Capello tells James to prove his fitness (From The Northern Echo)

Capello tells James to prove his fitness

9:50am Monday 16th November 2009

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Brazil 1 England 0

FABIO Capello has warned David James he will bring his World Cup dream to an end unless he can prove his fitness.

James was back home in England nursing a knee injury as the national team were being defeated by World Cup favourites Brazil in Doha.

It means the veteran goalkeeper has not started a game for England since the qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley on April 1.

It represents a long time out of the first XI for the man who is supposed to be Fabio Capello’s first-choice.

Certainly it appeared that way in August, when Capello hinted James was still his top man, even though he had missed the qualifying doubleheader in June to undergo shoulder surgery. Since then, it is his knees that are causing James the problems. And in revealing the full extent of his injury, Capello added a warning the 39-year-old needs to understand.

“I spoke with David James but he needs time to recover after every game,” said Capello.

“Every time he plays, he can’t train for two days afterwards so we preferred that he stayed at home.

“If he is fit, he will probably be with us (in South Africa). But if I choose the players they have to be fit.”

There is some confusion over how bad James’ injury is. Legendary Portsmouth goalkeeper Alan Knight is so unconvinced by talk that James is in serious trouble that he branded it a “cop-out” by Capello not to pick him.

However, the Italian does tend to take a hard line in such situations, hence his decision to dump Ledley King when it became apparent he could not train ahead of England’s friendly with Slovakia.

Robert Green excelled as James’ initial deputy, with Ben Foster putting his case forward in the last two games, so Capello clearly has options.

England are not due to play again until March 3, so there is plenty of time for James to get himself right.

After losing a dozen men for Saturday’s defeat, Capello hoped some of his fringe players would step forward against the five-times World Cup winners.

None did, though.

Darren Bent and Jermaine Jenas were particularly disappointing given their lack of recent opportunities, while Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wes Brown and Wayne Bridge also fell short.

Apart from Foster, who had a solid game, only James Milner excelled.

It brought to mind a statement from Sven- Goran Eriksson’s days that it would only take the loss of certain key players for England’s World Cup hopes to be destroyed.

Capello countered: “He (Eriksson) was only talking about two or three players missing, not 12 or 13.

“Some players are really important. We hope they will be fit when they arrive at the World Cup. The thing is, we played against the best XI of Brazil. I know with our best XI, we can play.”

Capello’s chief grumble was that England were too slow when they had the ball, both in moving it and themselves around. It allowed Brazil to get their defences set, something they are far quicker at doing now than used to be the case. “They pressed a lot,” he said. “We usually win the tackles, this time we lost a lot.”

Brazil were content to play at exhibition match pace. They did miss a penalty and hit a post, which would have given the scoreline a more lopsided look. For the past 12 months, Capello has given the impression that he views Spain as England’s main threat in South Africa.

Now he has first-hand experience of a side remodelled by coach Dunga to win the Confederations Cup this summer, Capello feels it is Brazil who are one step ahead.

Match facts

Goal:

1-0: Nilmar (47, headed over Foster after meeting Elano’s dipping cross)

Bookings: Foster (55, foul)

Referee: Abdullah Abdou (Qatar)

Attendance: 50,000

Entertainment: ✰✰✰✰

BRAZIL: Cesar 6 Maicon 7, Silva 7, Lucio 7, Kaka 7 (Julio Baptista 81), Silva 6, Bastos 7, Melo 6, Elano 7 (Daniel Alves, 64), NILMAR 7 (Eduardo 81), Luis Fabiano 5 (Hulk, 67).

Subs (not used): Luisao, Aparecido Rodrigues, Doni, Josue, Aurelio, Lucas, Meschini

ENGLAND (4-4-2):

5 Foster: Was lucky to stay on after bringing down Nilmar for the second-half penalty

3 Brown: Was exposed on a number of occasions and lost his opponent for the goal

5 Upson: Inconsistent display in which he gave the ball away and produced well-timed tackles

6 Lescott: Seemed the more comfortable of the two centre-backs

5 Bridge: Anonymous for long periods but was spared Maicon’s overlapping runs

5 Wright-Phillips: Got in a penetrative cross early on but faded

6 Barry: Solid performance but more was expected of him

5 Jenas: Desperate to impress but was often too overambitious

7 MILNER: Looked one of England’s brightest players in the first half

5 Rooney: Put in the usual whole-hearted performance but probably tried too hard

5 Bent: Starved of service and was given little chance to impress

Subs Defoe (for Bent 55): Hardly touched the ball in a dangerous position as the lack of service to the front man continued 5

Huddlestone (for Barry, 81)

Crouch (for Wright-Phillips, 81)

Young (for Milner, 87)

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