By Myles Palmer
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England 2 Slovakia 1
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Janocko 31, Owen 61 pen, 73
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England were clueless in the first half but good in the second as Slovakia tired.
That game in Turkey took a lot out of Slovakia.
Janocko’s inswinging free-kick was one of those Zola specials that just cleared Upson’s head and bounced and flew past David James’s groping glove and hit the inside of the post and went in.
England were such a shambles that I was thinking : Without Rio,Sol and Becks, diamonds are for never.
Don’t play a diamond without your best players.
Slovakia could have been 3-1 up at half time.
But England got lucky and Sven did well to change it after 42, bringing on Hargreaves for Danny Mills and switching to 4-4-2 with Phil Neville at right back.
WAYNE ROONEY had a bad game because England were so abysmal in the first half.
Lampard on the left was like a fish up a tree and the whole team played like strangers.
England often play badly and score good goals but here they just played badly.
DARIUS VASSELL replaced Rooney after 57 and played very well as usual.
OWEN knocked the ball between two defenders and plunged forward and one of them stepped across him and took him out.
I thought he was looking for it, and would NOT have reached the ball- but it WAS a penalty.
OWEN dummied the keeper and rolled the ball in for 1-1 and after that England were always gonna win because the Slovaks were so fatigued.
Lampard had a goal disallowed for offside, wrongly, and then he missed with a free header from 12 yards.
GERRARD was awesome in the second half and clipped a perfect flat cross from the left for OWEN to head the winner on the night of his 50th cap.
ASHLEY COLE bombs forward much better in a 4-4-2 and he set up Owen for a stab which the keeper parried. Owen headed the rebound against the bar.
IF ENGLAND had gone 2-0 down, would they have won?Would they have drawn?
We will never know.
We only know that Macedonia away will be tough and Istanbul will be tougher.
It’s good that Rooney had his first bad game for England.
Its like his first red card for Everton.
It had to happen sometime. It’s like a badge of honour.It will do him no harm.
Every player has bad games for England.
I was out of order to write what I wrote this morning.
Rooney is a gifted kid who should be nurtured.
As my pal Rob Hughes pointed out last season, Zola is older than Rooney’s mum.
Or, to put it another way, Rooney is younger than my Caroline, who is 18 on Thursday.
She can drink legally now.
Rooney can’t yet drink legally.
Think of it that way. Think of the 17-year olds you know.
He is a talent, a prospect, an exciting footballer.
But people, like myself, get too carried away.
Wayne Rooney will have better games than Slovakia, and many of them.
I lost the plot this morning.And England lost the plot in the first half.
Luckily, Gerrard was gradually able to dominate the game and create the winning goal.
June 11th 2003