FIFA 2010 World Cup: James pities Rooney after failing to score at the World Cup
Wayne Rooney was perhaps the most talked name in South Africa, and was expected to shine the brightest for England. Having bagged 34 goals for Manchester in all competitions, he was in the form of his life. Not only this, he scored a respectable amount of goals in the qualifying campaign for the World Cup, steering his country to South Africa. He vowed to bring the deadly form to South Africa, and was feared by almost all.
However when the day finally came, Rooney never looked the same. He had a hard time controlling the ball, couldn’t finish when needed and was dispossessed easily. His only respectable shot was when he hit the post against Slovenia, which was below standards from any point of view. England crashed out of the World Cup, when the German’s ran riot on them, thrashing the 1966 Champions to a 4-1 mauling. The score line reflected all, England were just not up to the mark. It was supposed to be Rooney’s World Cup, but he never looked like the player who could win it for his country. Many of his underappreciated team mates played better than him, and no one, not even he would know what went wrong.
David James, the English number 1 choice keeper, sympathized with Rooney. He stated that Rooney had the form as well as the fitness to replicate his Manchester United performance. Rooney looked lethal in training, according to James, and was able to smash a lot of shots past him. James expected that he would perhaps reproduce this ability in the game against Germany. He therefore backed Rooney on form and fitness, and blamed the man marking the opposition kept on him, nullifying his scoring ability. He added that he was not given any time or space on the ball, which reflected in Rooney getting the ball by going into the mid-field. Many a times, Rooney was seen away from his position, and playing more in the midfield. This signified the fact that he was not getting many opportunities up front, and his abilities were therefore left unused.
James played his third match for his team in the World Cup, following the fumble from Robert Green in the opening match against USA. He was the most experienced keeper in the squad, having represented his team over 53 times since 1997. He was picked behind Green in the opening match, but was quickly recalled following Green’s fumble. He proved to be the better keeper, as he remained stern in between the sticks. He had no chance to stop the goals he conceded against Germany as they were just too good for any keeper. Germans tormented James and went past him easily, when they comprehensively disrupted the English defence line.
He also added that the situation may have been different had the Lampard goal been allowed. The English may have equalised at half time, but were denied by a poor decision by the referee. Lampard struck a powerful strike which easily went past the keeper. It hit the inside of the top post, and bounced approximately a yard inside the goal line. The lines man or the referee couldn’t see it, and the goal was disallowed. The English perhaps lost their spirits of fighting back and just gave up. Germany capitalized on the downed spirits and scored 2 more to make it 4-1, thus crashing England out of the World Cup.
He was frustrated with the fact that even though his team defended well, they conceded three goals on counter attacks. He also said that perhaps only the lines man and referee were the only two men on the field who didn’t saw the goal, and it was perhaps just bad luck.
"This has obviously changed the game. At 2-2 of course we are on the up. It would have been a much different story in the second half”, the English Goal Keeper said.
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