We just want a run for our money.
That’s all we want in 2012.
A couple of decent performances and a victory with a bit of panache in the quarter-final.
We didn’t get that in South Africa. What we got was a shambles, a pitiful, annoying and humiliating failure.
That 4-1 thrashing from Germany was our worst result in any big tournament. But if Lampard\’s goal for 2-2 hadn\’t been wrongly disallowed, who knows?
We all admit Capello doesn’t have much to work with, but he’s now reshaped the squad.
Ashley Cole has lost a yard, so he should wise up and adapt, realise he can\’t do some of the things he did so well six years ago.
For me the England job now is the same as always : to create a team that\’s better than the sum of its parts. That’s easy to say but hard to do.
Bobby Robson gave us glorious failure in 1990 but it took him eight years to learn the job and we only looked penetrative after Gazza arrived.
Venables and Hoddle gave us respectable failure in 1996 and 1998.
Taylor and Keegan were utterly clueless in their Euros of 1992 and 2000.
Balance always eluded Sven but his teams, built on star matchwinners like Owen and Beckham, won 40 of 67 games.
We all accepted that we were quarter-finalists, not good enough to go further.
When Capello came I hoped the hard Italian could win the quarter-finals that the groupie Swede had always lost.
He still might but don\’t bet on it.
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England 1 Spain 0
Lampard 49
Captain Frank Lampard won his 90th cap and scored the only goal of this surprising friendly.
In seven game since Scott Parker\’s recall in February, England have won five and drawn two.
First half, Fabio Capello played a strangely experimental formation that didn\’t work.
He had Phil Jones stationed in front of Scott Parker and Lampard. With Walcott blinkered, and Bent far too isolated, England stuttered stupidly thorough a first 45 in which Spain parked eight players in the front third of the pitch.
This was an audacious new version of parking the bus: Spain parked the bus in front of our penalty area, not theirs.
When we got the ball, we couldn\’t keep it. Our lack of craftsmanship and support movement was the same as it\’s almost always been since 1982, when I started covering every England game at the old Wembley with Bobby Robson, although those aspects did improve under Venables and Hoddle.
Was Fabio trying to find a new way? Maybe. Was it working? Not in attack. Would he expect it to work immediately? No. Was Fabio learning anything? Only that he should never play Jones in midfield against a Latin team.
Walcott was shocking and shouldn\’t be in the England squad. He kept running right into defenders. Does any player do that as often as Walcott? His job is to NOT run into defenders.
Mata, Fabregas and Reina came on at half time, and Fabregas, playing with some swagger, looked likely to grab the late goal that would save the game for the world Spain.
Stewart Downing came on for Walcott at half-time and James Milner was resourceful enough to nick the ball off Arbeloa, and when chased by Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa, cute enough to win a free-kick on the left flank. Milner took the kick himself and hoisted it to the far post, where Darren Bent jumped above Sergio Ramos and sent a bouncing header against the post.
With Reina on the ground, Lampard followed up to score with a header from six inches.
England weren\’t good enough to get many chances, or even many free-kicks. But Milner made this one count and Bent, starved of the ball all night, showed the athleticism and concentration of a true predator. He got plenty of power on that header and was unlucky not to score. But it was a goal anyway.
So it was Engerland 1 Spain 0 with 40+ minutes to go.
Spain immediately raised their game, as you would expect, and looked more menacing, but the Jagielka-Lescott partnership was solid. John Terry wasn\’t missed.
Rodwell and Barry came on for Jones and Lampard, Fabregas picked up a yellow card for a rather wild barge on Jagielka, and Xabi Alonso, the best half back in football, showed his class with some pinpoint 40-yard passes to feet.
In 73, Glen Johnson miscued a defensive header to David Villa, who hit a left foot volley which bounced and hit the post.
In 89, a Fabregas shot went through the legs of Phil Jagielka, taking a slight deflection, but Joe Hart made a sharp save.
A draw looked a certainty as Fabregas, normally so reliable in front of goal, scuffed a left foot chance wide of the post.
Lucky England!
It was only a friendly but it was a win because England defended very well, even if they were using a 6-3-1 formation at times.
Apart from Lampard\’s 23rd England goal, the game didn\’t contain much that we\’ll remember.
Basically, the World Cup winners were cruising, England looked better after Walcott went off, Spain looked better after Fabregas came on, we grabbed the only goal of the game from a set-piece to secure a surprise victory that might push the crowd above 50,000 for the visit of Sweden on Tuesday night.
Saturday\’s crowd was 87,000.
ENGLAND (4-5-1): Hart; Glen Johnson, Jagielka, Lescott, Cole; Walcott (Downing, h-t), Jones (Rodwell, 56), Parker (Walker, 85), Lampard (Barry, 56), Milner (Adam Johnson, 76); Bent (Welbeck, 63).
SPAIN (4-3-3): Casillas (Reina, h-t); Arbeloa, Ramos (Puyol, 74), Pique, Alba; Busquets (Torres, 64), Xavi (Fabregas, h-t), Alonso; Silva (Mata, h-t), Villa, Iniesta (Cazorla, 74).
Referee : Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)