England V Italy

It was important for us to get off to a good start against Italy and for 5 minutes it looked like we had. Karl and James had a couple of good opportunities but a solo run by Squeo put Italy in the lead. It then became a bit of an England v. Travasino show as Italy’s big hitter scored from two long range shots that made the ball move in the air.

England came back strongly with chances for Brendan, James and Joe. Neil got turned into salami in the Italian box but no foul was given. Soon afterwards, James was awarded a penalty which he converted and Marc put in England’s 2nd from a tight angle. The half time score 3 – 2 to Italy.

After half time Brendan seized a ball in front of the Italy goal and steered it round the keeper to level the score. James scored in the next minute to put us 4 – 3 up. Still 14 minutes to go.

Italy’s tactics then reverted to playing Travasino into open positions and he leveled the score after five minutes. With ten minutes to go England called a time out in order re-establish how to play out the match. With players tiring and suffering injuries we had to make frequent changes. We kept it tight in our penalty area with Dan dealing with anything that got through. A stumble by a marker gave Travasino the chance to score his 4th goal to put Italy back in the lead.

Brendan had a good chance to equalize but put his shot wide which left it once more to Travasino to slap a ball that found its way through a crowded defence into the far top corner of our goal.

Going down 6 – 4 to Italy is one of England’s best ever results but we had our chances and it leaves us with the expected challenge in tonight’s match with Switzerland.
Report by Manager Ron Barker