England through to World Cup knockout round! Slovenia 0-1 England.

Posted on June 23rd, 2010 | 83 Comments |

Jermaine Defoe - Goal hero for England.
Jermaine Defoe - Goal hero for England.
In a tense match played out in Port Elizabeth this afternoon, it was England who emerged the victors against Slovenia and secured their place in the knockout stages of the World Cup in South Africa.

The final score was 1-0 to England with Jermaine Defoe (as pictured) being the goal hero on this occasion. He popped up in the penalty area to slot home a James Milner cross on 23 minutes to send the England fans into raptures. But the result only formed part of the story as the England team knew they needed to not only win the game, but to also put on a performance to appease the critics who have been queueing up to take a swipe at England since the tournament started. The England players gave that much sought after performance, and although the scoreline may not reflect the way game played out, the winning margin could and probably should have been greater than just the one goal.

It was arguably the best tournament performance I have seen from an England team for some years, and it must give the English fans a bit of hope, and perhaps ppint towards the possibilty that they are starting to gel as a team and get into top form just in time for the knockout rounds.

What was on show today was a Premier League performance, with the pace that is usually common place every weekend making an appearance on the international stage. Some of the build-up play was impressive, as was some of the defensive play on offer as England flung bodies in front of everything.

Wayne Rooney impressed and was unlucky not to end his recent international goalscoring drought when he found himself on the end of Frank Lampard’s lobbed through ball, only to see his smart trap and shot finger-tipped onto the post by the Slovenian ‘keeper. James Milner played well on the wing for England, although I am personally still not convinced by him on the international stage. At the other end, numerous blocks were made as England staunchly defended their goal, with Matthew Upson particularly impressive alongside John Terry.

So the performance that was being called for finally arrived, and now all English eyes will focus on tonight’s matches as they wait to see who tops Group D, and ultimately who they will play on Sunday afternoon. At this point I would also like to congratulate the USA who topped our group and will be looking to see who finishes as runner-up in Group D, and who they will match up against on Saturday evening.

The group where England’s next opposition will come from is still a very open affair, and all four teams involved are still in with a chance of qualifying. Currently it is Ghana who top the group with Germany in second place, Serbia in third, and Australia in fourth. Ghana face Germany this evening whilst Serbia take on Australia, with both matches to be played at the same time (19:30pm BST).

Well done England, and congratulations to the USA. May the next time the two teams meet be in the World Cup final!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

83 Responses

  1. rooney impressed, haddaway man.
    He’s lame, heads in the shed, injured, whatever!
    They played alright in parts, but they’re gonna have to play a hell of a lot better to go anywhere in this WC.

  2. Not that any of ye prob care but the pundits in here in ireland not impressed with england today.

    1702 Dunphy brings England’s accomplishment to task – ‘not one of (the Slovenians) would get a game in the Premier League. Their main player plays for West Brom, who have just gone up to the Premier League, but will probably go straight back down.’

    1657 Ronnie – ‘to go any further, England will have to improve vastly. ‘He emphasises ‘vastly.’ If they don’t, he believes, they go straight out. One factor supporting this thesis: Germany are significantly better than Slovenia.

    1655 Dunphy: ‘England were really, really, really bad.’ Slovenia were worse.

    1600 Dunphy attributes the nerves of the England performance down to the fear of failure – specifically, the high price of failure in England. He cites Rob Green – ‘his life is over, in a certain kind of way.’ Dunphy reckons that the players are all terrified of making a similar fatal mistake.

    1555 The assessment – England haven’t been great, but they should still ease to victory against what appears to be a very limited side. Sound familiar? Still, they already have the all-important lead.

    1550 The panel are less generous to Slovenia – Giles considers them ‘awful. They’ve giving the ball away without even being under pressure.’ Eamon is surprised that England didn’t grow in stature after the goal – there have been chances, but they’re still very nervous and not themselves. Giles reckon that England ‘have to win this easily.’

    dunphy had tipped engalnd at the start!

  4. sorry I lied……..now I won’t mention it again…(for a while) :-)

    Alreet lads,my cousin is cycling to Wembley with her boyfriend to raise money for one of the lads from the 2x Whitley Bay FA Vase team who has been diagnosed with Motor Neurones Disease.I would appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to read the link and make a donation if possible.Every little helps.Thanks

    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/06/08/friends-to-tackle-marathon-charity-cycle-ride-72703-26610165/

    http://www.justgiving.co.uk/whitley2wembley

  5. Rich – :mad:

    You forgot to say that toonsy isn’t a tight twat, and despite getting grief from you miserable b@stards, has still put his hand in his pocket and given to the last two charity things on here ;)

  7. Toonsy,contrary to popular belief isn’t a tightwad and is a very generous lad……………how’s that Toonsy? ;-)

  8. Yeah Ross from the rte website ,

    I didnt see the match so I dont know but i general find rte anaylisis is very good , well if im honest more entertaining than good , they pull no punches what so ever and say what they like more r less.

  10. malchick-Part of me hopes it’s a joke like. Calling England “really really really bad” almost just reeks of spitefulness/jealousy. If its a genuine opinion he needs to give up his job as a football pundit and whomever hired him needs shot.
    Another favourite is “well, England need to improve because Germany are better than the team they’ve just played today”..Nee sh!te Einstein. Its quite apparent Germany are a superior team. But the performance today was superior to those prior, thats the point.

    It’s one of those “if man u beat arsenal 1-0 and arsenal beat chelsea 3-0, surely man utd will do chelsea 10-0?” lol

  11. great cause richie…i work with mark’s (future) dad-in-law, good friend of mine….well done mate..

  12. Johno-I had Irish flatmates at Uni and they said the same about that RTE. They showed me a clip of some fat guy ripping the sh!te out of someone or other like he was gods gift, it was pretty funny but if thats the way they act with everthing I wouldn’t pay too much attention.

    Even as an England fan I can honestly tell you the overall play was a million miles away from even the USA where we got a draw. It was fast, on the floor and we created chance after chance. Looked strong at the back when they attacked also. To say we were really bad is just daft.

  13. Ross that sounds like ‘ apres match ‘ its a bunch of comedians who do impersanations ( dont think im spelling that right for some reason :) ) and that is very good!

    As i said i didnt see the match just thought id post it!

  14. shoulda posted summat from a less bittered angle johnno..england were fine, take it from me..

  15. They weren’t really, really bad, but they weren’t really good either.
    A vast improvement, but that wasn’t difficult, was it?
    It did look like an english rose blossoming compared with the fecal matter decaying of the last game.
    So somewhere inbetween would be about right.
    About 60%, could do better.

  16. Cheers malchick……I think wor Debbie thought she was cycling to Whitley and not Wembley when she agreed to it :lol:

  17. Why does it come across as bitter malchick? R is it me coming across as bitter?

  18. Richie-

    The ole’ “shine” business is boomin’ lol. My bluegrass band on the side has been busy too. Hillbillie fever, apparently lmao :D

    And As far as this Rooney business is concerned… I know what it is.

    He came out of the closet recently and his da disowned him. The mincey little fairy lol!! jk

  19. “Why does it come across as bitter”

    dunno, just the way i read it i suppose.. focusing on the negatives. honestly, i was really impressed with england’s performance today. apart from the obvious it was one of the better performances of the competition so far. coulda easily been 4-0…

  20. Johno-Just checked youtube, it was that Eamon Dunphy my mate showed me. He’s good for a laugh every now and again but he’s a mile off with his view on England today. If he’s sat and watched all 90 minutes and then said that, it points towards someone who is disappointed to see them go through and has made bitter post match comments.

    Obviously this is nowt against you as you didnt say it, lol. He’s genuinly way off though.

  21. richietoon says:
    June 23, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    poor thing..

    when does she find out she’s pedalling back as well??

  26. Richie-

    You got it m8! Chillin’ to Bill Monroe, Lonesome River Band, and maybe Tony Rice too haha. With my beard grown out 2 feet like. Ahh, the life..

    Trojan-

    Ah nivvor get me cow tie in a twist, m8! Hadaway! :D

  28. 20 Ross says:
    June 23, 2010 at 7:40 pm
    Johno-Just checked youtube, it was that Eamon Dunphy my mate showed me

    Ah yes Dunphy! Proper nutter! Used to show up drunk in the mid 90’s , had a proper man crush on roy keane to a point he walked out of studio after he got into an argument with Liam Brady about him!

    As i said earlier ‘ more entertaining than good ‘ :)

    Who’d u rather get next round ghana or germany?

  29. Big Dave, where you at m8?? I miss ya, ya Orange bastard :D Who else can I call a feckin’ eedgit on here??

  30. OHurley….as long as ya not making any innocent rafters “squeal like a pig” :lol:

  31. “Who’d u rather get next round ghana or germany?”

    head says ghana..heart says germany..

  34. Richie-

    That’s completely disgusting lol. Ah’d nivvor do the like to any raftin’ gadgie, yer knaa!! haha

    …that was pretty funny though, just cos it was Ned Beatty like…

  35. I’m hopin’ for a USA/Ghana match, mesel. Would love to see a match between the english and krauts!

  36. Ghana look better than germany like.
    It’ll be tough whoever either team plays.

  38. Clint-

    Yeah, it’s gonna be a cracker of a match no matter what. If it’s USA and Ghana, we BETTER win cos I’ve got a good m8 from Ghana who will NEVER let me hear the end of how the brave Ghanains defeated the Yanks.

  39. Whoever plays Germany better make sure that they get a good dose of “die eier von satan” prior to the match.

  40. This is where it gets interesting mate.
    Anything can happen!
    You lot have a never say die attitude that comes across.
    I see slick willie was at the game having a word with sepp(tic) bladder.
    You could be in with a chance now?
    ;)

  41. Thank god for the bid for Samuel, Surely that ends the crap about no capital outlay and the under 26 rule.

  42. LoL, yeah I saw slick willie there too haha. that was awesome. One of our more intellectual (and still completely corrupt) presidents

  44. Doesn’t matter who we play, if we play like we did today we will beat them. Probably Argentina in the quarters and they haven’t played anyone decent yet either. Milner would have a field day against Jonas.

    We’ll do well in this tournament – Its made for us!

  45. Bolton turned down our bid of 1m because of the terms -We offered it over ten years and Bolton wanted it all up front for some reason.

  46. Ohurley

    Well that ever reliable source Sky sports were saying we had an offer turned down this afternoon and they have their finger on the pulse… ;)

  48. I want the krauts in the next round. It would be an entertaining game and one that the whole of the nation couldn’t help but be so up for. Would be brilliant.

  49. Would love to play the Jerry’s and stick The Kaiser’s words where the sun doesn’t shine!

    Their very inexperienced so that could be their downfall.

  50. CC says:
    June 23, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    “Thank god for the bid for Samuel, Surely that ends the crap about no capital outlay and the under 26 rule.”

    I telt everyone in a blog on here, but neeone would have it like. Daft gets!

  51. o’hurley,you might have dallas,but that’s nowt because we’ve got dallas carpets lol.

  52. Stuart79 Stuart79 says:

    “Their very inexperienced so that could be their downfall.”

    Think you right their Stuart, but my word what an exciting side they have for the next world cup.

    Muller, Ouzel, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Mertesaker, Boateng, Jansen, Neuer, Kroos.

    These guys are all under 25 and look composed, experienced and very skillful.

  53. germany look very similar to england but with less experience.
    Should be an even game.

  55. Stuart79 says:
    June 23, 2010 at 8:34 pm
    Doesn’t matter who we play, if we play like we did today we will beat them. Probably Argentina in the quarters and they haven’t played anyone decent yet either. Milner would have a field day against Jonas.

    We’ll do well in this tournament – Its made for us!
    <<<< iam realy starting too like u stu your talking a lot of sense aboot england

  57. batty says:
    June 23, 2010 at 9:47 pm

    “worky when ya comin back from africa mate”

    I’m in Hornsey, batty, but that’s more or less the same thing.

  59. aye Stu, you’ve been given a bad rep on here at times but i salute your patriotism like, lol. Howay England, i’m already well up for Sunday!!

  60. Ross – I only talk sense mate!

    It makes sense, there’s always one country that starts shite and gets better as the tournament goes along. Germany peaked in the first game, they haven’t played well since. England are the absolute opposite.

  61. sky sports linking us with a bid for the algeria keeper. what on earth???????

    ‘Slavia Sofia president Ventsislav Stefanov has confirmed Newcastle United’s interest in keeper Rais M’Bohli.’

    times are hard, we even we wouldn’t go signing dross like that, would we??

  62. Well Lads im sure there is some Happy bunnies on here tonite. I seen most of the match and it looked like a different team playing but I still think they have 1 or 2 gears left which could be a good thing.

  63. Let’s just hope that everyone’s magnanimity extended towards england is extended towards Newcastle United next season.
    That would be nice.
    ;)

  68. Clint-

    Idk what patriotism has to do with supportin an English team, but sure! lol

    Seriously though, I will never support another English team. Unless Swindon Town comes up big cos that’s where my family is from (a few hundred years ago lol…). jk, I’ll always support the Toon :D

  70. O’Hurley,
    cos Newcastle is my team & Geordieland is my country, therefore: Patriotism.
    Y’get me?

    Hey swindon did good last season & they have a canny player in Charlie Austin, i think his name is.

  72. OHurley :lol: im doing good mate that was a nice greeting from you ;) ye Fen&an wee c$nt :)
    Batty lots of the yanks are made up from leprechaun rejects

  73. That Bradley that plays for the yanks has looked a canny player. Just gave him a quick search and he’s only 22 like, playing in Germany aswell which for me is the most similar style of football to the prem.

    Any of our supporters over the pond able to elabourate? worth a serious look?

  75. Ross- in my opinion he’s our best young player and the one I’d most like to see with the Toon.

    He scored 15 goals for Heervenen as a 19 yo playing in an AM role. Went to M’Gladbach for about 2M a year ago January and has been a 90 minute player in a DM role ever since. For the US he plays either position depending on his partner- today he attacked more.

    Good not great pace, creative with a big shot and very aware on the pitch. He used to be a foul machine and has been carded his fair share but seems to have gotten it under control. The best thing about him is his fitness- he can run all day. I believe it was the Egypt match in the Confed Cup last summer where he broke Sky’s single match record for km travelled. He’s having a great tournament.

  76. MDS-it’s only really at the world cup i’ve noticed him. Obviously I saw the England game but apart from that only highlights. He’s been scoring for the national team aswell though, which is always promising, especially from a midfielder. I dunno, if he signed for gladbach for 2 mil and is a regular starter I cant see them wanting to get rid of him, or us parting with the chunk they’d want to let him go. Either way he’s young and looks to be a canny player. Hopefully Hughton has been keeping an eye on our group in general rather than just watching England/Algeria and going “wow, we didn’t beat them, sign up their goalkeeper!” lol

  78. Big Dave: It was just a loan and it’s over. He’s back with LA Galaxy now. I expect he’ll have some suitors now…

  79. Dave-if he hasnt signed permanently I imagine they’ll be looking to get him back. If not, some prem team will

  81. Yeah he is a canny player and not only in the WC from what I seen of him he done good with Everton so im sure they would like to get him back, but im sure there is other teams after him.

  82. Ross- Newcastle were reported to be among the fianl 3 teams to sign Bradley from Hollan in ’08 (under Keegan). He definately has Prem-type skill and think he will end up there eventually. From what I’ve seen he wants to go there.