U20’s World Championships – Bassano, Italy
England 5 South Africa 0
(Half Time 1-0)

England controlled the first half with a good man to man defence and we scored the only goal of the half from a very good attacking move although the team were not playing well in attack.
The players always seemed to be trying to score from every attack move, which I was not happy about. A time out was called so we could talk to the players and remind them that ball possession was very important. We finished the first half in control of the game but still not playing the way I had asked them to do, which allowed South Africa a couple of scoring opportunities.

At half time I told the players we were not playing consistently enough in attack and that we would need to be patient when in possession of the ball.
I also asked the players to pressure the South African team, half rink.

The players responded very well having a great second half pressuring the South African as I had asked which in turn meant that they couldn’t organise their attack and forced South Africa to make mistakes. This then created openings for us for very good counter attacks from which we scored our second half goals.
Our ball possession increased during this half and it was nice to watch the quality of the game shown by our players.

This result was a good improvement from 2 years ago in Chile when we only just beat them 4-3 in very tight and hard game.

Goal scorers: Owen Stewart (2), Jon Taylor, Sergio Hutson & Tom White

Today we play Italy, one the best teams in this competition.
It will be a very hard game us, with both Italy and Chile playing for 1st place and which will probably be decided on goal difference.

Other results in our Group:

Italy 14 South Africa 0
Chile 3 Italy 3

Carlos Amaral