I WANT FOOTBALL

Group C

Before this all started, I wrote,

Group C sees England joined by USA, Algeria and Slovenia. England's approach will be key here. They should qualify relatively easily but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating - or should that be the proof of the pizza...? I'll get me coat.

I reckon that I was right. England's approach was key. I think that we went off like a train against the USA, got the early goal, then were pegged back due to a poor error by Robert Green then huffed and puffed to find a winner before settling for a point. Then we underestimated Algeria and gave the worst performance of Capello's tenure and were rightly and roundly booed from the pitch at the end. So to the last game versus Slovenia and some modicum of normal service was resumed. USA deservedly tops the group - just to think, they were on their way home at half time in their game versus Slovenia...

	P	W	L	D	F	A	GD	Pts
USA	3	1	0	2	4	3	1	5
England	3	1	0	2	2	1	1	5
Algeria	3	0	2	1	0	2	-2	1
Slovenia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4

England 1-0 Slovenia England expected...
USA 1-0 Algeria USA proves that they're not here to make up the numbers...
Algeria 0-0 England All the cliches could and should come out after this dog's breakfast of a match. It was truly diabolical. Algeria are excused from any criticism. For all of those newspaper editors, sub-editor, headline writers, journalists etc who came out with all of...
Slovenia 2-1 USA I knew that if we gave it time this World Cup would come alive. This was a very interesting game between the countries with the lowest population and the highest. I was running around collecting the children from school etc whilst this was on so I had t...
Adidas dismisses England complaints about new ball I'm inclined to agree with adidas. All the conspiracy theories about 'dem jeermans' having the ball to play with since February is such a load of old bollox as to be truly laughable. Fact is it's that old conflict between cost and value again. The Premier...
Beckenbauer: England have regressed under Capello One supposes that when a man like Herr Beckenbauer speaks (or his 'ghost' writes) you should listen. I think that he's a man with a genuine affection for England - remember the Germans are not in anyway as rabidly anti-English as we are anti-German. Truth...
Algeria 0-1 Slovenia Quite how this dismal game was decided is beyond me. The best bit was Pet Nevin on Radio 5 Live - I watched the pictures with the R5L commentary. Anyway, after a largely turgid first half, of which the best bit was Nadir Belhadj's free kick on 3 minutes....
England 1-1 USA Well well well. I suppose that this result was no surprise. However it should have been a comfortable victory for England. But for Robert Green's terrible / unfortunate / foolish / basic / schoolboy (delete as applicable) mistake; Emile Heskey's lame miss...