England on verge of shock group elimination

The more pressing concern this time, though, ahead of its Group C match against Slovenia on Wednesday, is the fact is that not since 1958 in Sweden has England failed to advance past the group stage once they’ve qualified for the tournament.

Yet that is scenario facing coach Fabio Capello and his apparently discordant English players — a loss to Slovenia would end any chance of England making it to the round of 16. England has two points after a 1-1 draw with the United States and a surprising 0-0 stalemate with Algeria.

England didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 1974, 1978 and 1994, but when it has made it to the quadrennial event, the team usually performs relatively well: losing in the semifinals in 1990, the quarterfinals in 1962, 1986, 2002 and 2006 and the second round in 1982 and 1998.

Its chances Wednesday won’t be helped by rumors of a rift between the players and Capello which spread rapidly after John Terry’s remarks about a summit between squad and coach.

But on Monday at England’s training base in Rustenburg, midfielder Frank Lampard said Terry’s emotional talk of the team meeting was in keeping with ex-captain’s style.

‘I understand what John is saying because he’s passionate,’ Lampard said. ‘He’s like that as a player. All 23 players deal with things differently. Some people don’t want to say too much, some people want to hit things head on. Everyone appreciates that.

‘The messages I got yesterday from people was that John was saying some positive things. We will try and hit things head on the training ground.’

Lampard was emphatic that any reports of problems were driven by those outside the team.

‘A rift honestly isn’t there,’ Lampard said. ‘When things get difficult in football — results and performances — people will try to say there are factions (within the squad) and we have to make sure we stay very united.

‘We’re not happy with how we’re playing as a group. Nobody is.’

He said Capello has ‘given us our confidence back.’

‘We didn’t have that before. Over the two years before (Capello arrived) it was very low. He got us into a compact form of a team and some of our performances have been top draw.’

After the match against Algeria, England players were booed by their own fans.

On Tuesday, West Ham defender Matthew Upson called on England ‘to get the best out of themselves’ against Slovenia. Upson said he has been told by Capello that he will start the match.

‘We had some spare time in Cape Town and everyone went off and reflected on what happened,’ Upson said. ‘We have had to put that behind us and move on to the next game.’

Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek also offered a tidbit about his starting team.

‘Usually I never speak about my first 11 but this time I can say that Mavric (Matej Mavric-Rozic) will definitely play if (Marko) Suler doesn’t make it,’ said Kek. ‘Perhaps I will give this information because Fabio Capello has told everyone that Matthew Upson will start.’

Slovenia had a winning start after a mistake by Algeria goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi handed the team a 1-0 victory, the country’s first ever at a World Cup.

The small nation looked as good as in the round of 16 when it led the US 2-0 in its second game, but the Americans fought back for a 2-2 draw.

With the stadium pitch at Port Elizabeth still tender from three days of rain just over a week ago, both teams trained elsewhere Tuesday — England at Rustenburg and Slovenia at a local school in Port Elizabeth. It was third match here in a row that teams were not allowed to practice at the stadium on the day before a game.

That was just as well, as rain fell late Tuesday morning and early afternoon. The forecast for match time Wednesday afternoon, however, was for sunny skies and a high temperature of 20C (68F).