For February 12th I'm going back 18 years to 2003 and England's game against Australia at the Boleyn Ground, home of West Ham United at the time.
This game was something of an embarrassment for England who were ranked 8th in the World by FIFA compared to Australia's ranking of 50th at the time. Wembley Stadium remained out of use and the "England on Tour" Roadshow failed to take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the national team to a new audience by staying in London for this game. Use of the Boleyn Ground by England was a novelty however. This was the first and only time that England played a home game there.
The game is well known for having been Wayne Rooney's debut for England. He came on as a halftime substitute aged 17 years and 111 days to become England's youngest ever debutant and break a 125 year old record. Rooney's new record lasted only 3 years before being broken by Theo Walcott in May 2006. This was Sven-Goran Eriksson's 24th match in charge of England and he took the unusual step of changing the entire side at halftime which was the first time that this had ever happened in a full international. I have to say that I dislike friendly matches because they are frequently spoiled by too many substitutions that disrupt the flow of the game. This game was definitely spoiled. England, 0-2 down at halftime didn't give the players on the pitch in the first half the chance to make amends in the second and the match became an exercise in debuts. As well as Rooney there were debuts for James Beattie, Paul Robinson, Paul Konchesky, Jermaine Jenas and Francis Jeffers (his only full International appearance). Jeffers marked his appearance with a goal but it was to no avail as Australia scored a third to record a historic first win over England, to this day Australia's only win over England in 7 attempts.
CRB Match No. 1303
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