Can England take a 2-0 lead against Holland at 5pm tonight?
If they take their chances, yes.
A 100 m.p.h. start worked against Italy, when Lita and Nugent gave them a 2-0 lead, and against Serbia reserves, when Lita put them 1-0 up in five minutes.
Novice coach Stuart Pearce knows that tempo is a lethal weapon. And his team has seized the initiative in all their games so far, even though they drew the first two and only won the third against a weakened Serbia, who had already qualified.
Arsenal fans will want to see how Ryan Babel does against a back four of Hoyte, Taylor, Onuoha and Baines. And against a keeper as good as Scott Carson.
Babel is more direct than Pires, Hleb or Ljungberg. He likes to take up the sort of positions that Henry and Reyes take up but he can also play in the box. He is a friend of Robin van Persie and it's hard to imagine Babel and Henry playing together.
If Babel is coming, Henry is going.
England's Babel is Ashley Young, now back from suspension.The Villa winger has a big opportunity tonight.
Pearce's side drew 2-2 with Italy and that game showed the contrast between their stylish possession play and our high-energy pressing game, which usually produces missed chances, a couple of goals, and exhaustion in the last 20 minutes. This style is very old-fashioned and British, and while I enjoy a team that plays with gusto, it's not a style suitable for the 21st century
The Italians played a slower game and showed us how to make a run off a dribbler. Their striker, Pazzini, likes to wait and wait and wait and then make well-timed run onto a pass from a dribbler who has brought the ball forward and can see an opening. This way of playing requires more patience, more disguise, more artfulness, more variation. They keep the ball, so they don't have to win it back so often.
Our style under Stuart Pearce is a crash-bang-wallop game : be first to a 50-50 ball, knock it around, force mistakes, win second balls. Italy's game is :concentrate, keep the ball, ease up and down through the gears, wait for your chance to play somebody in for the shot that wins the match.
Apparently six English clubs are in for Holland's left winger Royston Drenthe, so he will want to shine just as much as Babel.
Referees have been harsh on England, dishing out yellow cards when a free-kick would have been enough. Huddlestone was sent off for swearing at the linesman in the 2-0 win over Serbia reserves.
Impossible to say whether Holland v England will be an exciting game or a tight game but it should be a good first half. On the form we've seen in the last week, England will be leading after half an hour and losing after an hour. But you never know. Our Under-21s are unbeaten in their last 12 games and football is a game of sequences.
ENGLAND (4-4-2) Carson; Hoyte, Taylor, Onuoha, Baines; Milner, Reo-Coker, Noble, Young; Lita, Nugent.
Subs from: Hart, Alnwick, Ferdinand, Cahill, Vaughan, Whittingham, Routledge, Derbyshire, Richardson, Rosenior.
HOLLAND (4-4-2) Waterman; Zuiverloon, Vlaar, Donk, Pieters; De Ridder, Maduro, Bakkal, Drenthe; Babel, Rigters.
Subs from: Kruiswijk, Jenner, Aissati, Bruins, Beerens, Schilder, Vermeer, Medunjanin, Jong-a-Pin, Janssen, Van der Struijk, Krul.
The referee is German Knut Kircher, who sent Huddlestone off.