At least we're not French

To the casual observer it might appear that England have been knocked out of the World Cup. The rampant optimism of a fortnight ago has disappeared, and our former heroes are being booed. But we're still in the tournament. That's right. We are only 5 wins away from being World Champions. In fact, we're only 1 win and 4 draws away from being World Champions (just need lighting to strike 4 times for us to win 4 Penalty Shoot-outs). Defeating Slovenia on Wednesday will put us into the last 16. No other result matters.

It's really not all doom and gloom. Yes, we were poor against Algeria. Very poor. But we never seemed in danger of losing. And against the US, I thought we played ok. One awful mistake cost the game. But again, we didn't lose.

Of course, the press have turned. Capello, the man who two weeks ago was set to lead us to World Cup glory is being vilified. He should only shoulder part of the blame for Friday's display. Let's not forget that it's up to the players to execute his instructions, and as they seemed unable to make simple passes for most of the game he can't be solely responsible. But he does seem to have a blind spot to Joe Cole who everyone seemed to accept a year ago had solved the left side of Midfield issue.

I am confident that on Wednesday, Cole won't start (Capello is a bit too stubborn for that), but we will see a vastly improved England side. I hope Dawson will step in at Centre Back to alleviate the pace problem, Defoe will start with Rooney and everyone will just play better. That should be enough to see us stagger into the Second Round, and we'll start playing better. Much better.

The good thing is that we're not as bad as France. At least our squad are still going through the motions of being a team. And, of course, we're not relying on a mathematical fluke to take us through (having said that, I don't think France are completely out of it yet. I'm not so sure that Mexico and Uruguay will play out a draw as there is a significant advantage of avoiding Argentina if they win the group).

The French combustion is spectacular. So very gallic. Kicking out their best player and not turning up for training is a wonderful way to see out their final few days in the tournament. I wonder how they spent their free day. Taking in a safari?

Anyway, we're not French, so please can everyone just cheer up a little bit and support the team on Wednesday.