Princes William and Harry are bringing the glitz Cape Town – but can Fabio Capello’s team reign supreme? Refuse gas and air, and proceed straight to the epidural – England’s next World Cup game is upon us. Finally, Fabio Capello’s two-and-a-half lions have the chance to exorcise last Saturday’s painful draw against the USA, by grinding out a nerve-shreddingly unconvincing 1-0 victory over Algeria. The setting for Friday’s crucial game is Green Point stadium, with the Cape Town match what you might call the glamour fixture in England’s first-round schedule. Which is to say, it will be attended by various people for whom one suspects other cities in South Africa are that bit too “authentic”. Spectators are to include London mayor Boris Johnson, who is on a five-day fact-finding mission for the 2012 Olympics, and the allegedly “football-mad” Princes William and Harry, who are on a joint tour of southern Africa. William is president of the Football Association – a role somehow even more pretend than Uncle Andrew’s job as UK trade ambassador – and he and his brother will stay on in Cape Town after the game to play a leading role in Saturday’s big event, which is a glitzy reception for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. Preparations for the soiree look solid at present – though obviously all could be derailed should Harry opt to go in fancy dress as PW Botha. Ultimately, though, Friday’s game offers England a chance to silence their footballing critics – an amusing number of whom seem to be German. First up was erstwhile Germany captain Michael Ballack, who reflected upon the difference between the two international sides. “We’re inspired by our history,” he explained, “whereas I sense England are intimidated by their past.” Next in line was the legendary Franz Beckenbauer. “What I saw of the English against the USA had very little to do with football,” schadenfreuded Der Kaiser, rightly judging that he had been watching not a football game, but some kind of psychological episode. Even German-born football fan Dr Henry Kissinger called the New York Times to offer his views on the World Cup – though sweetly he declined to add to England’s misery. “Brazil has played the most beautiful football,” the former US secretary of state apparently ruled, “while Italy has specialised in breaking the hearts of its opponents, and for Germany everyone attacks in a way suggestive of Erich von Falkenhayn’s huge flanking movements in world war one – and everyone defends.” Penetrating analysis there from the former comedy Nobel peace prizewinner. Perhaps ITV might consider Kissinger as a replacement pundit for the sacked Robbie Earle? The good doctor is already scheduled to attend the later rounds of the World Cup, South Africa being one of the countries to which he can travel without risking a connecting flight to the Hague. As for our own efforts to “move on” from Saturday, they have been mixed. If anything could make you yearn to be watching even the most lacklustre of England displays again, it is the manner in which Her Majesty’s press fills the gap between games. Lowlights since Saturday include Archbishop Desmond Tutu being presented with a Sun-branded vuvuzela, and the media pack besieging the home of hapless goalkeeper Robert Green’s parents, presumably waiting for them to emerge and disown him. The Greens have since appealed to the PCC for protection. What was needed, clearly, was something to Put Everything Into Perspective – and on Wednesday, Michael Dawson and Matthew Upson provided it. Escaping from what has been described predictably as England’s “gilded cage” of a team base, the two Tottenham defenders took a busload of hacks with them to visit an orphanage jointly funded by the FA and Spurs. According to Upson, “this puts everything into perspective” (that is, the orphanage does, not travelling everywhere with dozens of Boswells). So let us gird ourselves with that recalibrated perspective. After all, in a World Cup not short of early underperformers, England’s first result now demands to be reconsidered. According to the demented mathematics of the footballing optimist, favourites Spain losing to Switzerland pretty much bumps up our shabby draw with the USA into a triumph. Or something. The point is, it should be perfectly possible to await England v Algeria nursing the same level of mad hope with which you began this tournament, safe in the knowledge your despair will have its day. World Cup 2010 Prince Harry Prince William World Cup 2010 Group C England Marina Hyde guardian.co.uk
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England v Algeria: glamour fixture requires an A-list crowd
