Pic taken during CNY of 2006
No, it's not so much the fact that they won their last 2 games and scored 6 goals in total while conceding none. Not for me anyways. To me, it's simply brilliant to hear about their performance - they are finally playing as a team. Yes, "hear". Unfortunately, i missed both games. I did catch last Saturday's game for a while, tho - long enuf to see Gareth Barry playing impressively!!! I initially thought he was Gerrard!
The place where the games were played
And yes, finally! They are a team - not a bunch of overpaid spoiled rich men behaving like boys. OK - maybe that wasn't fair but now, everyone is saying how they are playing like a team. It took them long enuf to do so. And it was by a freak chance that paved the way - with the likes of Beckham, Lampard, Hargreaves and Rooney injured, McClaren had no choice but to take his chances on others. He was basically forced to do so - and it worked!!!So who cares if it was by a lucky fluke that England finally found the right combination? Coca Cola was also a lucky fluke - it was some cough medicine gone wrong.
So there you have it - Gerrard and Barry in the middle, complementing each other so well. Heskey and Owen up front - not my fav pair but they compliment each other too!!! I guess the whole of England gave a collective groan when Heskey was announced to be in the team - but this is one of the occasions when its so good to be proven wrong. Joe Cole and SWP doing the damage.
Now the nation waits and see - is McClaren gonna be man enuf to stick to the right combination, the winning one. Or is he gonna be like his predecessor and be awed by the stars? Everyone can say now that the presnt team proves that football is a team sport - you dun get chosen based purely on your star power (or in some cases, your ability to sell jerseys). You get chosen because of what you can contribute to the team. The pundits can see that. The critics can see that. The fans can see that. Heck, even i can see that. But can the manager see that?
He can thank his lucky stars that the injuries came when it did. But in the next game, it'll take more than luck - it'll take guts to stick to what is the right combination.
p/s - while this McClaren was lucky, the other McLaren in motorsports weren't so!!! The decision effectively gives the constructors' championship to Ferari! *sigh*
*Released in 1990, this was an attempt by Seiko to break into the North American market. She used to hold the record as having the most #1 by a female singer - 25 in all, 24 of which were achieved consecutively!!!
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