Theo was dropped to the subs' bench for tonight's game against the tournament's joint favourites Spain. This followed a mediocre display in England's opening match against Finland where he was substituted at half time.
First half: England performed well, and even won a penalty through the hard-working James Milner. He hit the ball hard to the keeper's right, but the keeper moved the same way and pulled off a good save. The only other action of the first half was Gabriel Agbonlahor picking up an injury which resulted in his being substituted for Frazier Campbell.
Second half: Manager Stewart Pearce brought Walcott on to add to Campbell's attacking threat. Campbell, Pearce's first substitution, provided the breakthrough with a clinical left foot finish to the goalie's bottom left on 67 minutes. Theo showed his quality minutes later with a burst of searing pace past a Spanish defender. Once past the centre back the young winger found himself in the penalty area.
Bearing down on goal many English attackers would have taken an ill-advised shot. Not young Walcott, with vision and a calm head to go with his frightening turn of speed he picked out James Milner in space with an accurate cutback. Milner made amends for his earlier penalty miss with a precise finish between the goalie and the recovering defender - 2-0 and game virtually sealed for Stewart Pearce's men.
Summary: While Theo will have matches where he features more regularly, tonight showed how dangerous he can be if he has the ball for only a minute. That is surely the sign of a world class player, or at least one who is fast approaching this special accolade. If he continues improving at this rate then perhaps he will have as vital an influence in South Africa when the senior side take on the World's best next summer.
Theo Walcott Watch v Spain: 8/10 - an assist for the goal that ended the game as a contest.
3 comments:
Was a great game and England fully deserved their victory.
Theo was great as was his team mates. Credit to Psycho for the inspired substiitutions.
Fany watching the Germany game on Monday? We're guranteed to go through, but we need to knock the Krauts out first :o)
Yep, sounds good. Chance to rest some players, increase competition for semi-final places and knock out Germany in one go. In King Kev's immortal words "I'd bloody love it.."
Looking at the tables, even a win probably wont see the Germans go out :(
Spain are on -2 GD, while Germany are on +2. We'll have to beat them 2 or 3-0 and hope the Spanish can do the business against Finland.
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