Stoke City International Round Up – September Break

Love it or hate it, the International break is what it is and some of the Stoke City men have been busy with their respective nations.

World Cup Qualifiers

St Vincent and Grenadines 0 v 6 USA

Friday 2nd September saw Geoff Cameron and the United states defence have a pretty relaxing time. As the score suggests USA dominated the game. Cameron was called upon a few times to deal with Oalex Anderson, but was always in control. Geoff’s and the back lines lives were made even easier due to the fact Oalex hasn’t quite grasped the offside rule.

Slovakia 0 v 1 England

There were no Stoke City players active in this fixture. Jack Butland as we all know is currently nursing an ankle injury. The latest is Jack could be out for a further two month after not responding to treatment.

England played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Harry Kane as the lone striker. It was a boring show until the final minutes of stoppage time. I cant help but think that if Stoke City striker Peter Crouch was needed at any time this is that time.

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Crouch would be an ideal candidate for the lone striker/target man. Swap to a 4-3-2-1 with Kane and Vardy running off the beanpole and there would be very little need to shoot from the half way line. At 35 though it is unlikely that Allardyce will give him the nod. Big Sam, if you happen to be reading this just give it a thought.

Malta 1 v  5 Scotland

Again no Stoke stars were present in this fixture. However in a recent interview with Skysports.com Charlie  Adam stated that he feels he will never play for Scotland again while Gordon Strachan is in charge. Charlie also added that all he could do was keep putting in the performances at club level. Which can only mean good things for the potters.

Georgia 1 v 2 Austria

Marko Arnautovic played the full 90 minutes and bagged an assist. Although possession was in Georgia’s favour, Austria pretty much had the game wrapped up by half time. You could argue that Marco had a hand in the first goal. A free kick to left of the pitch about 25 yards out. He stayed in his position as opposed to making a run. This allowed Alaba to float the ball towards the penalty spot to be met by Hinteregger.

Austria’s 2nd came just before half time when Mark

o was fed the ball at the edge of the 18 yard box. With not many options he created space with a nice little step over allowing him to hit the byline. A beautiful dinked cross taking out a defender and keeper was met by Janko 2 yards out.

Serbia 2 v 2 Republic of Ireland

Ireland started the game in a 4-3-3 with Glenn Whelan sitting in midfield and Jonathan Walters up top in the front 3. A heavily soaked pitch made life difficult for both teams but Serbia came out on top in the midfield.

Walters was pretty active both attacking and defending. Walters was in good form until the 68th minute when he was judged to have infringed Kostic and the ref pointed to the spot. Although it was a weak penalty shout Walters could of made amends 7 minutes later only to see his headed effort ruled out for offside.

Wales 4 v 0 Moldova

Joe Allen scored his first international goal after latching on to a half clearance at the edge of the 18 yard box and lashing it home. Allen was much needed in midfield as Wales initially found it hard to break down Moldova. A good solid display by Wales and Allen.