BOOBOOZZZZZZELAS

IT WAS supposed to be Wayne Rooney's World Cup, the tournament he took hold of by the scruff of the neck.

He was meant to go head-to-head with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to find out who is the best player on the planet.

It was supposed to be the World Cup where England showed how far they have come under Fabio Capello, how the ethos and attitude of the Three Lions has changed.

Coach Handags Replica

Yet it didn't feel like that last night, as England played like they were in Cape Fear, not Cape Town.

Unless something changes very, very quickly, unless Capello does something about Rooney, then England will be back at Heathrow next week, 24 hours after France arrive at Charles De Gaulle.

That was the bleak reality at the Green Point Stadium, a night in which England stank the place out.

And as Rooney snarled into the cameras about the jeers that rained down amid the blaring vuvuzelas, the sheer scale of the problems that Capello has brought down upon himself in the space of a few short weeks was clear as never before.

From the moment the Italian came into the job, his entire approach has been about one idea, geared towards Rooney.

He changed the shape of the team to make him the central figure, told the planet to beware and made the Manchester United man his talisman.

But last night England did not have Wayne Rooney. Yes, they had a fellow called Rooney playing in the No.10 shirt, but they did not have Wayne Rooney. They had a player whose touch was dreadful, whose movement paled into insignificance compared to that of Emile Heskey.

This was not merely Rooney's worst night of the season, it was - Gelsenkirchen aside - arguably his worst ever in an England shirt.

It was surely only Capello's desperation, his hope that Rooney might come up with one moment of inspiration, that kept him on the pitch for 90 minutes last night, as England lurched from nervousness into total disarray. This was nothing to do with altitude or the ball, nothing to do with any other excuses Capello might try to drag up.

It was down to a side that has lost faith in itself, lost belief, at the moment when it needs it most, a side that seems to feel that, without a fit and firing Rooney, it has no real chance.

Of course, it is not over yet. In 1986 England had one point from two games, four years later, they started with two draws as Replica Glashutte Original Watches Fake well.

Italy, too, have even won the World Cup after drawing their first two matches - and they also had a keeper, like the recalled David James, who was in his dotage. Victory over Slovenia on Wednesday will ensure England go through to the knock-out phase, quite probably as Group C winners, although they will have to do so without the suspended Jamie Carragher.

But you would have to be a blind patriot, or a deluded optimist, to claim that it will suddenly change for the better.

Algeria are not a good team. They are not even an ordinary team. But for long periods last night they were better than England.

An England in which Steven Gerrard was playing with the inhibitions of captaincy, which showed that Frank Lampard does not do World Cups, which proved that simply bringing back Gareth Barry does not sort everything ou
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