BY TIM PARSONS
England did well to beat Slovakia 3-2 after a worrying start to a qualification game that meant more to our opponents than it did to us. Roy Hodgson’s team showed tremendous quality in not only levelling the deficit suffered in the 26th minute of the game, but in defeating them in a dramatic game full of action and surprises. In a game that was competitive from the get go, England sure showed they have something to shout about, and may well be on their way to doing very well in the Euro competition next year. We can’t get our hopes too high yet, but the team is looking very good and ready to change fortunes.
Six straight wins out of six games is exciting stuff, and Jack Wilshere was certainly the man of the match after delivering two successive goals that proved key is clinching this deserved win so emphatically. It was his first international goal for England and he must have been over the moon with those goals. Before those goals came, Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling who has had so much hype and controversy surrounding him of late, showed his excellent dribbling skills, but failed to find the net once. The pressure on him to back up the claims of the high financial worth of £50m will grow with each important match, because present or future worth cannot rise on past glory alone. Right now, Wilshere is looking the business. The 23 year old English player was England’s youngest debutant at 16 years of age, after being snapped up from Arsenal’s youth academy. He has been awarded with the PFA young player of the year and has also been given the Arsenal player of the season award. This fresh youth is a bright prospect for England, and can only get better. His two brilliant goals were undoubtedly the finest touches of the game until Rooney turned up to seal the victory in exquisite style.
Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallans also played well, showing themselves as good assets for the England Squad. The competitiveness and flair demonstrated in this game confirmed the presence of the sharpness required at elite level to stand a good chance of producing smashing results like this. Football fans loved every minute of it, and faith in the national team is once again being restored after so many years of vain hopes. Hopefully, the expectation for a sustained level of good performance is not premature, and future games will continue like this.
Rooney, who provided the excellent decider of the game, had looked unsettled during the game and seemed to be struggling to deliver anything meaningful from the many chances he had. He celebrated his goal with an ecstatic joy that reflected the significance of that winning shot, and perhaps also the fact he had now raised his total goals to 48 to match the record of his predecessor, Gary Lineka. England’s qualification is almost certainly secure , and if they can keep up this standard of play and results, they will be a formidable force for any team to come up against.
