Day 12 World Cup Round-Up: England Finally Impresses

Right, England and USA go through from Group C, and Germany and Ghana go through from Group D.

England (B)

Finally, an England team that actually played together for 90 minutes.

Milner's cross to Jermaine Defoe showed why the fans missed St. James from Game Two. And more importantly, King Jermaine's absence from the starting line-up.

Emile who? Exactly!

Seriously though, it was another game that could have ended with an easy England advantage by half-time, and even more goals in the second half.

In the end, Terry, Johnson, Cole, and Upson countered a lot of second half pressure from a suddenly angsty Slovenians. But they held firm and a fanbase celebrated.

What's next? Oh, a small country called Germany on Sunday.

You may have seen this match-up somewhere before.

United States (B)

Wow. This US team never gives up, does it?

Just when you think they are headed out of the competition, they come back and bite the Slovenians, Algerians, and English in the butt with a 92nd minute Landon Donovan goal.

In a game where both sides had their chances, which featured one of the misses of the tournament from Jozy Altidore, the US were once again unlucky not to have a goal after one of their efforts was cruelly disallowed for offside.

But - as they said in two World Wars - better late than never, and that is when Captain Fantastic America Donovan struck.

What's next? A battle with Ghana, who had less teeth than my 99 year-old grandmother.

Australia (B+)

After Australia were hammered by Germany, we didn't expect the Aussies to beat the Serbians. But they duly did, 2-1.

There is so much fight in this Australian side that you wonder what things would have been like had it not been for joke sendings off in the first two games.

What's next? Supporting the cricket team as they (hopefully) get battered in a one day series by England.

Ghana (C)

Don't get us wrong - Ghana are a lot of fun running forward, and they will scare the US defence.

But they can't finish, as proven by their missed chances against the Germans, who sometimes opened up for them. It wasn't a wonderful performance, and they lost 1-0. But they probably didn't care.

What's next? USA, USA, USA.

Algeria (C-)

Bad luck for the Algerians, who couldn't pull off a shock victory or a score throughout their three games, despite some wonderful interlinking football.

Still, they can take pride in being the better side in the England game and having some chances against the USA. Not that that will matter in Landonsville, eh?

What's next? The flight home.

Slovenia (D)

Slovenia seemed to know the scoreline of the USA-Algeria game, because they made very few efforts to forage forward until about 10 minutes to go.

But their man of the game, and perhaps of the tournament, was their goalkeeper Handanovic. Every Premiership team would probably die to have him between the posts come August.

What's next? Looking forward to European Championship qualifying, where they'll aim to pull off another stunner by qualifying for Euro 2012.

Serbia (D)

After beating Germany, the Serbs were pretty hot favourites for three points against Australia.

However, they were shocked by two goals.

And although they made it 2-1, there was also some shocking finishing from the Serbian strikers in their efforts to find the equaliser.

What's next? Going back happy in the knowledge that Croatia, their biggest rivals, didn't qualify for the tournament.

And Finally....

Germany (B)

While the team performance earned a B, Mesut Oezil's goal was an absolute stunner.

The Germans problem is that if their team fires on even four of their cylinders, unlike the one that they did tonight, then England could well be in a whole lot of trouble.

What's next? Some team called England. Germany may of heard of them (1966 and all that)....

Here's Oezil's goal, with crappy dance soundtrack to go with it: