[ENGLAND-ALGERIA] Insipid. Dreadful. Awful. Listless. Pick your adjective. England was deservedly booed off the field after its performance in its 0-0 tie with Algeria. The English were almost as bad as the French in their 2-0 loss to Mexico the day before but at least Fabio Capello's boys control their own dynasty.

A win over Slovenia will assure England of a place in the round of 16. Anything less and it will most likely lose out to the United States or Algeria.

On the strength of their performance Friday at Green Point Stadium, few will fancy England to go through.

Just how ordinary England is was already demonstrated on Saturday when it settled for a 1-1 tie with the USA. But at least it took the game to the Americans.

On Friday, England was thoroughly outplayed by Algeria, seeking to atone for its performance in its 1-0 loss in its opening game against Slovenia.

What made matters worse was that England's star, Wayne Rooney, was totally ineffective. The Manchester United striker is clearly worse for wear after suffering ankle and groin injuries late in the season.

No until his post-game tirade on ITV did he show any sign of life, complaining, "Nice to see your own fans booing you ... if that's what loyal support is, for f***'s sake."
 
By the end of the game, Capello, who had railed into his players last week for their poor performance against a local pro team that proved to be an indicator of things to come, looked like a man who had given up getting mad.

"We played a no good game," Capello said. "We missed a lot of balls when we had to control [them]. We missed a lot of passes and also when we were close to the box we had the possibility to shoot at the goal we made passes to the other players. We missed everything."