One England Captain

By Since66
June 20 2010

Continuing the fall-out from England's abysmal showing against Algeria on Friday, England put John Terry out to the 'Lions of the Press' where he was to face a grilling worse than a wife's telling off. Why JT? Why not England's Captain or Vice-Captain or even a member of the management team - if not Capello himself, Stuart Pearce?

Why JT? A simple question to answer. He is England's REAL Captain. He speaks clearly, decisively, he speaks from the heart and he speaks with passion and honesty.

Terry said, "We are going to look at the whole 93 minutes and see where we went wrong and that means pretty much the whole lot of it.

"It is going to be a chance for everyone to get it off their chest and if that means a few players get upset then that is the way it is. We need to win the next game and we have to say 'Sod it let's sort it out and show everyone what we can do' ."

Terry continued, "I am not distancing myself away from responsibilities. I am here as captain of Chelsea and I'm a big personality in the dressing room.

"Responsibility falls on me, Stevie, Lamps, all the experienced players in the side, to get things going again and that is what we are trying to do."

Terry emphasised that the players are 100 per cent behind 'Granite Face' Capello.

He said, "I am not too sure whether he will change personnel, his ways, whatever.

"I'm not going to sit here and question the manager. I'm here on behalf of the team and the players and we are all fully behind the manager.

"Since he came in, he's had his ways and philosophies which he has brought to the side and that has worked in the campaign so nothing should change from that.

"We shouldn't be looking at excuses or criticising the manager. He takes a lot of responsibility being the England manager.

"But at the same time we are here, we are supporting him, we are fully behind him, we know we've got his support as well and that's the main thing.

"The players were disappointed with the way they performed against Algeria. I was quite with the way we played against USA and we were unfortunate not to win the game.

"The other night, as a group of players, we came out and held our hands up and it was not acceptable the way we played, the attitude we showed in the game.

"The thing that is keeping me going is this last game, that we can go into this game four days later and prove people wrong.

"We need to put on a performance that pleases everyone but more importantly gets the three points and gets us through the group.

"We will go out there and need to think 'sod it, we've got one game which can make or break us.'

"I've said to the guys I've been away from my family for three or four weeks and I've come here to win this tournament.

"I don't want to go home on Wednesday. I'm here to win it."

Of the games played yesterday, the best had to be Cameroon's defeat against Demark, which Denmark won 2-1, despite Eto'o giving the Africans the lead. Cameroon's defeat means they are eliminated from the competition with one game to play.

Bendtner and Rommedahl were the Danish scorers, recovering well from their opening group game defeat against Holland.

Holland secured their place in the last 16 with a 1-0 over Japan. Wesley Snjeider scoring a belter although the Japanese 'keeper should have done a lot better.

Australia recovered well from the mauling by Germany to draw 1-1 with Ghana - Brett Holman gave the Aussies the lead, with Gyan equalising from the penalty spot.

Harry Kewell was sent off for handball in conceding the penalty. Kewell's pathetic protests by trying to get the ref to change his mind included persuading the ref to watch the replay on the big screen - to no avail.

Bye, bye Harry - It was definitely handball.

Today's Matches:

Slovakia 0-2 Paraguay

Italy 1-1 New Zealand

Brazil v Ivory Coast (Dider Starts!!!)