But my mind kept telling me 'But it's only Andorra.'. After the final whistle had been blown at the Wembley after England's 6-0 win over Andorra, my mind was already thinking about England's upcoming fixtures.
While I am excited at the thought of the upcoming fixture in terms of a friendly away at Holland (it will be held at Ajax's home stadium) which will happen in August given just the thought England will be playing against the side which became the first in the European zone to qualify for the World Cup next year (which actually begin exactly a year from now) over the weekend...it is still nice to sign off the footballing season with a win in the World Cup qualifiers. England coach Fabio Capello's first full season in charge reads like this - Nine wins, one draw and one loss. In fact, it is now seven out of seven wins in the qualifiers. 100% record, just like England's next opponent in Holland does in their own qualifying group. The seventh win came from in what was the biggest competitive win in a decade at the famed stadium.
57,897 fans braved the transport strike which took place in the British capital to see England cruised to within one win of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. It was a real treat of attacking football with Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney opened the scoring with a 4th-minute header and sidefooted in his second in the 39th, 10 minutes after Frank Lampard scored England's second. Substitute Jermain Defoe scored simple goals in the 73rd and 75th minutes and Portsmouth striker Crouch tapped in England's sixth some five minutes later. There were plenty of speculation who might be in the starting line-up and, David Beckham earned his first England start under manager Fabio Capello - and a national outfield record-extending 112th cap - in place of the suspended Gareth Barry in central midfield. Joleon Lescott came in for Matthew Upson at centre-half and Crouch replaced Emile Heskey in attack. Capello had already said on the eve of the match about scoring early and having to attack. Well, it happened.
It might had looked easy, but it was definitely a huge improvement from the last time the two sides met in Barcelona (bearing in mind that was Fabio Capello's first competitive match in charge)...it was only 2-0 during the second-half and that was the final score. This time going into the first-half, it was 3-0 already. So much had happened since the encounter in Barcelona and when I watched Capello being interviewed by the BBC and when the reporter reminded about the early days and specifically raising about the 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic which the fans were booing after the final whistle, I realised when I ran through what the reporter was asking...I almost cried. I remembered those days too.
Anyhow, back to the match itself. Apart from me realising it was quite a nice gesture from the gaffer himself when in view of the transport strike in London which caused inconvenience to the fans who came to see their team in action, Reuters reported that Fabio Capello thanked them through the stadium announcer for their efforts after the match...he refused to speculate on England's World Cup chances. The current situation in England's group is that they need one more win to secure their qualification for the tournament, provided Croatia fail to win in their two early season matches against Belarus. Because England's next qualifier is against Croatia at the Wembley on 9 September. England will have two friendlies (against Holland and Slovenia) before the Croatia encounter. Fabio Capello said, "It is too far away. But tonight (yesterday) we were very strong. We created two chances to score before Wayne Rooney's first goal. Always when you play against a team that isn't strong you have to win the ball back and we did this." Looking back at when they met Andorra last September and what they had learned from there, Capello said, "We did not start so well against Andorra and we suffered. We couldn't score in the first half but, step by step we have moved on and improved."
Other than that, Fabio Capello had saluted the spirit among his squad. He said, "We have created a group. This is important, the spirit of the group. We always play to win. You have to win another game to be sure of going to South Africa." In regards to substituting Wayne Rooney at half-time given the Manchester United player could had achieved a hat-trick had he stayed on and he could also have broken Tommy Taylor's record of eight competitive goals in a season, Capello revealed, "I decided, 'Thank you very much, have a good holiday'." As for Glen Johnson who was the man-of-the-match (he really surprised me when I watched the match, given he never did well against Kazakhstan) despite the Portsmouth full-back did not got on the scoresheet, the Italian had this to say as well, "I think the confidence is really important with a player like Glen Johnson for the national team. It's important for me, the club he plays for and us that he improved a lot." For Theo Walcott who did played the entire match and now will be part of the England U-21 squad for the upcoming European U-21 Championships in Sweden, Capello has no concerns about the youngster needing rest.
Earlier I did mentioned about coach Fabio Capello thanking the fans who braved the London transport strike to come watch his side in action through the stadium announcer for their efforts after the match. He could understand those who took the trouble to come to the Wembley. He had seen much worse disruption in his native Italy. The Italian said, "The strikes are sometimes worse. When someone decides to strike it is to create problems but I'm very happy for people who arrived here - 57,000 people is incredible against Andorra. We are very happy for the performance of the team. The ones who did not make it would have enjoyed it on TV."
After the words of the man who had made his adoptive country really believing in its national football team once again when it once looked like it may never happen, what the England players have to say after the Andorra match. Skipper John Terry praised David Beckham after the 34-year-old made his 100th start for England and won his 112th cap. Terry said, "Some of his passes were so good, they were some of the best I have ever seen." He also added that the team wanted to give the fans who battled through a Tube strike something to celebrate. The skipper said, "I am delighted he is in the team and I am sure the fans who got here despite the Tube strike loved it." For Glen Johnson, he claims confidence in the England camp is sky high. The Portsmouth full-back said, "Morale couldn't be any higher. I think that showed out there today." The right-back admitted that last year, after England had laboured to victory over Andorra, he did not think they could win their opening seven qualifiers. He pointed out, "Probably not. But obviously the lads have done that and they are focused."
Glen Johnson also thanked Capello for handing him a start ahead of Gary Neville. He added: "I am over the moon. I am thankful to Capello for choosing me. I know I was on a booking and could have been suspended." Had it happened, Johnson would have been suspended for the Croatia match. For Frank Lampard on the match, "It was not as easy as it looked that game- they just sat back. We've found ourselves as a group. We always knew we had the individuals, but were not working as a team. You can see the results on the pitch." He also dedicated the result to the "incredible" supporters who made a potentially arduous journey to and from Wembley, and David Beckham added: "They deserved those goals because we all knew it wouldn't be easy to get to the game and those goals and the performance were for the fans."
It first began as an initiative from FIFA and yesterday before the England-Andorra match, England striker Jimmy Greaves, controversially left out of the World Cup final team in 1966, was presented with a winner's medal along with the other 10 squad members who did not play in the game. The presentation by Prime Minister Gordon Brown followed an initiative by FIFA last year to strike replica medals for every player since 1930 who was part of a winning World Cup-winning squad but did not receive a medal. The decision by coach Alf Ramsey to leave out Greaves, now 69, was a huge talking point in the buildup to the final against West Germany which England won 4-2 thanks to a hat-trick by striker Geoff Hurst. Speaking on Setanta Sports, Jimmy Greaves said, "It's been a long wait, but in the days we played, only the 11 that played in the final got the medals. All the squad now get a medal. It's very nice -- but if Sir Alf was still around we'd have probably got it sooner."
If Sir Alf Ramsey is still around, I wondered how the World Cup-winning coach would had made of now that Fabio Capello had been compared to him. Since the Italian took charge last year, those who used to play under Sir Alf (like Sir Bobby Charlton, for example) had compared him to their coach. As someone who knows what he wants. Capello had always been flattered about the comparison.
The TV cameras did captured quite a special moment during when the match where Fabio Capello gave his assistant (and England U-21 coach) Stuart Pearce a playful dig in the ribs in a rare public display of joviality. That is something I never expected when I was watching the match. It only made me chuckled. For someone like Capello's personality, that is something new. But then again, he has always known to surprise people with what he does. In a good way, that is. That is what I had been noticing since Capello is the England coach.
It is reported that the English FA are already scouting venues for the World Cup next year (even Fabio Capello had revealed that he will be in South Africa for six days to check out possible venues and watching two matches during the upcoming Confederations Cup). No matter the timing in terms of the scouting of venues when it comes to preparing ahead of the world's biggest footballing tournament, the 6-0 win over Andorra is a perfect birthday present for Capello. Because actually, his birthday will be on exactly a week from now.
