Beckham claims 100 caps as England lose to France

Beckham and England started brightly and had plenty of attacking action at the start of the game, but seemingly lacked finishing power. Once again you have to wonder if Wayne Rooney should really be left in a lone striker role rather than having a strike partner close at hand. Beckham himself came close as he came sliding in to try to meet a ball zipping across the French box.
The French team looked comfortable on the ball and were able to gain the advantage when Anelka was brought down by 'keeper David James after a slide-rule pass cut out the English defence leaving James stranded. Ribery converted the penalty and France were 1-0 up. The score remained at 1-0 and England never really looked liked scoring as their performance deteriorated from that hopeful start. Beckham dropped back through the field and was often found behind Wes Brown on the right wing, finally being substituted after an hour. He was replaced by his natural successor David Bentley who also failed to make a significant impact.
The feeling is that Beckham will have a place in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers, he was certainly not over-shadowed by any other England players who failed to shine as a team. This was a disappointing outcome to all the speculation about whether the 100th cap would come. Now that particular sideshow is out of the way, perhaps we can get on with the football...