I watched, or attempted to watch, three games of football yesterday and didn’t see any goals. Perhaps it was fortunate that I was unable to see the England Under 21s a little earlier in the day, but congratulations to them for securing their place in next year’s European Championships in Denmark with a goalless draw in Romania.

Given his age and talent, it’s remarkable that Ashley Young was making a debut of sorts as last night was his first start for England in a competitive game. If the tabloids have their way, it will probably be his last too and, if that’s the case, it will be grossly unfair.

I have to confess, my attention was dragged away from Wembley by events in Italy and although I had the two screens side by side, hopefully you’ll understand why the disturbing images from Genoa received the lion’s share.

However, what I did see from England was another insipid, uninspiring display. Of course I’m biased, but Ashley Young genuinely looked like one of the few players with any spark and creativity about him and I initially felt really pleased that he was grasping this rare opportunity with both hands.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of many with the unquenchable thirst for a scapegoat, his copybook was well and truly blotted by his 2nd half booking for “diving”. Even some Villa fans could be seen proclaiming in exasperated fashion ‘well, he does have a reputation for that’.

Let’s be clear here: he “looked for it” for certain, but this was not a prance into the box, losing control of the ball preceding a cynical, overly exaggerated collapse to the ground. No, Ash charged into the box and simply anticipated an inevitable contact from a clumsy defender who was clearly blocking his path.

Yes, he probably overdid it, but in the same way that referees are less likely to see incidents as fouls in the box that would be anywhere else on the pitch, they’re also more likely to book a player for what they see as simulation in the box than if it happened outside of the box. The counter argument, of course, is that the player is far more likely to take a dive in the box because of the prize it offers.

Would Ash have done the same 5 yards outside of the box? Who knows? Maybe. But would the referee have booked him for the exact same incident outside the box? Again, we can’t know for sure, but it’s far less likely.

Riding The Challenge

To the charge that Ash has developed something of a reputation for the theatrical at times, I would have to concede that appears to be the case, but I don’t think it’s altogether justified. Ash testified to the scars on his legs during the press conference on Sunday and three players were booked last night for fouls against him. He unquestionably is targeted, as flair players tend to be, for a little “extra attention”.

Does that negate diving? No, but is it always a dive? Could he not actually be taking very wise evasive action, sometimes riding the challenge, to protect himself from injury? I think so.

Just prior to the “diving” incident, Ash leapt out of the way of a fairly vigorous sliding tackle, clearly to avoid getting hurt as much as anything. I happened to notice a respected football blogger Tweet “A 5.9 for Ashley Young”.

Ho ho.

It’s just my opinion of course, but as I saw it, had Ash not taken evasive action, there would have been pretty stiff contact. There was also pretty stiff contact between Nigel de Jong and Hatem Ben Arfa recently and despite taking the ball first – some people feel it’s impossible for a challenge to be a foul if the tackler takes the ball first, remember (I’m not among them) – de Jong has been completely vilified.

He does have form though. As does Ash apparently. For diving.

Nonsense.

Please don’t misconstrue what I’m about to say, I’m not attaching an ounce of blame to Ben Arfa, but had he been able to jump out of the way of de Jong’s challenge, and had done so, would his leg have been broken? The chances are that it would not. If that was the case, presumably, de Jong would not have been dropped from the Dutch national side, but the challenge would have been exactly the same.

Similarly, had Ash not leapt out of the way during the incident that earned him a 5.9 on Twitter, could he have suffered the same injury as Ben Arfa? Absolutely.

Unfortunately, we have this grey area which is a breeding ground for hypocrisy where a challenge probably isn’t a foul if the ball is taken first and definitely isn’t a foul if there is no actual contact. We lament the “divers”, but vilify the causers of injuries. Who can blame a player for taking action necessary to avoid getting their legs broken, but also “milk” it a little in an attempt to get something out of it?

Or perhaps Ash should leave his body in the way of danger until a leg is actually broken and we can all condemn whoever did so while rolling out the ever hilarious “he’s not that sort of player” meme?

Sad England

I’m perfectly willing to concede that Ash will on occasion go down a little easily, but I look at the performance as a whole and he’s a talented, hard working, generally very honest player who is frequently the target of some over the top tackles. In those circumstances, within reason, I can easily forgive him the odd “dive”.

And that’s the basis I view his performance for England. Despite my obvious bias, I genuinely feel he was one of the better players on the pitch last night and it’s so typically sad that all the good work of a player starting his first competitive game was overlooked for one minor incident where, if he carried out the same actions a fraction of a second later, waited for actual contact, he probably would have won a penalty, not a booking.

And speaking of overlooking what’s important, isn’t it also so typically sad that the focus of attention is on Young’s booking instead of the consistent under performance of regulars such as Gerrard and Rooney?

I could shoot off on a tangent on the subject of England quite easily, but instead I’ll just suggest me might be better off questioning the very fact that any player was desperately trying to “win” a penalty just to get the breakthrough an hour into a home game against Montenegro than focusing on Ashley Young.

Jonny Wilkinson

The one piece of criticism I will reserve for Ash, as it applies to Villa just as much, is his wastefulness with dead ball situations. In tight games, one goal is almost always the difference and when you get the opportunity to send in an unchallenged cross into the box you have to at least get it into the mix. Far too many are being carelessly over hit which doesn’t give anyone even a chance of getting on the end of.

I wouldn’t suggest going as far as the whole Jonny Wilkinson routine, but it wouldn’t hurt to get some advice from someone on visulisation and mental rehearsal techniques. Whipping a dead ball in from the flanks is something a professional of Ash’s ability ought to be able to do 9 out of 10 times at least.

Eric Lichaj

So, the dramas of Europe aside, several hours later, and a few thousand miles away, I was one of just over 8,000 in Philadelphia to see the United States play Colombia in another game finishing in a goalless draw. It was worth the time and trouble though as not only was our own Brad Guzan between the sticks for the full 90 minutes, but Eric Lichaj made an impressive senior debut, playing the 2nd 45 minutes in his usual right back position.

Guzan, for his part, had very little to do, but he always looked confident and was constantly communicating and organising his back line, which is obviously good to see. Lichaj was generally excellent, his positioning improved from last year, and while not perfect, he always seemed aware of the potential danger and had the speed and ability to respond.

Besides his defensive work and his general reading of the game, understanding when to go forward and when to hold back, it was Lichaj’s exquisite cross, unfortunately headed over by Jozy Altidore, which probably provided the best opportunity of the game.

Lichaj’s performance has received a much warmer reaction from the American media than Ashley Young’s back home and the youngster was unfazed by the experience, claiming that he wasn’t nervous because he’s used to bigger crowds in England and also found the pace of the game much slower than he’s used to.

He might feel grateful that he played in the second half when the game opened up a lot more and Bradley switched the system from the tight, experimental 4-1-4-1 employed during the first half to something closer to a 4-4-2, Fulham’s Eddie Johnson coming on to support Altidore in place of Rangers’ Maurice Edu, who had been the defensive ‘1’ behind Michael Bradley and Schalke’s Jermaine Jones in the middle.

I’m thoroughly pleased for Lichaj, he’s definitely a player who will figure for the United States in future years and is a shoe-in for Brazil 2014 so far as I can see. He’s also a youngster scouted out of relative obscurity overseas, remember that when people tell you Aston Villa can’t scout!