Filed under: Football, England Football
Fabio Capello's luck held last week. A vapid and unbalanced England stumbled to a 2-2 draw with lively Switzerland at Wembley. A few hours later Montenegro, at home to a Bulgaria with no qualifying hope, could do no better than draw 1-1. Which means that though they have a home game to come against England in October, having drawn 0-0 so valiantly at Wembley. Their goal difference is so inferior to England that a draw would in all probability scrape England through to the finals. And they'll presumably have Wayne Rooney back in October.Against the Swiss, he was suspended, but had Capello shown a minimum of tactical sense, he need not have been missed. What possessed him you wonder to keep both Ashley Young, his second half saviour, and Young's Aston Villa team mate, Stewart Downing, out of the starting line up, in favour, on the flanks, of two out of form wingers in the shape of Theo Walcott and the now mundane James Milner?
At half time, Capello belatedly changed the clumsy shape of his team. We were told it would be a 4-3-3 but, of course, it was nothing of the sort. Which Darren Bent, doomed to be guilty of the late, reckless miss of the match, booting right footed high over the Swiss bar, alone up front the uneasy pattern was plainly 4-5-1.
Certainly though those two ghastly blunders by keeper Hart on Tranquillo Barnetta's inswinging free kicks - latest in an endless series of shocking errors by England's goalkeepers, exposed his team, it should be recalled that earlier on he had made no fewer than four saves as the Swiss attack cut through England's rocky defence time and again. Frankly, there isn't a valid English goalkeeper in sight - "calamity" James, Paul Robinson, Robert Green, Scott Carson have all had their fearful moments. But what of the falling off of central defenders Rio Ferdinand and John Terry?
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