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In a match curiously billed as ‘The Wayne Rooney Foundation International’, England defeated the USA 3-0 in tonight’s international friendly match at Wembley.
While it was a useful exercise that allowed England boss Gareth Southgate to experiment in a low-pressure environment, the game also lacked the edge that England’s last few games in the UEFA Nations League have had.
A blistering first-half performance saw England hit two goals, with Jesse Lingard of Manchester United opening the scoring with a right-footed shot reminiscent of his World Cup goal against Panama, and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold rifling a low shot home to open his own international account.
The pace of the game slowed notably in the second half – the much-discussed return of Wayne Rooney was largely a damp squib, but debutant Callum Wilson of Bournemouth added a third goal with a well-taken volley late on.
Here are 3 reasons why England beat the USA.
#1 England’s attacking players combined well – in the first half at least
Despite the USA’s Christian Pulisic carving out a couple of decent chances, the first half was largely dominated by England, and every time the Three Lions went on the attack, it looked like they were capable of scoring.
The front trio of Jesse Lingard, Callum Wilson, and Jadon Sancho combined well with both Dele Alli and Harry Winks in midfield as well as full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Chilwell, and their quick passing movements had the USA on the ropes time after time.
Admittedly, the USA’s defence didn’t appear to be up to much – more on that later – but the movement of Alli in particular offered more penetration than England have shown in recent fixtures, and it was impressive to see him combine so well with Sancho and Lingard – combinations that led directly to England’s first two goals.
The press may well latch onto the fact that England’s pace noticeably slowed in the second half when Wayne Rooney was introduced from the bench, but that wasn’t really the case – England simply lost any kind of incisive movement when Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier – two defensive midfielders – were introduced to play alongside Winks.
It was another sign that the two men simply cannot play for England together – something Gareth Southgate would do well to remember come Sunday’s crunch game with Croatia.
Once Ruben Loftus-Cheek was introduced however, England’s dynamism made a return – albeit not as strongly as in the first half – and the Three Lions began to carve chances out again.
Overall, the dynamism of England’s attackers, Sancho in particular, was a massive positive for Southgate, and led directly to tonight’s victory.
#2 The USA’s defending was diabolical
It came as a surprise to many when the USA failed to qualify for the summer’s World Cup in Russia – particularly when Panama, who qualified ahead of them, ended up putting in such a terrible showing in the tournament.
After tonight’s game however, many England fans will probably be able to understand a lot more exactly why the Americans didn’t make it. Simply put, they were diabolical, particularly at the back.
The USA displayed naive, sloppy defending from the off in tonight’s game – an early incident saw Brad Guzan completely botch a clearance, almost allowing Callum Wilson to open his international account with frightening ease.
It was poor defending which allowed Dele Alli to steal the ball back to set up Jesse Lingard for his goal, and while Trent Alexander-Arnold’s goal was brilliantly taken, there’s no way he should’ve been allowed to make his run untracked.
As already mentioned, England’s pace dropped in the second half, but even then, the USA were largely unable to create any real chances – Christian Pulisic was probably the lone impressive player in their side. And finally, Callum Wilson’s goal was largely caused by John Brooks allowing the striker to get across him.
The last time the USA played England – in the group stages of the 2010 World Cup – despite England having all of the big names, the Americans largely matched them man-for-man. Tonight they were wildly outclassed, and it looks like it’ll take a while for the US to catch up to England, and to any other top-level international side.
#3 Wilson’s persistence pays off
Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson has taken the long road to the beginning of his England career – like fellow England players Harry Maguire and Dele Alli, he came up through England’s lower leagues, breaking through at Coventry before helping Bournemouth win promotion to the Premier League in 2014-15. He’s also been through a pair of serious knee surgeries.
Despite a red-hot start to 2018-19 that has seen him score 6 goals and assist in 4, Wilson was overlooked for England’s last two fixtures against Croatia and Spain, and some fans were questioning if he would ever be given a chance. That changed tonight as he was called up to the squad and given a start on his debut....and lets be honest, it didn’t start off too well for him.
Sure, Wilson got into the right positions and made a lot of the right runs, but it just felt like one of those nights where he would probably miss all of his chances – or conspire to fail to have a shot in the first place. A recent article actually suggested that the Bournemouth striker misses as many “big chances” as he scores, in fact.
But Wilson was undeterred and kept finding himself in the right positions, and finally – right before he was substituted for Marcus Rashford – he found the net with a well-taken volley from Fabian Delph’s cross.
Sure, the game was essentially over by that stage, but the kind of persistence Wilson showed to score his first England goal proved that he belongs on the highest stage – and with England short on strikers following Jamie Vardy’s international retirement, it’s a stage he might be gracing a lot more in the near future.
