29 May 2008
VIDEO: Owen Hargreaves interview

Manchester United midfielder Owen hargreaves talks to TheFA.com following England's 2-0 win over USA.


England

2-0

USA

Terry 38, Gerrard 59

 


International Friendly
8.05pm, Wednesday 28 May 2008
Wembley Stadium

Owen Hargreaves believes there are a great deal of positives to take from the performance and victory over USA at Wembley.

But he called on everyone to have patience as England look to build towards the World Cup Qualifiers in September.

John Terry captained the side and scored the first goal as England overcame Bob Bradley's team by two goals, and Hargreaves says there are positives to take from the match.

Speaking exclusively to TheFA.com, Hargreaves said: "I thought it was a good team performance, there were a lot of positives and I thought we worked well. We looked strong and some really good things came from the game tonight.

"John (Terry) deserved it, he played well and it's a great moment. That's the beauty of football, it's not always perfect but you have an opportunity in another game a few days later and he scored a goal that was really important for us in the flow of the game.

"For me it was great to be out there, it was my first game at Wembley from the beginning so it was big one for me."

While there were moments of promise, Hargreaves was also quick to stress that England still have work to do in the coming months.

"We feel good obviously, but let's be patient," the Manchester Untied midfielder admitted.

"Let's take it step-by-step, we're trying to build something special and it's going to take time and it's not all going to be highs. Today was a good day, and we'll see how the next one is.

"There were some great individual performances, and obviously Becks for winning his 100th cap which is a tremendous achievement, and very difficult nowadays. Then there's John Terry, it was fabulous for him to score and I was really pleased for him.

"All across the board, I thought Rio played well, Stevie G looked very good, Jermain Defoe created some chances, and I just thought it was a good team performance.

"We worked hard and we looked at some things the boss wanted us to improve on. We thought the France game was an improvement on the Switzerland game, although we lost, we kept the ball well against a good team but we didn't really pose a threat in behind.

"But I thought today we had that threat, Jermain and Wayne ran in behind and I thought Stevie G did the same. We felt like we could score when we felt like it."

England
1 David James, 2 Wes Brown (13 Glen Johnson, 57) 3 Ashley Cole (14 Wayne Bridge, 82), 4 Owen Hargreaves, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 John Terry (c), 7 David Beckham (17 David Bentley, 46) 8 Frank Lampard (21 Gareth Barry, 57) 9 Jermain Defoe (25 Peter Crouch, 68) 10 Steven Gerrard, 11 Wayne Rooney (22 Joe Cole, 78)
Substitutes not used 12 Joe Hart, 15 Stephen Warnock, 16 Jonathan Woodgate, 18 Phil Jagielka, 19 David Wheater, 20 Tom Huddlestone, 23 Stewart Downing, 24 Ashley Young, 26 Dean Ashton, 27 Theo Walcott, 28 Gabriel Agbonlahor, 29 Joe Lewis

Coach
Fabio Capello
Colours
White shirts, blue shorts, white socks

USA
1 Tim Howard (18 Brad Guzan, 46) 3 Carlos Bocanegra (c), 4 Michael Bradley, 12 Heath Pearce, 6 Steven Cherundolo (27 Frankie Hejduk, 46) 7 DaMarcus Beasley (11 Eddie Lewis, 68) 8 Clint Dempsey, 9 Eddie Johnson (14 Nate Jaqua, 89) 13 Ricardo Clark, 16 Josh Wolff (19 Freddy Adu, 68) 22 Oguchi Onyewu
Substitutes not used 2 Danny Califf, 26 Mo Edu.

Coach: Bob Bradley
Colours: Grey shirts, white shorts, grey socks 

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)
Assistant Referees: Dimitrios Bozaizides & Dimitrios Saraidaris (both Greece)
Fourth Official: Peter Walton (England)

Attendance: 71,233