One may as well begin with an apology to Roy Hodgson. It was suggested on these pages a couple of weeks ago that while the England manager had a wealth of attacking options at his disposal, options remained the operative word because he would not be able to play them all at the same time.
Nor did he, though against Wales he certainly gave it a go. Wayne Rooney, Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge, Dele Alli and even Marcus Rashford were all on the pitch when England managed their first tournament win for four years, and if that was only possible because Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana had already made way, cramming those eight players into the same game was some feat for a manager frequently described as conservative.
Hodgson should enjoy it while he can. Very few England managers have ever been depicted as gamblers, fewer still celebrated as successful ones, but let’s not get too carried away by Riverboat Roy just yet. For a start England were playing Wales, a better team than Russia but nonetheless tournament ingenues who spent the last half hour playing for a draw without seeming to notice their opponents’ midfield had shrunk to little more than Eric Dier, and it still took until stoppage-time for them to get their noses in front.
England have met two moderate sides so far in France, and though a four-point return ought to be enough to ensure progress it should be acknowledged that most English football has been pretty moderate too. Hodgson would contend that England played well against Russia, which they did, up to a point. But a point was all they took from the encounter and in taking all three Slovakia evidently managed to play better four days later.
Hard luck stories do not count for much in tournament football, as England ought to know by now. Fair play to Hodgson for rolling the dice at half-time against Wales, but really, what else was there left to do? Slovakia and Wales both had wins under their belts, and now England had contrived to go behind to a 35-yard free-kick. Sterling was practically carrying a sign on his back begging to be put out of his misery, and after 45 minutes Kane had already proved what the first game against Russia suggested, that he had lost most of the sparkle that lit up last season’s Premier League.
So well done for getting it right in the end, or to be more precise the exact mid-point of the group stage, but for England to continue on an upward swing Hodgson now needs to pick a starting lineup to stay on the front foot. One would imagine Vardy and Sturridge have done enough to retain their places, and Rashford would make an ideal impact substitute, though the beauty of England’s position is that even without Kane and Sterling any permutation of the first three is possible and would still leave room for Rooney and Alli. All that can be said at this stage is that England are improving, which is never a bad thing mid-tournament, even if it is also true of quite a number of potential opponents.
Initial misgivings about a substandard group stage because of the expanded format seem to have given way to appreciation of the strength of football around Europe, compromised only by the realisation that organised violence in and outside stadiums has been flexing its muscles and appears to be in peak shape too. There have been no horrendous mismatches, no easy pickings for the bigger teams unless you wish to count Spain’s demolition of Turkey or Belgium finally clicking against Ireland. The smaller, less experienced nations have competed well and in some cases heroically. Iceland’s draw with Portugal remains a first-stage highlight, complete with Cristiano Ronaldo’s graceless comments, while Northern Ireland’s victory against Ukraine was epic viewing and Albania pushed France all the way.
Based on the sweep test – an acquaintance who works in a large office reckons you can always tell who has played well by the number of people coming in the following morning asking who drew them – Italy were the most impressive openers. Although that could simply be because at that stage Belgium were doing their impression of a collection of disparate talents a long way from being moulded into a team, a side uncomfortable with being billed among the favourites pitched against Italians always happy to be written off in advance and frequently capable of raising their game in tournaments.
The Germans are the acknowledged experts of that, of course, and it was a laugh-out-loud situation when Bastian Schweinsteiger came on to score his late goal against Ukraine. The Manchester United fans who tweeted they had never seen him run that fast in England were not lying. Schweinsteiger has just endured a miserable season in Manchester – even Louis van Gaal appeared to give up on him in the end – and Joachim Löw only brought him on to stiffen the midfield for the last few minutes to protect a one-goal lead. Instead, given a chance with Germany in a tournament, he went skipping upfield to supply a crisp first-time finish to almost exactly the sort of chance that Sterling squandered against Wales. With one bound, United’s £6.5m flop had redeemed his season and restored his reputation among German players.
Meanwhile, England’s footballer of the year had not been given a kick against Russia and would have to wait another 45 minutes for his tournament to start against Wales. This is not to suggest Vardy is necessarily key to England having a party, Hodgson still has to find a way of playing to his strengths. But two weeks into the tournament a team has taken shape and England are still alive. Momentum, as Vardy knows better than most from his season with Leicester, can take you a long way.
