England 4-0 Slovakia

This was a fine display by England, in the lead up to their World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, next Wednesday.

Rooney was seen as the man of the match, and there is no doubt that he scored two good goals. However, the first was the result of a pinpoint pass from none other than David Beckham, and the second from an equally good pass from Frank Lampard. The latter was equally impressive when he scored himself, and is always good value for money. So it is always difficult to decide who is the man of the match. If Rooney was a selfish player himself, and reluctant to pass the ball to give others a better chance of scoring, you might think of him as a skilful opportunist. But he is not, and does not, and will always release the ball if there are others with a much better scoring chance, and for that, as much as his own goal scoring ability he is to be applauded.

It was Emile Heskey who scored England's first after 7 minutes, and from there on the writing was on the wall. However, he was injured in the process and had to be replaced by Carlton Cole, who was subsequently replaced by Peter Crouch, and he too was limping around towards the end. So it was a relatively easy win for England, but at the expense of three of their centre forwards becoming unfit.

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Beckham came on to rapturous applause at the interval, and it is still a travesty that a manager of McClaren's ability was able to sack him. It is not just that he is very popular, so much as he is instinctively good at what he does, and that is to get the ball in the path of somebody who can put it into the net. Rooney managed that for his first and England's second goal. In football terms Becks is a bit of a national treasure and it was great to see him get his 109th cap for England after McClaren had wanted to see him stuck on 99. Capello is proving to be as good a manager as England have had for a while, although there will be some who might comment that is not saying much.

Slovakia tried hard and had their moments, but the England defence was up to anything thrown at them. James was tested on a couple of occasions, but confidently held the opposition at bay until replaced by Foster at half time.

This was a good display by England, but it will be harder when they meet Ukraine. It would seem that under Capello, they have every chance of competing in next years world cup. That would be good for England and good for international football. England's fans are fortunate enough to see the best international talent every week in the Premier League, but they will feel let down if they are ever again denied the opportunity of seeing the national team compete in a major competition.

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England 4-0 Slovakia
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England 4-0 Slovakia