Disappointment for England

Hi all

Well depsite a real fight things did not quite work out with England going down 5-3 to the Argentinians. It was a full blooded game as expected and a very hostile environment which the players coped with excellently.

The half court press worked well for the first ten minutes and frustrated the Argentinians by not allowing them to get round the back. However, 3 silly mistakes in our half allowed the Argentinians in and they punished us severely. Despite making some good chances we were unable to reply and went in at half time 3-0 down.

As you would expect following a good team talk the players came out with a roar and pulled a goal back through Dionne Grant for his first ever England goal. With pressure building on the Argentinians we began to find more space however another error allowed the clinical Argentinians to make it 4-1. England now changed tactics and went and chased all over the pitch and were rewarded with two quick goals to bring it back to 4-3. The fouls started to mount up quickly and the usual expected tactics of breaking the play up and rolling around were employed by the Argentinians. With them beginning to creak it was disappointing that they managed to get the next crucial score to go 5-3 with a well worked goal. Despite being on 5 fouls for the last 2 minutes Argentina managed to make no further fouls and the game finished allowing the Argentinians to celebrate as group winners. They will most likely play Ukraine in the first semi-final on Friday.

England now need at least a point against Spain tomorrow to guarantee qualification where Belarus wait in the second semi final on Friday, due to be played at 12pm. Well done to the whole squad for a very professional job performed in a "melting pot" environment where everyone kept their cool and did the country proud. We now begin the preparation for Spain (ranked 3rd in the world) to ensure we are ready to get back into the winning habit

Come on the boys.

PS. The squad were played a good luck message from Steven Gerrard today who phoned Joyce Watson to wish the lads luck the other evening. This along with all the other messages of support show how much attention is being paid to this tournamnet and are giving the lads a real lift. On behalf of the squad thank you for all of the kind thoughts and please keep them coming

Regards - Team England