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Why England lost

Sitting in a wheelchair just weeks ago, the sight of Luis Suarez wheeling away in celebration has all but sent Roy Hodgson’s England side out of the competition. TODAY’s football columnist Adrian Clarke (sports [at] mediacorp.com.sg) looks at how England’s prospects unravelled so quickly.

Sitting in a wheelchair just weeks ago, the sight of Luis Suarez wheeling away in celebration has all but sent Roy Hodgson’s England side out of the competition. TODAY’s football columnist Adrian Clarke (sports [at] mediacorp.com.sg) looks at how England’s prospects unravelled so quickly.

DODGY DECISIONS

Big matches are often decided by fine margins, and a succession of atrocious individual choices at crucial times, particularly the sequence that led to Uruguay’s second goal, let England down.

Watching goalkeeper Fernando Muslera’s long goal-kick, Phil Jagielka had to either attack the ball or drop off for the knockdown. The Everton man did neither. Unaware of the quandary behind him, Steven Gerrard dithered in his aerial duel with Cavani, letting the ball skim off his head instead.

And the third in that triumvirate of erros was Phil Jagielka failing to anticipate. Luis Suarez did. Now, England are all but out.

FROZEN STIFF

It’s unfair to say England were gripped by fear, but they were significantly more rigid than they were in Manaus.

The swashbuckling energy, rotation and interchangeability that Hodgson’s men teased us with against Italy was replaced by a more familiar wooden, and mechanical style of play. What should have been a fluid, fearsome front four just looked flat.

CROWDED OUT

Expecting to face a straightforward 4-4-2, England instead had to contend with a narrow 4-1-3-2 formation designed with the sole intention of crowding the Three Lions in that all-important central spine.

With his wingers tucking in, Cavani dropping back to do his share of defensive spoiling, and the aggressive Arevalo Rios allowed to focus solely on being Wayne Rooney’s shadow for the night, a pumped up Uruguay did not let England settle.

Until ten minutes into the second-half, Glen Johnson and Leighton Baines were too afraid to venture inside enemy territory, fearful of the counter from Cavani and Suarez. Once they did, England made decent inroads, and Johnson’s assist for Rooney’s equaliser was outstanding. However, that threat fizzled out once Oscar Tabarez reverted Uruguay to a 4-4-1-1.

THE HERO & THE VILLAIN

Suarez’s performance defied belief. Having hardly kicked a ball since the end of the Premier League season and nursing an injured knee, the Liverpool talisman’s effectiveness bordered on the super-human.

The way he pictured the space, the scenario, the type of finish needed way before everyone else for both strikes was frightening.

LAST WORD

Truly world-class talents make the difference when it matters most, and that was what separated England and Uruguay in Sao Paulo.

While Rooney played well and scored a deserved goal, his eight-yard miss with the goal gaping would not have been spurned by the opposition’s star turn.

If a half-fit Suarez could do did this to England, the rest of the competition better to begin to worry.

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