Fabio Capello's frustrations at a disjointed and sloppy display prompted him to issue an angry reminder to his England players about their responsibilities in the side's last warm-up game before the World Cup begins later this week.
The Italian delivered a curt message when his team arrived in the dressing room at half-time, according to a witness, and stressed that, while this was effectively a practice game with free admittance for the locals, it was also a football match “and you had better start treating it as one”.
‘Not happy’
England led the local league team, Platinum Stars, 1-0 by then courtesy of Jermain Defoe's early goal, but their display degenerated thereafter with their approach lacking rhythm. “To be honest, the manager wasn't happy with the performance in the first half,” admitted Defoe, who was replaced along with everyone else apart from Joe Cole as Capello fulfilled his intent to give all his squad time on the pitch. “Maybe we could have pressed them a bit more but it was quite difficult because of the conditions and I think we'll improve on that. In the second half the lads pressed a bit more and it was better.
“The manager is a great character. All he wants to do is win. He doesn't want you to go out there and treat it like a friendly. You have to do it properly and that's what he's like. You need to be that way. He gets you fired up before the games and he's right: at the end of the day he wants you to press, press high up, win the ball back and give 100% in every game. Even in training. And that's what we've got to do.”
Capello had been so infuriated by his team's first-half display that he was repeatedly asked to return to his technical area and sit down by the fourth official. The Stars manager, Obed Legobate, eventually emerged from his own dug-out to calm the situation down, although the England coach continued to berate his players from the sidelines. One hurried and sliced clearance from Joe Hart, under no discernible pressure, prompted the Italian to hop in frustration before returning to his coaching staff with arms wide in bemusement.
The manager stayed in the dressing room for only about five minutes at the interval before returning pitch-side to oversee his second-half team's warm-up. England improved somewhat thereafter, eventually winning 3-0, with the manager emerging thankful not to have picked up any more injuries. “The important thing was that nobody got injured,” said Capello. “That was the only thing that counted. The rest doesn't matter.”
England's players will train tomorrow morning at Royal Bafokeng before venturing into the Pilanesberg national park for a brief safari. “That will break up the schedule a bit,” said Capello but, while he may have some concerns over his side's preparations for Saturday's opening Group C game against the USA, his players appear confident enough that they are ready for the tournament proper.
“I think we're ready,” said Defoe. “We're looking forward to it. The United States will give it a go and, at this level, every game is difficult: it's the World Cup and every team we play against from now on in will be difficult but we have to go out there and be confident. We have to go out and enjoy it. If we do that and play like we can do, then I'm sure we can win the game.
“I honestly don't think we could be better prepared for the finals. Everything we've done — the training, the fitness work — has been spot on. The hotel we're in is brilliant. We've got everything we need, so the preparation has been good and, if you prepare right, you get results. Everyone's hungry. We want to win it and we've got that winning mentality: we're winning games and we want to take that momentum into the tournament now.”
© Guardian News and Media 2010
