“This is not the team I recognise from training or from qualifying,” said Capello. “We missed too many passes and lost too many balls. It wasn’t a good game.”
“It was incredible, the mistakes we made. It was incredible for the level of the England players. We have another game to play. It’s our last chance to continue in the tournament. The players know what they have to do.”
Capello hinted that the squad is beginning to feel the strain of trying to deliver England’s first World Cup since their first and only triumph in 1966.
“We’re not happy with the performance, we need more if we want to stay in this tournament, we need to improve,” said captain Steven Gerrard. “We weren’t good enough in the final third to get the breakthrough. We’ve got to go and win the last game and that adds more pressure, but to play at this level you’ve got to handle it.”
Carragher rues second yellow
Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher may have played his last part in the World Cup, with a second yellow card ruling him out of England’s final crucial group game against Slovenia. The defender was booked against the US and again on Friday. It means an automatic one-match ban, and with Rio Ferdinand already gone home and Ledley King injured that is bad news for coach Fabio Capello.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2010.
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