Peacock's pride
Friday, 01 July, 2011
Head Coach's joy at World Cup progress and a meeting with the Ambassador.
By James Marshall in Pachuca
After a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory against Argentina in a rain soaked Pachuca, England U17 Head Coach John Peacock spoke of his delight at reaching the Quarter Finals.
“I am very proud of my team, we showed fantastic character when taking the penalties, we were composed and thoroughly deserved the victory as we were the better side on the day,” said Peacock.
“We were disappointed to go a goal behind in the first ten minutes, we started extremely well hitting the bar and largely dominated most of the play.
“Their goal was against the run of play, but we showed tremendous character to come back from being behind in the game, and we deservedly went in at half time with the score level.
“We continued to dominate the second half and Max Clayton nearly snatched it at the end, but it wasn’t meant to be and we had to win the hard way on penalties.”
England will now play old rivals Germany in the Quarter Final of the World Cup in Morelia on Monday and Peacock gave his thoughts on playing the Germans again after also coming up against them in the U17 World Cup of 2007 in Korea.
“I am delighted to be in the Quarter Finals, we always seem to play Germany at some point either in a European or World competition,” added Peacock.
“We lost to Germany four years ago at the same stage of the World Cup in Korea and hopefully we will get a different outcome this time around.
“England and Germany games are always very close, Germany have qualified well but so have we, both teams are unbeaten at this World Cup, so something will have to give in the next game.
“They are always classic games there is always great rivalry between the two countries, but also great friendship as well.”
After the match the squad had the chance to meet the UK Ambassador for Mexico, Judith Macgregor, at their hotel in Pachuca.
The HM Ambassador was very complementary to the players and was delighted with the side’s victory.
Peacock added: “It’s a great privilege for the team to meet the Ambassador, it’s fantastic that she came and watched the match and I’m sure she is very proud of the boys today.”