England's new right side has allowed the country to dream of Euro 2008
once
Jonathan Northcroft
THE handbags and the glad WAGS which accompanied England
to the World Cup will be absent by order of Steve McClaren should England
reach the European Championships. McClaren has already promised that in
Austria and Switzerland there will be fewer distractions surrounding the
squad than in Germany last June.
Cheryl Cole will be missed, not only by paparazzi, but students of serious
football analysis. In a recent interview with Q Magazine, Mrs Ashley Cole
said she never tried to advise her man on playing matters. 'I don't tell
him things like he should have passed to Shaun Wright-Phillips,' she said.
It is just as well given hubby plays at left back and Wright Phillips
on the right wing and extravagant 60-yard crossfield balls are the sort
of thing that annoys Jose Mourinho even more than the supporters and manager
of Liverpool. It was with a different full back in tandem that Wright-Phillips
set England off on their best competitive performance since Euro 2004
and what, by recent standards, was a goal spree.
McClaren should telephone his old gaffer, Sven Goran Eriksson, to offer
thanks to Manchester City. Michael Owen had the pick of the strikes but,
either side of it, came fine finishes from footballers reared and developed
on the sky blue side of Manchester.
Micah Richards' career has been one sharp upward curve. Wright-Phillips,
his elder by six years but still just 25, has experienced all the rises
and dips that can beset a player. When he joined Chelsea for ?22m he was
the next big thing, but for two seasons became a symbol of wastefulness
? both in terms of a talent gone astray, and in the sense of his club's
lavishness.
Wright-Phillips has a booming inner pride and he did not give up. First
he won Mourinho over and now those who doubted he could be a top international
player. Yesterday was the culmination of a great comeback story.
He was only playing because of David Beckham's wounded knee and yet his
inclusion looked a masterstroke. Israel's narrow midfield gave scope to
any England player capable of carrying the ball at pace down the flank
and the right wing was especially inviting. Wright-Phillips had little
trouble picking holes in Yoav Ziv's defensive abilities, winning free
kicks when he ran at him and often losing him to get round the back.
It was on one such occasion that Wright-Phillips scored. The goal had
his dad, Ian Wright, purring at his predatory skill. When Joe Cole won
possession on the left, Wright-Phillips was taking clever steps to tiptoe
into space beyond Ziv and at the moment the cross was played, Wright-Phillips
had got himself into the perfect position ? on the run, level with his
marker, just onside. He showed the technique of a striker to lean his
body back and cushion his volley so it flew into the roof of the net and
not over the bar.
He got his angles perfect, too, slanting the ball across Dudu Aouate to
beat a goalkeeper more vaunted marksman ? Michael Owen particularly ?
found impossible to pass throughout the first half.
In the BBC box, Ian Wright's celebration was more extrovert than his son's
was on the pitch. Where Beckham's lust for glamour finally led him to
Los Angeles, Wright-Phillips almost eschewed the move to Chelsea because
his instinct was he might not take to London's bright lights. In fact
he has settled in the capital but seldom pops up in the same paparazzi
pictures outside premieres and clubs as the likes of Ashley Cole and Rio
Ferdinand. When Wright-Phillips was at Manchester City, even as he was
being talked about as a ?20m player, he would be sighted regularly not
in the hotspots of Footballers' Wives territories such as Alderley Edge,
but Warrington.
Wright-Phillips was so popular at the Eastlands Stadium that when he left
for Chelsea there was no resentment from fans or teammates. The backroom
team and office staff at Manchester City remain fond of him. Jim Cassell,
the prodigious spotter and developer of talent at the head of the club's
envied youth academy, would have been grinning yesterday.
Behind Wright Phillips was Micah Richards ? another Cassell product ?
and the pair understood each other as well as any England midfielder and
full-back since Beckham was in tandem with Gary Neville.
When Richards went on one of his express train overlaps, in the 31st minute,
there was a lovely pass from Wright-Phillips waiting for him. When Richards's
teenage enthusaism got the better of him and he was caught out of position,
as in the 38th and 46th minutes, Wright-Phillips materialised to cover.
Richards went on to score and Wright-Phillips produced one more run of
jinking genius, befuddling three Israelis, before giving way to David
Bentley. The little man left the fray to the most giant ovation.
, September 9, 2007
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