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ONWEDNESDAY | MAY 26, 2010
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Unconvincing
>King andBaines strugglebut England take
advantageof poorMexicandefending
F
ABIOCAPELLO
will not be the first
Englandmanager who finds himself on
the eve of aWorld Cup finals privately
wondering why it is that his players
seem so intent on posing himproblems rather
than solutions the closer that they come to the
reckoning.
It was that kind of night atWembley, one
onwhich Englandwon but still managed to
send their supporters home with a fewnew
anxieties to gowith all the usual ones.
Historically England teams have a unique
knack of going off the boil when it matters
most and as they applauded a half-empty
Wembley yesterday everyone was thinking
the same thing.
Can Capello iron out all the problems in
the 19 days before they face the United States
on 12 June? Somany questions, so little time.
The identical T-shirts that the Football
Association gave every supporter meant
Wembley had the appearance of a cult
gathering and usually at this point in the build-
up to amajor tournament everyone starts to
believe the same thing: England canwin it. But
theywere not thinking that last night.
There were holes in England’s defence,
evenwith Ledley King back after almost three
years and, more critically, problems in central
midfield.
The Englandmanager finds out today
whether Gareth Barry is on course tomake a
recovery fromhis damaged ankle ligaments in
time to be worth taking to South Africa a week
today and after last night he will be praying for
a positive report.
The pair whomCapello picked to protect
his back four struggled at times, particularly
Michael Carrick, who has a habit of looking
queasy every time a great opportunity
presents itself.
The scorer of England’s
first goal, King looked
flat-footed at
times when
confrontedwith
the pace of Carlos
Vela. At leftback Leighton Baines was exposed
by the lop-sidedness of England’s formation
and did not cope as well as might have been
hoped.
Then there was StevenGerrard, that riddle
wrapped up in amystery. Wandering in from
the left side in the first half he looked out of
sorts, then he had a nasty clash of heads and
came back from treatment playing better. He
was moved into the centre of midfield in the
second half andwas the game’s best player.
Gerrard is the solution to somany of
England’s problems and yet, in the way that a
succession of Englandmanagers have tried to
shoehorn him into unfamiliar positions, he can
also be the problem. When he was finally
slotted into holdingmidfield he was excellent.
Having been selected ahead of Emile
Heskey to start alongsideWayne Rooney,
Peter Crouch scored his 21st goal for England
with the kind of opportunism that has served
him sowell for his national team.
Swimming against a tide of Mexican
dominance – they had the best of the
possession by a long way – there were still
some decent performances. Robert Green
played the first half andwas excellent – given
the standard of defending, he had to be. Glen
Johnson scored his first international goal
with an improbable shot with his left foot
whichwas good enough for the corporate
brigade to vote him theman of thematch.
Then, in the final minutes, the twowingers
Adam Johnson and Aaron Lennon showed
little bursts of skill and pace that lifted the
heart.
Watching in the stands, David Beckham
will have seen all this before. The hope
mixed wi th fear and bewilderment as
England stand on the brink of amajor
t o u r n ame n t s t i l l not sure of
themselves but
Capello has
achieved enough
to expect the faith
of the support. –
The Independent
ENGLAND 3 MEXICO 1
REUTERSPIX
‘MAD’MARADONA
CANSURPRISE
–PAGE30
England’s Glen Johnson (center) scores past Mexico’s goalkeeper Oscar Perez
during their international friendly football match atWembley Stadiumyesterday.