FIFA World Cup 2010: England Qualifies in the Danger Zone, Sets Up Clash Against Rivals Germany
The last phase of the Group C matches in the FIFA World Cup in South Africa was played on Wednesday. England were the supposed big giants in this group, but like many other big guns, were facing a threat of elimination. They had drawn in their last two fixtures against Algeria and USA, and the final game was against Slovenia. After the elimination of France, football fans around the globe were hoping to avoid a similar drama with the England team.
This time around, Fabio Capello, England’s manager, made a very bold decision. He dropped Emile Heskey and Aaron Lennon from the team, and played Jermain Defoe and James Milner. The gamble paid off, as both these players were involved in the only goal of the match, which gave England the much needed victory to qualify for the second round of the World Cup. A James Milner cross from the right was kicked in the goal by Jermain Defoe.
England played their best game so far in this World Cup during the first half of the match. They were denied many times by the Slovenian goalkeeper and Rooney’s shot hit the pole. All the English players played well in the game, except for Wayne Rooney, who found it hard to click in this match as well. James Milner was undoubtedly the best player on the pitch for the team, as he was involved in many attacking moves by the English team.
The Slovenians, despite being the losing side, did not play a bad game either. They were good in the counter-attacks, and missed some of the half-chances. Also, they remained a constant threat to the English side on set-pieces. There were many last-ditch tackles coming in by the English defenders, which finally kept the Slovenians from scoring anything in this match. However, the Slovenians still had a chance to qualify, but they were depending upon the result of the other match in Group C, between USA and Algeria, being played simultaneously.
USA was the surprise package from this pool, as they drew their first two matches against bigger teams. They were hoping to qualify for the next round with a win over their opponents, the Algerians. Although USA was the better team on the pitch for most part of the match, the Algerians showed a lot of promise in the beginning. They were good in attacking and showed a lot of intent in winning the match. However, their high energies soon settled down, which led the USA team to dominate the match.
Despite the domination, USA failed to convert many chances into goals. They had to wait until the injury time, when they got the goal they had been praying for, scored by Landon Donovan, which ensured their stay at the FIFA World Cup for a little longer.
The English team got a favourable result in their match, but the result in the other one went against them. A defeat for USA would have meant that England would go on top of their group. However, USA went on top of the Group C, which means that they will play Ghana in the next round. England, however, will be facing their age-old rivals Germany in the second round. This is a match that Capello had been avoiding all along, and now he has a lot more thinking to do to avoid the chances of another miserable World Cup campaign.
Despite their qualification, the English side does not look good in the World Cup. Their best player by far, Wayne Rooney, is still failing to find his form, and might face a slight injury problem. However, the Germans had a shaky moment in the World Cup as well: their loss to Serbia in the second match. This would make the second round match really interesting, but the bad thing is that the world would have to see another giant get eliminated at an early hour of the tournament.
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