October 16 – Same Old England
TODAY we’re looking at a game that encapsulates the frustration of following England. Dodgy goalkeeping error? Check. New player on the left? Check. Hot-head striker losing their rag when the tough gets going? Check. Failure to beat one of international football’s minnows? Check. Back in 2002 it was the turn of Macedonia to frustrate England as they held them to a 2-2 draw at St. Mary’s.
For the first time ever England were plying their trade down in Southampton, at their new St. Mary’s ground as the national side’s roadshow in the absence of Wembley stadium continued. Opponents Macedonia came into the game ranked 90th in the world and were seen as cannon fodder for Sven’s men in the Euro 2004 qualifier.
Having spent the last couple of months coming to terms with Ronaldinho’s goal that lofted above his pony-tailed head and ended England’s World Cup hopes in Japan, the last thing David Seaman needed was another goalkeeping gaff. But when Artim Sakiri stepped up to take a corner in the first half that’s exactly what he got. Sakiri’s corner sailed into the net and Seaman had another addition to his arsenal (pun very much intended) of goalkeeping nightmares.
Captain fantastic David Beckham bagged an equalizer two minutes later, but a disjointed England side again fell behind to a Vanco Trajanov strike. It was Steven Gerrard who saved Sven’s blushes as his spectacular volley made the scores 2-2 ten minutes before half time.
England toiled for the whole of the second half, with Seaman getting ironic cheers from the home crowd whenever he touched the ball and the embarrassment was complete when Alan Smith was sent off in the dying minutes following a second yellow card for a horribly mis-timed tackle.
A brutal post-mortem followed with calls for Sven’s head and for Seaman to retire. Old football clichés were being knocked around as Beckham said that “we have to pick ourselves up from this” and Sven claimed that “we deserved to win”. The ship was steadied enough for England to qualify for the finals in Portugal meaning England fans could spend the second half of their summer sulking about penalty shoot-outs.
See the death-knell of Seaman’s England career below and we’re afraid it’s more of the same tomorrow for long-suffering England fans.
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