England fans in the FanZone, Malmo

As you probably know by now, I was out in Sweden for the semifinal and final of the U21 European Championships.

Obviously the final was a big disappointment, but we had a quality time whilst we were out there and it was great to see our boys in action (although we didn’t actually see Tomkins apart from during a half time kickabout!).

Something came to my attention yesterday though that I thought was worth raising today – just to see what other experiences people have had whilst travelling with England (at any level it would seem).

Yesterday it was revealed that Michel Platini was thought to be unimpressed with Stuart Pearce’s behaviour on the touchline during the final. Pearce states that maybe he was “overzealous”, but he was just “passionate about winning”.

The interpretation from Platini was that his rants were aggressive…

Make sure you behave

So, during the final there were a few guys on our row who throughout the whole game continued to leave their seats for food, phone calls, etc etc – up and down the whole 90 mins. Obviously when you’re trying to watch your team in a final, it’s not what you want. They never said excuse me or thank you at any point – kind of irrelevant but I wanted to paint a picture and all that.

I was sitting with another England fan, both in our England shirts, watching the football intently. At bad decisions, bad tackles or close efforts, we would both jump up and shout – kind of what you do at a football game. At least I thought.

At one point one of these suits who kept interupting our football stopped right in front of us and gestured towards us and said, “make sure you two behave”.

I couldn’t believe it. I don’t swear, so that wasn’t the problem. I wasn’t being violent, so no problem there either.

It just makes me think that us English are gravely misunderstood on the continent. Our passion for the game is clearly often misconstrued and our anger towards a decision or a bad tackle is interpreted as violent.

And after what Stuart Pearce was saying, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you are a fan or a manager, there is no place for passion or zealous ambition when England are involved….

Anyone else had any other experiences like this, or is it just me and my big loud mouth?

Sam

Noble is in there somewhere!

This has to go down as one of my favourtie blogs to write…obviously not because of it’s quality as I’ve not started yet, but because I’m writing it on a train from Gothenburg to Malmo; following the path of the England U21 team to the final of the European Championships.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been sent by my new employers, Football United, to cover the semi-final and final, which is where I’m heading now. Gothenburg is a fantastic city and as I said in a twitter update from there, God really knew what he was doing when he created Sweden! I just hope Malmo can match it – on both visual and footballing appeal (I could do with it being a little cheaper though, beer budget has rapidly diminished!)

So I thought that as I had a few hours to spare, I could update you all on our boys’ performances in the Semi Final, and my take on whether Noble can lead the U21 to victory on Monday.

Turning Points

Personally I felt that there were three factors that affected the quite incredible turnaround by the Swedish team in the second half. Firstly and most importantly, the substitutions made by both managers had a massive effect on the way the game was flowing. Perhaps I’m a little bias, but I felt that Noble was a hugely dominant character in the middle of the park during the first half. He was pulling strings and getting things done in his usual tenacious way. His link up play with Cattermole was brilliant…yet Pearce took him off. Probably, as per usual, due to exhaustion, but we lost a lot of bite when he went off and particularly looked a whole lot more disjointed. It was however a Swedish substitution that influenced their fortunes…the introduction of the number 15, Labinot Harbuzi. He looked like a real star in the making and revitalised their attacking prowess.

I felt Pearce made a mistake in taking Noble off – perhaps it was to save him for the final? All I know is he did us proud in Gothenburg and I hope to see another top draw performance from him on Monday.

Secondly, the referee was hugely in favour of the homeside…it was laughable I felt at times. He sent one of our players off and booked one for ‘sledging’. He made a point of making sure we took all our freekicks from the exact spot, yet turned a blind eye to the Swedes moving the ball to what seemed anywhere they fancied within a 20yard circle. He also failed to make sure the Swedes were actually ten yards at free kicks…petulant, inconsistent and bias. Had it been a full international I feel people would have raised a few eyebrows, but there you go!

Finally, the fans were a huge factor in the Swedish comeback. Funny lot they were to be honest and they outnumbered us to about 200:1 (plus the England fans were sort of mingled in and scattered about). They would boo at pretty much everything, but the environment they created for their side was impressive – it must have been a daunting atmosphere for our side. They were in all fairness though, particularly tolerable of us England fans jumping about like madmen (on our own) at each of our goals, plus the penalties. How silly we felt when they pegged it back to 3-3!

All things considered it was a privilage to have been at the game, Sweden have been great hosts and I look forward to seeing Noble lift the trophy tomorrow evening!

Will post some more photos of my trip after the final

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For the readers of my blog who don’t use NewsNow, Iain Dale and KUMB.com have been running some insightful interviews with Scott Duxburry over the last couple of days…be sure to have a read of the HERE and HERE respectively.

IRONS!

Sam

Although they beat the Greek side, the Italians (who they needed to draw or to lose), narrowly scraped past the Czech Republic 4-3.

It’s a shame that they havn’t managed to qualify…but in terms of a learning curve for our boys it would have been a massive experience. It was good for Freddy to get on the scoresheet too.

They can now come back and join the full squad refreshed and hopefully having matured from their experiences.

Sam

The match finished 0-0, leaving England in a ‘must-win’ situation against Greece on Sunday to give them any hope of qualifying for the next stages.

They still may not qualify even if they do manage their first win of the tournament as it would also require the hosts, Czech Republic, to beat the Italians.

The league table currently shapes up like this:

Czech Republic: 4pts
Greece: 2pts
Italy: 2pts
England: 1pt

James Tomkins featured for the full 90mins, and Freddy Sears was replaced after 87mins.

Whether they win, lose or draw against Greece, I’m pretty sure that the experience for our youngsters will be vital in their transition from ‘academy players in the first team’ to ‘established players in the first team’.

Will let you know how they get on

Sam

The next stage has seen them unfortunately lose the opening game of the Championships 2-0 to the tournament hosts.

They both featured in the game, and put in good performances.

The England side face Italy in their next game, needing a win to see them face their final game with a chance of progressing to the next stage.

Updates will follow

Sam

I last left it with both Freddy Sears and James Tomkins being named in the provisional squad to travel out to the championships.

It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that both players have now been named in the 18 man squad and both are likely to be representing their country in the first game against the hosts on the 14th July.

As per my earlier post today, it is so encouraging to see these younger players coming through the ranks…especially without Terrence Brown at the helm. I honestly believe that BG and the Gang are far wiser and as a result we are in a much better position to be holding onto such talent.

I will keep you updated as to their performance during the tournament when it kicks off on the 14th July.

Sam

I seem to be writing a lot about Tony Carr these days, but hats off once again to the guy.

Tomkins had this to say about the Championships:

We’re going there to win it. I don’t see why we can’t, especially after the way we played in Belarus

They are clearly a team brimming with confidence and I want to wish them all the best particularly, obviously, Tomka and Sears.

I will keep you posted with their performance.

First game is against the Czech Republic at 4:30pm on July 14th.

Sam

And, as we know he does so well, he duly repaid his call up by bagging a brace in the 2-0 victory last night.

The U19′s will need to be topping their qualifying group after further games against Serbia and Belarus in order to qualifying for the championships, which this year are being held in the Czech Republic.

It’s so exciting to see our young players proving their worth on the (relative) big stage. It is clear that our current youngsters have the potential to slip quite snugly into the shoes of past youth team players. Tomkins also played the full 90mins last night and is another player who quite clearly has bags of potential.

I don’t think it will be long before we see them as more permanent fixtures in the first team. Although they are not quite the complete package yet, I think we may have unearthed some gems. Let’s just hope that with the appointment of Nani and with a new board, we can fully look forward to a reformed West Ham who don’t just roll over and expose themselves when the bigger clubs come in with big(ish) money for our youngsters.

It is so so so important that we hold onto them if we are genuine about improving our ambitions and stepping up to higher heights. On so many different levels.

Sam