Abysmal England Held By USA

England were back in action in Qatar tonight and, on the day the hosts were the first team eliminated, they had the opportunity to become the first team to qualify for the knockout rounds.

All they had to do to achieve this glorious feat was defeat a USA team that had only managed to squeeze a draw out of Wales. The same Wales who would go on to doom their own prospects of qualifying from the group with a dismal loss to the Iran team that England destroyed 6-2 in their opening match. Easy right? If only…

Southgate went with an unchanged starting-11, which no-one could argue with after their awesome performance last time out. This time round though they entirely failed to turn-up. From kick-off the Americans were all over England, not just on the front foot but going for the jugular. The simplest passes, meat and drink to England in the last match, were now going awry with depressing regularity.

The USA jumped on every early mistake to build up a head of steam that England could do nought to destroy. Infact, the North Americans were so on top that it was only through a heaping helping of luck, dreadful finishing and a glorious save from Pickford that kept the game goalless going into half-time.

Not only did the States hit the bar with a rasping shot from the edge of the box, when no-one in England white made a move to close them down. They also had multiple chances to break the deadlock from both within and without of the area that would have worked as touchdowns in their national ‘football’ but not what was needed in this match thank goodness.

The most frustrating thing about England as the second half wore on was that nothing seemed to change, either in approach to the game or infuriatingly in personnel. Southgate appeared perfectly content to allow England’s abysmal show continue to its dire conclusion for much of the second half. He only dipped into his reserves after 20 minutes of the 2nd half had elapsed.

The changes he made were mystifying for a team trying desperately to gain a foothold in the match. Taking off Bellingham, star of the Iran victory, to replace him with Henderson, a far more defensive player, appeared wilfully perverse. If the intent was to free the rest of the midfield up to attack, whilst Hendo provided a screen for the defence, it failed miserably.

The attacking play of England lacked any direction or drive for much of the match, though it improved marginally after the introduction of both Grealish and Rashford to the front-line. America achieving 10 shots to England’s 8 over the course of the game tells the story of England’s attacking malaise, particularly given that 3 of those shots arrived after the 86th minute.

Perhaps the pressure of having the chance to qualify for the last-16 was behind this dreadful display or perhaps the lightning-fast turnaround from the Iran game contributed too. Whatever the reason they will need to be better against Wales on Tuesday if they want to top the group.

Having missed a golden opportunity to confirm qualification tonight England head into that game with the possibility of not making it past the group stage still on the table. Wales would have to beat us by 4 clear goals and then a win for either team in the other game on the final day sees them join Wales in the last-16.

Sure, it’s unlikely, but anything is possible if we play that badly again on Tuesday

Between now and that match I’m off to Wales to see how Ryan Reynold’s Wrexham get on against Farnborough in the FA Cup 2nd round. After tonight I’m looking forward to that game far more than I am the world cup showdown in 4 days’ time.

Come on England, fix up!!!