Yep, pretty much exactly after which I tuned in. Sweden came more into the game [so the commentator said compared to the previous 20-25 mins] for the second part of the 1st half. Sweden were their equal then. In the 2nd half, whenever I looked at the screen, England were making faster, crisper passes but still making safe decisions, which weren't penetrating Sweden. The volley was pretty good. Personally, I think they play too safe. I'd much rather a team loses, by being outdone by very good football, having gone for it in a committed way than not created an impression. The worst thing is for a team never to have worried the opposition.
I saw a couple of moments. There was a header that he threw himself at and it went just past the post, to which the commentator said, Kane should have scored. I looked at it from the point of view that Kane made the chance possible by fully committing himself. Expecting him to tuck the chance away was asking a lot. Hopefully, you see the difference. He also provided a few low balls across the 6 yard box and cut backs which on-rushing players like Ings weren't able to finish off.
Thanks for the summary. He always looks a threat, but I'm yet to see him score a goal when watching him live, but Spurs have been pretty dire each time.
It would be churlish to deny that there has been something about Kane in the past season which has made him stand out from the crowd. He may have been on the hottest of hot streaks, where everything he touched went in, or he may be that £50M striker. A second PL season may well find him out or may set his reputation on a firmer footing. There's a couple of old sayings about strikers which I remember. One was from former Liverpool defender, Alan Hansen, who said of Michael Owen, when he'd missed a good chance, that the sign of a great striker was that he'd get another chance to score. Sentimental clap-trap in my opinion. The sign of a great striker is that he may only get one chance during a match, but he will make the most of it and score. I said that. Kane isn't there yet. That's the rare area of Aguero, Suarez, Muller, Rossi, etc..
I thought Kane was fairly invisible today. The diving header was about it. He didn't seem on the same pace as the game and looked a yard off everything. In mitigation he didn't get much service from the slow build up that TSS mentioned.
Talking on Sky about the problems with the artificial pitches at the Women's World Cup. They are trying to water them, but there are limits to how wet you can get an artificial surface. Apparently affecting the play and thereby, the number of goals. Don't know much about such pitches, but problems were predicted before the start. The difficulty was that Canada was the only one interested in putting the tournament on...large overheads with far lower gates than men's events. Perhaps the UK should put it on...we have masses of grass pitches and no problem with summer rain
Big game for the U21s against Italy tonight. Also, Marco Benassi, who was linked with us in the last few days, is playing in CM for the Italians. Number 15 for those interested.
Somebody needs to get down there and tell England that they will be out if they lose. Where is the urgency? Crikey.
I can't say that I'm disappointed to see this. I've been completely against the decision to not call up the likes of Sterling, Barkley and Chamberlain from day one. It's irrelevant that they've each played little or no part in the qualifying process. The FA and Southgate should have looked beyond that, and also stood up to the clubs. Time after time after time they don't seem to learn. Our starting XI really could have been something special. A chance to win the competition, to give them more tournament experience ahead of the Euro's next year, and a chance to build a bond and some real camaraderie between players who could go onto play together for years to come for the senior team. I suspect you can count on one hand how many of this U21 squad though will ever get more than about 10 caps for the senior team.
Caught napping for first and then unable to get over it quick enough to prevent the 2nd. A great shame as I thought we were in with a chance in this competition.
As soon as the squad was announced I wrote off our chances. It's ridiculous how many eligible players were left in England.
