England bask in luck of the draw

The odds on England winning next year’s World Cup were cut Friday after a draw that was seen as handing Fabio Capello’s squad a comfortable introduction to the tournament.

England were placed in group C with the United States, Algeria and Slovenia with their opening match against the Americans, in Rustenburg on June 12.

Although the United States were arguably the strongest team England could have faced from a pool comprising qualifiers from North and Central America and Asia, England will be comforted by the fact that they will face them in their opening match in the city where they plan to base themselves.

Capello’s men will then take on Algeria, regarded as the weakest of the five African teams in the tournament, in Cape Town, and Slovenia, who qualified via a shock win over Russia in a play-off, in Port Elizabeth.

“It’s not so bad,” Capello acknowledged. “We played against the USA and Slovenia at home – we played well, we won, but when we have to play here in June it will be difficult.

“Algeria beat Egypt (in a qualifying play-off) and will not be easy; they have a really good team now. When you play at the World Cup, every game is not easy.”

Asked if England could win the tournament, the Italian replied with a smile: “We have to win!”

Former England manager Terry Venables said Capello would be delighted with the draw.

“They are going to say ‘there are no easy games’ and of course, that is true, but it’s a good a draw as we could have expected,” Venables said. “You could have hand-picked that so we’ve got to be very satisfied.”

Venables admitted however that the clash with the United States would represent a tough opening match.

“It’s a tough game because they will be fit, organised and while they won’t outplay us, they could out-sprint us,” he added.

Former England striker Alan Shearer added: “USA, Algeria, Solvenia – if you had said that to Fabio this morning I think he would have snapped your hand off.”

Although England’s first-round group looks comfortably negotiable, a potentially tough second round match awaits against one of the top two teams in group D, which contains Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana.

“The only blight on the horizon is the group we’re going to be playing against when we qualify, it’s going to throw up some very tough games because Germany’s group is very tough,” said Fulham boss Roy Hodgson.

British bookmakers all reacted to the draw by cutting the odds on an England victory although they were divided between those who continue to regard Brazil and Spain as joint favourites and those who installed Capello’s men as second favourites behind Spain.

Goals from John Terry and Steven Gerrard gave England a 2-0 win over the United States when the two teams last met, in a Wembley friendly in May 2008.

Capello’s men also have recent experience of Slovenia, having beaten them 2-1 in a friendly at the start of this season.