Unconvincing England

So, the pressure was on. England got the result they needed in Andorra, but probably not in the way they wanted it; in fact it was probably one of the most depressing games of football I've ever seen.

It was always going to be that way though. Andorra decided that defence was the best form of attack, and put 11 men behind the ball for most of the game. They did everything possible to stop England playing. And England had no reply. They couldn't find some other way to break Andorra down and only a couple of quick goals from Joe Cole, who must be due a place in the starting line up, saved England. To be honest, I don't blame the team too much for this performance. Andorra did make it a niggly, difficult kind of game, and at least England did the job. How things go against Croatia on Wednesday is far more important. If we come out of that with six points out of six, then you'd have to say its been a successful week for England, regardless of the performance on Saturday.

Anyway, the man in charge in Barcelona on Saturday was Turkey's Cuneyt Cakir. I'd never seen him referee before, and so was interested to see how he'd handle it. The nature of the game meant that it would probably be niggly, stop-start and indeed a more challenging game than the one in Zagreb on Wednesday. Overall, he did a pretty decent job.

Positives - and there are several. He played some good advantages. He wasn't conned by the Andorrans, who seemed to make the most of any slight contact, notably the accidental contact by Defoe on the Andorran keeper in the first minute. He dealt with that pretty well and without unnecessary recourse to the notebook. Indeed, he never went to book people unnecessarily, while also not missing any obvious bookings. One of the yellow cards was for an Andorran waving an imaginary yellow card, which is something people should be booked for more often. I'm not sure the referee could speak a lot of English or Spanish, but he let his body language do the talking, and that seemed to be effective too.

The main negative was his use of the whistle. He blew it, but every time it was a long blast - there was no variation. In order to use the whistle most effectively, you need to vary its tone and length - a short blast for minor offences just to stop play, long blasts for major fouls and confrontations. Players will recognise then how serious the referee is about something when there is a major incident. A subtle point maybe, but still irritating!

I'm not saying the referee saw everything or got everything spot on, but he handled a difficult match pretty well. There wasn't a chance for him to shine much by contributing to a fast-flowing attacking game of football, but it was certainly not a bad showing, and on this evidence I'd be pleased to see Cuneyt Cakir's name appear again for European encounters. He was better than the England team, at any rate.