ENGLAND MAKE IT THROUGH
The last time we faced Slovenia was in a friendly back in '09 and we beat them 2-1 at Wembley while I watched in the Teddington Arms on the way to Eurobasket. It wasn't one of our better games of the Fabio era but at least we got the right result. We have no history against Slovenia in a World Cup setting though and this is only their second World Cup since splitting from Yugoslavia in 1992. The Three Lions never went up against the former Yugoslavia in a World Cup even, though that side was one of Eastern Europe's more serious teams at the time, reaching the semi finals twice though the latter stages of their history weren't so spectacular.
Well after that iffy performance against the Yanks and absolute direness that was the game against Algeria, England were in trouble. The fact that our final match was to be against surprise group leaders Slovenia didn't help matters. Someonething was clearly wrong with the players' heads and the question was whether Fabio had what it took to find the answer. Now came the acid test, a World Cup Group C encounter at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Already it was win or go home. This was it. Terry and Upson in central defence, Milner at right mid and Rooney and Defoe up front. The doom mongers were out in force but the soul searching could wait, for now we had a match to play.
It wasn't long before it became obvious that this was not the same useless shambles we saw in the first two games. Finally an England team that knew how to pass smoothly and were confident had shown up, and they reaped the rewards in the 2rd minute when Milner crossed to Defoe and the Spurs assasin stuck it in the net, a great return for a guy on his World Cup debut. Slovenia just never looked like getting into the match before half time, they were clearly at out mercy. The whistle blew and for the first time during this tournament, England were leading at the interval. Fabio had nothing to complain about - the knockout staghes finally beckoned.
Early in the 2nd half, England hit the net again, slight problem, on this occasion the referee disallowed the goal. The Slovenians were also proving that they weren't out of the game yet and our defence had to look lively to keep them at bay. The fact that they finally looked like they knew they were playing at a World Cup though told me that the problems had been solved. The only sour note of the match? No further goals - on top form we would have buried Slovenia. Top form hasn't quite been found yet but at least we're not stuck in neutral any more. Fabio has his team back, we have our team back, the question is now, what else can we do?
Elsewhere, the USA faced Algeria at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium. The Yanks certainly had a solid enough first half and even hit the net early on but it was dissallowed and they were left going into half time with nothing to show for their early dominance. The second half looked likely to be more of the same and sure enough the Yanks were again unable to take the lead but after Algeria went down to ten men, Bob Bradley's team finally broke through with Landon Dovovan hitting the latest of winners. That left England 2nd in the group, one point ahead of Slovenia and an early flight home and level on points and goal difference with the USA but the Yanks won the group thanks to having scored two more goals. The tears and depression can be saved for another day.
In Group D, Germany beat Ghana 1-0 at the Soccer City Stadium but the Germans certainly didn't have things al their own way and it took a second half winner for them to claim all three points in this particular encounter. Australia beat Serbia 2-1 at the Mbombela Stadium. The two desperate sides fought out a fairly iffy stalemate untill the Socceroos remembered where the net was though Serbia had the last word, signing off their group campaign with a late strike. So, Germany tops that group, finishing two points ahead of 2nd placed Ghana who finish level on points with third placed Australia but qualify thanks to a +3 goal difference advantage.
So how do the knockout stages look?
Uruguay(beat Mexico 1-0) vs South Kores(drew 2-2 with Nigeria)
Argentina(beat Greece 2-0) vs Mexico
USA vs Ghana
Germany vs England
Netherlands(beat Cameroon 2-1) vs Slovakia(beat Italy 3-2)
Paraguay(drew 0-0 with New Zealand) vs Japan(beat Denmark 3-1)
Brazil(drew 0-0 with Portugal) vs Chille(survived a 2-1 defeat to Spain)
Spain vs Portugal