Beckham Gets His 100th, But Same Old Same Old for England

The good news from England’s 1-0 defeat to France is that Beckham’s 100th cap is out of the way. We don’t have to talk about it ever again. The only question now is whether he adds to his collection. On last night’s evidence I’d say… maybe. He looked pretty much match fit, especially for guy whose season hasn’t started yet, and didn’t do anything particularly wrong. But that’s about it for the good news.

The bad news is that England under Capello looked just like England under Sven and McClaren. Totally lacking in creativity and pace. Even I know that you need one or the other. Joe Cole has plenty of tricks, but not enough to open up a solid defence like France on his own, while the attacking combo of Beckham, Gerrard, Cole and Rooney offered almost zero in the way of speed.

And the French goal was typical England. A defender (Terry) caught napping by a smart through ball to a pacy striker (Anelka) and an error from David James. I don’t want to pick on James. Anyone wearing an England keeper jersey looks error prone at this point (James, Robinson, Carson, whoever.) But he looked ridiculous crouched down waiting for the ball to roll into his arms, when it was obvious Anelka was going to get there first. The result was James tripping Anelka and Ribery slotting home the penalty.

Hopefully Capello learned that you can’t play 4-2-3-1 with a naturally deep lying striker like Rooney as your lone forward, or with widemen like Beckham and Cole who like to come inside. If he didn’t learn at least those two things then it could be another rough few months for England fans.