World Cup musings - XI of the tournament

Following Spain's victory over Holland last Sunday it is time for me to announce my 'team' of the tournament based on the performances of the last four and a bit weeks.

Goalkeeper

Iker Casillas

One of the easiest selections to make. He deservedly won the FIFA golden glove and if there were any doubts over his position in the ultimate selection then they were dispelled in the final as he marvellously denied Arjen Robben mid-way through the second half.

Right-Back

Philipp Lahm

Lahm makes the XI despite a minor error leading to Serbia's goal in Germany's 1-0 defeat in the group stage. This was the only blot on the copybook of the tournament's outstanding right-back.

Tackling, pace, verve and steel define all great full-backs and Lahm displayed these qualities in abundance as he led Germany to third place.

Left-Back

Jerome Boateng

Boateng completes a German full-back paring in the team and looks a sound investement for new employers Manchester City following a £10.4 million move from SV Hamburg.

The left-back was outstanding in Germany's victories over England and Argentina, all this in spite of his preferred position being in the centre of defence.

Centre-Back

Gerard Pique

The Barcelona centre-half has to be at the heart of the defence following his peerless displays for Spain en route to winning the tournament.

How Sir Alex Ferguson must be ruing the day he let him leave for Champions League rivals Barcelona for a mere £4 million.

Centre-Back

Juan

The solitary Brazilian in the team is an indictaion of the disappointment Juan's illustrious colleagues served up at South Africa 2010. Juan was magnificent and even managed to get on the scoresheet with a fine header against South American rivals Chile in the last 16.

Midfielder

Andres Iniesta

Iniesta had a decent tournament but makes the selection primarily for his performance in the final where, despite being on the receiving end of some tough tackling Dutch opponents, he kept his composure to score the winning goal in Soccer City.

Midfielder

Xavi

Another strong showing at a major tournament from the midfield maestro after he performed so well for Spain at Euro 2008. Becoming one of the legends of the sport following immense success with both the national side and his club - Barcelona.

Midfielder

Thomas Mueller

The Bayern Munich winger was at heart of every German counter-attack and none more so than in the 4-1 destruction of arch rivals England in Blomfontain. He scored twice on that occasion to go along with goals against Australia, Argentina and Uruguay that earned him the golden boot.

Midfielder

Wesley Schneider

Imperious throughout in the hole behind the main striker, Schneider confirmed what we already knew - Real Madrid made a huge mistake in letting him go in the summer of 2009.

Schneider now stands alone as the best player in the world in his position.

In spite of a quiet display in the final, when he was generally eclipsed by his midfield rivals Xavi and Iniesta, Schneider was the architect behind Holland's best chance of the match - putting Robben through on goal with a glorious through ball, only for the Bayern Munich winger to fluff his big moment.

Striker

David Villa

Villa looks a bargain at £37 million, which is what his new club Barcelona have just laid out for the prolific striker, based on his performances at this summer's World Cup.

Not only was he Spain's talisman as he scored five goals to end the tournament as joint top scorer, he was a scorer of great goals as excellent strikes against Hinduras and Portugal put him in contention for goal of the tournament.

Striker

Diego Forlan

Named FIFA player of the tournament Forlan looks a completely different player to the one who was at Manchester United in the early part of the decade where he was so poor he seemed more like Forlorn than Forlan.

However, a move to La Liga in Spain re-ignited the Uruguayan's career, culminating in this year's World Cup as he played a key role in helping his national side reach fourth place.

Subs Bench

Honourable mentions must go to Sergio Ramos and Ashley Cole (England's only decent performer at the tournament) for their sterling performances, as well as Spain's Carles Puyol, who narrowly missed out on the ultimate XI.

Furthermore, Holland's Arjen Robben and Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger fail to make the cut primarily due to high-profile errors in their final games in South Africa.

Finally, Luis Suarez misses out mainly because of his 'hand of the devil' moment against Ghana.

Talking of which, their star player, Asamoah Gyan, hitherto impressive, will be best remembered for his penalty miss following Suarez's callous act. This, though, is a dis-service to someone who starred for his country as Ghana made the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

World Cup musings - Reasons England are out of the World Cup

England are left reeling from their worst ever defeat at a World Cup and here are some of the reasons why...

Fabio Capello

Ever since the friendly against Egypt back in March Fabio Capellos value has been slowly deteriorating. The poor friendly dispalys against Egypt, Mexico and Japan were an indication of the rot at Englands core and Capello seemed unable to fix it.

This is a guy who is paid 6 million a year to negotiate our way beyond our ritual quarter-final departure. Well, he couldnt even get us that far.

His tactics were woeful. Rooney out of position, Gerrard out of position, refusal to accept that we needed a 5 man midfield at times to outmanouervre, as well as out-number, opponents at the highest level.

Depsite his stature within the game, he was unable to deal with the egos within the camp, something that proved to be a huge problem as players became aliented with each other and their manager.

Pace

Whether it be the rigours of the Premiership season, the age of the team or just the individuals selected, the England side were made to look foolish, particularly in defence, as the youthful German side rang rings around their English counterparts.

Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard struggled with the pace of the game and could not deal with the electric Mesut Ozil.

Furthermore, when England needed some urgency, neither of the midfielders were able to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Rooney

England's talisman has not scored since 30 March and for one of the best players in the world, he never delivered at this tournament.

Much will be made of his overall fitness but this has not hampered Lionel Messi, who was described prior to the tournament as physically exhausted by the Argentinian fitness coach, or Arjen Robben, who has played just 20 minutes of football in the last five weeks and yet still managed to inspire the Dutch to victory against Slovakia yesterday.

World Cup musings - Missed opportunities create a tough route for England

So, the path is clear - Germany, Argentina, Spain and then Brazil if England are to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup.

44 years of hurt could soon become 48 despite yesterday's 1-0 victory over Slovenia, ensuring progress to the last 16.

The countless missed opportunities against the Slovenians, combined with the USA's late winner against Algeria, denied England top spot in Group C, thus setting up a Second Round match with the Germans.

However, it is not just the prospect of facing the old enemy that should strike fear in every English supporter. This is the half of the draw that we wanted to avoid.

Nothing illustrates this better than the USA's prospective opponents en route to an improbable final. First up is Ghana. Should they progress they will play the winner of Uruguay - South Korea. Not easy but eminently more winnable than England's prospective opponents.

Careless finishing in yesterday's match from Gerrard and, in particular, Rooney denied England a greater winning margin and, with it, top spot in Group C.

The emotion of progressing further in the tournament was tempered with Germany's win against Ghana and the words of millions around the country could be heard: "Oh no, not the Germans".

Nevertheless, it is not all doom and gloom. If England perform to their potential, and that's a big IF, then they could dispense with Germany.

What we need more than anything else is belief. A commodity that Germany have in abundance. If we truly have the belief, and that seemed to be there in the match with Slovenia, we will have an excellent chance of knocking them out.

We need to play with plenty of aggression and ambition as I can guarentee one thing about Sunday's game - if it goes to penalties we're out!

World Cup musings - Changes a must if England are to progress

Listless, poor, dreadful and many more adjectives could be used to describe England's performance against Algeria last night but what has happened to the team since they qualified in such convincing fashion last autumn?

Goals

The goals have dried up since they thrashed Croatia 5-1 to secure their passage to South Africa. Rooney appears short on confidence, and maybe fitness too. On too many occasions England's talisman has drifted deep to pick up possession but what damage can he do 60 metres from goal?

Solution: Drop Heskey, and play Gerrard in behind Rooney. This means playing the two in tandem, in the positions they play so succesfully for their clubs.

Confidence

When Fabio Capello took charge of his first game against Switzerland in February 2008 he noticed the players lacked confidence whilst playing for the national team. The shirt seemed to hang heavy on their shoulders. Slowly but surely he gave the team the much needed morale boost they needed and they started believing in themselves again. This form has completely disappeared since the turn of the year and England have regressed to their former selves. USA midfielder Clint Dempsey noted after last week's 1-1 draw that England were "edgy". That feeling was enhanced last night in Cape Town as many of the English players had a heavy touch and their passing was poor.

Solution: Get back to basics. The players need to be reminded of their qualities, even show them dvds of what they're good at. Also, playing players in the positions they prefer, ie Rooney up front, would help.

With these two key things fixed, England will surely get the win they need against Slovenia on Wednesday but there are a few other tactical tweeks that may be required.

Shaun Wright-Phillips should not be turned to as our saviour. In the last two games he has come on as a substitute and performed even worse than the player he replaced.

Furthermore, what has Joe Cole done to upset Mr Capello so much that he can't seem to get near the starting 11? With him, Gerrard and Aaron Lennon lined-up as a three behind Rooney we could play the 4-2-3-1 formation we see used throughout the Premier League. This would give us many more options going forward, whilst also enabling us to play our best players in their best positions.

Lennon deserves persisting with. Last night his delivery improved and it was a lack of a presence in the box that cost England dearly. On several occasions Heskey and Rooney were both seen deep in their own half.

Dispensing with Heskey would also encourage England to play a more expansive game following the justified accusations from Franz Beckenbauer that we had become a "kick and rush" team.

Also, the full-backs need to get forward more. Against the U.S Glen Johnson was one of our best players but against Algeria, he and Ashley Cole were rarely seen venturing forward.

Finally, some due respect needs to be given to the Slovenians prior to kick-off. In the build-up to last night's game Gerrard spoke of the need for a "convincing win". The only purpose these ill-advised words served was to increase the pressure on England, as well as motivating the Algerians. This comment would have been more understandable coming from a naive youngster but not the England captain.

World Cup musings - Swiss illustrate perfect timing as Zurich awakes from its slumber

As we waited for this World Cup to come alive, little did we expect a Manchester City reject to provide the fillip this tournament was in desperate need of, scoring the winning goal in Switzerland's 1-0 win over Spain.

A similarly profound effect was had on the city of Zurich, Switzerland's largest city. The Swiss, not known for their wild partying antics (when FC Zurich beat AC Milan in last season's Champions League a polite ripple of applause could be heard throughout Zurich), took to the streets to 'party'.

When Swiss people go crazy it generally constitutes a second piece of chocolate or a little less lemonade in their panache (shandy).

However, Wednesday's result in Durban created something on a much grander scale. Langstrasse, a street famous for lap dancing joints and home to some of Zurich's dodgiest bars, was closed for several hours as people drank copious amounts of alcohol, waved the national flag and danced on the rooftops of cars.

Zurich hasn't seen this kind of commotion since Tina Turner opened a bank account here.

Now, to say the Swiss were going crazy on the aforementioned street might be being a bit flexible with the truth as, admittedly, most who were seen hooting horns (not the first time someone got the horn on this street, eh?!), drinking beer and waving the flags ferociously, were either Turkish or Latin American. However, this was punctuated with the odd smiley Swiss face, often painted in the national colours of red and white.

Even the local media got caught up in the excitement of it all. The Blick described the result as 'The miracle of Durban' and the nation was in a state of 'Jubilation', which has to be a first.

The reaction was as if they had actually won the whole damn thing but that is understandable as the locals know this could be as near as they ever get to doing just that.