Day 4 of the World cup is about to get under way with two of the European heavyweights due in action later today. Netherlands and Italy are both in action and while neither are been tipped as winners of the tournament, they would both be expected to get out of their groups and possibly progress further.With 8 matches having been decided over the weekend, more questions than answers have been thrown up. The main talking point is Robert Green's disastrous mistake in England's match with the USA which cost the English 2 points after he let a fairly tame shot hit off his thumb and roll agonisingly into the net. England's performance was extremely poor in my view and having listened to the pundits on English television, I actually wonder if they were watching the same game that I was watching. I don't know what the UK's policy is but it seems to be don't say anything that might cause the slightest offence to team or manager. Indeed Fabio Capello came out and said "It was a good performance. I'm sure he was a lot more vocal in the dressing room.
I had the luxury if that's the right word, of watching Irish televisions analysis after the game. One of their pundits was Graeme Souness who said he couldn't believe how badly England had played and his two colleagues, John Giles and Eamon Dunphy both agreed. On that performance for them to be classed as possible winners of the tournament is beyond belief. There was no tempo or cohesion to their play. Midfield needs to be sorted out and quick because when they come up against the better teams in the knockout stages they will be punished. The Gerrard and Lampard issue has raised its head again. Ledley King is injured again and Milner was taken off to save himself getting sent off. Their replacements, Carragher and Sean Wright-Phillips were ineffective to say the least. Carragher was skint within 5 minutes of coming on and was lucky not to give away a penalty. Wright -Phillips should have been left on the bench. Green atoned somewhat for his mistake with a good save which bounced off the post and if that had gone in it could have been disastrous because their wasn't much hope of anything going in at the other end. Rooney was isolated up front with no decent service to him and frustration building as the game went on. Heskey had a great chance but blasted the ball straight at the keeper and the all important final ball was poor all night.
Germany on the other hand, fired a warning shot to the rest of teams with a clinical display of passing and finishing that seen their mix of youth and experience romp past the Aussies 4-0. As I have said before rule the Germans out at your peril. They might not have enough to just make it all the way but they are not to be discounted. The winners and runners up from England's group and Germanys group have to play each other in the next round which could throw up that repeat of the 66 final. Only one winner on the performances shown over the weekend I'm afraid. Hopefully it's just a slow start from England and they will build slowly into the tournament, but they can't afford any slip ups. Algeria and Slovenia shouldn't cause England any problems, but then the USA didn't cause them any major problems either and they came out with a point.
Final issue is the print media in England who seem to just love when things go a little bit pear shaped. They were all over Robert Green like a rash. It seems the only thing that interests them is the big brash headline that will add a few numbers to their circulation figures. Why not just report the facts, support the team and stop trying to assassinate any one who makes a mistake. Will they round on Rooney in the same way if he misses the decisive penalty in the final? Probably, even after all he has done for the team. Remember Beckham after he got sent off against Argentina. How England could have done with his quality of passing on Saturday night.
