England 2 v 1 Switzerland
Friendly - Wembley Stadium. Att: 86,857
Wednesday, 6th February 2008
A fitting and well observed minutes silence marked 50 years since the Munich Air disaster that claimed the lives of 8 of Busby's babes. But today's game marked another important moment and that was the beginning of a new era of English football. Sven-Goran Erikson broke the mould by becoming the first foreign manager and leading the national team to three quarter-finals and now the nation's second foreign manager, Fabio Capello, has been summoned to restore England's fortunes after failing, with an English manager, to qualify for Euro 2008.
The team was broadly made up of those players available in the last game against Croatia but the style of football was different. It was not the most entertaining but it looked disciplined and well shaped and Capello showed that he knows what he wants and that is what he is going to have.
The goals came from Jermaine Jenas and Shaun Wright-Phillips and both had a similar pattern with good individual skill followed by a simple tap-in. Joe Cole skipped into the penalty and laid off for Jenas to score from 5 yards whilst in the second half it was Steven Gerrard's turn to lay the ball into Wright-Phillips path for him to score with ease. In between the Swiss substitute, Derdiyok, leveled the game but they did not look England's match.
It struck me as incredible that England could not even get a draw in the last game against Croatia that would have taken them through to the finals. The home defeat was a low point but Capello's arrival may well be seen as a new dawn for the national team.
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