Kazakhstan 0-4 England: Job Done.

June 6th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

Video via 101GG

Here’s the video of England’s 4-0 win over Kazakshtan today, with goals from Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.

Not a very memorable performance, but it was never going to be an easy game. As Donald commented on the LiveBlog: “Kazakhstan aren’t exactly bad, not Andorra/San Marino/Luxembourg etc bad anyway”. And the pitch was none too pretty.

Quick player ratings (no numbers, just words).

Green, Terry and Upson did nothing wrong, but didn’t really have much to do.

Glen Johnson made that horrible mistake and nearly cost us a goal early on, but also got forward and crossed for Rooney’s goal. Mixed bag.

Ashley Cole looked assured without doing anything too decisive.

Barry and Lampard both got on the scoresheet but didn’t do a great job of keeping possession/setting the tempo. Probably hard to play lots of short passes on a dodgy pitch though.

Theo Walcott look fast (no surprise there) but didn’t create anything. Subbed at HT for SWP (who did OK, even playing 20 minutes or so at right back).

Gerrard did OK from the left and was involved in Heskey’s goal. I think sometimes we expect too much from him though. Rooney ditto. Nice acrobatic volley for the goal though.

Emile Heskey did plenty of work up front, flick ons etc. Hit the post and also finished the second goal with surprising composure (but not really surprising, he does play centre forward for a living) .

So 4-0 away? I’ll take it.

A win at home vs Andorra on Wednesday (which should be much easier) won’t make qualification official, but it should put us damn close.

Only question about the team for Wednesday… with Barry suspended (he was booked today) who partners Lampard in midfield?

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Richard

Bloody good result from Croatia. Those 2 seem intent on cancelling each other out.
Sol

Solid game. Little tricky start, could have been 1-0 behind and who knows what would have happened then, allthough I still think England would have clinched it.

I’m already looking forward to the England – Holland friendly coming up in august. We’ll finally have something that will resemble a real match. So far, these countries like Scotland, Macedonia, Iceland, Norway don’t even try anymore against us. Our defense is hardly tested because they’re all afraid they’ll lose out on the second spot in our group because of goaldifference or something (so they don’t attack at all against Holland and shell up completely like a turtle, it’s getting boring).
Seth

Daryl, your team is looking incredibly strong with each game and that scares me! I’m afraid if Portugal meet England again we won’t have the pleasure of knocking you out as usual

I have a question:

Will Heskey be the #1 choice as a striker from now on? Where is Mickey Owen?
http://littlemissdiana.blogspot.com diana

‘and who knows what would have happened then’
Capello had said that they could had won 4-1, had the goal stood for Kazakhstan. But then for a moment, I almost had a fright myself until I saw the flag being raised for offside.

Daryl, maybe you are aware of this piece of team news but still, Rio Ferdinand had been ruled of the Andorra match. Capello is said to be not calling up replacements.

‘Bloody good result from Croatia. Those 2 seem intent on cancelling each other out.’
Speaking of which, Slaven Bilic has come out to say that he was in the wrong for what happened – http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=653218&sec=worldcup2010&cc=4716
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

@Sol, should be a good game. But don’t be surprised if there are all kinds of withdrawals from the England squad.

@Seth, I can’t decide if I’d like us to avoid Portugal from now on, or if I’d like us to have another chance at getting past you guys. Third time lucky for England maybe? (especially with penalty-saving-machine Ricardo no longer playing)

Re: Micky Owen – He’s not fit and he’s not in any sort of form. But even if he was, I’m 99% sure that Capello would still start Heskey. Capello likes the idea of having a big target man for Rooney to play behind, and there’s no way Owen can do that job.

@diana, Capello called up Bolton’s Gary Cahill to replace Rio late last week. But my guess is that Matty Upson will keep his place and play alongside JT vs Andorra.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Also Sol,

If Netherlands are now beating England at cricket…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6441391.ece
…then I think you guys should let us win at football in August.

Just so we can retain some pride in at least one of our national sports teams this summer.
Sol

Next up, snooker?

It’s that BBC channel you know, every sport you guys show on BBC 1 or 2 is shown on Dutch television, that’s why so many people got into Darts as well.

It’s in our standard cable package.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

I didn’t know BBC1 and 2 were shown in the Netherlands Sol, that’s a pretty sweet deal.

Now I’m thinking we should get Nederland 1, 2 and 3 in return!
http://littlemissdiana.blogspot.com diana

Daryl, thanks for the reply. I must have a short memory to forget Capello had already called up Gary Cahill…
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

I think Fabio also forgot that he’d called Cahill up! Poor fella didn’t get a kick (unless you count his little spat with Gary Barry)