Buzzin Football Blog

England beat Germany 2-1 last night.  It’s the first time Germany have lost in Berlin since 1973, when they lost to Brazil in a pre-World Cup hosting friendly.

This too was a friendly match, but as friendly matches go, it was very competitive, full of exciting, flowing football which was not interrupted by the commonly overused substitution policy.  For ‘friendly’ read a game between two teams not wishing to lose but playing only for pride, not a cup.

Whether Fabio Capello would have played the same team, if the likes of Gerrard, Rooney, Joe and Ashley Cole were available is irrelevant now.  But what is worth mentioning is that England fielded a younger team full of passion, skill and speed; a combination of which was too much for a slow Germany side that is nowhere near as good as their FIFA ranking suggests.  (Current FIFA World Ratings: Germany 2nd, England 10th)

It was not only a good overall performance by England, but the win was essential, as it keeps the momentum and confidence of the England team, revitalised by Fabio Capello, moving forward towards the World Cup in South Africa, in 2010.

England dominated the game, mainly due to excellent performances from Michael Carrick and Gareth Barry who bossed the midfield, guarded the England defence, and broke up any play that Germany attempted to build on.

The best part of the game was to see how England coped under pressure.  There was only a few minutes of sustained pressure from Germany shortly after they had equalised, and for a minute or two I thought England were going to revert back to old ways.  Germany penned England well into their own half and on three or four occassions all that England were doing, as they kept a solid wall of defence, was hoofing it up field, in some cases nowhere near Darren Bent the loan striker at that point.  So the ball kept coming back.

It only lasted a few minutes before England regrouped and without a panic began to play their way out of their own half, and again take control of the game.  This was the main positive for me.

Fabio Capello appears to have installed into the players the same winning mentality as they have when playing for their club sides - stay focused and believe you will score again.  And they did.  John Terry scored the winner with only minutes to go with a towering header to rectify the awful mistake he had made earlier in the second half when attempting to shield the ball back to substitute goalkeeper Scott Carson, when he had time to defend the ball.

I never thought I would say this but, Stewart Downing had a great game on the left wing (at last!) while Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gabriel Agbonlahor looked relaxed and in confident mood. But Darren Bent still needs to convince me that he can make the step up to play under pressure for England.  I’m afraid he is going to join top Premiership strikers of the past such as Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole and Ian Wright in not being able to relax and play everytime he dons the three lions shirt.

We have at least two months now for Fabio Capello to consider his next squad.  But I would love it (as much as Kevin Keegan) if he were to give a few of the “regulars” a kick up the arse by keeping some of the players that performed yesterday in the next Engalnd team.