A mission without planning wouldn’t take you anywhere! But a perfect plan would definitely help in attaining success. That was England’s story on a warm Saturday evening at Fatorda Stadium as they trounced strong contenders USA in the last FIFA U-17 World Cup match played in Goa.
For the English team, which sneaked into the quarters following their 5-3 win against Japan in tie-breaker, it was not an easy task. With the absence of top goal scorer Jadon Sancho, the side needed a solution to break their tough opponents.
However, the English side showed their dominance with some individual brilliance and scored the much needed goals to make their way into their first appearance in the semi-finals. The scoreline looked to be an easy affair, but the fight wasn’t as USA battled till the final whistle.
A team with attacking intent
Coming into the game, USA were in fine form in the current tournament. They beat some of the top teams before trouncing Paraguay 5-0 in the pre-quarters making them one of the favourites to clinch the title.
Their attacking football and goal scoring attributes gave their opponents something to worry about in the tournament. John Hackworth managed to create the fear amongst the opponents in their 16th appearance in the junior World Cup describing his side as the best squad he ever managed. And truly they were brilliant. The trio — Tim Weah, Josh Sergent, Andrew Carleton — had seven goals amongst them. Surely, it was a matter of worry to their opponents.
Coach’s tactics
That’s when England coach Steven Cooper played an important role as he chalked down the game plan for his side that help him achieve the result.
“It was great start to the game. Being up 2-0, it was pleasing. We had a game plan, that is to get the ball from US and exploit them in certain areas and we managed to do it,” said England coach Steven Cooper.
Perhaps, that was the best solution to contain a strong US side, who were are brilliant in their attack and learnt to have 40 per cent accuracy on shots on targets.
England waited for the right time to attack and did manage to convert their chances in the opening quarter which saw Brewster score a brace in the span of four minutes.
The third goal scorer Morgan Gibbs, who worked tirelessly on the flanks for the European outfit, also acknowledged coaches game plan and said, “I think the game against Japan really surprised us. And then we recovered well for this game. We had our game plan and we stuck to our plan and performed well.”
Gibbs praised the team members for their outstanding performance and said, “The boys worked hard in the game. We showed good counter-attack and obviously my goal came from the counter attack; that was a good play.”
The penultimate hurdle!
Now awaiting the Brazil in semi-finals and just two steps away in guiding England to their first U-17 World Cup, Steven Cooper said he would take each game at a time and would stick to his game plan.
“We won’t get carried away. We will recover now and get ready for the semi-finals,” said Cooper.
Brazil has a 100 per cent win record in the tournament. Coach Steven Cooper faces another hurdle on his journey to clinch the first title.
“Our intentions will always be the same and that’s the whole point of having a plan, you can put it into action in the most extreme of situations and it doesn’t come any bigger at this moment in time than the semi-final of a World Cup,” he concluded setting his eyes on the prestigious trophy.
