Wayne Rooney on target as England step up World Cup preparations
England ran out 3-0 winners over South African Premier Soccer League side Platinum Stars in a low-key World Cup warm-up match at the Moruleng Stadium, with forward Wayne Rooney amongst the scorers.
Boss Fabio Capello gave a run out to 21 of the 23 members of his squad, with Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole and Rooney all finding the net, although the Platinum Stars’ Bradley Grobler did miss a penalty with the score still at 1-0.
Other than improving his players’ fitness levels, Capello won’t have gained much out of the exercise, but the match did at least give some of the local youngsters a chance to see some of their heroes up close, with Rooney and England captain Steven Gerrard proving particularly popular.
The skipper was heavily involved in the opener after just three minutes.
Good link up play between Glen Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gerrard ended with the latter being released down the right hand side, and his low cross was converted by Defoe from close range.
However, England were soon left sweating as the referee awarded the Platinum Stars a bizarre penalty when Johnson was harshly adjudged to have fouled one of their forwards, but Grobler blazed his kick high over Joe Hart’s crossbar.
Ten changes were made at half time, with Cole the only member of the starting XI to stay on the pitch, and it was the Chelsea man who latched onto Rooney’s through ball to coolly make it 2-0 just after the hour mark.
Both Rooney – who was booked – and Emile Heskey had earlier missed good openings, but the Manchester United forward made amends just six minutes from time when he volleyed in from an Aaron Lennon cross.
That goal sealed a comfortable afternoon’s work for England, with attention now switching to their opening match of the World Cup against the USA in Rustenburg on Saturday evening.
That is when the real games begin, and they will be much more serious than this.
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