FIFA World Cup 2010: Algeria Celebrates England Draw, Algerian Fans Estatic Leaving England Fans Disappointed
The Algerian squad had motivated themselves by watching “The Battle of Algiers”, a film on the battle of independence that went on for many years, killing thousands before the birth of the country in the early 60’s.
Over on the football pitch last night, the team clad in green uniforms exhibited the same spirit, which meant not letting go of an inch of their territory. Enabling them to draw with the mighty 1966 world champions England, in what was largely a boring dull game of football.
However, the performance won rich praise from their countrymen who were delighted with the nil-nil draw in Cape Town.
The English on the other hand delivered one of their worst performances for years, which have left their World Cup qualification hanging on the final matches.
The Algerians, who were a pile of nerves in their opening 1-0 defeat against Slovenia, were up for a contest last night, dominating the play and making inroads in the English defence on many occasions.
The state of the group is open with no team guaranteed qualification yet, Slovenia have four points after their 2-2 draw with United States, and the U.S. also have two, while England have two points from two uninspiring draws and the group is rounded off by the Algerians with one point.
In the final group matches scheduled for the 23rd of this month, England plays Slovenia in Port Elizabeth, while Algeria takes on the United States in Pretoria.
Meanwhile Algeria fans in France, celebrated their team’s obdurate performance, and the feeling amongst them was that their team can beat U.S.
One of the fans said "I think we're going to beat America. They're the world's most powerful country, but we'll beat them, Inshallah (God willing) we'll beat them.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by others and some 3000 fans took to the streets in northern France. The fans danced in joy and sang songs of victory, besides chanting slogans in their team’s favour; they were waving Algerian flags as they lauded the players who managed to avoid conceding any goals from an opponent, which had been ranked by many as one of the favourites for the tournament.
For many of the fans, their team’s participation in the tournament is victory of sorts, as they unfurled a giant flag to celebrate their team's performance.
The scene in England was one of disappointment and dejection as Fabio Capello’s men delivered a drab performance that did not cheer their fans one-bit.
Football fans, who gathered at Alexandra Palace in the northern part of capital London to watch the match on a giant screen, ended up thoroughly dejected and angry at the insipid display by their team.
At the end of the match one angry fan commented: "You can't beat Algeria and I think Slovenia is better than this lot, so we aren’t going to beat them."
Another said: "I honestly thought they were very poor. They tried, but failed as usual. I don't know. Tried too hard maybe? Too much (bad) Press? They get paid too much money."
There was hardly anything positive about the match, the feeling amongst the fans, and the majority amongst them feared that their country’s world cup dreams might already be sadly over.
The feeling amongst the English fans was that their team lacks the bite to deliver at a pressure ridden world event; hence their progression to the next round would be difficult unless Capello, comes up with a special plan of lifting the sagging spirits amongst his squad.
Another fan felt that the English team needs to take the match out of their system as soon as possible, and return for the match against Slovenia with a different strategy and mindset if they are to have any chances of progressing to the knock out stage of the championship.
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