England Should Not Get Carried Away Regardless of Portugal Friendly Result
Two of the Premier League's stars of the season, Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane and Leicester City's Jamie Vardy, scored England's goals against Turkey. In the national team's second pre-UEFA Euro 2016 friendly, it was one of the country's bright young hopes and its veteran, record scorer—Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Wayne Rooney—who combined to see off Australia.
England's final friendly against Portugal on Thursday at Wembley may provide further reasons to be encouraged about their European Championship prospects, perhaps via another feel-good moment or two. But whether it does so or there is a less satisfying outcome, Roy Hodgson and his team should not get carried away regardless.
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The build-up to this tournament has been pleasing for England in so many respects.
The retirement of the last holdovers from the failed "Golden Generation" (bar Rooney, though he was always a younger outlier) has finally forced a partial move away from the received wisdom that star players were more important than the team.
Since the last World Cup a more natural evolution has taken hold.
The younger members left over from that disappointing experience in Brazil—the likes of Joe Hart, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere—immediately seized the initiative in Euro 2016 qualifying. Their 2-0 defeat of a Switzerland side anticipated to trouble them was a perfect start for a refocused team.
"It was a bold approach but we decided there was no point coming here for a 0-0, we want this team to progress," Hodgson said at the time, per BBC Sport. "When we can counter-attack, the pace, energy and youth of the team is shown."
That positive, youth-led atmosphere has not only been retained since but also strengthened. While Hodgson has stayed loyal to those who have guided his team toward France this summer, it has not been at the expense of good, healthy competition.
The Tottenham contingent of Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Kane and Danny Rose have been joined by champions Leicester's Danny Drinkwater and particularly Vardy in energising the team as their next major tournament test loomed closer. Rashford's impressive late-season emergence earned him his surprise chance, one he excitingly took against Australia.
Hype has not been completely eschewed. March's 3-2 win over world champions Germany unsurprisingly raised expectations, especially around some of the squad's newer members (Kane, Vardy and Dier were all on the scoresheet in the comeback victory).
Still, with positives and negatives from the most recent friendlies, there is very much a wait-and-see feeling around this team right now. After the win over Australia, Hodgson stressed where he felt the priority in their remaining preparation time lay.
"But it isn’t just a question of quality of player—it’s also about the balance of the team," he said, per the Football Association's website. "There are a lot of factors to consider and we’ve been doing that non-stop in the build-up and playing two different teams has given me a chance to test some things out."
The Portugal game comes after Hodgson's confirmation of his final squad for Euro 2016 (information not available at the time of writing). If he approaches it like he has his previous two final pre-tournament friendlies, it will very much be utilised as a dress rehearsal.
Only Adam Lallana did not start in the World Cup opener with Italy after being selected for the warm-up versus Honduras—he was replaced by Raheem Sterling. Back in 2012, the sole omission from the Wembley send-off against Belgium for the first match with France was the injured Gary Cahill, with Joleon Lescott taking his place.
Those two games are among numerous examples in past tournament cycles of how mixed a bearing these results have on what follows. The performances themselves are informative but not necessarily definitive, leaving their value in an overall context definitely open to interpretation.
Hodgson had only just taken over prior to Euro 2012. Beating Belgium was a welcome confidence boost, but the focus was getting a look at his players in his system.
England were solid, albeit unspectacular, in that tournament, but in the circumstances it was a worthwhile exercise. Two years later, the test in humid conditions in Miami was ultimately of minimal value as a mediocre Honduras outfit did little to challenge Hodgson's men.
Taking on a talented, similarly youth-oriented Portugal outfit this week should be more conducive to getting England competitively prepared than the latter example. Not to mention the pushover jobs that were earlier home farewells.
Thrashing Iceland 6-1 before Euro 2004 (the then-precocious Rooney netting twice) or hammering Jamaica 6-0 prior to World Cup 2006 (Sven-Goran Eriksson's last game in charge on English soil, Peter Crouch doing "the robot") were nice enough send-offs. But neither really had much strategical value (beating Jamaica convincingly hardly helped England prepare for their far better Caribbean neighbours Trinidad and Tobago battling them bravely in the group stage) and barely stretched the players' legs.
The mood of the players is undoubtedly vital, but public and media atmosphere means little at this point.
England hosted the European Championships 20 years ago, so the pressure was on. After beating Hungary at Wembley, they headed to Asia where they defeated China and a Hong Kong XI.
Frustration at the uninspiring performances intensified considerably when the players were photographed celebrating, with further tales of shenanigans on the flight home also doing the rounds—the story of the infamous "dentist chair" and the subsequent furore recounted here by the Guardian's Georgina Turner and Tom Lutz.
It ended up bringing the team closer together. Writing in his autobiography Take Note!, the team's winger Darren Anderton went so far as to praise manager Terry Venables' "common sense in letting the players have a night out."
Times have changed since then. Hodgson is unlikely to be encouraging his team to bond through inebriation, but he will know a good feeling in the camp will be beneficial moving forward.
Portugal present a chance to reinforce that with a performance that reiterates the best of England's last couple of years. Ultimately and obviously, though, it is going to be about what they do in the tournament.
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