INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
England lost their fourth and final match in the Toulon tournament by the narrowest of margins but, whilst there was a marked improvement from the first two games, once again Les Reed's young side shot themselves in the foot with a comedy of errors which allowed the Japanese to take the lead in the second minute.
England keeper Andy Lonergan made an error from an innocuous ball and when Ben Bowditch attempted to clear the danger he only succeeded in putting through his own goal.
Clearly stunned at conceding a goal so early in the match, England had to defend stoutly against a Japan side that had been given a lift by the welcome breakthrough. But gradually England came back into the game and they should have drawn level midway through the first half when Brian Howard timed his run to perfection to latch onto a through ball but his shot was saved by the legs of the Japanese goalkeeper.
Japan hit back and finished the first half stronger and England were grateful to Lonergan for keeping them in the game. In injury time he tipped over a shot from Sho Naruoka and then followed up with a wonderful reaction save to tip Norio Suzaki's header onto the bar.
In the second half England found themselves down to ten men when Howard was sent off just 16 minutes after the restart for a second bookable offence. England reorganised the team and were effective in denying Japan clear-cut scoring opportunities. The nearest Japan came to penetrating the England defence was when Daisuke Sasata burst through and his shot hit the post.
With time running out Darren Carter burst through unchallenged but the England captain shot wide. England battled gamely but the heat and the loss of Howard proved too much although they can look forward to playing Japan again in the FIFA World Championships later this year as they are in the same group.
Afterwards England coach Les Reed said: "I can't knock the lads for effort and they showed a lot of character. But we shot ourselves in the foot and we gave ourselves an uphill struggle. We had a couple of chances and I thought we deserved to get something out of the game.
"The experience gained here you cannot buy, and one or two players have grown in character. We have got better as a team as the tournament has gone on too. We have finished nearly every game with ten men and the players will have to learn that in international football referees give out cards which are different to what they may come to expect back in England. That is all part of the learning curve.
"Results have not been the best but I think that the value of tournament football cannot be under-estimated and we need to keep sending teams to these events to get a taste of this type of experience."
