Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney has scored his first goal since March. He scored a penalty against West Ham to help Man Utd to a 3-0 win.

The last time he scored for club and country was against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Wayne Rooney played for the first 45 minutes on his return to action as Manchester United crushed an Airtricity League Select XI 7-1 in Dublin on Wednesday night.

Although he did not score his energy and desire was an display. His link up play with Michael Owens was very encouraging.

New boy Javier Hernandez continue to impress. There is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season.

Emile Hesky was dropped from the starting XI and replaced by Jermaine Defoe. Aaron Lenon was also dropped in favor of James Milner.

Fabio Capello now looks like a genius because those two players were responsible for the goal that sent England through to the next round.

“What about that John Terry?” Never question a coach of Capello’s quality.

Portugese winger Cristiano Ronaldo has defended Wayne Rooney over criticism of his World Cup performance  so far and backed his former Manchester United team-mate to improve.

Rooney has taken a lot of heat for under-performing against USA and Algeria. Added to his World Cup performance, Rooney has not scored for England since a World Cup qualifying win over Croatia last September.

But Ronaldo said: “Wayne Rooney tried very hard, but he didn’t play alone. When it’s not coming, when you don’t score a goal or play well, it is always the big players’ fault. But Wayne is a great player and will do a good job.”

Apparently the England camp has accepted that the Rooney-Hesky combination is not working. So Rooney is likely to get a new strike partner for the Slovenia game. The general view is that Defoe is likely to be his new partner.

However others are asking “Why not Gerrard just behind Rooney?” Steven Gerrard plays off striker Fernando Torres for Liverpool FC. That combination worked to devastating effect when both are healthy.

Playing Gerrard off Rooney would put Gerrard in a more familiar central position on the pitch rather that the ineffective left wing position he played in recently.

However many admit that Fabio Capello will resist changing his preferred system.

There will be at least 3 changes for the next game and a tweaking of tactics. We all hope it leads to a win and progress through the World Cup tournament.

Wayne Rooney has issued an apology after berating the England fans for booing at the end of the shocking 0 – 0 draw with Algeria.

Millions of England supporters watching the game saw Rooney mouthing off to the camera, “Nice to see your own fans booing you. That’s what loyal support is…”

Today the Manchester United striker has now said sorry in a statement released via the Football Association.

“Last night, on reflection I said things in the heat of the moment that came out of frustration of both our performance and the result. For my part I apologise for any offence caused by my actions at the end of the game.”

In fairness, all of the England players played poorly and without a sense of urgency.

But in Rooney much more is expected. He seemed out of position and at times disinterested. He and his teammates were bood at the end of the 0-0 tie with 30th ranked Algeria. Rooney reacted by shouting into a television camera: “Nice to see your own fans booing you. If that’s what loyal support is … for f–k’s sake.”

Rooney’s day is typically breakfast, training, lunch, sleep, dinner and more sleep. He admits its a boring routine and he can’t wait to get back on the field.

Regarding their position in the group Rooney had this to say:

“I believe we will qualify from this group – I don’t think there will be any problems about that.

“But the performance on Friday is not something I am too worried about. The only thing I am concerned about is winning.

“With any tournament it is how you finish and not how you start.”

United States captain Carlos Bocanegra  felt his team did a successful job of stopping Wayne Rooney.

Bocanegra said: “Oguchi had a great game and was a strong presence in the middle for us. I thought he and Jay had fantastic games and shut down Wayne Rooney most of the time. Jay did well to follow him into the midfield and we also had pressure applied by the midfielders coming back to close him down. The second half was a little bit more open and he got a few more chances to run at us. That’s going to happen when we’re a bit tired and space gets more open. But I thought overall we did well on Rooney.”

Steven Gerrard opened the scoring with a well taken goal in the 4th minute of the England v USA match. He was also seen helping the backline with some defensive clearing

However England’s goalkeeping woes continue as Robert Green allow the ball to roll off his hands for what should have been an easy save. The game ended 1 – 1.