Lookman sends England into U20 World Cup quarter-finals

Fox Sports and various overseas channels are streaming the game live, so hopefully one of our fellow Evertonians might put a link on for us to be able to watch the game.

There is a game on live on Eurosport at 2 am later that Day, hopefully will show some of the hilights of the England game.

Kenny, Dowell, Calvert Lewin, Lookman

(Assist Kenny!)

Sounds like a lively start by all the Blue Boys.

Lookman lively, especially last 15 minutes and Calvert-Lewin coming more into it.

Kenny and Dowell solid without being spectacular for the moment, doing what is needed.

Our 4 lads are again playing well. I also like England's #7 – Spurs Josh Onomah. Very tidy and confident on the ball in midfield.

And for those bemoaning the lack of transfer action at Everton, using the Liverpool's signing of Solanke (a Chelsea reserve who never played for the 1st team) as a stick to beat the club with, Calvert-Lewin is showing better movement and involvement than the lastest pinkie recruit.

Pity the stadium is practically empty, it sounds like the Emirates!

When the competition was here in Colombia, the stadiums were pretty full.

Of the Everton contingent we have seen the promise of Lookman, Dowell and Calvert-Lewin in the first team so let's hope at least that these and Kenny become good fixtures in the future.

As expected, the only press interest is surrounding that lot's new boy Solanke. It is enough to make one bitter.

I only read posters accurately reporting what is happening in this game.

Enjoy the 2nd half. I intend to, with a jaundiced eye watching, in particular, players associated with Everton.

The Everton show rolls on!

Very cool!

Lookman is getting rave reviews. Says he is beating his man every time.

What position is he playing? What formation are England playing?

Also says Calvert-Lewin had a few good chances but fluffed his lines.

I wouldn't say Calvert-Lewin has fluffed his lines, played a good team game. Just gone off.

Overstating it to say Calvert-Lewin is fluffing his lines. No clear-cut chances, being denied by a very good 'keeper, Costa Rica's best player on the day. Calvert-Lewin set up Lookman's 2nd for him.

Everton Boys 2 Costa Rica 0

(Okay, maybe that is getting a bit too carried away – blue tinted specs and all!)

That got unnecessarily tight for England at the end having dominated for so much of the game.

Shouldn't have subbed out 2 Everton men!

Both keepers look pretty decent prospects to mention non-Everton connections!

(Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the accompanying sound track!).

Link - Now blocked by Fifa

Calvert-Lewin is the player who breaks free down the left and who pulls the ball back for Lookman to work his cool finish.

Link

Kenny threatening first time cross from the right the defence struggle to deal with, Lookman on hand to finish.

Link

If you want to see some more fine goals, that Germany - Zambia game looks to have been a fun one:

The rest play in Zambia. Maybe I should put my hand up and become scout for Everton in Africa – much better than being in Corporate Finance, I reckon. :)

Ademola's second was a peach by the way.

Haha, I wasn't sure if you were serous about potential Moshiri's millions being spent. Rest assured, Kenny, Lookman, Dowell... even a young Beni Baningime will feature partly because of a no-show in transfers but also (hopefully) because they are a class above Barkley, McCarthy, Besic, Mirallas etc...

No need for the 'over-excited' bit here! Lookman did so very well earlier in the tournament, but got no goals out of it... If that, combined with today's total haul, will make him a more reflected and better player, then so be it!

He never feared trying with his appearances for EFC, or with the National team. We may have to ease him into it... I'd assume Messi was 7 feet tall and twice as broad, for all those goals he scored, and even HE made it... :D Eventually...

The second is just learning to be a bit "bigger" and not pushed off it easily which he can sometimes still tend to be, and thinks a lot of them are fouls. Again, experience needed.

I'm usually a "glass half-empty" kind of person (on reflection, I'm usually a "glass almost-empty" kind of person!), but on today's performance, he certainly looked the business. Very neat feet, looked like a hot knife through butter at times. Very exciting to watch.

Today, Dowell was perhaps the quietest of our contingent, but by no means played badly. He has a good eye for a pass and links up very well with Kenny, almost a Baines - Pienaar type combination in the making if I dare make such a comparison.

Calvert-Lewin seems to hold the ball up quite well when it comes to him out of defence, allowing others to get up in support, perhaps a certain Romelu Lukaku can learn from him (if he bothers to stick around).

Kenny seems to have an outboard motor fitted getting forward and back the full length of the pitch on many occasions over the course of every game.

Roll on Monday and the next opposition, well done lads.

Thanks for all the reports and the link off Jay Wood.

Very pleased with our youngsters yet again, great to see Lookman displaying the ability that we know he has, he ran their backs ragged & scored two well taken goals, should have been three, with a superb free kick that thudded off the bar!

Calvert-Lewin had another good game, as did Jonjoe Kenny once again! I do hope Koeman gives Jonjoe a few starts, like he's done with Lookman & Calvert-Lewin, if he turns out like Tom Davies, then Seamus will have a fight on his hand, or Koeman may have to play a 5-3-2 formation just to appease them!

As others have stated, Lookman had a very fine game. Playing on the left, cutting in when he could. Would suit Koeman's formation.

A lot to be pleased with for us with Kenny and Dowell also doing very well again.

Kenny was impressive as always going forward, but also demonstrated excellent fundamentals on defense – positionally flawless, anticipates well. However, I'm concerned he doesn't yet have the physical strength or presence to play the backline in the Premier League. The Costa Rica players he marked on corners seemed to toss him aside easily, and Costa Rica doesn't exactly make big guys. IMO, Kenny needs to spend a whole lot of time in the gym this summer and put on about ten pounds of muscle before he'll be able to defend Premier League forwards.

Last time for England was Mexico 1986 right?

Something good is happening.

I feel like I need to start a Martina thread just so we can argue again. But I won't, I'll enjoy agreeing with you for once! *tips hat* until next time sir.

We paid a sizable fee to buy him from Charlton, based in part on his goalscoring prowess in League 1. He's now producing some of his best form on the international stage, ably assisted by his Everton teammates. A star in the making!

I'm having a right rant about Sky Sports at the moment! I know we all hate the Sky bias but this morning I look at the Sky Sports App. All I see is "Who should Liverpool sign"?

And now my all time favourite "Solanke Watch" – how did their redshite new signing do for England U20s.

It reminds me of Anchorman, when "Panda Watch" had a reporter posted outside the zoo for the birth of a Panda! And bugger all happened there too!

Oh and how did Solanke do? He was totally overshadowed by our boys who get fuck all mention!

And breathe!!!!

These young players coming through are going to be a big part of Everton's team building in the future unless Usmanov comes onto the board, then unfortunately a lot of these kids will be overlooked for ready made stars.

By the way, Mike, I realise you were not having a go at Kenny but offering useful advice, but again, I don't think you should worry about his size – it's not as big as his heart and that will do for me.

However, thanks to Lookman, the team finally made it onto the BBC website and it makes for good reading. Everton to Everton goal, times two. Proud of the lads.

Even if we win the league, all we'd see is how Liverpool (or Man Utd or Man City or Chelsea) have played badly and they'd be back next year – similar to Leicester who they gave very little credit.

I hate Sky nearly as much as some of the embarrassing rag tops.

I have mixed feelings as I really want us to do well in Europe and see it as our best route into the Champions League. But I also really want these kids to get some first-team opportunities next season.

I guess it depends on who is in the first XI but I'd like to see this 'second' XI get an opportunity against the weaker teams:

Robles;
Kenny, Holgate, Funes Mori, Baines;
Walsh, Gana;
Dowell, Mirallas, Lookman
Calvert-Lewin

I am sure Everton will be watching the U20 World Cup carefully...though how the lads do in pre-season may be more telling and important.

Jonjoe has a great heart, also he's pretty dam good in the air as well. He's even played in the heart of the defence a few times.

Dave, I noticed in your post also that you think like me they will feature strongly next season. But as for Usmanov joining, I think given his statement about Arsenal yesterday, this seems way off the mark. He seems just as committed to Arsenal as he was a week ago when he launched his takeover bid. He says he hopes the board back Wenger with the finance he needs and that he will be watching to make sure they do. So this doesn't strike me as a guy willing to leave and move to another club.

Looks like it will be live on DirecTV.

Dave #71, it's not about size, it's about physical strength and maturity. Baines has 15 extra pounds of muscle that Kenny doesn't, and he and Coleman both know how to use strength and leverage to mark bigger people in the box. They may not win the headers, but nobody shrugs them off as I saw with Kenny (admittedly one game is a small sample). Kenny just isn't as physically mature as the other U-20s, and I think he's a few thousand bench presses away from being fully ready to defend in the Prem. I have no doubt he'll get there -- he's already vastly superior fundamentally to where Coleman was when he returned from Blackpool -- but at the moment he'd be a boy among men. So off to the gym, young man!

I really liked the centre midfielder Josh Onomah (Spurs), the left back Kyle Walker-Peters (Spurs) and the centre half Tomori that reminds me of Ledley King (Chelsea).

For Everton watch DCL was lively upfront, but finishing isn't too natural. Dowell is a funny one - a lot of play goes through him, but he can frustrate in equal measures. He's either hot or a bit of a passenger, interesting to see how he develops.

Full-backs these days are quick - able to make contributions at both ends of the pitch - but they also have become increasingly tall. This second attribute is about defending dead balls.

On the other hand a good player like Holgate in my view cannot make it as a full back because he can't attack well enough. But hopefully will make a decent centre back.

On a totally irrelevant tangent, I was watching an episode of the Crown recently. They were talking about a child "growing up to make an excellent centre back one day". In the 1950s they would never have said "centre-back" – they would have said "centre-half". I claim my anachronism bonus point!

Also the child they were talking about was Prince Charles... so either way they were talking tosh.

Our teams have not shrunk but compared to most sides we face we are at a physical disadvantage all over the pitch. Yes, there are other factors and playing three at the back could sustain shorter full-backs but it doesn't alter the dead ball problem by much.

One glaring difference between the two sides in the recent U23 derby was the size of the opposition. Not saying I approve of the trend but it is there.

Just to pre-empt: I know Mess is a midget and that Alan Ball was so small his voice never broke.

Agree.

Of course there's always that psychological thing that happens when you look at your opposition (something that went through my head before every game I played in the Sunday League) when you think "Fuck, these are massive."

But having actually seen us pushed around for a few years now, I know it's not (just) the mind playing tricks.

Far too often in recent seasons, I've seen big-shouldered grocks simply lean on players like (for example) Deulofeu and come away with the ball.

I remember watching Coleman giving everything against Diego Costa (at Goodison) a couple of years ago and thinking "Fuck, he's just bouncing off him."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting an entire team of Bernard Bresslaw-shaped players but if the trend is that physical/athletic (or whatever) is having more of a say; we need to be able to combat it and be able to dish out a bit ourselves.

Same goes for speed.

And brains.

And concentration

And corners.

And...

Pace, instant control and cohesiveness can overcome the deficit but we are still short there too, of course.

Encouragingly, I think Lookman is carrying more athletic heft for England. He's a marker for us in fitness terms and I can't wait to see if he can assert himself next season.

Of the former type, players like Sanchez and Aguero don't look that big but are built like brick shithouses. Bolasie looks a bit like that or Mane. Powerful and fast.

Of the latter type, look at most of the Tottenham team, Watford and of course West Brom. Some of Mourinho's Chelsea teams were like Land of the Giants.

Deulofeu and Osman could be easily dispossessed by players bigger or more powerful. Arteta and Cahill were less likely to be bullied out of it by anyone, which probably had something to do with determination and sheer bloody mindedness. Pienaar was a bit like that too. If anyone breathed on him we got a free-kick too!

Peter Reid was not one to back down, but size wise, there wasn't such a preponderance of big powerful athletes then.

Gana wins the ball through speed and anticipation with interceptions and timing of tackles and he's no giant.

So a combination of physical types of player who all have determination and will to win are probably necessary in a good team. Skill and creativity would be good too.

As for a lack of physical power/strength, Koeman himself bemoaned the fact his men were not physically equipped to battle against certain Premier League sides back before Christmas. (Something along the lines of "if it becomes a physical battle then we have a problem, because we don't have those sort of players at the moment.") He most definitely made it sound like that would be something he would be looking to address in upcoming transfer windows.

I do hope the Everton lads can help the 3 Lions to get through to the semis in style & if not in style, score & assist in the goals, so COYB!!