6th July, 2010 – Brazil v England – Second Half
The players found their way into the dressing room. To be brutally honest, they looked tired and defeated – even though the score was still level at 0-0. Brazil had been outstanding in the first half and we were constantly chasing the ball and defending, it wasn't our fault, Brazil had just been beyond belief, totally unplayable. I sat the players down, handed out some water bottles and tried to motivate them. It was a hard task, they all looked as though they were listening, but not like they really knew how to deal with the information I was giving them – it felt much like how I would imagine it would be to try and teach algebra to pre-school children. I had to do something though, if we played the second half like we had the first, we were out. Simple as that.
I decided the only way I could inject some life into my team was to make changes, substitutions at half time was something I very rarely did throughout my career so far, but I was going to make two today. I brought on Stuart Downing to replace Owen Hargreaves, who had picked up a slight knock towards the end of the second half. Aaron Lennon would also get his chance, replacing Joe Cole, who hadn't really been in the game today. It meant I needed to do some reshuffling, Gerrard and Lampard would play in the centre of midfield, Lennon on the right and Downing down the left. It was a much more attacking looking side since taking Hargreaves off, my plan was once again to try and take the game to Brazil. Sitting back was just encouraging them to score, so I was changing my tactics for the third time in the match – again, something that is very unlike my usual self. I sent the players back out, hopefully feeling a little less sorry for themselves and tried to rally them up in the tunnel before clapping them onto the pitch for the second half.
We looked a changed side, we actually even managed a few shots early on. Steven Gerrard blasted an effort well wide, and Rooney hit one that was lucky to stay in the stadium, but at least we had created something and got a few shots in. Our first attempt on target came from a substitute, Stuart Downing. We had won a free-kick around 10 yards outside the area and Downing was determined to be the taker. We had several players on the field that are extremely capable from this sort of range, but it was clear that Downing felt that this was his chance. He placed the ball on the floor and took some steps back, waited for the referee to blow the whistle and then ran at the ball. He hit it powerfully, over the wall and dipping towards the left corner, Felipe was beaten but kt screamed past the wrong side of the post – millimetres away from hitting it. It was the closest we had come, and it was also the last action that Downing would see in the game, he pulled a muscle taking the free-kick and had to come off only 15 minutes after coming on. I replaced him with Ashley Young, the only player I had on the bench that could play on the left hand side.
We continued to be pressed back by Brazil and all of our chances seemed to be coming from set pieces. In the 72nd minute Frank Lampard hit a free kick right at Felipe, then shortly after John Terry missed an easy chance with a close range headed from a Steven Gerrard corner. It was an improvement on the first half, but only a marginal one, we still looked dodgy as hell at defending, but a little better in attack.
In the 82nd minute Brazil created what was easily the best chance of the match. Robinho gathered the ball on the right hand side after switching positions with Elano and threaded a pass through our defence to Daniel Alves, who had made a fantastic run from right back to support the play. He was free, approaching Scott Carson, he faked a shot, put Carson on his knees and rounded him. An empty net from a 45 degree angle was what he had to aim at to break the deadlock, surely this was it. But no, weather it was nerves, tension or excitement that got to him, he sliced his easy chance up and wide, high into the crowd, not even hitting the side netting. I looked across at the Brazil bench and they were all out on the sidelines, convinced they had snatched a goal. They all turned around and paced their way back to their seats in disbelief when they saw where the ball ended up.
The match followed the similar end to end pattern that it had endured throughout the second half, right up to its conclusion. Two minutes into injury time and we were driving forward, trying to nick a goal that would surely win us the game. Frank Lampard played a beautiful through ball to Steven Gerrard who squared the ball back across the area to an unmarked Wayne Rooney, he blasted his shot as hard as he could from around 8 yards out and the fans behind the goal were up and cheering. The ball somehow got deflected off the line by Lucio, who had got his positioning spot on and saved the match for Brazil. His heroic block had also got Brazil on the counter attack, Rooney had blasted the ball so hard at him that the deflection had looped over everyone in the area and went all the way out to Ronaldinho, midway between his own penalty area and the centre circle. He controlled the ball instantly, turned and ran towards our goal. He stormed past the centre circle, skipping past Ashley Young who was covering, he continued to the left side of the pitch, jumped over the challenge from Rio Ferdinand and squared the ball across the penalty area looking for the run of Kaka. Ashley Cole slid in and got a touch to the ball before Kaka could get hold of it, but to everyone's horror, it caught him on the shin and looped over Scott Carson. The ball seemed to be in the air for ages, everyone watched on in deadly silence as it floated closer and closer to the empty net. Ashley Cole sat up watching the events unfold, and flopped down onto his back as the ball bounced and bobbled over the line. It was in, an own goal, 3 minutes into injury time, there was surely no way back from this.
We created a final chance in the dying seconds, flying forward right from the restart, but unfortunately Jermain Defoe lashed his shot hopelessly over the crossbar. The match was over, the dream was over, the World Cup was over. England had once again fallen shy of glory, losing in the cruellest and most heartbreaking of ways – an own goal in injury time. A few players sat on the pitch, some in tears - mainly the younger ones. The older players were putting on a brave face, congratulating Brazil and helping the younger lads back to their feet. I walked out and shook hands with what seemed like an endless amount of happy Brazilians before eventually retired to the dressing room. Not much was said in there, there wasn't really anything
to say. A day full of promise had ended in devastating sadness, something that is becoming all too familiar to the England football team.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Results Final DrawBrazil 1 v 0 ENGLAND Brazil v U.S.ANigeria 0 v 1 U.S.A Third Place Playoff ENGLAND v Nigeria</pre>
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