Eastick: 'It could've gone either way'
Saturday, 26 September, 2009
Head Coach's assessment of England's World Cup opener.
Nicholas Veevers in Ismailia
England U20s Head Coach Brian Eastick saw his team desperately unfortunate not to get at least a point out of their opening game of the World Cup in Egypt on Saturday night.
A stunning late goal from Uruguay substitute Tabara Viudez saw them edge a victory at the Ismailia Stadium, but there were more than enough positives to take from the performance into Tuesday's game with Ghana.
"It was a very close encounter, a very close game," said Eastick.
"We said at half time that we didn't think the tempo was going to change and it looked like it was going to be a 0-0 or a 1-0 either way and that proved to be the case.
"With ten minutes to go I'm sure their coach would have been as nervous as I was, as one chance can sway the game one way or the other.
"And unfortunately for us, it went Uruguay's way and it was a very good goal and the lad took it very well."
With the humidity in the stadium and Uruguay's physical strength, Eastick felt that perhaps played a part in their success.
"I thought they were physically stronger than us in the last 20 minutes but we have a very, very young team, probably the youngest in the tournament," he explained.
"I think we perhaps lacked a bit of cutting edge in making the most of the chances that we had.
"Uruguay probably had that little bit more cutting edge up front.
"But for 80 minutes, I thought there was absolutely nothing in the game and if we can perform like that in the last two games, we should have a good chance of going to the next stage."