IT’S hard to decide what irked David Moyes more: the shabby pitch, the shocking penalty decision – or the fact he was made manager of ‘England’ for the night.

While Americans are the masters of turning the most mundane event into a glitzy, glamorous affair by giving it a grand title, their cousins across the border here in Canada are cut from a similar cloth.

Everton should have played River Plate in a friendly in the early hours of yesterday morning but, to generate interest in ‘soccer’ in this sleepy city, those who staged the match turned it into the ‘Edmonton Cup’ with England tackling Argentina.

There was, of course, a big shiny cup on offer to the winners and Everton might have got their hands on it had referee Mauricio Navarro decided to give one of the clearest penalty calls ever.

That he didn’t meant Everton lost their second game of pre-season but, while there is room for improvement, there is no need to press the panic button yet; against one of the most famous names in world football, it was clear to see progress being made.

River Plate have under-performed in their domestic league for the past two years but you only had to watch them push the ball around, a blur of one and two-touch passing, to see their players have received a proper education on the beautiful game.

But Everton, though, are no kick and rush merchants and their response was as slick and impressive as anything their vaunted opponents would produce.

Jack Rodwell sent Jo racing clear down the left flank early on and, jinking past one challenge and skipping over another, the Brazilian waited and waited for support and looked to have picked out the right option when Tim Cahill stormed into the area.

But, unfortunately, the midfielder shot straight at Mario Daniel Vega.

Had it been a smidgeon to the right, Everton would have taken the lead and that moment looked as if it would hand Moyes’s men the initiative – yet the opposite came true in the very next attack.

There did not seem to be much danger on the horizon when a bouncing ball fell in between Rodwell and Joleon Lescott 35 yards from Carlo Nash’s goal, but their dithering changed in the blink of an eye.