The Fan

Cole grabs late England winner

The Editor — Thu, March 2nd 2006

England win their final friendly before World Cup Final squad selected

ENGLAND beat Uruguay 2-1 in their final warm-up match before this Summer’s World Cup squad is chosen for Germany. Goals from Crouch and Cole late in the second half helped England overcome Uruguay who led from Pouso’s fantastic first half volley.
A very bright Uruguayan first half provided an excellent test for a friendly game and the South Americans broke quickly with sharp passing, causing England some problems through the middle.
England lacked any incision for much of the first half, but improved as the game progressed. Cole and Rooney were the greatest threats for England, but Gerrard didn’t manage to impose himself as he’d have hoped.

Terry had one of his best games for England, coming close to his first England goal when he broke from the half way line only to be foiled by the keeper Carini. His centre-back partner Ferdinand, however, had one of his ‘off the pace’ games and could have paid more heavily after getting caught in possession early on.

Of the less established players, Carrick had a tidy game, but Bent struggled to make an impact.
Eriksson’s second half subs livened England up and by adding Crouch and Wright-Phillips in the 65th minute turned the screw on the Uruguayan team who had become more and more defensive. (The sight of 6ft 6 Crouch and 5ft 6 Wright-Phillips on the touch line looked like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’ ).

In the 75th minute Cole twisted and turned on the left wing before crossing to Crouch who rose over the full-back to head home.

Cole deservedly grabbed the winner deep into stoppage time, flicking in a Wright-Phillips cross at the near post.

It was encouraging to see Sven make positive substitutions to change the game again, and although the team did not quite click in the first half there was much positive to take from the game.

Listed in: Competitions, World Cup, Countries, England

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