England gave the worst birthday present to coach Fabio Capello, settling for a goalless draw against Algeria in their second much of the World Cup 2010. England once again had a mediocre performance, and now everything is up for grabs in Group C with just one game day left in the World Cup 2010 tournament.
The pre-game interest was focused on the two goalkeepers, with David James starting the match for England replacing Robert Green after his tragic mistake in the previous game against the United States. On the other side of the field, Raïs M’Bolhi started for Algeria since Faouzi Chaouchi did not recover from his injury on time.
The match had good rhythm in the first half, but not the kind that suits England. Gareth Barry made some great plays coming back from his injury, and Wayne Rooney was trying hard to chase a goal that finally would end his dry spell (6 international games without scoring). Karim Ziani and Madjid Bougherra were regular visitors on the other side of the field, and Algeria statistically had the overall ball possession for the entire first half. England missed a couple of chances with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, and the 45 minutes of the game were gone just like that.
Things changed in the second half and England was pushing hard to score a goal, and Algeria only had a shot at goal during the rest of the game. Lampard (mostly), Gerrard and Heskey were trying to beat Algeria’s defence, and Rooney was basically running up and down angry with himself for not being able to score. England now has two points after the draw, the same as the United States and -2 from group leader Slovenia that is their next opponent in the World Cup 2010.
