International Friendlies: Fabio given some food for thought

120 Team England / Ari Last / 04 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Friendlies don't often teach you much, but there were a few lessons learnt from last night's games involving England and their World Cup opponents...

With England 1-0 down at half-time, the knives were out. The John Terry saga had clearly had a major effect, Wayne Rooney wasn't being utilised effectively, and there was no threat from the flanks. Come full-time however, and after a second-half revival, spectators and the press were pacified by what turned out to be an encouraging 3-1 win.

It is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from friendly games, yet the positives from last night are that a line can now be drawn under the Terry affair, Leighton Baines, if afforded the playing time between now and June, will be able cover for Wayne Bridge (if not Ashley Cole) and England do have players who can come off the bench and make an impact.

Aside from this, we didn't learn a great deal about Fabio Capello's squad which we didn't already know. However, performances and results elsewhere provide more food for thought.

England's first opponents, the USA, were beaten 2-1 in Holland but their performance against a nation who won eight out of eight in qualifying is not to be sniffed at. Slovenia also showed that they'll be no pushovers as they hammered Qatar 4-1, although Algeria's 3-0 defeat to Serbia doesn't bode well for their Group A chances.

In Germany, Argentina picked up a terrific 1-0 win thanks to a goal from the superb Gonzalo Higuain, suggesting perhaps that the [12.0] on them to win the tournament, and the [32.0] on Higuain to be top-scorer are both prices be snatched at.

Having said that, current favourites Spain showed exactly why they're strongly fancied at [5.3] to triumph in South Africa. Regardless of the limitations of the French, a 2-0 win in Paris is a terrific result and there can be no question that the Spaniards are the team to beat this summer.

There were contrasting fortunes for two of Africa's biggest hopes as Cameroon earned a very credible 0-0 draw at holders Italy. The Ivory Coast were not quite as impressive though , going down 2-0 to South Korea. There's talk of Guus Hiddink being recruited to manage the Ivorians in South Africa, and a decision couldn't come soon enough, as right now, they are struggling without a coach.

What of the hosts themselves? Well, just when you thought that South Africa's reputation couldn't get any worse, they go and draw 1-1 at home to the mighty Namibians. It seems as though their price of [130.0] to win the World Cup isn't quite long enough.

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