|
|
 |
England takes Slovenia 1-0 after all the ruckus
|
By Christopher Clarey
June 23, 2010
Port Elizabeth, SA — When the referee, Wolfgang Stark, blew the final whistle Wednesday, both teams on the field had reason to feel like celebrating.
England, after all the fuss and bother about lineups and fearful play and dissent, had qualified for the knockout round with a 1-0 victory. But even in defeat, Slovenia — tiny and unlikely Slovenia — also looked set to make history by advancing because the other game in Group C, between the United States and Algeria, was scoreless at the start of injury time.
But as Slovenia Coach Matjaz Kek would later and quite rightly point out, “Sport is very unpredictable.”
And so, though the Slovenes were initially happy losers as they exchanged handshakes and jerseys with the English, they were soon reeling from the unlikely news that Landon Donovan had produced a winning strike for the United States in Pretoria.
That goal, which could do much to advance the cause of soccer in the United States, not only gave the Americans a spot in the second round but also first place in the group, ahead of England.
“This is really indescribable, but you know this is sport,” said Kek, sounding philosophical but looking rather the worse for the drama.World Cup Matches, Thurs., June 24, 2010
Cameroon vs Netherlands (Match 44)
8:30 PM
Green Point
(Cape Town, South Africa, ZAF)
Denmark vs Japan (Match 43)
8:30 PM
Royal Bafokeng Stadium
(Rustenburg, South Africa, ZAF)
Italy vs Slovakia (Match 41)
4:00 PM
Ellis Park Stadium
(Johannesburg, South Africa, ZAF)
Paraguay vs New Zealand (Match 42)
4:00 PM
Peter Mokaba Stadium
(Polokwane, South Africa, SA) “I wish that when we finished, Algeria and the United States had already been finished, too.”
Because of the last-minute plot twist, England will now travel north to Bloemfontein to play Sunday against the winner of Group D, which was to be determined later Wednesday and could be England’s longtime rival Germany. The United States will return to Rustenberg, where it faced England in their opening group match, and play the second-place team from Group D on Saturday.
But even in second place, the English coach, Fabio Capello, expressed plenty of satisfaction on Wednesday after shuffling his lineup and getting a more cohesive and spirited performance in return than England had produced so far in South Africa. England’s indispensable man, striker Wayne Rooney, still bears little resemblance to the defender’s nightmare he has become at his club Manchester United and was dispensable enough — in part because of an ankle injury — to be replaced late in the second half.
But the rest of the team looked — to borrow Capello’s vernacular — more like themselves. And the only goal of the game was scored in the 23rd minute by Jermain Defoe, the striker whom Capello started on Wednesday night in replace of Emile Heskey.
Did Capello feel vindicated by the team’s performance?
“No. Why?” Capello said. “This is the team that I know, and this is the spirit I remember when we played the qualification games.”
This was essentially a must-win game for England, even if there were unlikely possibilities that would have also allowed it to qualify with a high-scoring draw as well.
Slovenia, the least populous nation in the Cup, came into the match with 4 points. The English had just 2 points after a 1-1 draw with the United States and a scoreless draw with Algeria in Cape Town that inspired their tens of thousands of fans to boo and whistle them at great length and even inspired one fan who wandered past security into the England locker room in search of a toilet to give the injured star David Beckham and the players a face-to-faces critique.
But the English fans did not appear to harbor much of a grudge as they poured into sunny Port Elizabeth in their White and Red on their crack-of-dawn charter flights.
Not all of the seats in Port Elizabeth’s new and striking stadium near the Indian Ocean were full.
Attendance was 36,893 in a stadium that seats more than 42,000. But the seats that were occupied were mostly occupied by English supporters, and when their team took the field, there was a collective roar and only the occasional manifestation of English pessimism, including one banner that read “6000 miles 4 what!!”
It had been a busy, trying week, both from a coaching perspective and a tabloid perspective, with English defender John Terry offering his thoughts about the team’s troubles and potential solutions, including the need for striker Joe Cole, in a news conference. Capello was not amused by Terry’s decision to go public. And Cole was not in the starting lineup, although he was the one who came on for Rooney as a substitute.
• Soccer, World Cup News Archive Index
2010, 2009
• Soccer Tickets
• World Cup Tickets
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
