Then after I make wholesale changes (this is a friendly, after all) and we huff and puff a few more shots on target that Baía naturally pushes away, in the last minute Pinto dribbles past my entire defence and lashes home a second goal for 2-0 and that’s how the game ends. Naturally, the first thing that happens in the second half is they win a free-kick on the edge of the box and João Pinto curls it into the top corner. This is light-years away from the last time we played them.
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Portugal, by comparison, haven’t created a single chance yet. Ignore the sixes and sevens and focus on Dyer, Defoe and Ehiogu’s aerial dominance. He is just unreal – if he could just put a few of these efforts away I wouldn’t even need a striker.Īs it happens, Defoe is also putting his shots on target but Baía is annoyingly equal to everything and at half time we’re still at zeroes, but it’s been a great display. He then takes a pass from Becks in midfield, drives through the Portuguese defence and cracks another shot on Baía’s target, before meeting a Bowyer cross with a bicycle kick that spins wildly into the crowd. Could Defoe be my guy?įour minutes in, Dyer has already forced Vítor Baía into tipping a rangy drive over for a corner and then, from the resulting set piece, slaps the crossbar with a flying header. Nobody else is really stepping up to make that position their own. Owen is nowhere near as prolific as he ought to be for either club or country, Robbie Fowler is always injured and Michael Dunwell has got three goals against the Faroe Islands but that’s about it. Nobody I’ve played in the lone striker role has really impressed me it’s been, quite literally, hit and miss. John Curtis has started the season brilliantly for Blackburn, far more so than the horrible numbers being posted by both Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell, while John Terry and Ugo Ehiogu continue to be monstrous for Chelsea and I can see no reason not to unleash them.Ĭarrick is the most glamorous option for DMC so he sits behind Bowyer and Becks, my two most consistent (I think, I’m not really using stats for this) CMs, while Kieron Dyer has generally impressed me throughout this challenge – especially since I moved him behind the striker, so that’s where he stays.Īs for my centre-forward, I give Jermain Defoe the nod. We go with the 3-5-2 to which I’ve become rather affectionate. I just like having new faces around the place.
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In the end, I plump for 29-year-old Gregan, who has one of the highest average tackles-per-game in England and an average rating of 7.56 for Preston. Upon confirming my squad, I’m hit with an injury apocalypse to the DMC position that leaves me with the unenviable decision of whether to call up Sean Gregan or Seth Johnson as cover for apparently now first-choice Michael Carrick, since Sean Davis, Steven Gerrard, David Prutton and Owen Hargreaves (who I don’t rate that highly anyway, but my goodness) are all crocked. We sensibly warm up for the biggest tournament of our lives (read: my life) with a friendly against the hosts, Portugal, in Lisbon, in our final fixture of 2003. But is it really coming home?Įpisode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 The challenge: CM01/02 superfan Mike Paul is replacing Sven-Goran Eriksson in the England hot seat as he tries to lead the Golden Generation to the unprecedented glory nostalgic social media posts tell us they should have achieved.