England were lucky to win their final warm-up game against Japan before boarding their flight to South Africa for the World Cup. Six minutes into the game, Japan converted Yasuhito Endo's corner kick, past goalie David James, to go one up. But England were saved embarrassment, and prevailed 2-1, thanks to own goals by Tanaka and Nakazawa.
Not a single England player managed to score; also, the squad were very mediocre over long durations of the match. Despite that, England will take any win that comes their way ahead of the big tournament that is scheduled to begin on June 11 at the Soccer City Stadium in Joahnnesburg. It's all about confidence and every adds to the mental preparedness of players and team alike.
Manager Fabio Capello used as many as 17 players in the game against Japan. Having seen such a large contingent in action should help England's Italian coach to decide on who should make the starting eleven in the big matches to come, and who shouldn't.
Joe Cole and Hart were definitely among the players who had a good day against the Japanese; Huddlestone definitely wasn't. Gerrard was seen limping at the end of the game, while some players have yet to see action, chief among them A Johnson, Warnock, Dawson and Parker.
Japan are ranked a lowly 45th in the world by FIFA and the quality of the game played by the England players on the day does not augur well. Among the teams competing in South Africa, there are only four other teams that are ranked lower than Japan.
Capello was averse to being too harsh in his judgement of England's effort. He restricted himself to saying that the first half was a bit slow, but that he was happy with the second half game of his men.
The Italian said that the game had given him a better perspective of the 23 men shortlisted for the World Cup but did not reveal any further details.
In another warm up, Derby midfielder Paul Green in his debut match for the Republic of Ireland scored the first of three goals in his team's win over up World Cup bound-Algeria. The other two goals came from Robbie Keane.
In yet another game, Nigeria drew Colombia 1-1, and disappointed coach Lars Lagerback who had expressed the hope of a better result after his team's goalless draw against Saudi Arabia. Nigeria are yet to win under their new coach, who is expected to announce the final squad for the World Cup, soon.
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger.
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