The Friendly: Some Unimpressed Commentators

depends on which half you watched. Those folks must have turned their television set off at the intermission. England obviously played better in the 2nd half. However, I am yet to see a form that caused me to initially predict they would at least be in the semifinals.

Our American friend said it all. It really depends on which half your watching. Half-time comments:

“It’s so boring when they pass it around at the back – but the Mexican wave was good.”
Ian Wright, BBC Sport

“For the first 40 minutes of the first half I thought it was the worst game I’d ever seen in my life. He should put Michael Carrick on now.”
Alan Hansen, BBC Sport

“Steven Gerrard cannot make the runs or breaks we’re used to seeing because he’s playing too far in front of the ball. For Liverpool he can see the runs to make but here he’s coming off Michael Owen and he doesn’t really know where to go. After 45 minutes I’d say he can’t play in that position.”
Graham Taylor, BBC Five Live

“I wouldn’t change it straight away as that’s a sign of failure. But after 15 minutes I’d take off Beckham and play Gerrard on the right-hand side. He’ll probably take off Carragher and go 4-4-2 with his tried-and-tested midfield four.”
Terry Butcher, BBC Five Live

“Michael Owen is not a lone striker – it’s not Michael’s game. You want him sniffing runs off somebody else. Better sides would be able to handle this much better than Hungary. It won’t surprise me too see Peter Crouch come on.”
Graham Taylor, BBC Five Live

dear compatriot,

well, by the same token they would still have also beaten the US by 3-1 or more – Hungary played as well as the US has in its friendlies. The ONLY team I have seen in friendlies yet that really looked on world cup form and showed it was Argentina. Even Brazil is just messing about.

I was most impressed that England got 3 (should have been 4) against a team that defended very hard the whole game. It took England the first half to figure out how to break the defence down – but they did.

Not a world cup winner performance but you could see many of the players holding back so as not to get injured – I’d say they looked good for this stage. But we’ll see – it’ll all change June 9th. And whoever wins is going to need luck as well as skill