England Learn Little from Ireland Friendly That Was Torture for All Involved

With no excitement to speak of on the pitch, it was left to those watching—those gluttons for punishment—to try and generate some entertainment of their own.

In the first half, that arrived courtesy of the two sets of supporters inside the stadium, as they exchanged witty, amusing chants on what was a glorious day in Dublin. But as the second half of England’s soporific, tortuous 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland stumbled on, even that enthusiasm was soon washed away, and it left to those on social media—always the last ones standing—to poke fun at what we had all just suffered through.

Never has "after the Lord Mayor’s show" seemed more appropriate. Following the excitement, the attacking chances and breathtaking, incessant quality of the football on display during Saturday night’s Champions League final, Sunday’s game at the Aviva Stadium was almost its exact antithesis.

It was not until well into the second half that England had a shot on target in an exceptionally dull game, even by the standards of most international friendlies, and over the entire 90 minutes, you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of genuine goalscoring opportunities created by either team.

Most of those fell to Ireland too, with long balls into the box invariably proving the most productive route to danger. That uninspiring dynamic would have been more palatable if both teams had otherwise been busy cancelling each other out with the tenacity of their play in defensive areas, creating excitement through combative play, but it was the lack of any such spice that soured the mood very quickly.

For that, perhaps the hosts deserve the majority of the blame: Ireland head coach Martin O’Neill stuck resolutely to his pre-match declarations that he would use this friendly primarily as a fitness session ahead of Saturday’s potentially vital European Championship qualifier with Scotland.

England, who waited longer than their opponents before turning to the substitutes’ bench—Roy Hodgson presumably wanted his starters to increase their familiarity with each other—found it difficult to motivate themselves in the face of such a challenge, with midfielder Jack Wilshere about the only one transmitting a sense of urgency and frustration throughout the first half.

“I think overall we are disappointed,” Wilshere told ITV afterward. “I think at times we looked like we were going to create something and then it broke down.

“We know we are better than that—perhaps it was good to get the cobwebs off, after a few weeks off, but we’ll take the positives.”

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Wilshere was England’s best player for much of the match, yet he was also the clearest symbol of why this game was a waste of time for the Three Lions. After a tough week that saw Hodgson tell him to exercise more self-control, relayed by BBC Sport, after his actions following Arsenal’s FA Cup win ludicrously invoked the Football Association’s ire, that lack of self-discipline was in evidence on the pitch on Saturday.

Deployed as the deepest man in England’s diamond midfield, perhaps very loosely in the role Sergio Busquets played for Barcelona less than 24 hours earlier, Wilshere quickly became frustrated at the tempo of the game and regularly drove forward with the ball—often forcing Jordan Henderson to sit in behind him to cover the space he had left.

This was an admirable show of spirit from a spectator’s perspective—finally, someone trying to bring the game to life! However, it was a dubious approach from a tactical one, the 23-year-old completely losing his positional discipline and passing priorities in a way Busquets would simply never countenance.

Selected as the anchor of the side in a diamond formation, Wilshere was often pushing forward far beyond his midfield partners with the ball at his feet, trying to be their primary creator as well. It was the sort of straying from the plan that England are always stunned to find is ruthlessly punished by the best teams on the biggest stages.

“It’s a new role for me. I’m still learning it,” Wilshere admitted. “As England teams we don’t get much time together, so we have to make the most of the time we have together to work on the things we need to work on.”

Since crashing and burning at the World Cup last summer England have not exactly been presented with many real tests, with the current qualifying campaign for the 2016 European Championship little more than a stroll in the park. If Hodgson is not already planning for next summer in earnest, then he certainly should be. Overall, however, it was hard to see what was learned or gained from this 90 minutes of stumbling through the motions.

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Ireland unashamedly used this game as a fitness exercise, and perhaps ultimately, that’s all England ended up getting out of it too—with debutant Jamie Vardy about the only one with any real reason to remember the afternoon.

“It’s way below what we were hoping to achieve,” Hodgson said, also speaking to ITV. “All credit to Ireland, they caused us problems, particularly with balls to the front players.

“I think we needed this game and this level of competition. Going into the game against Slovenia, there’s a lot of things we want to improve on.”