ENGLAND’S recent friendly in Amsterdam could be just the exercise the squad needed in my opinion. It was widely criticised as a ‘friendly too far’ by most managers in the Premiership but Fabio Capello would not have seen it that way.

 

Rarely does an international manager get such an early opportunity to be with his squad in a World Cup season. It is only 10 months until the biggest show in football gets underway in South Africa and England are looking for the first time in a number of years as if they could compete for the trophy.

 

Two dreadful mistakes by Ferdinand and Barry in the first half gave the Dutch a two goal lead and the Italian did not look too impressed by these events on the touchline.

His interval team talk would probably have been a little tenser than these players experienced under McClaren or Eriksson. This is the real difference in this set up and leaves players, even the most established feeling vulnerable – and so they should.

His mood had lightened by the end of the game thanks to a Jermaine Defoe brace that left England with a 2-2 draw and his view that it was a good job that this happened in a friendly and not at the finals should be taken with some caution.

 

He is used to working with Maldini, Baresi and Zidane and is not familiar with any of his players being so profligate with possession.

Ferdinand and Barry both had looks about them that were as close to sheepish as a professional footballer gets these days but they know that such mistakes are not tolerated in this squad and they will have been duly warned.

 

The Dutch themselves did not extend themselves beyond a stroll and England found that with a little extra effort they could take control of the game and deservedly pulled level late on. They can now go into the remaining qualifiers with a degree of certainty of qualification being straight forward. This makes a pleasant change for England supporters who have witnessed some appalling qualifying attempts in recent years.

 

Of course, qualification is one thing, winning the World Cup is quite another, especially with such a poor record for a top nation. They have only managed once to get to a semi final outside England in either the World or Euro contests and that was in probably the weakest competition in history, in Italy 1990.

They have the players to do well, the weather will be in their favour also … but there is one nagging problem that raises its ugly head each time, the failure to keep possession for long periods of time.

 

This is an essential quality of all great sides but usually is beyond them. It is a difficult problem to solve when the fans want instant attacking pressure and great emphasis is placed on excitement at the expense of skill.

 

It is one they must solve and this is why Capello will have been very disturbed to see the blatant mistakes last Wednesday.

Favourites for South Africa will probably be Brazil, because they always are, but it is Spain with Inesta, Xavi and Torres who England should have most to fear from. Having broken their duck at Euro 2008 they will be confident they can go on and lift the biggest prize and it is currently difficult to see who will beat them.

 

Italy and France are still struggling to rebuild, Holland always find a way of imploding at championships and Argentina look a mess under Maradonna. Only Brazil look likely contenders and if they bring a collective unity the Spanish will fear them greatly. Of course, Germany are always ‘tournament strong’ but they still look short on quality and will find a team too good for them at some point.

 

Capello will know that this a good time to have a decent set of England players and he should have very real confidence of doing well. However, silly mistakes and lack of concentration must never happen again for his side to win and I for one would not bet we do not see such glaring errors again.        

 

We may well look back on this recent fixture as the day the England team grew up and realised what it takes to be the best in the world … and you never know the ghosts of 1966 will be put to rest at last.