That’s better England!!

Oh what joy, what relief, what glorious happiness. Never before has a 1-0 win over the team ranked twenty-fifth in the world been received with such rapturous excitement.

Analyse

When the dust has settled on the victory we will no doubt be able to analyse England’s performance in the victory over Slovenia with a little more clarity, but for the time being, I am just going to celebrate the fact that we looked like a half decent team for seventy-five minutes.

The next round on Sunday will see England play against Germany or Ghana or Serbia or perhaps Australia and if they should win that it is likely to be Argentina in the quarter-finals. It will be tough but nobody said it would be easy and at least we will be in there with a chance.

Different

What was different about the England team this afternoon from the one that was so dismal and disappointing last Friday? The answer to that question is, just about everything.

The team lined up in the same 4-4-2 formation with Matty Upson replacing the suspended Jamie Carragher, James Milner in for the ineffective Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe replacing the much maligned Emile Heskey.

I was reasonably happy with the changes in personnel but really disappointed that Capello had not bowed down to the pressure to change the system and bring in Joe Cole.

Passing

Once the game kicked off England looked like a different side altogether. They were passing and moving and creating space and time for each other and creating chances. When they didn’t have the ball they worked hard to get it back. Their passing was crisp and accurate, their first touch, on the whole, was pretty good and they kept possession for long periods.

Steve Gerrard had obviously been instructed to stay wider and whilst that is a million miles away from being his best position, the team looked far more balanced.

Change

The biggest reason for the change, I believe, was that with Defoe and Rooney up front there was no target man. English players seem to need to try to hit the long ball into the target man if he is there. Without that option, they had to move the ball and the Slovenians around and create some decent attacking positions.

The players looked as though they had a weight lifted from off their shoulders and played with a freedom and the ability that we all know they possess.

Tenacity

On the rare occasions that Slovenia did attack, David James was immaculate and John Terry and Matty Upson defended with skill and, when it was required, ‘body on the line’ tenacity.

English players were putting in tackles and making ‘lung bursting’ runs that lifted the crowd. At last we were seeing the ability, but more importantly, some spirit and some passion.

Win

I am not going to go over the top and change from saying we are useless to saying we are going to win the World Cup on the back of one game, but we have put ourselves right back in the mixer with the other top teams and anything can happen from now on.

The momentum is with England now and the players will have picked up a huge amount of confidence from that game.

Sweet

I hope Germany win their group and England play them on Sunday afternoon. I truly believe that the England that played today can beat Germany and I would love Franz Beckenbauer to have to eat his words from last week. That would be sweet.

I said I wouldn’t go over the top and then I go and predict that we’ll beat Germany! Who cares, you’ve got to celebrate and be optimistic whenever you get the chance as an England fan!

Another 5-1 win like Hamburg in 2001 would be nice…