Two is company and three is Crouch

(Guest blogger Raam Shanker was at Old Trafford to watch England effectively dismantling Jamaica. Here he gives us his views on the way the match went.)

A day to remember for everyone associated with English football, for more than one reason. It was Sven Goran Eriksson’s last home game as manager of the national team, it was England’s last friendly before they depart to Germany for the big one and most importantly a hattrick for the Robo-Kop saw England pulverize a hapless Jamaica 6-0. To cut a long story short, a sun kissed Saturday afternoon and twenty-five pounds well spent.

Now the long story. First things first. Sven choosing the 4-4-2, a favorite of almost every manager. This is how it looked like. Jamie Carragher taking Gary Neville’s place. Terry and Ferdinand manning the central defence and Ashley Cole at the left. Midfield saw from left to right, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham lining up one next to another. Up front, surprise, surprise as the lanky Peter Crouch gets to start alongside Michael Owen.

Playing an opposition like Jamaica, goalmouth action was waiting to happen and it did, with Lampard smoothly finishing as early as the 11th minute. A booking for his tackle on Lampard and an own goal off Beckham’s free-kick in the 17th minute saw the culmination of a disastrous 10 minutes for Jamaican defender Jermaine Taylor.

Having gone 2-0 up, one would have expected England to relax and enjoy the sunshine, but no. They kept the pressure on and if this is what can be expected of them in Germany, their opponents better watch out. Ricketts denies further advances by England, but for how long, is the question. Answer? Not for long as Robo-Crouch nets his first of the day from a Beckham corner. Jamaica have not yet recovered and oops! There blips Michael Owen on their radar, going round the goalkeeper and slotting the ball into, obviously an empty net! 32 minutes into the game and the score sheets read 4-0 in favour of England. I almost lost my voice and went deaf sitting at the North Stand doing the occasional Mexican wave. Something told me there was more to come. And it did!

A slight concern for Sven as Terry and Ashley Cole have to be replaced by Sol Campbell and Wayne Bridge respectively. Nothing major, just a preventive measure. Jamaica did have their share of chances with Jason Euell being denied by Robinson as early as the 22nd minute and Shelton miscuing the ball on a couple of occasions. End of first half and England lead by 4 goals to nil.

Time for some match day statistics and thanks giving for Sven on his last home game. We learnt that there were around 70,259 of us at Old Trafford today and it was pretty loud!

David James came on for Paul Robinson and a couple of minutes into the second half, Jamaica made changes, not that it would help their cause but hey if England were doing it, why not them. Lampard is again the victim of a tackle gone wrong and it results in the second yellow card of the day, this time to Crawford. I must mention Jamie Carragher who was on a rampage during the game and did make his presence felt on quite a few occasions. Joe Cole wants a slice of action but targets the jubilant crowd. Oh and within a minute of this, Carragher is back, and denies Jamaica, making the day easy for the keepers.

Minute 63, Joe Cole and Peter Crouch cook up a chance but it is dealt with and a goal kick is the result. But you can’t keep a tall man down for long can you? Well his name is Crouch and that’s where it ends. He stands up and walks tall, for he has his reasons. Minute 65 and Crouchy poaches one from point blank range making it 5 for England. Time to do the crouch as Old Trafford goes berserk, but the game is far from over.

A minute later Carrick replaces Beckham and Lennon, on his senior debut, comes in for Lampard. Nothing much to talk about in the next 10 minutes. Now we have an England substitution sandwiched between two Jamaican substitutions. Bennet for Fuller, Downing for Gerrard and Stephenson for Euell. Action again as Owen is fouled in the area and, penalty! And more noise from the crowd.

Up steps Robo-Kop as he is favouritely called. Can Crouch complete his hat-trick? Silence echoes throughout Old Trafford as we all hold our breath. Then, Crouch chips the ball and it goes on and on and on till it finally lands in the crowd. So much for the silence and he is an instant villain in the very eyes of the people who drooled over his goals a few minutes ago. Such is the game and such is life. Things happen and one has to move on in both.

Move on he does, and he does it in style as he completes his hat-trick a minute before stoppage time by splendidly finishing Owen’s layoff. He has redeemed himself and is hero again! After an eventless 3 minutes of stoppage time the score at the final whistle reads England 6 – Jamaica 0.

The day was almost flawless, but a few questions need to be answered. The 4-4-2 worked like a dream. But where does Gary Neville go? True he was resting his hamstring but today Carragher insisted, time and again that Sven needs to give him more attention. Should Peter Crouch take spot kicks? I am sure Sven has already answered this, but it still remains a lingering one. The big ones: Where does Rooney go? With Crouch proving himself and Rooney himself recovering from injury, is the gamble of playing Rooney worth the stakes? Can England’s performance be measured using the warm up games against Uruguay, Hungary and Jamaica as yardsticks? If they can, how reliable will our analyses turn out to be? Questions, questions and more questions. But the answers are out there. Time will tell and so will we, once time tells us. So keep watching this space for more.

(Raam Shanker is a diehard fan of football and Formula One. He strongly thinks this is England’s year to lift the trophy.)