England 2-1 Ukraine: Video Highlights and Player Ratings

Highlights spotted on 101 Great Goals. Let’s hope the powers that be don’t take them down.

I don’t have a great deal of insight or analysis to offer, other than we were mostly impressive and showed a lot of heart to find the second goal after conceding a lateish equalizer.

Have some player ratings for you thouigh. Here are my marks out of 10 for footballers who are a million times more talented than I’ll ever be:

James: 7 – Didn’t have much chance with the goal, and was otherwise dependable.
Johnson: 5 - Looked uncomfortable on the ball when pressured, and assisted Shevcehnko for their goal. A fit Gary Neville wins his place back.
Cashley: 6 - A couple of sloppy passes, but three excellent slide tackles and got a couple of good crosses.
Ferdinand: 6 – Looked his reliable self, nice and calm at the back.
Terry: 8 – The armband wearer scored the winner. Can’t ask for more than that, eh?
Lennon: 7 – Too fast for Ukraine’s left back and seems to have this whole crossing thing finally worked out. Mostly.
Gerrard: 8 - Was involved in all our best passing moves, went close with two excellent strikes and nodded the ball back to Terry for the winner.
Lampard: 7 - Neat passing, and took the corner for Crouchy’s goal.
Barry: 6 – A few clumsy tackles (he’s not really a defensive mid) but worked his socks off.
Rooney: 7 – Another good game, found plenty of space in “the hole”. Lucky not to get sent off for a horror tackle though.
Crouch: 7 - Sweet volley for the first and even did the robot. Still too spindly to be a proper target man though, and too slow to be much of a threat.

Subs:
Beckham: 6 - We missed Lennon’s pace after Goldenballs came n, but great cross led to the winner.
SWP: ? – Didn’t have time to do much.
Jagielka: ? – Ditto.

Team: 8 – Probably really a seven, but bonus point for an excellent comeback.

Here’s what Group 6 looks like now: