:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/33763261/494883775.0.jpg)
Starting with the only full international cap gained at this point in the summer, Alex Pearce had a somewhat notorious night in West London, where he played 90 minutes in a solid 0-0 draw with England's World Cup group rivals Italy. Pearce's solidity was perhaps over-zealous as he challenged AC Milan captain Ricardo Montolivo in the first half, fracturing the midfielder's leg. Watching the challenge back it is fair to say it's a 50/50 in which Pearce wins the ball and the inevitable coming together does damage to Montolivo's left leg. Italian coach Cesare Prandelli said as much, it was unlucky as Montolivo is out of Brazil 2014, and you can decide for yourself in the video below (The tackle is at about 32 seconds in- and the commentary is Italian). Neither Pearce, nor Stephen Kelly, were involved in a 2-1 defeat to Turkey the week before.
Moving swiftly on, and onto Jordan Obita's Toulon Tournament exploits. He started and scored the opening match against Qatar in a 3-0 win. The goal is below (this time the commentary is Portguese, making for an authentic internationals report!). Obita was then dropped for losses to Brazil and a draw with Korea, but returned for a vital draw with Colombia that puts England into a 3rd place play-off tie with Portugal later today (June 1st).
The UEFA U19 European Championship is underway, and Reading's young representatives for Ireland got off to a winning start. Defender Sean Long captained his side to a 2-1 victory over Iceland, with Liam Kelly on the bench. Kelly started but was subbed off in their subsequent 2-1 defeat to Turkey as Long played the full match, leaving Ireland 3rd in Elite Group 4 with a game against leaders Serbia on June 2nd. Sami Fridjonnson, another Reading academy player, started both of Iceland's games but a disappointing tournament will come to an end tomorrow following Irish (1-2) and Serbian (0-6) defeats.
Scotland are in Elite Group 1, but finished bottom after losses to England (1-2) and Montenegro (0-1) before a 0-0 with Ukraine. Reading had 3 players in the Scottish squad; Dom Hyam played in all 3 games, left-back George McLennan played the first 2 group games while striker Harry Cardwell started against Montenegro and appeared off the bench in the other games.
In the U21 friendlies, Pierce Sweeney and Shane Griffin were involved in a 1-1 draw with Qatar for Rep. of Ireland, and Jon Henly was an unused substitute as Scotland lost 6-1 to Holland. Further afield, regular International Report Google-Search-Troublemaker Bogdan Vastsuk didn't feature after being called up for a 2-1 loss to Russia.
So that is it, for now. The majority full internationals get a turn in the following weeks and we'll have the report on those games in the near future.