Beaten England look for positives
Sunday 2 August 2009
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England coach Brian Eastick consoles Nathan Delfouneso and Kyle Walker (©sportsfile)
Despite the disappointment of defeat by Ukraine in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final, England pair Nathan Delfouneso and Jason Steele feel that there are plenty of positives for Brian Eastick's side as they prepare to head home.
'Heads up'
Aston Villa FC striker Delfouneso received the award for finishing as the tournament's top scorer but admitted that was little consolation as his side fell at the last hurdle to the hosts at the RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium. "[The coach] told us to keep our heads up and that we'd done well to get this far," he said. "He also mentioned that what we've been through over the past few weeks was good for our development and will serve us well in our careers in the game. Being top scorer is good for me and for my development and I'm very proud but it's more about the team and we didn't get the right result today as we weren't on top form."
'Not our day'
The stifling conditions, and the extra 30 minutes required to overcome France in the semi-finals, had a devastating effect on England's energy levels and the team was unable to respond to conceding goals from Denys Garmash and Dmytro Korkishko early in each half. Unwilling to look for quick excuses, Delfouneso said a more in-depth analysis would be required as to why his team failed to hit top form in the final. "We'll sit down together and try to work out what went wrong," he explained. "It could have been a mixture of things in the end but what is clear is that today was not our day. We can't use the heat as an excuse as we knew what to expect the moment we took our pre-match walk on the pitch. We just have to do better."
Supporters praised
The 18-year-old will head back home with fond memories of his time spent in Ukraine and he hopes to repeat the experience of playing at the top level for his country again in the future. "Obviously I would love to play for the U21s but whatever comes next with England is for the manager to decide," he said. "It was great to play against teams who are from different footballing cultures to ours. I thought the fans brought something special to the tournament too and there was a fantastic crowd here today. Overall I've learned quite a lot."
'Switched on'
The latter was a theme echoed by captain Steele, who acknowledged his side were well beaten on the day but is confident there will be long-term benefits from the setback. "We might have had the lion's share of possession but we never really looked like scoring; we had a lot of set plays but unfortunately it just wasn't our day," the goalkeeper told uefa.com. "They came out flying again and we should have been prepared for that. There are always things to learn at these tournaments: how to play against different opponents and styles. We need to learn to keep 100 per cent focused throughout the 90 minutes. We were playing against top-quality opposition at this tournament and let in goals in the opening and closing moments of games. The key is to be switched on from the very first minute."
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