England still going strong in build up to Cup

[Livewyre]

Yesterday, England hosted a very good Mexico team at Wembley and proved that they are still the same side that breezed through the World Cup qualifiers...
England rarely dominated the game apart from periods towards the end of the game when Mexico were losing heart:
worldofbeckham.blogspot.com/2010/05/england-3-mexico-1.html
Nonetheless England showed the same two traits that they did during the hugely successful qualifying campaign, namely:
1. Ability to score goals by the hatful
2. Lack of ability to defend effectively...
So far, they have got away with this good news, bad news approach and I am sure it will get them through the group stages (I would also expect the US to get through from the same group), but I think england will have to 'up' their game against the stiffer opposition.
I think there is more to come from Adam Johnson, we have Lampard to bring into the mix - I am not convinced about Leighton Baines, but I believe the Rooney/Gerrard combination up front will find a way through most defences...

[Livewyre]

Well the game against Japan was a bit of a shocker, a missed penalty, a bad offside call against Rooney one-on-one with the keeper, and two own goals scored by Japan.
Lennon starts on the left and misses a sitter with his left foot!
I am not sure what this match was supposed to prove, and was disappointed that Adam Johnson didn't get a chance to prove himself - he will be one to watch for the future. Walcott is not going to SA, which is a surprise - one which hopefully England will not rue - Barry is still going despite not having kicked a ball in the recent friendlies.
This is the shocking rehearsal which will hopefully precede more solid performances in the group stages - plenty of banana skins out there - hopefully this is the one thing we can bring away from the disappointing performance on Sunday!