arrival of such a big-name European manager.
But while we as the fans may be feeling a lot of different emotions, even today, nearly one-whole-week on after that defeat, I think it is now the youngsters who made the break-through into the first-team on that night we should now be paying more attention to, as the Premiership season begins to draw to its tense, nail-biting end for another year...
For the majority of those "lads" who made it onto the pitch on that chilly Wednesday night, returning to their "little" clubs away from all the fuss and hassle of "Championship Challenges" and "European Qualification", returning to their Southampton's, Everton's, and Charlton Athletic's will seem like a big-step-down to them after tasting the light of being ontop-of-the-world at international level. After realising that international football isn't always as great as you may believe it to be, and that it too can be a cruel side of the beautifull game - just like the Premiership, we may now see the likes of James Beattie begin to lose that extra "edge" over the others that got them their place in the squad in the first-place, as the time comes for them to face reallity once again, as they come crashing back down to Earth.
Aside from perhaps Arsenal's Francis Jeffers and Newcastle's Jermaine Jenas, every hopefull youngster out on the pitch that night will have been feeling quite different since the final-whistle was blown, and victory was confirmed, for the Aussies. The youngest, and least-experienced, of the players that did play no that night may now be feeling that perhaps they cannot make a difference to their country's success and fortune within the years to come, and that maybe they are not as-ready as everybody esle seemed to think, for the chance to pull-on an England jersey with those 3-Lions roaring proud. Did you see Southampton at the weekend? Where was James Beattie, and the phenomenal goal-scoring and typical striker's-play that made him a shoe-in for Eriksson's England squad, last-week?? The Saints may have made it through with a victory at the end of the 90-minutes, but James Beattie just didn't look the same player that he was only seven-days-ago, while manager Gordon Strachan would've felt much more-secure if only the Premiership's second-place leading goal-scorer had been on-form, with the thought of his England debut out of his mind.
Will James Beattie ever regain his scoring touch again this season??
Leeds United haven't had the greatest of campaigns this year under former-England-favourite Terry Venables, as Relegation is still a possibillity that the Yorkshiremen may soon have to face, if things do not start to improve soon, without any breaks or odd-patches of bad-form that have plagued their season so-far. Even without Robbie Fowler and Lee Bowyer they can still score goals with the now-envied Aussie duo of Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, but but while scoring goals can win you matches, it also helps that you do not conceed too many either; and that is a responsibillity held by both the goalkeeper, and his backline infront of him. The defence may start in the attack, but if they can go past them and through the midfield, there will only be 2-men and a goalkeeper to beat for the Thierry Henry or Ruud van Nistelrooy of today's game. And if your 'keeper isn't up for it, feeling down and less secure about himself after conceeding the defining-goal on his England debut (aka. Paul Robinson), then it seems quite unlikely that your team will go without conceeding as the bad-results start flooding-in, un-controlabley.
After a highly-dissapointing, yet eagerly-anticipated, England debut, will Paul Robinson ever be able to re-discover the solid-as-a-rock-like form that first gained him recognition from Sven-Goran Eriksson, after having secured his position as first-choice No.1 for Leeds over Nigel Martyn?
And although Everton are yet to have played a game since England's defeat to Australia, I can almost guarrentee that 17-year-old Wayne Rooney will have been effected by all this, in one-way, or another. The lad's only 17, making him England's youngest-ever debutant at only 111-days past his 17th Birthday, shattering Michael Owen's previous record. Some may believe that after recent critisism of the way he likes to do things, and how his way doesn't always work-out, that Sven-Goran Eriksson only played Rooney to break that `"Youngest International Player" record, getting his name mentioned in the good-books also, for choosing him. But you cannot deny that fact that the boy has had "Future England International" written all-over-him, ever since he made his debut as a 16-year-old, several months back with a brace in the League Cup. He's looked like something else, ever-since he struck that superb long-range-effort into the back of the net against Arsenal with so-little experience.
But I bet that even he, as a young, in-experienced "dreamer", would've expected better things to have come from that night at Upton Park last-night. And I'm not just talking about an England win here, after the sheer-speed months it has taken Wayne Rooney to have gone from a "youth team-nobody", to an "England international" on a full-time proffesional contract earning over £10,000-a-week.
Will his confidence be slightly shot after realising that he can do it for Everton, but not for his country? And with a lack of confidence on the pitch for "The Toffees", will we soon see Everton's good-run come to an end, purely because the man (well, "boy") who has saved them time-after-time doesn't believe in himself anymore, as much as he used to??
Each player who made his debut on the night is likely to have been effected in his own individual way, and I'm sure that we will begin to see soon (if we haven't already) how that will rub-off onto the players around them in their club-sides, perhaps even reducing the tension and action of the remaining few-months of the Premiership season. Certain players are going to feel bad after playing in the game against Australia, but just think how bad the others, like Scott Parker, who didn't even come off the bench, will be feeling after seeing all their mates run on, as they find themselves left-alone on a bench with first-half rejects like Michael Owen.
Many people have been critising Eriksson for playing with 2 different sides in one-game, and for perhaps bringing into our team too-many-youngsters at too-soon-a-time. And then there are the others, delighted to see Rooney, Jenas, Robinson and Beattie, finally given the chances they've clearly deserved.
You can moan about whether it was right-or-wrong to introduce the youngsters into international football in that way all you want, but it isn't gonna change anything. They have to learn it some-time (if you believe they can do it), so why not now, and then? But by introducing so-many new-faces in one-go like he did, I believe that Sven-Goran Eriksson - the man every-England fan but me seems to love - got it wrong on this occasion, and has stumped the progression of so-many young talents for the future, all-in-on-go. If he really DOES see them as potential stars for the future, then they each should've at least got the chance to play with 2-or-3 "regular" England players around them, and for a lot-longer than 45-minutes, also!
Why do you guys think Eriksson can do no wrong?!
These players have come back-down-to-Earth the hard-way; a hell-of-a-lot-faster than the recent Columbia space shuttle over in Texas!
It's like Grolsch; "you can't rush these things".