On Monday, England played the highly skilled Chile in their third
match of the World U20 (21) Championships, starting with Mike
Ableson, Ricky Jupp, Graeme Stewart, Stan Oaten and Mat
Conroy.

Despite having annihilated Uruguay the day before 37-0, Chile
had real difficulty breaking down the England zone defence and
was forced to call a timeout just 6 minutes into the half to
change tactics.

One minute later (13:02) they scored their first when a player
drove powerfully behind goal, catching out Stewart and the
keeper who were slow to cover the far post, to open the score
(0-1)

Having substituted Holmes for Stewart, England did well to
reduce the impact of Chile playing a man in the middle of their
defence, who’s job was to support shots/passes from the front
and sides, but eventually conceded at 9:00 after a failed counter
attack with three players (0-2).

With fatigue clearly taking a toll, England held until 4:27 when
Holmes was to slow to cover the left front of the zone, which
resulted in space for Chile to shoot to the near post (0-3).

Soon after this, Holmes tripped a man with his stick within
Chile’s penalty area who was supporting a counter attack and
was sent off when he received his second yellow card.

With 3:30 left in the half a shot up the centre hit the England
keepers chest, deflecting in on the left post, and the team went
to the break 0-4 having had just 35% possession.

Restarting the match with Ableson, Jupp, Holmes, Oaten and
Conroy, England recognised they faced a more skilled opponent
but held till 13:12 when Ableson earned a penalty when
penetrating the Chilean defence, but missed the shot on the
right post.

Chile soon responded (12:20) after challenging Ableson in cover
defence and exploiting space with a fantastic series of one touch
passes to penetrating men, resulting in a goal on England’s left
post (0-5).

Finally, the man in the middle that England had been defending
so well against was exploited by Chile to score at 11:09 and 10:
42 (0-7).

Having saved numerous attempts on goal and performing with
destinction, exhausted keeper Mat Conroy was substituted with
Ashley Pay, who went on to keep a clean cage for the remainder
of the match.

At 10:11 the Chilean goalkeeper took Ableson out with his stick
when he made yet another committed play on goal and England
were rewarded with a penalty which was scored by Stewart (1-7).
Unsuccessful in further increasing their score in the second half,
and England’s increasing attacks on goal, Chile called a time out
at 9:00 and then enhanced its offence with more dribbling and
individual plays.

Even though they received both a direct free hit and a penalty,
which were stopped by exceptional goalkeeping from Pay,
England finished the match 1-7 with 35% possession.