England 1-1 Ghana
A friendly of vigour and ambition is an anachronism and the majority of the Wembley crowd will be unsure if it is wholly to their taste. Those England followers did not see a victory delivered by Andy Carroll's first goal for his country because Ghana deservedly equalised in stoppage time with a shot from Asamoah Gyan. The fixture had also contained the statutory curio when Danny Welbeck, on loan to Sunderland from Manchester United, received his England debut as a substitute.
Supporters are not naive and few bought tickets under the misconception that a rip-roaring performance from the cream of the country's footballers awaited them. The nature of friendlies is understood and more or less tolerated. Indeed, fans were not being exploited quite as severely as some had dreaded, even if Joe Hart, Glen Johnson, Jack Wilshere, and Ashley Young were the only starters who had also been on the field at kick-off against Wales in Cardiff last Saturday. The England manager Fabio Capello had not really resorted to obscure batch of footballers.
Carroll certainly could not be termed a makeweight once Liverpool had spent 35m to take him from Newcastle United. He had already made his debut in the loss to France four months ago, but expectations have climbed in parallel with his valuation. If it was any comfort to him, there was a craving from his team-mates to get him into the action. At least the early part of the night was given over to spirited attacking from the hosts.
There was high energy, underlined by the interchanging midfield. Modest experimentation was on show, too, with Stuart Downing and Ashley Young, against expectation, on right and left wings respectively. If there was any disappointment, it lay for a while in the fact that Carroll did not look entirely fit following the recent injury and could not assist much in the swirling play at that stage.
It may be most encouraging of all that he notched the opener in any case. Regardless of physical condition, his impact was ! unimpair ed. Two minutes from half-time Young found his Aston Villa team-mate Downing and the latter released Carroll to score with a low and accurate finish. Young's part in that ought to have come as a relief to the Villa winger since he had found a way of hitting the bar from close range after excellent build-up from Downing before Miler cut the ball back in the 25th minute.
There was an eagerness to England that could not have been expected in the opposition. Nobody would have supposed that the friendly was at the forefront of Ghana's thinking. Minds were expected to have been a little jumbled by the 4,000 mile journey to London following Sunday's away victory in Brazzaville over Congo in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Even so, some were sprightlier than others and Sunderland's Gyan, who had been suspended from that fixture, should have been capable of bringing a relative freshness to this match.
There was a desire to compete with England and to earn the approval of the significant number of their followers at Wembley. Hart needed to make a very good save from a close range attempt by Dominic Adiyah in the 25th minute, even if the goalkeeper was also on the verge of looking a hapless figure when he knocked the ball to Gyan. The striker came to his aid by looking puzzled rather than merciless on discovering that he was in possession.
The edge to the game also looked a little blunted at the outset of the second-half. Ghana, perhaps hoping to counter the fatigue of the trek to London, made three substitutions at half-time. It would, in any case, have been unexpected for a friendly to continue in so frisky a manner.
If anything, it was the visitors who had more zest. Talk of their desire to be the first African team to defeat England did not look like promotional hype when a drive from John Pantsil was deflected just over the bar with almost an hour gone. At that point England followers might have felt a secret pang of nostalgia for duller friendlies in which their team prevails as ! a matter of course.
There had to be a deep respect for a side that had travelled so far and arrived so recently to conduct themselves as if such a schedule had been expressly designed to bring out the best of themselves. As the match moved towards the last 20 minutes England were still awaiting evidence of exhaustion in their opponents.
Many onlookers will have known days when they raged against the insipid character of matches at Wembley when no prize is at stake, but this was too authentic for comfort. It did at least hold the attention of 80,102 people. Some held their breath when Gyan ran clear from the right in the 68th minute, only to bash his shot into the side netting from an angle.
Capello brought on the Wolves winger Matt Jarvis for his debut, but by then it must have been the need for more energy that really accounted for his introduction on this testing occasion.
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