England Qualify for World Cup Finals, but Don't Believe the Hype!

Well, well, well. Fabio Capello has somehow managed to get a bunch of overpaid, overhyped English footballers to qualify for the World Cup finals in South Africa next year, with a game to spare.

A potentially difficult night at Wembley Stadium turned into one to be remembered as England romped to a 5-1 victory over Croatia. England look more assured than they did under Steve "you can stand under my umbrella" McLaren, and despite only needing a draw to qualify, quickly set about getting the job done.

Aaron Lennon looked impressive in the opening 45 minutes, and with Theo Walcott injured, and David Beckham getting on a bit, and out of mind and sight in the United States, if Lennon can continue to be as magical as he was on Wednesday night, he could become Capello’s first-choice right midfielder.

In the second half, England continued to dominate, and showed off their prowess in the air as Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard both grabbed a headed goal to double their tallies, and at 4-0, guarantee they would be heading to South Africa next summer.

It was a midfield performance to savour for Capello, as Lennon, Gerrard and Lampard all played vital roles in securing victory; the talk about whether Lampard and Gerrard can play together or not, should surely be over (for now).

I’d say more about Croatia’s performance, but the final score tells you the important fact. Who wants to read about how awful they were, when England have just qualified for the World Cup?

Scoring 31 goals in eight qualifying games is probably beyond even Capello’s expectations, but somehow, he’s turned England around. When it comes to the important games, they can now play the kind of football required to get a victory.

They’ll never be the most complete set of players as a team: no first choice goalkeeper, a right-back who can’t go backwards, short of height up front, but with a very attacking midfield line up supporting Rooney, and Heskey or Defoe up front, England should always get goals, and that’s what you need to win games.

The goalkeeper position is still a problem for Capello, and at the moment, you could probably toss a coin between Robert Green and Ben Foster being the No. 1 goalkeeper, although both will make the squad, then draw straws for the final place.

If England, as a collective unit (and by that I mean the entire squad), can maintain the kind of form shown at times throughout qualifying, a place in the quarter-finals would be, in my estimate, England’s minimum expectation.

I won’t go so far as to say England should be in the semi-finals, neither will I say they could win it. I’ll leave that to drooling journalists of the mainstream media, who love nothing more than to talk England up so much that anything but victory is a disappointment, and then the betrayal begins, as everyone with the ability to type and use the Internet has their say on how it all went wrong.

There are still eight months of a tough football season to play before the World Cup finals, and anything can happen during that time. Let us not forget that England players are prone to injury close to a major tournament, and that aside, it will be a very tough year.

European Champions, Spain have already qualified from Europe, as have Holland, two teams England have problems with. Brazil and Paraguay have also qualified from the South American qualifiers, along with Japan, Australia, North Korea and South Korea from Asia, with Ghana the sole qualifying side from Africa so far.

There will be some strong teams at the World Cup and the odd surprise party as well. England players, staff and supporters cannot expect to turn up and walk away with the trophy this time, while the press inevitably win. It happens every time England qualify, and the outcome once they get there is usually the same.

While Capello is arguably the best man in world football at moulding winning teams, his success will be down to how England’s “lions” perform on the day. Will the egos of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, and Rooney once again be England’s downfall, or have they finally matured enough to understand what they need to do in South Africa to be immortalised forever?

The rest of this week will be a good time to be a travel agent specialising in holiday packages, flights, and hotels for South Africa next year as England fans who haven’t already booked up, rush to ensure they get there, match tickets or no match tickets.

In the mean time, anyone fancy a penalty shootout for old time’s sake?