Today I'm going back 21 years to 2001 and my one and only International match played at the old and now demolished White Hart Lane between England and the Netherlands (or Holland as we Brits seem to insist on calling them). The attendance was 35,238 and the match was the first game England had ever played in the month of August.
Kickoff was delayed by 15 minutes because of traffic congestion outside the stadium. The game was stated as being "vital preparation" by both managers with each having important World Cup qualifiers coming up. England had the minor matter of needing to beat the Germans in Munich. England largely made a mockery of it being a vital game by fielding a team that was some way away from being the Munich starting line-up however. Only four of the starters that night also started in Munich (Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, David Beckham and Paul Scholes).
This was England manager Sven Goran Eriksen's sixth match in charge following five straight victories and, on the night, he selected a solid core of five Manchester United players plus debutante Owen Hargreaves, a future Red Devil. Hargreaves had an interesting background and was eligible to pay for Canada, Wales or England. He was born in Calgary, Alberta to a Welsh mother and an English father and initially elected to play for Wales, making three appearances for the Welsh Under-19s in 1998 before deciding to switch to England in 2000. It should be borne in mind that this kind of switching between countries can only be done up until a player makes a competitive international appearance for a full national side at which point, unless there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. the break-up of the former Yugoslavia), they are no longer permitted to switch. Hargreaves made 218 appearances for his first club Bayern Munich scoring 10 goals before being signed by Manchester United for around £17 Million. He would go on to make just 39 appearances due to injury and was described by Sir Alex Ferguson as being one of his most disappointing signings. Hargreaves made 42 appearances for England (no goals), almost all whilst at Bayern Munich and he became the first player to be selected to play for England despite never having lived there and was second only to Joe Baker in terms of being selected despite never having played in the English League structure. Hargreaves career ended with 2 appearances for Manchester City in their title winning season and he finished with overall club appearances numbering 261 and scoring 13 goals.
England were battered in the featured game with both goals in a 0-2 defeat coming in the first half. It could have been much worse for England too. In the 38th minute Mark van Bommell hit a stunning drive from 35 yards which arrowed into the top right hand corner. England's keeper Nigel Martyn of Leeds United had no chance of saving it. It was a magnificent strike and Holland's killer second goal came just a minute later when Martyn could only parry another shot from distance, this time by Boudewijn Zenden. Ruud van Nistelrooij was on hand to sweep home the rebound. Annoyingly, from my point of view at least, the match as a spectacle was ruined by the sheer number of substitutions, most of which came at half-time. Sven changed ten of his starting XI with only Jamie Carragher playing the entire 90 minutes. Louis van Gaal substituted just eight members of his side.
England's next match was a triumph for Sven as they ran riot on Germany winning by 5-1 to seize the initiative in their World Cup qualification group. England's momentum took them all the way to the Japan and South Korean World Cup in 2002. Ironically, given their showing in the featured match at White Hart Lane, Holland failed to qualify from their Group, finishing third behind Portugal and the Republic of Ireland.
CRB Match No. 1232
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