So England play Latvia tonight. Our only Latvian player to date has been Andrejs Stolcers who appeared 33 times for us and scored two goals.
The link takes you to our 5-0 hammering of Watford on Boxing Day 2000. Stolcers scored our fifth goal that day after coming on as a substitute for Fabrice Fernandes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqGUpCoH88
His only other goal for us came in our 3-1 win at WBA earlier in December 2000. Again he had come on as a substitute for Fernandes. I remember we were hanging on a bit at 2-1 in that game and Stolcers scored the clincher in the 87th minute.
We have a Latvian youth player at the Academy: Markuss Gomins, who has played for their U-17 team. Brought up in the UK and goes to school locally (he's in the same form as one of my kids).
https://www.uefa.com/under17/teams/players/250195918--markuss-gomins/
Quote from: Ludlow Richard on March 24, 2025, 04:12:13 PMSo England play Latvia tonight. Our only Latvian player to date has been Andrejs Stolcers who appeared 33 times for us and scored two goals.
The link takes you to our 5-0 hammering of Watford on Boxing Day 2000. Stolcers scored our fifth goal that day after coming on as a substitute for Fabrice Fernandes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqGUpCoH88
He also scored 2 goals for us in a 3-1 Cup game against Bury (I think it was Bury).
His only other goal for us came in our 3-1 win at WBA earlier in December 2000. Again he had come on as a substitute for Fernandes. I remember we were hanging on a bit at 2-1 in that game and Stolcers scored the clincher in the 87th minute.
He also scored 2 goals for us in a 3-1 Cup game against Bury (I think it was Bury). Our line up in that game included 11 different nationalities which is a good pub quiz question
An uninspiring performance so far!
Actually, I take that back its rubbish as usual!
Quote from: bill taylors apprentice on March 24, 2025, 09:01:04 PMAn uninspiring performance so far!
Actually, I take that back its rubbish as usual!
Same old, same old, I suppose.
But I have sympathy for the England players and new manager - on a hiding to nothing, expected to win against these nations, but always faced with a team putting everyone behind the ball, and difficult to break down.
Also, not great practise for when they actually face top national sides in tournaments.
England have to improve the quality of the delivery into the box. Dangerous crosses with players in the box to pick up 2nd balls is the way to break them down.
But another issue for England is teams are content to lose as long as they keep the score down. Latvia didn't seriously try to get back into the game once they were losing. If they had it would likely have been 5-0 or more.