12/02/2009

Three musketeers


Well, it may not have been like 1966, but it felt really, really good to have three West Ham players in the England shirts on the field at once. England lost to Spain 2-0 in a pretty competitive game. Upson and Green both came on in the second half, and Upson was impressive while Robert Green did not have much to do behind him. He could not do anything to save Spain's second goal. 
15 minutes left, Carlton Cole was ready to make his England debut and even if it was too short to make any outstandig impression he did well. On a pass from East end boy Beckham - in his 108'th cap - Cole ran with the ball and went to the left fooling Reina, but saw his shot towards goal cleared off the line by Pique. Cole did everything right in that move, just sorry not to score on his debut.
At least our three players did what they could do and Capello must have seen that Upson was better than Jagielka, Green more impressive than James and Cole more interesting to see than both Heskey and certainly the pale Crouch.

While Rio Ferdinand was out with a flu, there was time for former Hammers' like Glen Johnson (impressive, even if the second goal was on him), Lampard, James and Carrick.
Last time three West Ham players played at once in an England shirt was in 2002 (James, Cole, Sinclair), but I think last night showed that we have some kind of edge now.

Even if we left James and Rio on the bench in the second half we had seven players with connection to West Ham on the field. And Becks - which was at least raised in East end.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that neither Heskey nor Crouch did anything to prove that they should be picked ahead of Cole.

Anonymous said...

I thought it showed up the England team as poor passers against a great side.

It says a lot when only an 'old' player past his best, Becks, was the only one who seems to make effective passes.

Lamps was a waste of space, again!

I expect our three will play together in comming games.