World Cup Review Group C

In the run up to this year´s World Cup Finals, Graeme Clark is reviewing each group stage in turn – this week it is England´s Group.

When the draw was made for this group many people thought that England had got an easy way to the next stage and even used the acronym EASY to stand for “England, Algeria, Slovenia and the Yanks”.

Whilst it has to be said that Algeria – along with South Africa – are about the least impressive squad in the tournament, the other two matches could be potential banana skins for Fabio Capello´s squad.

In qualifying Algeria ended joint winners of Africa group C with Egypt before winning the play off in the Sudan, but in the recent African Cup of Nations they were humbled by lowly Malawi before squeezing through into the next stages. Then against all the odds they beat favourites Cote D´Ivore 3-2 before losing in dramatic fashion to Egypt. Whilst the final score was 4-0, perhaps  the most interesting statistic was Algeria had three players sent off so they may have a disciplinary problem.

They do, however, have players of Premiership pedigree, such as Portsmouth´s Nadir Belhadj and Hassan Yebda Portsmouth, while Kamel Ghilas is with Hull City and Madjid Bougherra is at Rangers. They also have Mourad Meghni, an attacking midfielder nicknamed “Le Petit Zidane¨. Algeria and England have never met in international football before so whatever the outcome it will be an historic occasion.

Slovenia and England have met, as recently as last year, when goals from Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe gave England a tight 2-1 victory in a friendly at Wembley. In their only World Cup finals, in 2002, Slovenia lost all three games finishing bottom of their group.

In qualifying this time around, however, they performed wonders, finishing second behind Slovakia but ahead of the Czech Republic, with a truly mean defensive record. They didn´t concede a single goal at home and only 4 in five away games so it was little surprise when they stopped Russia in their tracks in the play-offs, getting a crucial late away goal through Nejc Pecnik and then holding onto a 1-0 home win for a tight two legged victory.

Their danger man will be 6 foot 4 inch tall centre forward Milivoje Novakovic, currently hitting the back of the net with alarming regularity for Cologne, while pulling the strings from midfield is likely to be West Brom´s Robert Koren.

England have also played against the USA in the World Cup Finals, most memorably in 1950 when the Americans served up a 1-0 win which stunned the soccer world. Since then they have gone on to stage a finals and now have a highly impressive FIFA ranking of 14, just 5 lower than England. In Premiership strikers Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey they have players capable of creating and scoring goals, whilst at the back Everton´s Tim Howard is a worthy successor to Brad Friedel in goal.

In other areas of the pitch they have players with English experience, although some of it is outside of the Premiership. Zak Whitbread, the former Liverpool centre back is now at Norwich; Frank Simek – although it is three years since his last international appearance – is a regular at Sheffield Wednesday. Jozy Altidore – or Dozy Jozy as he is now known after an untimely Twitter outburst – occasionally plays for Hull City, but was the USA leading scorer in qualification, whilst full back Jonathon Spector is at least a regular at West Ham.

The USA easily qualified from their group stage with a game to spare. As did their first group stage opponents – England. So what of England´s chances?

With world class players such as Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard the answer surely has to be that they will progress to the next round at the very least, but will those players and the others in the squad be suffering from the after effects of what is turning out to be one of the closest and most hard fought Premiership battles in many years.

Perhaps the biggest problem is going to be in defence. No-one seems sure who will be Capello´s first choice goalkeeper, take your pick from Robert Green, David James, Joe Hart, possibly even Paul Robinson. The first choice defensive quartet (Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry and Cole) would pick itself if all were fully fit but at the time of writing they are anything but and defensive frailties were exposed in the recent friendly against Egypt. Midfield seems more settled, and there is certainly a wealth of quality and experience, even if David Beckham is missing. Up front the biggest question is whether Wayne Rooney can regain full fitness and who will partner him – Defoe, Crouch, Bent, Heskey, Agbonglahor.

My own belief is that under Fabio Capello England have finally found a style and a belief in themselves that has been missing whilst most of this “golden generation” have been growing up. Now is perhaps the last time that Gerrard and Lampard. along with other stalwarts like John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and even David Beckham, will have of performing at the highest level and achieving the ultimate goal.

Can they do it? Getting out of the group stages should not be a problem, even if they have to draw against the USA and then win comfortably against Algeria and Slovenia. Where it takes them after will depend on ho they play and the fitness of key players.

My Prediction – 1st England, 2nd USA, 3rd Slovenia, 4th Algeria.

Graeme Clark

Why not get involved in the World Cup and try your luck at our great competition currently being run in conjunction with Canal Print Rioja, OCMdigital and The Leader and hosted by a number of bars in the Orihuela Costa area. Simply pop down to one of the bars mentioned below and enter. All you need do is pick – at random from the pack of 32 – four teams. If your four teams have the highest aggregate score at the end of the tournament you will scoop the prize money. Entry is just one euro per entry and there is no limit to the number of times you can play. Full terms and conditions can be found online at www.canalprint.com.

Bars currently involved (in alphabetical order) are - Auld Dubliner – Lomas de Cabo Roig; Bernie D´Arcy´s – La Fuente; Celtic Drop – Flamenca Beach; Dave´s Sports Bar – Punta Prima/Eroski; Diablos – Cabo Roig/La Regia, Flannigans – Cabo Roig Strip; Katie Reilly´s – cc Rioja; Moores Bar – Aguamarina; O´Neills – San Miguel; The Tavern – Villamartin Plaza.