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Richard Sutcliffe: Terry's late winner underscored England's improvement
WITH qualification for next year's World Cup finals at the halfway stage around much of the globe, a quick glance at England's group says everything about the impact made by Fabio Capello.
Five wins out of five and a goal difference bettered in Europe only by Germany in a group featuring such also-rans as Wales, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein, the Three Lions are firmly on course for South Africa.
Should the June double-header against Kazakhstan and Andorra result in the expected maximum six-point return, England could go into the summer break needing just one more point from their three remaining qualifiers to book their place in the finals.
It is all quite a contrast from a little under 18 months ago when defeat at home to Croatia ended England's involvement in Euro 2008 at the qualifying stage. It also sparked a crisis of confidence not seen in English football since the failure to reach back-to-back World Cup finals in the Seventies with the 2010 qualifiers kicking off amid gloomy predictions of how Croatia and Ukraine would condemn England to another fruitless campaign.
Such pessimism looks ridiculous now after John Terry's late winner against Ukraine last Wednesday extended their 100 per cent start at the top of Group Six.
Perhaps most significantly, however, it underlined just what progress England have made since Capello walked through the Soho Square doors for the first time at the start of last year.
Had, for instance, a side managed by either Steve McClaren or Sven Goran Eriksson been pegged back in a similar style to how England were last Wednesday by Andriy Shevchenko's equaliser then the chances of the game ending in a home win would have been remote.
Similarly, neither of Capello's two predecessors came close to solving the Lampard-Gerrard conundrum during their reigns or developed a system that truly got the best out of Wayne Rooney.
Last Wednesday was their least convincing display under Capello in qualifying football and yet they still looked organised, composed and, above all, in control even when things were not going their way.
February's friendly in Spain showed we are some way off matching the European champions right now, but a look elsewhere around the world finds few sides who you would bet against England beating.
In South America, for example, Argentina are still smarting from a 6-1 thrashing against minnows Bolivia five days ago that did nothing to change this columnist's view that appointing Diego Maradona as coach was an almighty blunder.
Elsewhere, Brazil have drawn more games than they have won, while in Asia and the Americas the chances of Capello's rejuvenated side being humbled by the seven countries in the qualifying spots (Australia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, USA, Costa Rica and Honduras) seem slim.
There appears more danger in Europe with Italy, Germany and Holland all topping their groups but, once again, the professionalism that Capello has instilled in his charges means that England should fear no one come the summer of 2010.
In fact, all we need now is for England's favourite Italian to teach his players how to take penalties and the World Cup could be ours again.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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