WORLD CUP 2010: Germany 4 England 1 – Awful performance leaves Fabio Capello with no excuses

The ball was over the line but a disallowed goal is not why this World Cup is now over for England.

•  It is not why, when they came into this last-16 encounter so confident of beating the Germans, Fabio Capello and his England team are left to reflect on the country’s heaviest World Cup defeat and three stuttering performances in the four games they contested here in South Africa.

  A depressingly one-dimensional team produced one good performance.

• Capello will probably spend the rest of his life complaining about Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal and he does have a point. It was extraordinary — the greatest injustice for an England team since Diego Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ and something that will certainly tickle the Germans after what happened in 1966.
• This was different. There can be no disputing that Lampard’s shot was almost a yard across the line after flying in off the underside of the bar. But Jorge Larrionda and his assistants, in particular Mauricio Espinosa, were dreadful here at the Free State Stadium. 
• Espinosa, who raised an offside flag when a German player sent Wayne Rooney clear, did so again when Jermain Defoe sent a header against the bar when he was, in fact, onside. But he kept his flag down when it mattered most, when, six minutes after going two goals down, England should have drawn level.
• How Larrionda and his team failed to see that it was a goal is something FIFA need to explore because everyone else here could see it; from Capello, who was celebrating, on the bench to those of us high up in the stands, among us the same Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, who has wrongly ruled out any possibility of goal-line technology.
• It clearly has something to do with the incompetence of a Uruguayan referee who has shown 94 red cards in 140 internationals; who was suspended in 2002 amid allegations of corruption; who disallowed a similar effort in a World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Colombia six years ago. The same official also sent off three players when Italy met the United States in the World Cup in Germany four years ago. 
• All of that might fool some people some of the time but not the majority most of the time. Because, for all England’s frustration with going in at the interval a goal down, this should not be used to hide how awful England were on Sunday.
• As Joe Cole said, England were a mess — a team that were tactically and technically inept; a team that, for all the quality of the individuals, were so painfully inferior to their well-drilled opponents.
• The Germans might have been four years younger, on average, than this England team but they are light years ahead on this evidence.
• Germany outclassed and outpassed England with some superbly slick football. While much was made of the threat of 21-year-old Mesut Ozil, it was 20-year-old Thomas Muller who stole the show, adding two second-half goals to those scored by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski before the break.
• Defensively, England were disastrous. Capello would appear to have agonised over the choice between Matthew Upson and Jamie Carragher — and, my word, how badly he got that wrong. 
• How much he must regret keeping the same team for the first time in 28 games as England manager as well as the same all-red kit.
• With John Terry forced to play on the right side of the pairing — at Chelsea he plays next to Ashley Cole — and Upson clearly lacking the temperament to handle such a big occasion, England were made to look horribly naive.
• In Gareth Barry they suddenly had a holding midfielder who appeared to be suffering a lack of fitness after that long injury lay-off. Ditto Rooney, who will reflect on this World Cup as the depressing end to an otherwise brilliant season.
• He again failed to get into the game, and if Capello does continue he needs to look seriously at the 4-3-3 formation that best suits his finest player. His failure to recognise as much and adapt sooner could yet cost him his job.
• It was for England’s defenders, however, that this was the most chastening of experiences. They were so slow and ponderous, almost conceding earlier than they did when Ozil burst clear and forced a fine save from David James.
• But when that opening goal came after 20 minutes, it was the manner in which it was scored that hurt most. It was a pub-team goal; a goal that saw a side dismissed by Franz Beckenbauer for their kick-and-rush approach being beaten by the route one game.
• Alan Hansen said he had never seen two centre halves more badly positioned to deal with Manuel Neuer’s goal kick, and Klose, the 32-year-old Golden Boot winner of four years ago, took full advantage. 
• Both Terry and Upson were guilty of advancing too far forward, allowing Klose to accelerate on to the bouncing ball and guide it past James after holding off the desperate challenge of Upson.
• England lacked tempo and confidence, nearly conceding a second when a delightful ball from Muller presented Klose with a chance to score again.
• As it was, James pulled off another good save, but James was well beaten by Podolski in the 32nd minute when yet more abject defending invited the Germans to tear through the English ranks.
• A rapidly executed move saw the ball transferred, right to left, from Ozil to Klose and then to Muller before the unmarked, unchallenged Podolski drove a shot through James’s legs.
• A big part of the problem was Ashley Cole’s failure to pick up the run of Muller. 
• From England, though, there did come a response. No sooner had Lampard been denied at close range by Neuer than Upson was rising to meet a terrific cross from Steven Gerrard with a powerful header.
• That was in the 37th minute, and within 60 seconds of the restart England quite rightly thought they had scored again.
• But they finished the first half as the stronger team and had no need to chase the game in quite the way they did after the break, especially when they looked good, initially, for a second goal. 
• Lampard sent a freekick crashing against the bar and Defoe, while disappointing here, also had a chance. 
• It made the Germans’ third goal in the 67th minute all the more regrettable, because England should not have found themselves in a three-on-two situation after Lampard had driven another freekick into a defensive wall.
• With England exposed, Germany broke rapidly, Muller beating James at his near post thanks to a delightful ball from Bastian Schweinsteiger and some poor goalkeeping, it has to be said, from the 39-year-old.
• Germany’s fourth was much the same. Another swift counter-attack after England lost possession on the edge of Germany’s box and more woeful defending.
• After Ozil broke down the left came the sight of Upson chasing Muller in the same pathetic way Peter Reid pursued Maradona in 1986. 
• It was an easy goal for Muller to seal an easy win for Germany, and a defeat so much more painful than 1990 and 1996. At least England turned up on those occasions. At least they performed to their considerable potential.

• Penalties? The only penalty Capello needs to worry about is the one he might yet pay for this.