England were tense and nervous for 22 minutes, then we scored.
The second half was an ordeal because we could not get a second goal. I’ll remember Defoe’s volley and hope to forget the ordeal.
We saw 22 minutes of fear yesterday. Then five passes, Milner took two touches, hit a killer cross that was stabbed in by Defoe. England then found a bit of rhythm, a bit of confidence. But they missed four good chances after that. If they’d scored one more goal against Slovenia they would have been playing Ghana on Saturday, not Germany on Sunday.
Bottom line, what Fabio Capello did worked.
He loosened up a little bit, had a quiz night, let them have a beer the night before the match, told Milner to stay wide and put the ball in early behind the back four. The boys enjoyed a beer. My guess is that Stevie G enjoyed a beer. JT enjoyed a beer because it reminded him of other beers and happier times. Rooney remembered other beers, I’m sure. So that beer was not alcohol. It was nostalgia.
The tactics were Old School thinking, very English. Be first, get on the end of that.
4-4-2 cannot work without good crosses and, especially, good early crosses. And it was the cute movement of Defoe that lost Ghent centreback Marko Suler. Will Milner’s crossing work next time? If it doesn’t, Defoe might have to pass to Rooney. I’ll buy tickets for that.
While Capello has gone to South Africa with a squad of old crocks, Joachim Low has picked the youngest German World Cup squad since 1934.
Their best player is 21-year old Werder Bremen playmaker Mezut Ozil, who is Trevor Brooking with pace.
Ozil controlled a square pass in the D and rifled it into the net after 60 minutes. He just hit it. That’s what footballers always say : I just hit it.
Ozil said, “I got a good ball from Muller, got a nice touch on it, and just smashed it in. But it’s going to be tough against England.They’re stronger than Ghana but if we put our strength in the field we will win that match too.”
Germany’s weakness is the decision-making of Schalke’s 24 year-old keeper Manuel Neuer. He isn’t always where he should be.
Will have to think about Sunday’s Round of 16 game and how to preview it.
At the moment, I’m very impressed by the fluency the Germans bring to a 4-2-3-1 system that creates space and width. They make the game look easy and that was why I backed them to beat Serbia. But Klose was sent off, Podolski missed a penalty, and Serbia won 1-0. I lost that bet but it didn’t put me off having another bet on Germany 15 minutes into the Ghana game, because I was so impressed. They won the game and won the group.
GHANA are an attractively athletic side with a good structure, but not much penetration.
USA will beat them on Saturday.
On what I saw yesterday, the USA will go further in this World Cup than England.
They have more belief and more intelligence. They gave Algeria a hiding, even if it was 1-0.
Dempsey had a good goal disallowed and hit the post and the USA maintaned their momentum. Eventually, in the the 91st minute, the evergreen Landon Donovan scored the goal that put them through. Good player, isn’t he?
PS. THURSDAY 8pm: Defoe said on camera that none of the boys actually had a beer.