International football: Crouch happy with his contribution after England suffers 2-1 defeat to France
Peter Crouch, who scored the only goal of the match for England in their humbling 2-1 defeat to the Les Blues, expressed his satisfaction with his goal at Wembley for the Three Lions. Crouch was left on the bench at the start of the match
by Fabio Capello as the England manager preferred Andy Carroll, the tall Newcastle United in attack to the Tottenham man.
Andy Carroll did well but when Crouch came on, he had an instant impact in the 85th minute of the match as England immediately pulled a goal back thanks to his brilliant finish from an Ashley Young corner kick.
England were totally dominated by the visitors in the match which took place in London but there were some bright sparks for the men in white and blue who have been facing some stern criticism ever since they were knocked out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup by
Germany at the round of sixteen stage.
Crouch commented on his start from the bench and the eventual introduction into the match in his post-match interview. He said, "The manager was looking at other things and obviously knows what I can do. I've been around the set-up for
a while now. Pleasing to make the impact; obviously just disappointed with the result. I thought France in the first half played some great stuff to be honest and we had a little bit of a comeback at the end. Maybe if the game had gone on a little bit more,
we'd have had a different result."
Speaking about his 85th minute strike, the ex-Portsmouth man said, “It was quite quick to get the goal and obviously I'm very pleased. When you're on the bench, you hope for a chance and hope you can make an impact
when that comes and, thankfully, I did that."
England were eventually jeered off the pitch at the end of the match and Rio Ferdinand, the English national team captain was quite self critical as he said at the end of the encounter, “We didn't really put on a good show for the fans.
They voiced their opinions and you have to deal with that." However, the English fans were supportive of the debutants like Carroll and Henderson. Ferdinand remarked on the support as he added, "When young lads come into the team, it's great that the fans
get behind them and they did."
Nonetheless, Rio accepted that England needed to improve their game in the future. The defender stated, “Much to improve, I think. We have to realize that we had quite an inexperienced team out there: two debutants, one player with one
of his first two or three caps thrown in there. They're really the only positives I really take out of the game. Andy Carroll - with what service he did get - I thought he did well. Henderson, it was a great experience for him to be out there and playing in
front of 90,000 at Wembley and Kieran Gibbs I thought had a good game. We've got some young players that are in and around the squad and on the fringes.”
The English national team skipper concluded by saying, "It's down to the manager how he integrates them into the team and hopefully we can get rid of all the injuries we've had over the last couple of months, get them fit and integrate
the young lads with some experience in that side."
If England in earnest wants to improve they must give more chances to the younger generation after their Golden Generation fades away, which in reality is happening at the moment. The Italian manager Capello has a big job at hand not just
to construct a team for the Euro 2012 but the World Cup too and for that he must outline a path for the new manager when he retires after Euro 2012.
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