England Limp Through

I'll be glad when the last of the group games are out of the way. There is something more exciting about the knockout phase of the competition.
England limped into the round of 16 earlier today when an early Defoe goal set up a 1-0 win over Slovenia. England could have had more but poor finishing and a terrible account of themselves by the Slovenians saw Capello's men through. It was another bad performance by the English who must be wondering why things are just not clicking for them.
The United States defeated Algeria with a last gasp winner from Landon Donavan to put them through at the hands of Slovenia by a score of 1-0.

In this evenings matches the Germans defeated Ghana by a solitary goal in the match of the day and will now play old enemies England next week. The game could have went either way.
Ghana look strong and should have little trouble overcoming the USA in the next round if they remain true to the form they have shown so far. Australia defeated Serbia 2-1 but both teams now head for the airport after failing to come through this very tough group.

I stand by my earlier viewpoint that this is the worst opening to any World Cup that I have ever seen and that stretches back to Spain in 1982. If I hadn't already committed to blogging about it so I have a back drop to my second book I'd give up now. I guess there's reasons for everything...