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.

Saturday 6 September 2008

Andorra 0 England 2

Capello fielded an experimental type team with a lot of youngsters and those who might be regarded as second-string players. Beckham was on the bench, Theo Walcott wore the no. 7 shirt Defoe started up front, with Ferdinand declared unfit to start, Glen Johnson played right back, Lescott played left-back with Terry in the centre. Barry and Lampard bossed the midfield
England started brightly with plenty of chances, the first and best falling to Glen Johnson in the opening minutes. Youthful exuberance really led to too many long balls which were not accurate enough and led to nothing, certainly there was a lack of delivery from both the left and right sides. There was no doubt that England were fully in control of the game from the start but half-time brought no goals, and Capello made some changes after the break. Heskey came on for Defoe, Joe Cole for Downing
The switch immediately paid off when Cole got on the end of a volleyed pass from Barry to volley into the net from a few yards out in the first minute or so after half-time. Just ten minutes later, Rooney threaded the ball through the defence for Cole to slip it under the keeper for his and Englands' second. England continued to control the game to the degree that you hardly even caught a sight of David James in his goal. For the last ten minutes or so Beckham came on for Lampard indicating that Capello is using the run-out to warm him up for the Croatia game. Walcott remained on the right wing, so Beckham remained in Lampards slot. He had a chance to show his free kick skills on 85 mins, but it was a cross rather than a shot, and didn't get a good connection.
A competent performance where England could have run rampant if they had exercised some of that killer instinct that they seem to lack when faced with lower-ranked opposition. England controlled completely and played well within themselves, so much so that throughout the game I honestly only caught three glimpses of David James in the England goal - I feel he might be a bit busier next week...

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