If Only Everything In Life Was This Easy? (England vs Denmark)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	England vs Denmark
Date:	16/06/02 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: We won

Disadvantages: None

Strange days, indeed. England into the 2nd round of the World Cup and expecting a difficult game against a Premiership reserve team from the land of the Norse Gods. Denmark were expected to give the lads a difficult game but maybe, just maybe, the overseers of footballing fete have decreed a divine passage for the boys from the sceptered isle?

Having played out a perfunctory draw against Nigeria, the next game was at a kind KO time in the evening with conditions suiting both European antagonists. At one stage, we even had driving rain mimicking a wet Sunday afternoon on Hackney marshes albeit with considerably more humidity.

The atmosphere before the game was typically English with an estimated 10000 English fans inside a stadium dubbed "The Big Swan" (queue all manner of gags about big birds mainly aimed at one of the boys who used to have a penchant for..erm...big-boned ladies).

In traditional style, I lined up with the boys ready for a tense afternoon’s viewing hoping that the red and whites could make the next round and a possible quarterfinal clash with the boys from Brazil. Who could have believed that within the first few minutes England would be in front? A nice move through the middle culminated in a Beckham cross which Sorenson in the Denmark goal watched sail over his head to the far post. Ferdinand headed back more in anticipation than any expectation of scoring but the Danish keeper made a real pig’s ear of it carrying back across his own line before the scrambled effort could be ushered into the roof of the net by a predatory Heskey. We watched rather stunned to be in front so early as confusion reigned just for a few seconds before realisation dawned that we had taken the lead. The usual jumping around and hugging was delayed for a few micro-seconds until we were happy that we had, indeed, scored.

Tactics were similar to the Argentina game with a compact midfield of Butt, Scholes and Beckham ab
ly supported by the hard working Sinclair. What seemed like a 2 banks of 4 approach clearly denied the Danes any space in the last third of the English half and with a quarter of the game gone, Owen opened his World Cup account with a sharply taken goal. Sinclair curled a ball into the middle of the penalty area and an impressive flick round the corner from Butt leaving Owen with only the keeper to beat. In typically lethal fashion, he passed the ball into the goal and rapturous scenes erupted on the terraces as well as a million homes across the country.

Rommedahl and Gronkjaer were providing danger down the flanks for Denmark and when a move involving Everton’s Thomas Graveson freed up Ebbe Sand it looked like the Danes would pull one back only for the Danish superstar to pull his effort wide.

Just before half time, the team in red were made to pay as a poor defensive header out only found Beckham who slotted the ball through for Heskey to strike the ball low, hard and true for 3-0. Who could believe this? England cruising into the quarterfinals of the World Cup and all that pre-match tension slipping away.

The second half saw appearances from Fowler, Sheringham and Dyer as Eriksson had the luxury of safe guarding his first choice players ahead of Friday’s morning clash with either Belgium or Brazil.

England never really broke sweat in the second 45 as Denmark failed to score for the first time in the tournament. It seems that England have a sense of destiny in Japan and Korea with all sorts of factors working for them. England mania is only second to the kind of support reserved for the home nations of Japan and Korea with thousands of our Oriental brethren becoming adopted Anglophiles for the duration of World Cup month. Even finishing second in the qualifying group seems to have worked in our favour with a game against known opposition whereas Sweden face the might of Senegal in the searing heat that occurs in th
e south of the Island today afternoon Japanese time.

So was this a world beating performance? Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that the defence continues to give little away. Only one goal conceded in four games speaks for itself as Ferdinand makes his mark with a possible multi-million pound move to Manchester United in the offing. Who would have thought that Danny Mills would rise from the ashes of a blunderous error against Sweden to become a reliable addition to the English defence? Again today, he was rock steady after such an impressive performance against Argentina and must have gone some way to silence the doubters after his initial inadequacies were exposed.

The midfield looks class although can hardly stake a claim just yet to be the most creative in the competition. Even so, the naming of the current quartet must be enough to make the opposition stop and think about how to stop them with some genuine talents present in the engine room of the England set up.

Heskey continues to confound his critics with a vital goal today and a continued partnership with the original footballing pickpocket Michael Owen.

All I know is that the team have provided another wonderful excuse for me to drink a few beers with the boys during the game and several more afterwards in a patriotic outpouring in my local pub. The most disappointing move of today was the landlady calling last orders at 4pm in a shock call for a 2 hour sabbatical to give the supposedly overworked bar staff a rest. Oh well, it made me come home earlier than planned and means that I should be coherent to take in Eire’s attempt to beat Spain later today.

Can England win the trophy? There may well be the small matter of Brazil on Friday morning but if we can sneak past them who knows?

Thanks for reading.

Marandina

Denmark: Thomas Sorensen, Thomas Helveg (Kasper Bogelund 7), Niclas Jensen, Rene Henriksen, Martin Laursen, Dennis Ro
mmedahl, Thomas Gravesen, Stig Tofting (Claus Jensen 58), Jesper Gronkjaer, Ebbe Sand, John Dahl Tomasson.
Subs Not Used: Jesper Christiansen, Jan Heintze, Jorgensen, Peter Kjaer, Peter Lovenkrands, Steven Lustu, Peter Madsen, Jan Michaelsen, Brian Nielsen, Christian Poulsen.
Booked: Tofting.

England: David Seaman, Danny Mills, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, David Beckham, Paul Scholes (Kieron Dyer 48), Nicky Butt, Trevor Sinclair, Emile Heskey (Teddy Sheringham 69), Michael Owen (Robbie Fowler 46).
Subs Not Used: Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Joe Cole, David James, Martin Keown, Nigel Martyn, Gareth Southgate, Darius Vassell.
Booked: Mills.
Attendance: 40,582
Referee: M Merk (Germany)

Summary: