England Must Keep Calm and Carry On To Win Group C

Posted by Cathal Breathnach on June 17, 2010 | No Comments

Now that we know that England’s progress out of this Group will be no simple matter and after Slovenia’s win over Algeria the pressure on the Three Lions has intensified. Victories in the two remaining games must now be the objective. There is no doubt that the draw at Rustenburg on Saturday was seen as disappointing by England fans especially because of the glaring mistake by the hapless Robert Green. But hey, wait a minute… England drew their opening games in 1966 and 1990 and still went through. In fact in the last 10 occasions when England has been involved in this stage of the World Cup they have qualified for the next stage every time. According to the latest World Cup odds, England remain favourites to qualify despite the draw with the USA and they now stand at 1/12 to qualify. The odds on the USA qualifying are 4/9.

Credit where credit is due though, Slovenia have chalked up the only win in Group C so far although some people may attribute that to the woeful contribution of Algeria’s Abdelkader Ghezzal, who, just moments of coming on a sub was booked for a blatant foul and then missed a sitter before being sent off for handling the ball – he stayed on the pitch for just 16 minutes. That and a blunder by goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi was what did for the Desert Foxes.

Tellingly, even after Slovenia went top of the Group after defeating Algeria they stand at 6/5 in the betting. Slovenia seemed to lack any creative spark and few see them as posing any real threat to English and US qualification hopes.

As for Algeria they now look even less likely to qualify and have gone out to 20/1 in the betting. This makes the clash between England and Algeria one that England simply cannot afford to fumble. Losing would be an absolute disaster and a draw against an outfit of the calibre of Algeria would wreck their chances of winning the group. The online betting odds on a win for England are 4/1 on with the odds on a victory for Algeria at 11/1. It remains to be seen what decision Capello will make about the goalkeeper for the game.

It would be unfair to blame the England result on that one slip by Green though. There were other players who had a pretty dismal game. Emile Heskey was ineffective and that will give Capello plenty of food for thought for the future. My bet is that we will see Jermain Defoe starting alongside Rooney on Friday. With Ledley King ruled out with injury the scene looks set for Jamie Carragher to replace him. Another change is likely to be the return of Gareth Barry in midfield as he should now be fully recovered and fit enough to play.

The betting on who will win the Group is also fluctuating with England still fancied to end up as the top team at 4/9 and the Stars and Stripes quoted at 3/1, followed by Slovenia at 11/2 and Algeria now at 50/1

What this tells us is that it really is still all to play for. It is now time to dig deep and concentrate on the task at hand. The initial draw against the other team that is expected to qualify is not as catastrophic as some of the newspapers would have us believe. One last factoid that may offer some hope to disheartened England fans is that at the last World Cup, Italy drew with the USA and then went on to win the tournament!

Comments