Match Summary

England Team

Algeria Team

Match Report by Mike Payne

First the good news, England kept a clean sheet for a change and Germany lost earlier in the day, and that’s about it really.  The England fans have had to endure some pretty poor performances over the years and this World Cup Finals match against one of the so called minnows of the tournament ranks with the best of them.

Whenever I write an England match report I try so hard to review the game with a measured and calculated eye, as I don’t wish to be too critical.  But this game really does test one’s resolve.

Right from the first whistle there was precious little effort or cohesion in England’s play and for the first half hour the team rarely strung two passes together.  The first touch, so crucial at this level, (or any other level for that matter), was missing from most of the England players, and more worrying was the fact that we constantly gave the ball away and were second to almost every loose ball.  The Algerian players couldn’t believe their luck as they had acres of space to pass and move.  To be fair they did it well and, it pains me to say this, England chased shadows for much of the first half.  How can players that look so good for nine months of the year look so poor when it matters most?  Even our star man, Wayne Rooney, looked a pale shadow of the player we know he can be.  Was he injured, was he tired, or was he just trying too hard?  Who knows?

The early moments saw Robert Green’s replacement David James tested with a dropping cross and he elected to punch, somewhat unconvincingly.  The ball went to Glen Johnson who skewed his clearance before England cleared.  Having said that, there was no doubt that James was one of the few successes of a miserable evening.  He rose to the pressure he must have been under and gave a classy and assured performance in goal.  It certainly showed that the rest of the defenders had confidence in their goalkeeper.  At the other end the best chance fell to Frank Lampard who hit a left-foot shot to the Algerian replacement goalkeeper’s left but Rais M Boli got down well to save.  He too, gave a good performance on the night.

Goal attempts at either end were few and far between although both defences looked jittery at times.  Both attacks lacked that extra something in the final third and although shots went wide or over there were few worth mentioning in the report of the first half.  On a plus note it was good to see Gareth Barry back in the side and he did the job expected of him simply and effectively.  Unfortunately too many players around him were having off days.  Heskey worked hard, but his touch was missing, Aaron Lennon just could not get into the match, Ashley Cole looked disinterested and had none of his normal zest, Gerrard and Lampard spluttered along and Rooney had probably the worst game of his career to date!  No wonder the manager was going apoplectic on the line, I know how he feels as I was doing the same.

In recent England matches there has been a distinct improvement from the team in the second half.  This was not one of those days, as the match followed almost exactly the same pattern after the break.  To make matters worse Jamie Carragher picked up another booking and will now miss the crucial game against Slovenia.  The referee was over fussy at times and never really understood the English game as several innocuous challenges were punished with free-kicks, mainly because the Algerians fell to ground at the slightest touch, a frustrating habit of most teams at this tournament.  England could muster very few goal chances and the players seemed reluctant to take the responsibility to shoot.  Gerrard elected to pull the ball back when normally, at Anfield, he would have drilled the ball into the far corner from the position he was in.  Heskey tried an ‘Ali Shuffle’, almost tripping himself up, before shooting well over, and both Lampard and Gerrard shot well wide from good positions.  Lennon’s last touch almost gave Rooney a free header only for a defender to just stretch enough to touch it away from him. 

Manager Fabio Capello, really ‘enjoying’ his 64^th birthday, then sent on Shaun Wright-Phillips for Lennon, and later, Jermaine Defoe for Heskey.  Both players looked a little more lively, but apart from one shot from Defoe that flew over, there was no difference in the lacklustre England attack.  The late introduction of Peter Crouch for the industrious Barry was a token gesture from Capello that had no effect on the play.

So, we now have to play Slovenia in a game we must win to qualify for the next phase.  It is a scenario we didn’t really expect but maybe, just maybe, it will bring the best out of the players next week.

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
ITV.com/football
DZFoot.com
FIFA.com
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
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CG