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A Frantastic weekend for English football

By on June 17, 2015

There was (finally) something for England supporters to shout over the past weekend of football, with both the men and women producing key wins. The senior England men’s team beat Slovenia 3-2 away from home in the Euro 2016 qualifier and the women’s side got their first three points at the 2015 World Cup in Canada by beating Mexico 2-1 after previously being defeated 1-0 by France in the opening game. Today, they beat Colombia to seal their place in the Round of 16.

Both the men and women’s encounters produced a lot more exciting than their first games of the week — the five goals in the match involving Roy Hodgson’s side in vastly contrasted to the watching of paint dry in their bore, scoreless draw with Ireland. The England fans have been treated with rousing entertainment. Richard Lewis reviews all the action across England’s national teams.

Kirby: Fully Loaded

Two players in their early twenties lit up the respective stadiums in both England’s men and women wins, with 21-year-old Reading Women striker Fran Kirby providing the magic for Mark Sampson’s Ladies and 23-year-old Jack Wilshere scoring a double for his first goals in a Three Lions shirt. After the crucial victory over Mexico, England Women’s manager Mark Sampson compared Kirby to the Lionesses version of a “mini Messi.”

Kirby scored England Women’s first goal in Group F and Birmingham Ladies winger Karen Carney sealed their inaugural win at the tournament, before two penalties dispatched shock underdogs Colombia in England’s final Women’s World Cup group-stage game. While the victory over the Mexicans in particular gave the Ladies hope of topping the group and facing an easier draw in the knockouts, France nicked ahead of the Three Lionesses on goal differential to book a draw with South Korea as opposed to Norway.

I’ll be Jack!

As the latest Terminator movie is soon to be released around the globe, two unstoppable Jack Wilshere bullets which saved England from defeat at the hands of Slovenia. The Jack Pack of goals were Wilshere’s first in his twenty-eighth cap, after twenty-seven barren games without a goal from midfield in the white, or in this instance red, of England.

The Three Lions were 1-0 down to the Slovenians from a Milivoje Novakovic strike, after a mix-up at the back, but came back into the game from a brace of Wilshere smashers. However, the match didn’t end there, as the former Sheffield Wednesday and now Japanese second-division player Nejc Petnik’s headed equalizer put England back on edge.

But enter Wayne’s World — captain Wayne Rooney scored the winner to draw his goal tally level on forty-eight with Gary Lineker and one away from Sir Bobby Charlton’s record. Rooney’s eighty-sixth minute winner meant the Three Lions went a whole season unbeaten for the first time in twenty-four years (1990-91 season being the last), having not lost a game since the dismal offerings at last summer’s World Cup in Brazil. It was, if you will, a “knockout blow.”

Apart from Rooney going level with his England goals tally, Lineker also had his say on Wilshere’s day, stating the Arsenal midfielder’s second superb twenty-five-yard strike would be in England’s top ten goals ever scored.

The three points over Slovenia means a win over San Marino in September (if England can’t beat them, the whole squad should just retire and hide away in a deep, dark cave — it would lead for a less lonely existence) and they will be heading to France in the summer of 2016. Basically, Rooney and Co. should stamp those passports now and buy those Eurostar train tickets before the prices increase.

Only the Young!

There is another tournament on the horizon for the English with Gareth Southgate taking the England Under-21’s to the Czech Republic. There are some household names in the youth squad, such as Tottenham striker Harry Kane and fellow forward Danny Ings, who has recently left relegated Burnley to join Liverpool. The European Championship competition is from the seventeenth through thirtieth of June, with England’s Under-21s beating Belarus 1-0 in a final warm-up friendly.

England are in a group with Italy, Portugal and Sweden — a considerably challenging line-up at this level — but the young guns can still easily progress to the knockout rounds with a good performance. The favorites to win the tournament are Germany, Italy and England, in that order. A Germany-England could realistically happen. Roy Hodgson will be keeping his owl-like gaze on this youth summer tournament, in the hope of spotting potential players ready for the first team. Top club scouts may also give this competition a watch to find new, young talent — which they can snap up as their newest benchwarmers at [enter big-money club].

Whether they are boys, women or men, if they are English they feel the full support and pressure of a nation!

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.