Welcome to the World of Beckham blog, we aim to keep you up to date with developments in the career of David Beckham a footballer from the UK who has played for some of the top teams in the world.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

England 2 USA 0

First half:
Defoe won the chance to play up front with Wayne Rooney in the first of three games for England before the World Cup qualifiers. The England team was strong, but showing some tiredness after the end of a long season. It was a cautious start with Beckham struggling to make a real impact and the team in general getting bogged down, with the USA team doing well to intercept forward balls intended to cut through the defence.
There were plenty of chances for Beckham to show his free-kick skills, combining with Gerard in the tenth minute to get the ball in the net, but some time after the ref had already blown for the kick to be retaken.
For large sections of the first half, the two teams canceled each other out in a packed but un-animated Wembley stadium. England started to show the upper hand as the half progressed with Beckham skying a snatched shot on 18 minutes. Rooney looked lively and beat his marker on 22 minutes but the ball into the box was behind the wave of attacking players.
It was the 25th minute before the USA showed any intent of assaulting the England goal, but the uppper hand firmly belonged to England. At 30 minutes the game looked becalmed at sea, but 7 minutes later, another free kick taken by Beckham on the right found the head of John Terry in the box, giving him the chance to exorcise the demons of the Champions League penalty shoot out by beating the Tim Howard in the US goal for the first goal of the match.
This goal livened up the game and more pressure followed, mostly from England, but with more visible effort from the US. Defoe showed too much speed for the US defence and was dragged down on more than one occasion providing more free-kick opportunities.
Second half:
On half-time, Beckham was replaced by Bentley, and with both teams now having something to fight for, the game started to be more entertaining. After ten minutes of the second half, Barry came on for Lampard and Glen Johnson for Wes Brown. Minutes later, Barry unlocked the defence with a through-ball to Gerard who calmly passed it into the net for England's second goal of the night.
The US looked unconvincing with shots from a long way out with not much hope of beating James in the England goal. More subs on 68 mins Defoe off and Crouch on with England increasing in confidence as the minutes tick by. England showed some nice touches as they progressed the passing game. Rooney picked up a yellow card on 75 minutes after a second rash sliding challenge, but the US wasted the resulting free kick.
On 77 minutes there were more subs with Joe Cole coming on for Wayne Rooney, and on 81 minutes, Ashley Cole was replaced by Wayne Bridge. England soaked up some US pressure and remained comfortable with their two-goal lead.

Conclusions: Beckham can still make a contribution, the partnership of Rooney and Defoe shows some promise. Gerard richly deserved his man of the match award despite being played out of his best position.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it was a great match. Good win for England. Beckham showed although he plays in the MLS, he can still bring his A game every night.

-acdc