Walcott’s got a touch of the Thierry
158 comments October 11th, 2006
Theo Walcott came off the bench to score two brilliant goals, simultaneously guaranteeing England’s U-21s their place in the European Championships next summer.
Walcott’s introduction as a 74th-minute substitute proved to be the turning point in what was an otherwise fraught tie. Firstly, with four minutes to play, a long ball from Leighton Baines and clever run from Ashley Young allowed Walcott the space to burst through, collect, and finish with applomb.
The second was even better. Recieving the ball on the half-way line, he flicked it beyond his marker, and turned on the turbo-boosters. In Arsenal’s training sessions, Walcott can burst 40m in under 5 seconds: the fastest at the club. Here, the unwitting Germany defenders were way too high up the pitch, allowing him to accelerate beyond and in-behind. Having done so, there was another Henry-esque finish to match. Watch the goals at Leftback.info, which promises to be considerably more interesting than the stream of identical football blogs you can find on the web.
Walcott is doing all that’s asked of him, with four U-21 goals in as many games (I think). The thing he must turn his attention to now is breaking into the Arsenal first-team. The fact we’re looking at Franck Ribery shows there is a space to be occupied on the flanks: Walcott must take his chance like Cesc Fabregas and Philippe Senderos have done before him.
It’s nice to have something vaguely Arsenal-related to talk about. I hope we don’t have more tomorrow: if I have to report any injuries from tonight’s Internationals, I shall be extremely hacked off.
