England 1-0 Germany
U19 International Friendly
7.00pm, Tuesday 18 November 2008
Weston Homes Community Stadium, Colchester United FC
England U19s Head Coach Brian Eastick was delighted with his team’s defensive discipline in their 1-0 friendly win over Germany.
Eastick's Young Lions had already qualified for the UEFA U19 European Championship Elite Round and faced a stern test against fellow qualifiers
Germany on Tuesday night.
After seeing his side lose 4-1 against
Serbia in their last outing, Eastick knew his side would have to tighten up at the back against the dangerous Germans, who had won all three of their qualifying group matches to reach the Elite Round.
"
Serbia are a good team and did us on the break on three occasions. We thought it was very naive defending," he told TheFA.com.
"Having seen Germany play a couple of times on DVD, we knew they were also very good on the break, so it was important we prepared ourselves and managed the team so the shape behind the ball was right tonight.
"We played the three in midfield, mainly with Jack Rodwell holding, because I knew they would play one up with one coming off into the hole, so we felt it was important to play compact and not go too gung-ho because they're extremely dangerous on the break."
The only goal of the game was scored by captain Henri Lansbury just before the half-hour mark, capping off a great move as England attacked at pace.
"It was a terrific bit of combination play and Danny Welbeck set it up really nicely [for Lansbury] and when it nestled in the bottom corner we knew it was a great strike."
Rather than forcing his players to fit into a system, Eastick's approach to the game is geared towards getting the best from his players - but he stressed that defensive discipline is just as important as attacking fluidity.
"What we try to do with the players is not tie them down too much positionally, but let them go and play and express themselves.
But if you play against teams like
Germany, you know at some stage in the game they will get some momentum and it's important you defend well.
"I thought we dug in and, in the main, defended very well.
We can argue that at times we gave the ball away far too cheaply and if we had the luxury of having the players for another day, then we'd have gone over that in the debrief.
But overall there wasn't much in the game.
It was a very tight game and it took a very good goal to settle it."
The team performance pleased the Head Coach greatly, but he did have specific praise for a few of his young players.
"I thought young Kieran Trippier, who's come into the team this year, was absolutely super until he got injured.
He's really developing into a good international full-back.
But there were some good performances all round.
"Gavin Hoyte at the back and young Nathan Baker (who was also making his U19 debut) also did very well. It's very pleasing.
"We've got some good young players and the friendlies are about giving them the opportunity to show what they can do. We learn more about them all the time."
England
1 Ben Amos, 2 Kieran Trippier (12 Jordan Spence, 87), 3 Lee Hills, 4 Jack Rodwell, 5 Gavin Hoyte, 6 Nathan Baker, 7 Henri Lansbury (c) (17 Michael Woods, 76), 8 Danny Drinkwater, 9 Danny Welbeck (16 Nathan Delfouneso, 46), 10 Jacob Mellis (15 Rhys Murphy), 11 Victor Moses (14 Jonathan Franks, 68)
Subs 13 Alex Smithies
Coach Brian Eastick
Kit colours Red shirts, White shorts, Red socks
Goalkeeper All Yellow
Germany
1 Olivier Baumann, 12 Patrick Funk, 3 Jan Tilman Kirchhoff ( 8 Ikay Gundogan 87), 5 Shervin Radjabali-Fardi, 4 Niels Teixeira, 16 Sebastian Rudy, 6 Kevin Wolze (c), 10 Taner Yalcin (18 Hama Juvhel Tsoumou 71), 11 Fabian Backer (13 Boris Vukcevic, 46), 7 Lewis Holtby, 9 Richard Sakuta-Pasu
Subs 12 Rene Vollath, 2 Fabian Broghammer, 15 Tony Jantschke, 17 Sebastian Rode
Yellow Cards Kirchhoff 33, Wolze 56 and 81, Funk 76
Red Card Wolze 81 (second booking)
Coach Heiko Herrlich
Kit colours White shirts, Black shorts, White socks
Goalkeeper All Black
Referee Kevin Friend
Assistants Barry Holderness and Matthew Foley
Fourth Official Ray Lee
Attendance 9,692