By Myles Palmer
Under-21 keeper Stuart Taylor made six good saves against the Germans on Friday night.
And then sub Francis Jeffers scored the winner in the 90th minute.Good movement, good skill, great finish.I hope he can get into the Arsenal side soon.
David Seaman made one save from left wingback Bohme, and he looked a lot more confident after that as England took the game over and won 5-1, a mind-boggling score.
Sol Campbell is a good stopper whose England form is well below what it was in France 98. He can improve his form and his passing. I doubt if he will improve his reading of the game. We shall see as the season goes on.
Ashley Cole is a vibrant, brave novice who is doing very well, despite a few rash moments. He must pick his tackles a bit better in future. And find a man with those crosses.
The bookies laid odds of 40-1 on England winning 3-1 but, it’s said, did not offer odds on a 5-1 victory. I heard the odds were 100-1.
A 5-1 win was off the radar screen. Nobody could see it, talk about it, or bet on it because it was too far-fetched. It was science fiction.
The Sun did about 20 pages on the game today.That rightly celebrated something unique but it also seemed, somehow, to express the disbelief of the football nation.
IT’S AS IF WE HAVE TO KEEP SEEING THE GOALS AND KEEP SEEING THE SCOREBOARD AND KEEP READING ABOUT IT BEFORE WE WILL REALLY BELIEVE THAT WE BEAT GERMANY 5-1 IN MUNICH !!!!
We could have been 3-1 down before Gerrard scored, but then Michael Owen scored his first hat-trick for England.
September 3rd 2001.
PS. I should mention that my book about Arsene Wenger is published on Thursday.
Virgin tell me that Sportspages are stocking 50 copies.
And I’m on Talksport with Richard Kaufman on Tuesday afternoon about 1.45 pm.
Will do a piece here on Wednesday or Thursday explaining what is in the book.
If you can’t wait for that, Amazon have the details and the list of chapters.
ANR readers who know my stuff and see the chapter titles will have a pretty good idea what kind of book it is.