England - The Roaring Lions

2014-04-23 07:09#171268 AAN : Another very good win mate!

Thanks man!

2 more great updates Josh! I love the player spotlight thing, and the fact you take the time to report the other matches...keep up the great work!

2014-04-23 10:39#171304 TodayAtTomorrow : 2 more great updates Josh! I love the player spotlight thing, and the fact you take the time to report the other matches...keep up the great work!

Thanks so much man! Glad you're enjoying the story.

In these new articles, we will be looking at potential players that Roy Hodgson could take to France for Euro 2016, and this week, we start off with Norwich winger Nathan Redmond.

Nathan Redmond made his dream move to the Premier League by joining Norwich for £2,000,000 from Birmingham, and within his first season, he impressed by scoring 7 goals and getting 5 assists in 28 Premier League games.

Redmond tends to try and take on the opposition's full-back before trying to drill in a cross from the edge of the byline, which is what Roy Hodgson is crying out for, as his current wingers like the cut inside and take on the shot rather than set up other players with crosses.

Redmond has played some international football already in his career for Gareth Southgate's England under 21's, which holds a lot of young English talent waiting to get a call to play at senior level. Redmond has played 9 times, getting 2 assists but has been consistent throughout, getting an average rating of 6.90.

Redmond made his dream to move to Premier League signing for Chris Hughton's Norwich in 2013.

Redmond has played 10 times for Norwich already this season, becoming a more regular starter, and already has 2 goals and 2 assists which has helped his team push up the table to a Europa League place, and with a few months of the season left, Norwich could be set to qualify for a European competition for the first time in their history.

Redmond has been scouted by some of the major English clubs, with Arsenal rumoured to be interested in the young winger, however Chris Hughton has told the media that Arsenal will have to 'pay big' if they want to possibly sign Redmond in the upcoming summer transfer window, but Redmond has clearly stated he wants to stay with Norwich and is set to sign a new deal soon.

If Redmond performs well from now until the end of the seaon, he could well be on the plane to France as one of Roy Hodgson's 'surprise inclusions' for the Euro 2016's where Redmond will play in his first ever senior level competition for England.

Really nice update Josh, I quite like Redmond

2014-04-23 12:21#171332 TylerK : Really nice update Josh, I quite like Redmond

Thanks Tyler! Redmond looks very good currently.

Anyone who can cross a ball has to be good! I bet he'll be part of your plans soon!

2014-04-23 15:49#171364 qwertyman : Anyone who can cross a ball has to be good! I bet he'll be part of your plans soon!

Yeah he's looking solid right now.

Roy Hodgson calls up Tottenham forward Harry Kane and Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse to play in the Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania.

Roy Hodgson surprised us in the World Cup calling up a few un-familiar names, and yet against, the England manager has surprised us once more calling up young Harry Kane and James Ward-Prowse to his 23 man squad to face Lithuania at Wembley.

Hodgson was set to pick Wayne Rooney, however the Manchester United veteran decided that he didn't want to be called up and left Roy Hodgson with the opportunity to call up another forward from an ever-growing national pool, in which he ruled out all experienced options and chose Harry Kane due to his good form for Tottenham.

Kane has been very impressive in the few games he has started for Burnley on loan, scoring 6 goals and getting 1 assist in 16 appearances, which for a lad of his age is very good due to his limited starts. Kane is set to return to Spurs at the end of the season and is promised to get more game time at White Hart Lane.

Harry Kane celebrating after scoring a goal for Tottenham against Newcastle United, which was his only goal in 4 appearances before moving on loan to Burnley.

Hodgson also decided to re-call Southampton youngster James Ward-Prowse, who got a chance in England's World Cup qualifiers and impressed Hodgson and his England team, which is why Hodgson decided to call him up after James Milner pulled out of selection with a fractured arm, which gave the opportunity to James Ward-Prowse to play against Lithuania.

Ward-Prowse has also impressed this season for Southampton, contributing to 5 assists in 25 appearances for The Saints, getting three Player of the Match awards and having an average rating of 7.11, which shows his consistency throughout the domestic season.

James Ward-Prowse has started the most games for Southampton in his entire career, playing mainly centrally but on occasions he has played much closer to his defence.

It is unknown whether Hodgson will start both the youngsters against Lithuania, but it is looking quite likely that they will play sometime in the game, either starting or coming on from the subs bench, but England's future players are looking very bright.

Former England captain David Beckham has accepted a coaching role from The FA and will start his job immediately.

David Beckham has returned to football after retiring from the game two seasons ago, becoming an England first team coach. He will work alongside Sir Roy Hodgson and also his old Manchester Untied team-mate, Gary Neville.

Although Beckham has no qualifications in coaching, he is delighted to get the job and wants to contribute as much as he can by helping the players reach new heights as England are currently chasing the Euro 2016 trophy and are doing remarkably well in their group, winning three games out of three.

Beckham is hoping to gain experience as a coach for England and stated that someday he'd like to be a manager, but he is currently solely focused on the task at hand for England and will try to get the best out of the players, mainly the younger ones such as James Ward-Prowse and John Stones.

Beckham had a great career for England, let's look back at his most memorable moments in an England shirt:

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Beckham made his first appearance for the England national football team on 1 September 1996, in a World Cup qualifying match against Moldova, which England won 3-0 and Beckham performed well in, who would have thought that at that time, Beckham would have an amazing career both for domestic clubs and for England?

Beckham playing for England on his debut against Moldova, which England won comfortably 3-0.

However a couple years later in the 1998 World Cup, David Beckham was controversially sent off as Diego Simeone over-reacted to a challenge made by David Beckham which ultimately got the England midfield sent off, causing England to eventually lose in a penalty shoot-out. Many fans and journalists blamed Beckham for the defeat and he received abuse, with the Daily Mirror printing a dartboard with a picture of him centred on the bullseye and Beckham receiving multiple death threats.


Beckham as he fouled Simeone and eventually got sent off against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.

Beckham carried on receiving abuse but redeemed himself as he scored a free-kick against Greece to level the game 2-2 in injury time to qualify for the World Cup. England needed either a draw or a win to qualify but were trailing 2-1 into injury time, Sherringham got fouled 8 yards from the Greek penalty area and Beckham scored a beautiful curling strike over the wall into the back of the net, furthermore that same year he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.


Beckham as he scored a curling free-kick over the Greek wall and into the back of the net to redeem himself and help England qualify for the World Cup.

Beckham became a key part in each of England's World Cup's and Euro's, scoring 17 goals in 115 appearances for the Three Lions, he retired from international football in 2010 and remains a England legend to this very day. England fans are delighted to see that Beckham has return to help coach England.


Beckham in his final few matches for England in the 2010 World Cup, in which he ultimately decided to retire shortly after.

Nice update, enjoyed reading it. Congrats on SoTM nomination, and what looks like it, a win

2014-04-24 02:22#171460 Pauker : Nice update, enjoyed reading it. Congrats on SoTM nomination, and what looks like it, a win

Thanks Pauker! I'm glad you enjoyed reading that update! And as much as I'd love t0 win SoTM, Nick deserves it more

England debutee Harry Kane scored his first international goal to help England defeat 3rd placed Lithuania 3-0.

England defeated Slovenia to make it 3 wins out of win in Group B, and were set to take on their next challenge, Lithuania, who have been making very good progress in the group, rising up to third place and hoping to try and restrict England's lead on the group.

Hodgson spoke pre-match that he will be fielding Tottenham youngster Harry Kane and Southampton youngster James Ward-Prowse in the game against Lithuania, as it will bring them 'much needed experience' and international level, with the rumours being that both players will start the game in the starting XI.

England XI vs Lithuania

(4-3-3)Hart; Walker, Cahill(c), Caulker, Baines; Jones, Ward-Prowse, Henderson; Lallana, Sterling, Kane.

Subs: McCarthy, Jagielka, Walcott, Welbeck, Wilshere, Shaw, Sturridge.

Lithuania XI vs England

(4-4-1-1)Karcemarkas; Stankevicius, Zaliukas(c), Mockus, Vilkaitis; Rukas, Slivka, Surgautas, Novikovas; Cesnauskis; Zutautas.

Subs: Svedkauskas, Solomin, Saulenas, Suziedelis, Dunaukas, Venckus, Breikstas.

Hodgson stuck to his word and namess Harry Kane and James Ward-Prowse in the starting XI, with Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere having to take a seat on the bench, other than that, Hodgson names a similar team to the one which was so impressive against Slovenia.

As for Lithuania, they make one change, the in-form Venckus drops down to the bench to be replace with Zutuatas up-front as Lithuania want to inject 'more pace' further up the field which is what Zutuatas offers.

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England kicked off and James Ward-Prowse got his first touch of the ball, playing it to the right towards Lallana, who neatly turned and played it forward towards Harry Kane, but the young Tottenham forward couldn't reach the ball as it was too fast and it went out for a Lithuanian goal-kick to be taken by Karcemarkas.

England went on their first attack as Phil Jones played a perfectly weighted ball forwards towards Harry Kane, who flicked it on nicely to Raheem Sterling, who beat his man and drilled in a low cross towards the back-post where Lallana quickly advanced to, but he was forced out a little farther than what he wanted, so he turned and clipped in a high ball towards the head of Kane but he couldn;t get enough power to trouble the goalkeeper.

Lithuania struggled to keep possession and needlessly gave the ball away to Henderson, who drove forward and played it out wide to Sterling, who cut inside and laid the ball off to the advanced Phil Jones, who turned back and passed it to Ward-Prowse, who looked up and saw Harry Kane in space, he played the ball forward to Kane who let the ball run past him and struck it with his right leg, in which the ball flew up and into the top corner of the net to make it 1-0 England and give Harry Kane his first England goal.

Harry Kane(above) scored his first England goal at senior level as he struck the ball into the top corner of Karcemarkas's net.

Lithuania couldn't recover from the first England goal and gave the ball away yet again to Phil Jones, who started the advance forward, he saw that no Lithuanian players were coming to close him down and he accelerated forward towards the Lithuanian goal and curled the ball around the last defender, it swerved inwards towards the net and clipped the inside of the post and bounced in to make it 2-0 England with Phil Jones yet again getting another England goal, making it 3 goals in the qualifiers.

England then won the ball back from a Lithuanian attack and quickly went on the counter attack, with Sterling leading the way, he weaved past his opposite full-back and pulled the ball backwards towards Adam Lallana, and the Southampton star man dribbled past his man and fired a low shot to the far post which Karcemarkas couldn't get a fingertip to and it rolled into the bottom corner of the net to make it 3-0 England within the first 35 minutes.

England finished the half strongly but they couldn't get a fourth goal as Sterling had enough space to power a shot towards Karcemarkas's net but the Lithuanian number one was able to punch the ball away and out the danger zone as the referee blew his whistle to end the first half with England leading 3-0.

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Lithuania kicked off and tried to get some possession, however they struggled to break through the England midfield with their passing and were forced to play it simple along the back and try to lure the England midfield out of the position, but this strategy simply didn't work and they ended up losing possession as Slivka tried to thread the ball through to Zutautas, but Gary Cahill easily cut out the pass and played it forward to allow England to get more possession again.

England started to dominate possession once more with Jordan Henderson passing to ball back to Gary Cahill, who lifted the ball forward for Harry Kane to expertly control with his chest and he was able to turn and move forward. Sterling went for the overlap and Kane dinked the ball towards Sterling who smashed the ball towards the near post for Lallana to try and get a touch on, but Karcemarkas was able to cover his post and collect the ball.

James Ward-Prowse was really dominating the midfield, with the youngster playing many passes left, right and centre. He hit the ball forward to Lallana who pulled the ball back towards the 6 yard box but Kane couldn't get his shot away as Zaliukas blocked the shot and cleared it out of the box and away from danger.

James Ward-Prowse(above) had the most touches out of any player on the pitch for both England and Lithuania, 33.

England were still keeping possession and looked to try and bag a fourth goal as Henderson was fouled 25 yards from goal, and up stepped Ward-Prowse to try and score yet another free-kick in his career. He lined up the ball and took a short run up, he lifted the ball up and over the wall and his effort struck the post before Karcemarkas gathered the ball and allowed the Lithuanian players to push up.

England kept the ball for the remaining few minutes allowing Lithuania no possession on the ball and the referee eventually blew the whistle for full-time to see England win all of their games so far and keep yet another clean sheet in their group. This also sees England go 3 points clear of Finland in 2nd and leave Hodgson's men even closer to qualifying.

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"It's another great win for the team, we're on a roll right now and all of the players are doing a fantastic job. I'm very happy for Harry as he's got his first goal for England and I hope he can continue scoring goals as it in the end wins you games. James also really impressed me out their and I'm really glad I recalled him to the squad as he's a great player with bags of potential."


I'm really happy I scored a goal today, I'm enjoying my football currently and I'm glad that my goal helped us win the game. I do hope I get called up again next time but I know there are many other good players in my position so I need to focus on improving my game so I have a better chance of getting selected."

Good win, keep it up!

Nice to see Beckham get a role as first-team coach, hope he maybe is manager in a few years from now!

Keep it up, really enjoying this!

Some very good updates, keep it up!