England vs Japan result: Japan score all three to gift England victory
England's game yesterday was nothing short of embarrassment; first half was with no intent, no movement and the strikers didn’t show any motivation to win. Fabio Capello had a long and serious talk with the team, although the changes made by Capello in the second half of the game sped things up a bit but they still went scoreless. This type of game against a top team would have produced a losing result but Japanese scored all 3 goals to give England a 2-1 victory.
Fabio Capello the 63-year-old Italian tactician declared yesterday that his side was lucky and fortunate to win. Capello further added the result has made no difference in any form to his world cup squad selection.
Capello told Sky Sports right after the game yesterday "I know my 23 players, yes, I know. As for today - I'm happy for the second half. In midfield we played better, faster and found space.
"In the first half we were too slow and it was easy for Japan to defend."
"It was an interesting game for me. I saw a lot of players who didn't play before and learnt more about them," he added. But the game yesterday showed the players are playing more of an individual game rather than a team play.
Let’s see which England players go to South Africa and who will be on a plane back home.
England took on fellow World Cup qualifiers Japan in a friendly match today in Austria where both teams received an amazing reception from supporters. The crowd capacity was in excess of 15,000 whilst millions of fans across the world would have been tuned in. A lot was expected from the three lions and although they did pull off the victory, the team only has the Japanese to thank.
After an uninspiring performance against Mexico, Fabio Capello demanded that his team play a more controlling game. England were the comfortable favourites but were quickly put under pressure as Marcus Tanaka gave Japan the opener in the seventh minute.
Wayne Rooney remained persistent in turning things around for England as he carved out a handful of chances, the main one in the first-half being in the 18th minute where he picked out Aaron Lennon who only had the keeper to beat, but was unfortunately denied by Eiji Kawashima. Can you really afford to be missing chances like that?
An infuriated Capello made five changes after the break and the team that came on seemed to be in the right frame of mind to turn things around, pressing a lot more and creating more chances. England was shortly gifted with a penalty in the 55th minute, but Frank Lampard was denied - Lampard hopes he can retain being the number one spot-kick taker in South Africa.
"It's down to the manager," the Chelsea player told ITV1. "I'll always want to take it. It wasn't a great penalty. It's disappointing because I've practised loads this week.
"I'm always confident in taking them and that will make me go away and work harder. If the manager wants me to take it I'll always step up."
The miss didn’t prove costly in the end as luck proved to be on their side, with own goals by Tanaka in the 72nd minute and Yuji Nakazawa in the 83rd minute overturning the opener and securing England with the win.
Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard were all key substitutes in the second half whilst Joe Hart who replaced David James also made a few good saves which could have been costly if conceded.
The World Cup is less than 2 weeks away, and this game hardly boosted the hope of the English fans.
After 44 years, the whole nation is hoping to celebrate being world champions this year, but if they continue to play like they have recently it will be the same as any other World Cup, elimination from the quarter-final stages at best.
All players have had their last chance to impress Capello - who has said in the post match interview to ITV1 that he will not be announcing the final 23 until 1st June.
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