retired_acivin

Very creative!
I will definitely be keeping my eyes on this piece :thup:

And I had a question, if you can answer:
The league table that you have shown in a couple of posts above, did you have to write that all down or did you just 'print screen' it?

retired_venomm

Hi prince_capri, thanks for the support, glad you're enjoying it!

Yeah I had to write the league table out - I wish the 'print to: file' option was still in the game, that would have made it so much easier.

I did it in notepad as that works in the same was as the 'code' feature does on here - every letter takes up the same amount of space and they align perfectly, so you can see what you are getting before you post it and know it looks neat. It takes a while to do it the first time, but if you save your table - the next time you want to do one you just change the values and you don't have to space things out again.

If you want to use it and it will save you time, feel free to press quote and copy and paste the table out into notepad for your own use

retired_venomm

3rd September, 2008 – England v Azerbaijan – Before the game

Not much had happened between my appointment as England manager and today’s game, everything seemed to be slightly more relaxed than club management, the heightened expectations cancel that out though. Athletic Bilbao had appointed a new manager on July 13th, Pepe Bordalas had taken over after leaving Alicante. From what I have heard he seems the ideal man for the job, a good motivator, a wealth of tactical knowledge and disciplined enough to keep the players in line. I’ve been keeping an eye on how they’ve been getting on, so far this season they are in 11th place, they’ve only played 2 games though, winning one against Espanyol and losing to Sevilla. I’m glad he won his first game in charge, it will give him the extra confidence he needs.

Several awards have been handed out to players, Iker Casillas got the European Goalkeeper of the Year, Rafinha got Defender of the Year, Thomas Kahlenberg Midfielder of the Year and David Villa Striker of the Year. The only really surprising one for me on this list was Thomas Kahlenberg beating Francesco Totti to European Midfielder of the Year. Totti seemed to have had a fantastic season from what I had heard, other than losing in the European Championship Final to Holland that is. Still, fair play to all the winners, they deserved it for the work they had put in.

The English season had started, it was great being in England again and being able to see games at the expense of someone else in the name of scouting. Liverpool had beaten Chelsea to the Community Shield, 1-0 the score had been. Chelsea were already 2 points clear at the top of the Premiership though after 3 games - winning them all. Arsenal had also somewhat surprisingly beaten Milan in the European Super Cup Final, 2-1 the score had been. Milan had lost 2 of their first choice players in the first half through injury though which seemed to have made a significant influence to the final score. 18,510 people had shown up to see that game, leaving only 14 free seats in the Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco for that game. The atmosphere had been brilliant and I was glad to see that the English team had won. well, I say English – not one Englishman had been included in the entire Arsenal squad for the game. I’m not one to kick up a fuss about this sort of thing, but it’s a shame that some English teams had started solely relying on foreigners to win things.

I named my first England squad a few days ago, which was exciting. I wanted to really make a strong impact and had tried to include only first rate players, nobody that wasn’t playing regular first team football at their respective club. I had come up with this squad for my first game in charge:

Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson, Chris Kirkland
Defenders: Jonathan Woodgate, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville, Wayne Bridge, Gareth Barry, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ledley King, Ashley Cole
Midfielders: Joey Barton, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Aaron Lennon, Gary O’Neil, Frank Lampard
Attackers: Wayne Rooney, Dean Ashton, Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Andrew Johnson

I was extremely pleased with my squad, we looked like we were strong in all positions. Well almost all positions, I didn’t have natural cover for Gary Neville, I had been planning on including Micah Richards in the squad as a potential cover right back but he had picked up an injury playing in the league last week so he was out of the picture. The only player in there that had been a surprise to the media had been Gary O’Neil, but he had been in very good form for Portsmouth lately, and in my opinion, merited his place in the squad.

I already knew the starting line up that I wanted to play and I had let the players know. I was going to use the rather unpopular 4-5-1 formation, but with a different approach. I had a flat 4 in midfield with an attacking midfielder in front - supporting our lone striker. It was the only way I could think of fitting all the players I wanted to include into the starting line up. My formation looked something like this:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Rooney LampardJ.Cole Hargreaves Gerrard Lennon A.Cole Ferdinand Terry Neville Robinson</pre>

The plan was to attack as a 4-5-1, using Lennon and Cole in wide areas, Lampard making runs into the box, Gerrard making runs to the edge of the area and Hargreaves sitting back in midfield - never really coming forward. When we didn’t have the ball I wanted the shape to look more like a diamond, Hargreaves as a defensive midfielder, Gerrard in the centre and Lampard staying where he is behind Rooney. This was so we could simply crowd them out in the middle of the park and know that there would always be several players in front of ours to start an attack. Lampard and Rooney had been given instructions to try and hold up the ball wherever possible and bring as many other players into the game as they could, our midfielders are a good source of goals domestically and I wanted to take advantage of it to make up for our lack of a second striker.

I felt well prepared, especially considering the poor standard of the opposition. I was quietly confident that we should be winning this match and I couldn’t wait for it to begin!

retired_venomm

3rd September, 2008 - England v Azerbaijan

Following the England team out of the tunnel at Wembley was like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life. The cheers as Gary Neville (my chosen captain as he was the most capped player in the side) lead the side onto the pitch, the amazing visuals as the end of the tunnel opens up and reveals the humungous stage that is Wembley Stadium and the near full to capacity crowd singing along to the 3 Lions - Football's Coming Home song which was being played across the loud speakers. I made my way to the dugouts, I can’t remember hearing any slurring from the fans, I expected there to be some in my first game in charge, but nothing stood out, nothing audible anyway. I had worn a nice black suit with a white shirt, as well as a navy blue sparkly tie I had spotted in a shop yesterday, it was smart and had a nice little message running down it vertically in white letters saying ‘I Love England’. It was corny, but I didn’t care, I like that sort of thing. It was only my second visit to Wembley, the first being the Community Shield last month, but I was already in love with the place.

The game kicked off and the roar of what was later confirmed to be 85,571 supporters was deafening. Somehow a stadium with just over twice the amount of people in it than what I was used at Athletic Bilbao seemed to be making more than ten times the noise. I felt more like a supporter than the manager, the realism of me being in charge of England still hadn’t fully sunken in.

We created a chance only 2 minutes into the game, Ashley Cole had made a great supporting run to the edge of the penalty area, lifted a cross into the danger zone and their defenders were all over the place. Somehow between them they managed to scramble the ball away, nearly right off the goal line, causing themselves problems as we didn’t even have a player near the ball while they were panicking and passing the ball around dangerously in their own box. It was just the start I had wanted, push them back into their own area with the intention of keeping them in there for the whole game. Almost right after, Wayne Rooney thought he had gone clean through after John Terry’s long ball up field fell at his feet. If it wasn’t for a fantastic tackle from Vidadi Amirbayov, he probably would have gone on to score. We had been playing for 4 minutes and ripped them apart twice, the crowd roared in encouragement, demanding an early goal.

We eventually calmed the nerves in the 17th minute when we finally took the lead. We had managed an unbelievable 7 shots on goal already by that point. Ashley Cole, once again coming forward well, played the ball to Frank Lampard who was around 40 yards from goal. He waited until 2 defenders closed him down before playing it left to Hargreaves, who was much further forward than I wanted him to be. Hargreaves played a clever one-two with Rooney on the edge of the box before playing the ball to his right looking for Lampard who was waiting at the edge of the penalty area. Lampard hit it first time, the sheer power of the shot made it un-saveable, it was right down the middle but simply caught the goalkeeper by surprise and he had no chance of stopping it finding the back of the net. All 10 of the out field players chased Lampard to the corner flag, he slid all the way up to it on his knees to the rampant ecstasy of the supporters at that end of the ground, they were sounding more relieved that we had a goal than surprised.

The second goal wouldn’t arrive until after half time amazingly. I had fears that the pundits on TV would probably be making their usual unimpressed stabs at the team for not taking their chances, but in truth, I knew there was more to come, it was just a matter of when. The 51st minute saw Owen Hargreaves pick up a misplaced pass and clear it forward to Frank Lampard. Fantastic, I just wanted him to hold the ball there until we had a couple of players to support him as Azerbaijan looked woefully short of numbers at the back. Instead, he picked the ball up in the centre circle and turned to face goal. He had space in front of him, a lot of it, and he wasn’t being closed down, the obvious thing to do was to carry the ball forward. He took it past Bahshiev and continued his advance, he was on the edge of the penalty area by the time their defenders had got near to him, and he wasn’t going to give them any chance of making a tackle. He hit the ball from just inside the area, low to the goalkeepers right and it found its way in off the far post. What a run! I didn’t know he had it in him, he was really giving an impressive performance today and I was delighted with his effort. The team was being totally dominant in midfield and I felt happy that the old 'Gerrand and Lampard in the same team can’t work' theory was being blown to pieces here. We were creating chances for fun!

I was happy, convinced we had the match in the bag and decided to make my three substitutions on the 72nd minute. Michael Carrick replaced Steven Gerrard, who had been working tirelessly in the middle of the park, Gareth Barry came on for Joe Cole who was starting to look a little tired, and Darren Bent came on to gain his 7th cap in place of Wayne Rooney who had never really got going in the match. I can’t remember anything he was really involved with.

Frank Lampard was once again terrorising the Azerbaijan defenders, they eventually lost their discipline and brought him down. It was a nasty tackle, but I was somewhat surprised to see referee Carlos Megia Davila produce a red card for Sattar Sariev. It was a pretty harsh decision and my players patted him on the back of the head on his way off, feeling sorry for the lad. The resulting freekick would be the starting point of our third and final goal today. Michael Carrick put the ball on the ground and threaded his pass through right after taking his hand off the ball, it was a brilliant vision, he had put Darren Bent clean through on goal, only the keeper to beat to get his first international goal. Come on! I was off my seat, praying he would get off the mark. I thought he was going to go round the keeper, but he thought better of it and coolly slotted the ball through his legs and wheeled away in celebration, jumping over the advertising board and into the supporters behind the goal. Everyone was delighted for the boy and he disappeared into the arms of the fans before being pulled back by the stewards, the referee was giving him a talking to but he didn't seem to care, he was just delighted to be on the score sheet.

After the match, I put the tiny TV in the dressing room on for a few minutes to see what the guys in the studio were saying. Apparently we had managed a staggering 21 shots on goal today - Azerbaijan had only managed 1 (and I couldn't remember it), the only thing they seemed to be pulling us up on was for not converting more of chances into goals. There was a positive mood around the players and in the studio. I turned the TV off and smiled before leaving the players to do whatever they usually do to warm down in the dressing room. We had won my first game in charge. I got some news from the FA afterwards, congratulating the team on the victory, also informing me that we had gone straight to the top of the group. The league table and other results looked like this:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">GROUP TABLE: RESULTSos Team P W D L F A GD Pts ENGLAND 3 v 0 Azerbaijan Latvia 3 v 0 Israel1st ENGLAND 1 1 0 0 3 0 +3 3 Switzerland 2 v 0 Kazakhstan2nd Latvia 1 1 0 0 3 0 +3 33rd Switzerland 1 1 0 0 2 0 +3 34th Kazakhstan 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 05th Azerbaijan 1 0 0 1 0 3 -3 06th Israel 1 0 0 1 0 3 -3 0</pre>

It had been the perfect start to my new job. I couldn’t have asked for more from my team and I really couldn’t wait until our next game, away against Kazakhstan on the 4th of October.

retired_venomm

4th October, 2008 - Kazakhstan v England

I had planned on keeping my first team as similar to the first match as I could, I am a firm believer that if an international team is to succeed, the players need to play together regularly, so I wasn’t going to change players around unless I felt it was totally necessary. I had however been forced into leaving out Rio Ferdinand, who had picked up a shoulder injury playing for Manchester United. It was a blow, but I was confident that Jamie Carragher could fit in seamlessly into our system. The squad I picked for the 2 games I had coming up in quick succession, today and on the 8th, had been vastly different from the one I picked for my first game in charge. I wanted to get a few younger and less experienced players at this level in so they could be part of it, and maybe run them out in the friendly we had coming up in November to see how they performed on the big stage. The squad for my next 2 games looked like this:

Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson, Chris Kirkland, Steve Simonson
Defenders: Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville, Wayne Bridge, Gareth Barry, Curtis Davies, Michael Dawson, John Terry, Ashley Cole
Midfielders: Owen Hargreaves, Tom Huddlestone, David Beckham, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Frank Lampard
Attackers: Wayne Rooney, Dean Ashton, Peter Crouch, Jemain Defoe, Michael Owen

I was happy with the way my team had played in the first game and I stuck to the same formation for this one. The only 2 changes to the starting line up were Jamie Carragher coming in for the injured Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham replacing Aaron Lennon on the right hand side. I liked Aaron Lennon, but David Beckham provides stability with his experience and can guarantee you chances from set pieces, which I considered to be a huge requirement when playing games away from home.

It took us 22 minutes to get in front today. The Kazakhstan defenders were casually playing the ball around between themselves when Wayne Rooney decided that he had had enough. He stormed in and luckily got the slightest of flicks on one of the passes, just enough to push the ball in front of him and into the open field behind the defenders, he was through. He dropped his shoulder twice while approaching the goalkeeper and eventually went round him to his left hand side, the keeper was in no mans land and totally confused by the dummies Rooney had sold him. Needless to say, he slotted it into the empty net without any hesitation.

My decision to start David Beckham seemed to be paying dividends already. He was spraying passes around beautifully and soon found himself on the score sheet. Rooney this time turned provider, picking the ball up just inside the Kazakhstan half and floated a ball over the top to the right hand side of the penalty area, a pass not dissimilar to style of the man who was on the end of it. Beckham took one touch to control the ball and smashed it into the top corner at the near post with his world famous right foot. It was a fantastic finish and a brilliant pass to set it up from Rooney. We seemed to really be on form here today.

We were brought back down to earth in the 41st minute. Kazakhstan were putting together their first decent spell of passing in the match, and they got themselves an unexpected goal from it. Galnullin found himself on the left edge of our area and floated a cross into the 6 yard box, Alexandr Pak got himself on the end of it and rifled a shot that was so powerful that it just hit Robinson and dribbled across the line before he even had chance to think about making a save. It got the home fans going and I think it made a few of our players nervous. Luckily we sorted it out in the half time team talk while getting our lads fired up and ready for the second half.

We scored right after the break, Gary Neville played a high freekick from deep into the box and Stevie Gerrard got up well to head past the goalkeeper to extend out lead to 3-1. The celebrations were dulled down a little by what looked like a worrying injury to Wayne Rooney who was hunched up on the floor breathing rather heavily, he had gone down in the box as the ball was coming across and had to be substituted off. It gave Michael Owen a chance to get back into the international scene, and he was joined on the field by Wayne Bridge and James Milner who I brought on to replace Joe Cole and Frank Lampard respectively, who were both looking like they were a little puffed out.

The game finished 3-1, it was a good result but our fears were confirmed after the match when Wayne Rooney was diagnosed with fractured ribs, an injury that would keep him out of our next game and probably around a month of club football. However, on the positive side, we had won both of our 2 opening matches and felt confident going into our next game which was away against Switzerland, the match which would probably the be the toughest we would have to face in the group stages.

retired_venomm

8th October, 2008 - Switzerland v England

It would be very false of me to say that I thought we were going to win here today. This was always going to be a difficult match, and one that I wanted to get out of the way as quickly as possible. I kept the line up exactly the same once again, the only change I made had been forced upon me by Wayne Rooney’s unfortunate injury on Saturday, Michael Owen would take his place as the lone striker in my team.

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when we found ourselves in front after only 28 seconds. Stevie Gerrard had got on the score sheet again, this time with a dreamy curling shot from around 35 yards out, I’m not sure if that is an exaggeration or not but it was way outside the penalty area and it just flew in. It was hilarious watching the replays on TV, the camera had flicked over to the dugout where we were all standing and you could see nearly everyone say ‘wow’ all at the same time, haha. It was a brilliant goal though.

The match was to be a scrappy one and quite a tough one too. As I had expected, Switzerland were leagues ahead of our 2 previous oppositions. They got an equaliser on 35minutes, their supporters going absolutely wild when the ball hit the back of the net. Barnetta drilled a low cross along the floor and Degen just helped the ball on with a glancing header, beyond Paul Robinson but inside the far post. I have no idea what happened but there was only Ashley Cole in the area when the ball came across, all 3 of my other defenders were out of position and we were punished, deservedly so. It was a terrible goal to concede, down to nothing but sloppyness.

Owen Hargreaves got us back in front only seconds before half time. It was the perfect time to score, totally changing their managers team talk and shattering their confidence while elevating ours way beyond where it should have been. Joe Cole had the ball inside the Swiss half and ran towards the by-line on the left hand side. He had space and time to measure his cross, which he made a mess of really, it was an easy headed clearance for Philippe Sendersos. The ball came out to Owen Hargreaves who controlled the ball perfectly on his knee, pushing it far enough in front of himself to get a run up to really hit the ball hard, and he volleyed it unstoppably into the top left corner, out of the keepers reach. It was a rare goal for Hargreaves, his first ever for England and it had been a beauty. He ran to his team mates, jumped, thumping the air as he did and raised his arms aloft while everyone piled in to congratulate him.

It would be the goal that won us the match. The game was extremely even and well balanced in the second half, so much so that the amount of chances created were limited to long shots that never threatened either goalkeeper. We had exceeded my expectations really today, I had come here aiming for a draw, knowing that this fixture could be a banana skin, but we had pulled a win out of the bag. It was 3 out of 3 and a 100% record so far in the group, things are looking great for England!

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">GROUP TABLE: RESULTS: 4th October, 2008Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts Azerbaijan 0 v 0 Latvia Israel 2 v 1 Switzerland1st ENGLAND 3 3 0 0 8 2 +6 9 Kazakhstan 1 v 3 ENGLAND2nd Israel 3 2 0 1 5 4 +1 63rd Latvia 3 1 2 0 4 1 +3 5 8th October, 20084th Switzerland 3 1 0 2 4 4 0 3 Israel 3 v 0 Azerbaijan5th Kazakhstan 3 0 1 2 2 6 -4 1 Latvia 1 v 1 Kazakhstan6th Azerbaijan 3 0 1 2 0 6 -6 1 Switzerland 1 v 2 ENGLAND</pre>

retired_venomm

20th March, 2009

It has been a long time since our last competitive match and I had been watching no end of Premiership matches, English football really is something else - extremely entertaining stuff. I had been to Spain a couple of times aswell to see Athletic Bilbao play, just to see how they are getting on under the new management. It seems they have been doing extremely well! They are currently occupying 4th place in La Liga, far beyond anything that I would have predicted for this season. Fair play to the new guy in charge for pulling the team together like he has, it looks like they could be heading for European football next season, and that really is a fantastic achievement for the club.

Adriano of Milan (formally of Inter) picked up the World Footballer of the year not long ago, a prize that anybody would love to get, I haven't seen much of his game as I have yet to visit Italy but he's obviously been doing something right! David Villa had won the European Footballer of the Year award, which really didn’t surprise me. His partnership with new Valencia striker Carlos Tevez was really giving teams the run around in Spain and it was right that those 2 players had come first and second in the award, they had both been nothing short of spectacular.

The League Cup Final has come and gone, surprisingly Manchester United and Liverpool had both got all the way through to the last stage, despite constantly fielding sides that were a long way short of full strength. They both put out their best possible sides for this match though, and I’m sad to say that Liverpool had walked away victorious, 1-0 the score had been. The game itself had been far more entertaining than the score had suggested, but it was still a knife to the heart of any Manchester United fan to lose to Liverpool in a final – I was no exception, I was truly gutted.

We have played a couple of friendly matches since our previous World Cup Qualifier, I had used the opportunity to field a few players that were on the fringes of my squad, just to see how they got on and how good my cover players actually were at international level. Caps went to Ledley King, Aaron Lennon, Stewart Downing, Peter Crouch, Jonathan Woodgate, Paul Anderson, Darren Bent, Scott Carson, Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Dean Ashton and Luke Moore. All players that I don’t consider to be starters for my current side.

The first match against Bulgaria at Wembley had been a fairly easy one, we walked away 2-0 winners, goals from Stevie Gerrard and Darren Bent seeing us through. The second friendly in February however was a different story. We got totally outplayed by Romania and ended up losing 3-1, Gareth Barry getting the goal for us. It was my first taste of defeat for the national side and I was extremely pleased that it had only come in a friendly match. Although it had put an end to my 100% record, I was pleased to have fielded a few of the back up players, even given some of the lads their first international caps. They had all done their part and most of them had looked pretty solid, especially Scott Carson in goal. He had a fantastic game against Romania, the goals were more down to defensive lapses than goalkeeping errors, he really had been on top form, they could have easily scored 7 or 8 the way they had been playing. I have to say that I really think he could be the next number 1 for England after this performance. He looked very reliable and not at all phased by the occasion.

He won’t be getting a chance tomorrow though, it’s back to the usual strong 11 for my second competitive game at Wembley. We are playing Latvia, who the media seem to think we are going to steamroller. In truth, we should be beating them fairly convincingly, but this is the sort of game that can go horribly wrong if you take it too much for granted. Another win here would put us in a great position in the group.

retired_venomm

21st March, 2009 – England v Latvia

Once again Wembley was 5,000 fans short of maximum attendance, but the noise was still incredible. I don’t think I will ever get used to being a manager here, you feel so involved with the supporters.

The game had been hyped to up be an extremely easy win for us and the players seemed very confident, despite their slip up against Romania in our last friendly.

I was back to full strength today, with a couple of changes. Stevie Gerrard wasn’t fit to play the match so I decided to give Stuart Downing a start on the left, playing Joe Cole on the right and switch to a conventional 4-4-2. I’m not sure how the media received my tactical changes, but I didn’t really care anyway. It was the system that allowed us to play the best players we had that were fit and that is as good a reason to change formation as I could think of.

My starting line up was: Paul Robinson, Gary Neville (c), Ashley Cole, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Stewart Downing, Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney. I had a fairly inexperienced bench though, consisting of Scott Carson, Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Nigel Reo-Coker and Darren Bent. I wasn’t planning on using any of them until around the 70th minute however, hopefully the game would be well and truly wrapped up by then so there was no pressure on the guys when they came on.

By half time we were 2-0 up, both goals scored by Wayne Rooney. Joe Cole sent a cross into the box and Rooney used his pace to escape the defenders before heading the ball past the helpless keeper in the Latvian goal. We were 1 up after 25 minutes and I could physically see my side settle down. Rooney doubled our lead 5 minutes before half time. Ashley Cole saw him in space and took a quick throw in to the edge of the penalty area. Rooney wasn’t closed down and he hit a low shot early from around 12 yards out that went through 5 bodies, making it totally impossible for the goalkeeper to see before it was too late, and it drifted into the far right corner. The cheer around Wembley was a happy, but somewhat expected one, every goal was just entertainment today, the fans never really had the fear of losing in their minds.

After half time we totally controlled the game, having a staggering 61% of the possession, completing an amazing 79% of our attempted passes. I was thrilled by the confidence we were showing on the ball. I brought on Micah Richards to gain his first international cap, I needed to start introducing him to the team really as he seemed to be my natural long term replacement for Gary Neville who must be starting to consider international retirement soon. I also gave a first cap to Nigel Reo-Coker, replacing the tireless Owen Hargreaves in midfield, Darren Bent also came on to give Michael Owen a rest. The subs did extremely well, none of them put a foot wrong and they didn’t look out of place in the side. They didn’t do anything dramatic enough to make me want to start them in the next match but there were no horrendous errors, and that was always a positive thing to take away from your first international appearance.

We didn’t add to our total but we totally shut Latvia out, the only chances they created seemed to come from set pieces and our side was far taller than theirs so there was never really any competition in the box. It was a comfortable win, making it 4 out of 4 so far in our group.

The next match that I had to look forward to would be after the domestic leagues had finished, I was slightly worried that a few of the players would be a little tired following the run in. The game is a tricky one too, away in Israel.

retired_venomm

30th May, 2009 – Israel v England

By the time this match had come around, all the major domestic competitions had been completed. Arsenal had beat my beloved Manchester United to the Premiership title, winning the league by 2 points on the last day. Even if United had won their game, Arsenal would have still done them on goal difference. The FA Cup final would be United’s revenge though. Wayne Rooney scored twice, the second goal deep into extra time, which eventually saw Man Utd beat Arsenal 2-1. It was sweet revenge, but given the choice, United would no doubt have far preferred to win the league. The Champions League final had been between Roma and AC Milan, Milan had won the game, again in extra time thanks to a beautiful goal from the fantastic Brazilian Kaka. Amazingly Milan had been beaten to Serie A by 5 points by Sampdoria, who were expected to finish nowhere higher than mid table, it was a fantastic season for them. It had also been an unbelievable season for my former club Athletic Bilbao. They had managed to finish an incredible 2nd in La Liga, I couldn’t actually believe it. Only Barcelona had finished above them, and that was only by 1 point, it was a truly remarkable season for them and I was very pleased for them, also a little jealous too to be honest. It would have been nice to have that sort of glory when I was there. They would be playing Champions League football next season.

Injuries to Paul Robinson and Owen Hargreaves forced me into a couple of changes for the match today. I would start with Scott Carson in goal, who had impressed in our friendly against Romania, it was to be his second cap. Tom Huddlestone also picked up his first international start and his 5th cap. It was a monumental occasion for Gary Neville too, his 100th England appearance. I was delighted for him, what an achievement - he was still my captain too, playing top quality football and still had a fair lick of pace even at the age of 34.

The match was a close one all the way through, the shot count were very similar for both sides and possession was equal. The only difference between the 2 teams was that we had far better finishers in the ranks than they did, and it showed come the final whistle. Tom Huddlestone scored his first goal for his country on 40 minutes, it was an extremely simple goal, a corner swung in from Stuart Downing, right on the money and a simple header past the keeper. Huddlestone had a fantastic game and would be rewarded for it by being Man of the Match in his first international start.

We had a second goal only 1 minute later, we caught them still trying to recover from conceding the first. Peter Crouch (who I was only playing as I thought Michael Owen didn't look fully fit, I would replace him later though) got the ball in a wide position, he wasn’t closed down and he played the ball across the area at some speed, and the chance was converted by Wayne Rooney who slid in at the near post before the keeper could get down for it. 2 goals right before the break had given us a buzz and put us in a great position, far better than I had expected coming into the game.

We rubbed salt into the wounds in the 90th minute of the match, once again the ball came across from a set piece and was headed in, this time by Steven Gerrard. 3-0 was really flattering us, but we weren’t even finished yet. There was just enough time for 1 more chance, Gerrard played a high ball over the top, putting it on a six pence leaving Michael Owen with nothing to do but beat the goalkeeper, which he did effortlessly.

I was stunned by the final score, I really was. We had been matched in all areas of the pitch and somehow come away with a 4-0 win. It’s so true that this game is about taking your chances, we had 5 really good chances in the game and we converted 4 of them, it was lethal finishing of the highest standard.

Scott Carson had been phenomenal once again in goal for us, he kept out the 6 shots that Israel had on target and looked like he was in full control of his area. I was so happy with his performance that even if Paul Robinson was fit for our game on Wednesday against Azerbaijan, Scott Carson would be starting. He is an unbelievable talent for a 23 year old and fully deserving of the number 1 shirt.

retired_venomm

3rd June, 2009 – Azerbaijan v England

I decided to keep a totally unchanged side for this match as I had been so happy with the way the team had played in Israel. My starting line up would once again be: Scott Carson, Gary Neville (c), Ashley Cole, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Steward Downing, Frank Lampard, Tom Huddlestone, Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch. I had Paul Robinson on the bench, who had recovered in time to be announced fit to play but kept out of the side by the in form Carson. He was joined on the bench by Jamie Carragher, Kevin Nolan, Darren Bent, Leighton Baines, Aaron Lennon and Michael Owen.

The game today was laughable really, it was so easy for us. Azerbaijan didn’t have any quality what so ever and their 34,881 supporters had turned up to see quite a battering for their side. We were 1-0 up in the first minute, Rooney scored a carbon copy of the goal he got against Israel, Peter Crouch once against drilled the ball across low and hard and Rooney slid in at the near post. If I had been watching it on TV I would have been totally convinced that it was a replay from the previous game rather than the start of the current one, that’s how similar the goal was.

Peter Crouch scored one of his own in the 19th minute. Gary Neville found him with a nice ball to the edge of the area, he took it in his stride and slid it under the approaching goalkeeper, right into the centre of the goal. It was all too easy, and right on half time it was to get even easier. Samir Guliev said something that isn’t repeatable to the referee, followed by a shove to the chest of Steven Gerrard which saw him pick up a red card to add to Azerbaijan’s woes. It was half time, they were 2-0 down and a man short against a team that was far higher than them in the world rankings, it wasn’t looking good.

The third goal came 3 minutes after the restart, Tom Huddlestone won us a freekick around 10 yards from the edge of the penalty area. Stewart Downing put the ball down and hit a left footed screamer to the top right corner of the goal, going over the top of the wall rather than around it like the goalkeeper seemed to be expecting. It was his 5th goal for England and I don’t think he’s going to score many better than that.

We finished our scoring binge in the 53rd minute, there was some nice link up play between Lampard and Huddlestone, who played the ball out to the right side, Stuart Downing picked it up and floated a beautiful ball into the area, just far enough away from the goalkeeper to keep it out of his reach but near enough to make him want to try and get it. The ball went beyond him and hit a rather surprised looking Wayne Rooney on the thigh and just trickled across the line. It was a bizarre goal, but they all count, we were 4-0 up for the second match running.

We became lazy after that and just started playing the ball around to kill time, we didn’t really create any more clear cut chances, which was a shame as we could easily have got into double figures the way were playing today. Still it was yet another win and we still had a perfect record in group 4.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">GROUP TABLE: RESULTS: 21st March, 2009Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts Azerbaijan 1 v 0 Switzerland ENGLAND 2 v 0 Latvia1st ENGLAND 6 6 0 0 18 2 +16 18 Kazakhstan 1 v 1 Israel2nd Israel 6 3 1 2 9 9 0 103rd Azerbaijan 6 2 1 3 4 10 -6 7 30th May, 20094th Switzerland 6 2 1 3 7 6 +1 7 Azerbaijan 3 v 0 Kazakhstan5th Latvia 6 1 2 3 4 8 -4 5 Israel 0 v 4 ENGLAND6th Kazakhstan 6 0 3 3 4 11 -7 3 Latvia 0 v 2 Switzerland 3rd June, 2009 Azerbaijan 0 v 4 ENGLAND Israel 3 v 0 Latvia Kazakhstan 1 v 1 Switzerland</pre>

We were well clear and looking safe, I couldn’t have asked to be in a better position than we currently were. If we didn’t qualify from here then I’d happily eat my hat. I was pleased to say that the players would now get a well earned break as we didn't have another game until the 29th of August, after the new season had started. They all looked a little fatigued having to play twice right after the emotional end to the league season and would all certainly welcome the rest.