How very refreshing. An unfriendly friendly. Spain vs England on Wednesday surpassed all expectations. And while everyone else in the media rubbished it, I thought the first half in particular was great knockabout fun.
Modern international football throws up all kinds of rubbish outside of the major competitions. Friendlies were becoming a farce. Fifa had to step in to reverse the trend of 11-man substitutions and non-matches that robbed the public — in the stands and on TV — of decent entertainment.
We all expected namby-pamby nonsense, especially now David Beckham and Michael Owen are playing for Real Madrid and José Reyes is playing for Arsenal.
But no, even before the game we had Reyes describing Manchester United’s Gary Neville as dirty and there was racist chanting on Tuesday night in the under-21 clash between the two countries. That racist abuse continued, at an even greater volume, in the senior game.
Disgraceful. Perhaps that’s why Ashley Cole nearly broke a couple of Spaniards in half. Particularly Joaquin, who gave him a torrid time down the Spanish right flank. But that was after Neville had clattered Reyes and been kicked in retaliation.
The Spaniards, who scored an early, very lucky header through fullback Asier del Horno, were given an extremely dodgy penalty when Paul Robinson got to the ball brilliantly ahead of Raul, but Greek referee George Kasnaferis pointed to the spot. Robinson saved brilliantly, and it all got nastier.
Wayne Rooney gave Iker Casillas, the young Real goalkeeper, a good shove in the back, which put him through the photographers, over the hoardings and into the crowd. Rooney was booked and shoved about, then had a go at a couple of other Spaniards, who had described him before the game as ‘looking like a furniture removal manâ€.
Rooney then gave Marchena a right kicking, and after 42 minutes, Sven-Goran Eriksson was forced to act, taking him off for former Leeds United wildman Alan Smith. When you bring Smith on to make peace, you know you’re in trouble!