"THEY came to honour Wayne Rooney on his 50th appearance for his country.
And for 45 minutes or so the young England star responded to the tribute in a manner befitting the most accomplished player in the side.
The apex of England’s attack and involved in everything good England did, he looked every bit what Fabio Capello says he is — one of the best players in the world.
tengoklah 'lelaki gila' sedang membentes....
But as the second-half drew on and both he and his team-mates started to dig themselves into a frustrating hole, the old England — and the old Rooney — started to re-emerge.
The Rooney who is a liability to both club and country.
The Rooney who effectively cost England their place at the last World Cup when he needlessly waded in and stamped on Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho as the quarter-final in Gelsenkirchen warmed up.
When it finally reached boiling-point, so did Rooney.
Take that, you ****!
All very reminiscent of his one-time Manchester United skipper Roy Keane.
Last night his moment of madness arrived in the 64th minute when a niggling contest with Dynamo Kiev’s Oleksandr Aliyev turned into malevolence.
Rooney decided he had enough of Aliyev’s close attention and went thundering into a challenge.
Throwing himself into the tackle, he went through the ball, connected with the Ukraine midfielder and left him in a heap.
Ex-pros around me in the press box were united in their opinion that Rooney had done it on purpose.
The player himself made the round-shape of the ball with his hands — intimating to referee Claus Bo Larsen that he had both gone for, and connected with it, before clattering into his opponent.
Luckily for Rooney, the Danish official agreed with him. Staggeringly, he didn’t even get a booking.
On another day, he could have been sent off.
On another day, in a major tournament where the eyes of the world are on match officials, he could once again have cost his country dear.
Certainly, if he tries this sort of thing in South Africa next year, he will not escape anywhere near as lightly as he did in last night’s qualifier.
And there we have the continuing conundrum that is Wayne Rooney.
On the one hand, we had the Rooney who excelled against Slovakia on Saturday, helping himself to two fine goals and — like the master puppeteer he is — pulling all the strings.
It was the same for much of the first half last night where he ran the Ukraine defence a merry old dance and might even have opened the scoring himself with a spectacular overhead kick.
The only surprise was he had nothing to do with England’s 29th-minute opener — a Frank Lampard corner, headed on by John Terry and fired home on the swivel by Peter Crouch.
A rich reward for a player, apparently, only in the team because everyone else was injured. So far so good. And then, of course, the old devil who lurks inside Rooney, reasserted himself over the forces of good and came clambering once again to the surface.
This was not the funny-ha-ha Crazy Man that Capello has referred to.
This was the real old-fashioned Crazy Man.
The Crazy Man of Madrid and Belfast.
The Crazy Man we hoped had been exorcised like one of those poltergeists that hangs around churches and large, dark houses at the end of long, equally dark country lanes. Well, here was a reminder that Capello still has some work to do on his star player.
And on his team as well.
One of the last things he had warned against before England went out to take on Ukraine — the country ranked 14th in the world — was complacency.
Both Rio Ferdinand and Lampard had claimed this was an old trap into which England would no longer fall.
Yet that is exactly what they did.
Having taken the lead and failing to add to it, they seemed to decide they would coast through to a 1-0 victory.
After 74 minutes their presumptuousness was rightly punished when substitute Andriy Shevchenko took advantage of some leaden-footed defence to sweep home the equaliser.
The main culprit was probably skipper Terry in failing to cut out the free-kick though neither Ferdinand nor Glen Johnson covered themselves in glory.
Credit to Terry, though, for being in the right place at the right time to knock in a late winner with five minutes to go.
Overall, though, it was hardly a performance to send us heading towards South Africa with confidence.
Yes, it was a fifth successive Group Six win to give Capello a maximum 15 points.
But after a couple of steps forward, this was definitely one back.
Back towards the bad, old days when England went stumbling from one tournament to another with no discernable improvement.
Once again, the old Steven Gerrard problem emerged.
To be generous, you might give him a good 10-minute spell at the start.
Apart from that, he achieved very little, though he did have a hand in the winner.
Aaron Lennon? Another enigmatic wing display with too few crosses into really dangerous areas and, surprisingly, not that many occasions when he beat his man.
The main cause of concern, though, remains the man on whom most of our hopes rest for the World Cup.
As I said, a step backwards."
itulah lagaknya pemain bintang EROPAH. Namun kata capello, dgn gaya nya itu lah yg membuat kan seluruh pasukan membara inginkan kemenangan, semangat dan determinition yg tinggi yg di tunjukkan oleh lelaki ini mampu membuatkan seluruh pasukan ibarat terjaga daripada tidor. Namun perlakuan yg luar jangkaan nya itu yg banyak membimbangkan semua pihak... kita lupakan pasal de, sebab kita nak pikirkan pasal kita...
saat kemenangan Malaysia di atas Myanmar pada peringkat akhir Piala Merdeka tahun lalu, masih dibawah Sathia, Malaysia sgt membanggakan aku, yelah masa tu pemain bwh 23 yg main, aku cme leh kata kita masih ade harapan... namun ianya berkecai tatkala kalah demi kekalahan yg kita hadapi dgn telan air liur tdk berlagu...
kita harus sedar bahawa kita takde pemain bintang yg kita harapkan skarang... saya buleh jamin sebenarnya kita ada ramai bakat mcm ronaldinho, ronaldo, dan messi, ade, siapa kata kita takder, namun kita tak dapat mengcungkil mereka kerana, kita takder scout yg betl2 pandai mengesan bakat mereka ini, kita takder skuad pennjau ataw pecari bakat yg sangup meredah belukar kerana ingin mencari bakat bola sepak.. ramai sangat yg ingin dan buleh jadi, sementalahan mereka ini dari golongan miskin... sikap malu, segan dan segalanya mnghalang meeka nak berkunjung mana2 padang kompleks semata2 nak sertai sesi ujibakat.. tolonglah pada pihak FAM agar sanggup turun padang.. demi bola cariklah mereka yg benar2 mahu bermain bola.. carik mereka yg ada semangat cintakan bola sepak... bukan mereka yg glakan wang....
