David Beckham equalised in the last minute. I can’t quite believe it.
We played dreadfully for practically all of the match: AWFUL layoffs, AWFUL passes, DIRE marking and PITIFUL defending. Most of the lads seemed to have no bloody confidence, or even awareness of where the ball ought to be going.
Luckily, Beckham never lost his confdence, and when Sheringham came on, he brought some self belief with him and scored about 6 seconds after being subbed on.
The Greeks played a blinder. If they hadn’t been playing us, I would have cheered them on. They deserved to win.
Beckham had several free kicks, and was very near to scoring with one at about the 75th minute (I’m going from memory here, excuse inaccuracies). In the 93rd minute, he blasts it in. A classic Beckham free kick.
Quote of the day, from Alan Hansen on the BBC Match of the
Day coverage: “I don’t like it when Ian Wright kisses me”
Beckhams goal was brilliant,
I nearly farted, fell off my chair, choked on my sandwich, and wet myself at the same time!!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ORGASMIC!!
the timing was just perfect, Beckham has the oppertunity off being the greatest of all time
I am a little worried that it took such a moment of genious so late in the game for us to beat the Greeks who had not won away throughout their campain.
Still with Beckham, Owen and Gerard we could do some serious damage at the world cup
Too right, casdave. We played like turd on toast. The passing was terrible, and we weren’t making enough effort to win the ball back. There was a tendency to faff about before making a pass, which gave the Greeks plenty of time to step in and win the ball. Forwards weren’t getting on the end of crosses and corner kicks. There was more than Owen missing from the game.
I think that the hoo-ha in the papers about Gerrard’s drinking early in the week had an effect on them.
I wonder what Sven is going to say/do about it. This sort of situation, where players lose confidence and don’t play together is a new test of his management.
Quote of the day for me was when Ian Wright said (referring to the possibility of having to play Ukraine) “Ten minutes from the end we thought we were going to have to go to that muggy gaff. Its freezing”.
The Greeks were very good but there’s no stopping those Beckham free-kicks.
I think England played as though they thought it would be a walkover and couldn’t change gear when that turned out not to be the case. I also think the Greeks were able to relax because they had nothing to lose.
At this risk of upsetting people, I also think that, apart from the winner, Beckham was also massively below par – almost all his dead ball kicks gave their defence no problems and his corners especially were rubbish. The one exception to this is that he was the only player in a white shirt prepared to chase after lost causes and rescue 50/50 balls from bad passes. That made him stick out from the rest.
This result also puts the German one in perspective, but I hope most of us realised that that was a freak. Crucially Sven didn’t seem fooled by the 5-1 scoreline.
Was it me or did that goalie look like George Clooney after a weekend on the sauce ?
Yep, we were dreadful. I’m going to get very worried if Sven doesn’t find a system of play soon – it’s no friggin good having a world-class (ish) midfield if they don’t know what the hell they’re supposed to be doing. Sometimes yesterday I thought Graham Taylor was back in charge. Headless chickens with the wings cut off. Jesus.
We must’ve been watching different games. I thought it was possibly, given the way the team was playing, one of his best ever performances. Their keeper was absolutely outstanding, catching everything in the air. He obviously doesn’t have a play station…
