Got up this morning to watch the England V Austria game. After the Wales display and the N. Ireland debacle I swore I would not pay to watch it again as it is PPV here in the States, however I succumbed and was once again sorely disappointed. Here are my thoughts for what it's worth.

 

** SPOILER FOR GAME FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT WATCHED IT**

 

Luke Young, Paul Robinson, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole were the best of a bad bunch.  Lampard, Beckham and Gerrard  just do not seem to gel in England's midfield ' engine room'. Peter Crouch was deployed up-front along with Owen, who I think is not fully fit judging by his display. I think you might as well go back to playing Emile Heskey if you just want someone to knock balls down for Owen, Crouch has hardly inspired in his Liverpool performances this year. England looked very nervous and sat back for long periods after getting the lead on a penalty which Lampard dispatched with confidence, it should be noted this was a makeshift Austrian team.

The second half went from a mediocre first half display to England sitting back holding on to their one goal lead, as if they were facing Brazil and not a patched together Austria.

Austria passed the ball better and even hit the bar in the second half, after Beckham was sent of for two silly yellow cards. Eriksson then made a couple of very defensive subtitutes, Ledley King for Joe Cole and Richardson for Owen. England really looked at sixes and sevens after this apart from a couple of efforts from Lampard and Crouch.

 To summarize, England were very lucky today in a boring, uninspired, edgy, desperate, pedestrian performance,even before they went down to 10 men. Beckham was unlucky getting 2 yellows, however this should not detract from the underlying problems in the England team, maybe they just aren't good enough. We will be without Beckham and probably without Campbell for the Poland game.

All in all England continue to be very, very poor.

 

On a brighter note I picked up a copy of EA Sports FIFA 06 this week;

I've been buying the FIFA football game on X-Box for a few  years now, having played video games since I was about 12 with the old Space Invaders, Galactica and Sinclar Spectrum PC and this is the best FIFA yet.

The game features hundreds of players with realistic likenesses from the major football leagues of the world, one can make changes to the squads, kits, manage teams and keep the team selection up to date with transfers. The major benefit of FIFA on X-box is the ability to play other gamers  worldwide via X-box live, although my record is a dismal 10-4 so far as I am not very practiced.

My only criticism is the interface which is a little slow and complicated  in order to duplicate the virtual moves and passes of a football player, all in all this is a great game which will no doubt keep me occupied for quite a few hours. The EA site also features a little video game of ' keepy uppy', my record is 22.

 Perhaps this might be the only way to see England in the World Cup next year as you can also create many tournaments within the game, including the World Cup.