A German Summer it is

England won the qualifying group yesterday, after beating Austria on Saturday and Poland last night.

Typically, the country went into disaster mode after the Austria match, expecting to win 7-0 with all the flair of Brazil. The reality is that it was a very poor game, but last night was much better. Rooney was back and played fantastically, and it was nice to see 4 Chelsea players start, with future Captain John Terry finishing with the armband.

Building sites around the country fell silent yesterday afternoon as 6,000 lazy Polish immigrants swapped tools for cans of Special Brew and headed for Manchester. The country has become overrun by them recently, so it made for a decent atmosphere. Owen put us ahead after some good work by Joey Cole, and the Polaks equalised immediately before half time.

The second half saw the introduction of the beanpole Crouch again, but it was Frank Lampard who saved the day and scored a superb winner with 10 minutes to go.

England won the group by a point in the end, and Poland go through as one of the two highest second place teams in the groups. The game was much better than recent games, possibly because of the lack of pressure having qualified when Holland beat the Czechs on Saturday evening. It may not be the best attacking football around, but it is actually the kind of football that would win a major tournament - with a bit more effort.

You'd be hard pushed to find a better international squad in the world at the moment, and I would have a good bet on us winning the World Cup with someone like Jose Mourinho in charge, so why don't we think we can win it with Sven? Perhaps we can, but he just seems so slow to react to changes in the game, and inevitably, the changes he makes are too late, and the wrong options. This could be the downfall next Summer.