Capetown, June 19: It was not the drama England had sought at the World Cup. A second draw leaves them adrift of Slovenia and unsure of their place in the knockout phase. They will be without Jamie Carragher against the Slovenes on Wednesday, because he picked up a second booking of the tournament after a foul on Hassan Yebda.
That epitomised the degree of strain that England endured against Algeria. They still look stale and it is not immediately apparent how their appetite can be regained. Fabio Capello could do little more than send on fresh forwards from the bench, in the shape of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch, when he really craved an impact from someone like Wayne Rooney.
Before the interval, England had looked less well-ordered than their opponents, despite the expectation that Gareth Barry would enhance the structure now that he is over his ankle injury. When Capello’s side did enjoy a real opening there was a haphazard aspect. Aaron Lennon’s cross was merely glanced by the Algeria captain, Anther Yahia, in the 33rd minute, but when it fell into the path of Frank Lampard the drive was not clean enough to beat Rais M’Bolhi.
The vexation was all the more marked then, since the prospects had look good. With Barry in place, Steven Gerrard could once more go roving from a well-advanced position on the left. If a single issue had to identified, it would have been Rooney’s ability to make any more than routine use of the ball. There was a 30-yard effort that got dutiful applause, but M’Bohi gathered simply and such an effort hinted that England had been reduced to a speculative approach.
Algeria took heart and the goalkeeping issue was less academic than Capello would have anticipated. There would have been sniggering in some quarters over the bid to improve reliability by turning to David James. It is, all the same, irrelevant to mock him for mistakes made in years gone by, since the manager’s perspective is different. James was the goalkeeper when qualification was still to be achieved and he gave the manager no cause for concern.
His fitness has been in dispute, but the 39-year-old was bound to cross Capello’s mind once Robert Green had bungled against the United States. Subsequently the manager’s comments seemed designed to maintain pressure on Green. That stress test must have been flunked and Green was clumsy at training on the eve of this match.
Before that, Capello had remarked to a radio station in his own country that Italy’s Dino Zoff was 40 when he won the World Cup in 1982. It would, of course have been to the manager’s taste if the examination of James in this fixture had been cursory. There is an understandable notion in circulation that it is well worth being bold against Capello’s line-up.
Portsmouth’s Nadir Belhadj is one of those who has taken his turn on that topic. “The defence is one of England’s weak points,” the Algerian said beforehand, “it’s easy to create chances against them.” The specific allegation is of a lack of pace and there was seeming corroboration as Carragher became the latest person to start in a bid to fill the vacancy created when Rio Ferdinand was ruled out of the World Cup.
Ledley King, now injured, had been ill-at-ease for as long as he lasted in the draw with the United States. Carragher does not purport to be fleet-footed, but he never was able to count on acceleration in any case. For all the concentration on England’s defects, Algeria also changed their goalkeeper. Lounes Gaouaui was reported to have a knee injury, but his error had presented Slovenia with the only goal.
The 24-year-old M’Bolhi deputised and found little to concern him. England looked busy but there was at least as much purpose from the opposition. Indeed, they were slicker than Capello’s side had been when, in the 22nd minute, the Rangers defender Majid Bougherra was released on the right and Barry had to turn his low delivery over the bar.
Capello’s address at the interval had no immediate consequences. The frustration was more apparent than ever in the 52nd minute when Emile Heskey broke away from Yahia but put his cross behind the goal. Exasperation assumed a slightly different form soon afterwards when Lampard went beyond the defence, only to find an Algerian with the cutback.
Carragher’s caution for bringing down Yebda followed. Hitting peak form was an aspiration that had been ditched. In the time-honoured and perhaps understandable way they raised the tempo when they could not improve the calibre of the play.
The contest was more about endeavour than technique but gaps did appear in the Algerian ranks. Lennon sent over a testing cross that Rafik Halliche had to glance behind. The Tottenham Hotspur winger was then replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips as Capello sought freshness to sustain the pace.
Algeria were not at immediate risk of collapse but they had to work and worry. Rooney continued to be subdued, yet Heskey’s work rate before his substitution unsettled the opposition. This was not the type of show England had hoped to stage and the tournament is giving these players a severe test.
—-Agencies