Fabio Capello learnt very little ahead of the World Cup qualifiers as England earned a late 2-2 friendly draw with Czech Republic at Wembley.
Any hope of a fresh change of direction under the strict Italian was dashed when he selected a 4-4-2 line-up which saw Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and Gareth Barry filling the midfield berths.
That meant no starting role for Chelsea's Joe Cole, and Jermain Defoe partnered Wayne Rooney in attack.
John Terry took the captain's armband on a permanent basis, but England were decidedly dodgy in defence against a classy Czech outfit.
Lone striker Milan Baros fired a warning shot early on, drawing a fine one-handed save from David James.
But England ignored it, and Baros gave the visitors the lead on 22 minutes when he brilliantly turned Terry and fired home a shot which took a heavy deflection off the boot of Ashley Cole before nestling in the net.
To England's credit, the goal sparked them into life and Petr Cech found himself under siege for the remainder of the first half, saving long-range efforts from Defoe, Gerrard and Rooney, who also steered a header straight at the Chelsea stopper on 31 minutes.
The hosts' momentum was finally rewarded on the stroke of half-time, when a Beckham corner was powerfully headed home by Wes Brown.
But the Czechs were bouncing once again three minutes after the interval, when Marek Jankulovski's stunning left-footed free-kick sailed over the wall and into the top corner, leaving James with a bemused look on his face.
That look was there again after the Portsmouth giant was left in no man's land after racing out of his goal on 60, only to see Vaclav Sverlos beat him to the ball but steer an angled effort wide of the upright with Terry guarding the goal.
Most of the second-half action came from the bench, with Joe Cole, Jonathan Woodgate, Stewart Downing, David Bentley and Jermaine Jenas entering the fray at various stages.
But after Downing fired a half-volley narrowly wide late on, Joe Cole scrambled home a stoppage-time equaliser from close range to put some gloss on a poor display which failed to mask England's shortcomings.
Your Comments
chappers77
"I felt embarassed last night for our players! REALLY embarassed. We are home of the biggest and most competetive league on the planet and on last nights performance we couldn't out play a championship league side, IF THAT! No disrespect to the side's of the Championship but you would expect an international side with all our SO called stars to out shine some of the great teams of the world. The fact that we are relying on a washed up premadonna in Beckham to provide us set piece's is pathetic. It seems that is the the only way we can score. The fact that our equalising goal, shabby, flukey, and spawny as it was is also pathetic. The fact that David James made a royal cock up and laughed about it afterwards is bizarre. It just shows how serious they consider their profession. I am becoming to dispice watching England. I tune in hoping, praying for a better performance. Thinking they just may have got it right, but in return we are presented with the biggest shower of s***e ever to grace our television screens. I couldn't agree more with all of the comments! I was given hope, That Fabio Capello was the answer to Englands problem's. We sensed defeat in the sense that we had to resort in getting an exotic manager to resolve our problems. Never the less! We saw progress, hope and a positive future. How wrong were we. He is no different to Steve McCOMBover (Now miraculously Dutch, after living there for 2 weeks) and Sven Goran Eriksson. Experimenting about 18 players inside 90 minutes. There is no consistancy at all. I think I am gonna support Scotland in their qualifying campaign. At least they play with pride! I think they need to see the harsh reality that they really are an extremely average side and carry on playing the way we are, will result to loss against Andora and we WILL be spoon fed our testicles by Croatia!"
gooner91
"Yes Footballguru, Cappello should pick Robbie Keane!!! what a FOOL!!! i think that the small fact that he was born in Dublin and has already represneted the Rep. Ireland might be the reason why Cappello has left him out of his five squads he has picked!! last night I think we lack drive and seemed to run out of ideas when our first few attacks failed! Cappello has got his work cut out for him if we are gunna qualify for the World Cup. we have players like Stevie G, Lampard, Rooney, J. Cole, Beckham, Bentley that are players that can make something out of nothing... but we seem to lack a player like Torres, Kaka, Zidane etc... that will get one chance and score and can win you the game in a blink of an eye. A great example of that was Liverpool at the weekend Sunderland shut up shop, but Torres got one good chance and that was all he needed."
dn4white
"What makes me smile is how Beckham still continues to be picked & get praise for taking the dead ball that results in a goal-i've even seen it being called an 'assist'-an americanism if ever i heard one!.1stly,i'd have had Capello immediately sacked & paid off for picking Beckham.What did Beckham ever achieve as England Captain?-nothing.Secondly,Beckham is slow,always has been,cant tackle,& is 7 years past his best.If hes that good,how come he aint playing in the Premier?-if he ever did come back by the way,you do know it'd be for shirt sales & not for the football.2ndly,statistically,if you take EVERY dead ball(bit greedy dont you think?),then youre BOUND to put in a ball that someones going to connect to & score??!!Why does Beckham get this praise on ''assists''?Do England never score from set pieces when he doesnt play?You never hear about anybody else making an assit when it happens.What an insult to players like J Cloe & Barry to say that Beckham is the best(??) crosser of a dead ball.Picking Beckham says everything about why England will never win anything at International level.Choosing so called ''icons'' & has beens will never get winning results.Ask Fergie if he'd have Beckham back in a winning side?Ask Rooney whether he'd have Beckham in the team or not?Beckham used to pick himself to play for the National team when he wasnt even match fit-what a pro!I blame the FA ultimately.Losers picking Losers.Cloughie was right,theyd never pick a winner,theyd clear the whole lot out,& we cant have that now can we?Best Club football in the world(always has been,always will be),one of the worst International teams in the world-we wont even qualify for the next World Cup.Its a disgrace-its not about money,its about picking winners,all the way from the top to the bottom.Frightening that Beckham will be playing in the World Cup Qualifiers,you know that dont you....."
striker
"It was always going to be a difficult match, when we only had 10 players. Outnumbered in midfield due to the inclusion of Frank the invisible man Lampard, did anyone actually see him touch the ball? He may play well for Chelsea, but put him in an England shirt and he ceases to have a corporeal body?! I would have hoped that by now the manager would realise that him and Gerrard can not play in the same team. Since Gerrard actually performs to some level, it must be Lampard that is dropped! I cant believe the lack of quality crosses, corners and set pieces last night. As professional players you would expect them to be dropping crosses on players heads 90% of the time and for each corner to look dangerous!...My Saturday team delivers more consistent quality crosses and corners! Thats not to slate Beckham, because although he is past his best, he still puts in more effort than anyone else and the one corner he gets right leads to a goal. Other than that it was just a sham to watch, time to shake things up, drop some of the under achievers and bring in Fresh blood, maybe some Villa players, judging by their performance last week. Also get the players playing the same role in each game, so they look like the have some idea whats going on."
AndyElectroMUFC
"FOOTBALLGURU: Maybe capello cannot pick Robbie Keane for his squad as usually he is too busy playing for his home nation of the Republic Of Ireland . . he's irish mate. And Paul ince still only has the skills of a league 2 manager, Why not get chris casper to knock on the F.A's door too? The only player on that pitch that seemed to be putting in 100% was Wes Brown, thats probably the only thing that England can take away from a performance more dismal than the weather! "
striker
"It was always going to be a difficult match, when we only had 10 players. Outnumbered in midfield due to the inclusion of Frank the invisible man Lampard, did anyone actually see him touch the ball? He may play well for Chelsea, but put him in an England shirt and he ceases to have a corporeal body?! I would have hoped that by now the manager would realise that him and Gerrard can not play in the same team. Since Gerrard actually performs to some level, it must be Lampard that is dropped! I cant believe the lack of quality crosses, corners and set pieces last night. As professional players you would expect them to be dropping crosses on players heads 90% of the time and for each corner to look dangerous!...My Saturday team delivers more consistent quality crosses and corners! Thats not to slate Beckham, because although he is past his best, he still puts in more effort than anyone else and the one corner he gets right leads to a goal. Other than that it was just a sham to watch, time to shake things up, drop some of the under achievers and bring in Fresh blood, maybe some Villa players, judging by their performance last week. Also get the players playing the same role in each game, so they look like the have some idea whats going on."
cityslicker
"Is footballguru for real, are you talking about Irelands Robbie Keane or some other ENGLISH robbie keane in the conference nobodys heard of."
ynwa786
"Re: FOOTBALL GURU- They would win it if Robbie Keane played!! But Capello over looks him all the time?!!! are you serious??? england would do better if capello could pick kaka, cannavaro, christiano ronaldo, torres and berbatov. but for some reason they are all overlooked too. tsk tsk"
nottsman
"to footballguru, Robbie Keane is irish, not english so there is no way Capello could select him. not quite a footballguru after all!"
LiamWadey
"Dare I say it but Bring Back Sven!!!!!! When he was in charge we used to win games yea we only made it to the quaters finals but thats better then not even going to euro or the world cup!!!"
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