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10 November - With England's more serious approach to matches, Portugal has started to give us their best game and this match was no exception!
Up for the challenge, the starting line up of Gareth, Kristan (Cpt.), Ricky, Alex and James begin in a zone formation with Portugal taking very early possession of the ball and an obvious determination to use their strength and experience to hold it.
As always, the England team were surprised by the intensity and speed of the play, with some complaining later of head aches from watching the ball move around so fast, and this lead to an early change of Ricky off for Graeme Henderson.
Despite some periods of great defense, England's greatest weakness was when they had the ball as the attackers were soon dispossessed, compromising the integrity of a secure zone defense and allowing Portugal to capitalize on broken play to score goal after goal.
By the time out at 11:22, where Ryan went on for James, England were down 6 0, but still fighting after numerous brilliant saves by Garath in goal, seeing the team go to half time 7 0.
Luckily in international fixtures half time is a 10 minute break, as the players were literally dead on their feet and really needed the rest and a reminder of the basic system they are learning to play.
As a result of a predetermined decision before the match, the 2nd half saw keeper Mat Conroy come on for Gareth and despite a more organized approach England conceded 3 quick goals at 17.23, 17.49 and 18...