England have now officially qualified for the World Cup 2010 with 2 games to spare; winning all 8 of their qualifying matches.
It was less than 2 years ago that England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, losing to Croatia in the rain at Wembley with Steve McClaren famously standing with an umbrella at the sidelines. That is now a distant memory and all the bitterness is now firmly with the Croatian side.
All week prior to the match Slaven Bilic had been talking up his strategy and how he could see the holes in England that he could exploit and even saying England had “lost their Englishness” under Fabio Capello. The England camp kept quiet and refused to be drawn in to a war of words with the Croatian manager, and instead did their talking on the pitch.
I have to say I was quick to write off Glen Johnson in the friendly against Slovenia as he defended pretty poorly in that match; but last night he looked like a different player. He got forward well in the same manner as normal but his defensive work was also very good. He probably put in the best defensive performance of the team, and his header to deny Eduardo was fantastic. Down the right side Lennon and Johnson rampaged past the Croatian defenders all night.
England did look a bit narrow on the left side without a left sided winger, but when Gerrard and Lampard bang in 2 goals a piece it’s difficult to see sacrificing one of them to bring in a winger.
My major concern about England is their overall defense at the moment. After going 4-0 up they were not able to shut up shop and keep a clean sheet. The goal was very sloppy and surely should have been stopped. John Terry has not looked like his former self lately, and hopefully it’s just a form issue that he will have worked through by the time South Africa rolls around.
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