Russian club football may be buoyant but the national team failed to gain the win required in Bratislava, with their Slovakian opponents making the play-offs.Romania's hopes departed when the Czech Republic leapfrogged them to secure a play-off place with a comfortable victory in Helsinki. That enabled them to hold on to second place, and a play-off slot, in a group that had already been convincingly won by Ukraine. Greece are the first European Championship holders to miss the World Cup since Denmark failed to reach the US in 1994.Also absent are Russia and what had appeared a talented Romanian generation. So Greece's European Championship success, if not a fluke, for in many ways they deserved it, was a blip. But beyond Rooney this was a team that was altered radically, built upon the defensive instincts of Ledley King in front of the back four - balanced on the speed and width offered by Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole.. The Greeks, despite defeating Georgia 1-0 in Athens, finished fourth in Group Two after Turkey edged them out along with Denmark, 2-0 winners in Kazakhstan. The Turks, semi-finalists in the 2002 finals, gained a narrow victory in Albania through Tuemer Metin's scrappy second-half goal. It is impossible to draw any other conclusion after they failed last night to reach next summer's World Cup finals.
The star of the cast was Wayne Rooney and his contribution was an occasionally thrilling combination of dribbling, shooting and passing that made you wonder where England sought their inspiration before he was handed a white shirt for the first time in February 2003. This was the domination, not the destruction, of Poland but for a football nation that has lived on scraps of late, Frank Lampard's winner was a sweet affirmation of some of the faith placed in this team. The true reckoning is still eight months away, but the World Cup finals felt like a much happier prospect after an England victory that articulated, at last, some of the great talent of the golden generation under Sven Goran Eriksson's leadership. In the ideal world of the Tottenham captain, however, the man selected for this unifying task in the future would not be him.. Last night it was Ledley King's turn to promote confusion, on his 14th appearance for England, with a display that underlined the value of a defensive mind in a midfield peppered with individual excellence but lacking cohesive purpose. Substitutes: Streller (Stuttgart) for Vonlanthen, 53; Gygax (Lille) for Wicky, 89.Referee: M Merk (Germany).. England have developed such a penchant for giving themselves dilemmas under Sven Goran Eriksson that even comparative newcomers to his international party are now adding to the complexities confronting the notoriously non-confrontational Swede.
Substitutes: Elliott (Sunderland) for Keane, 67; S Reid (Blackburn Rovers) for Andy Reid, 79; Doherty (Norwich City) for Morrison, 87.Switzerland (4-1-2-1-2): Zuberb?r (Basle); Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Senderos (Arsenal), M?r (Basle), Magnin (Stuttgart); Vogel (Milan); Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen), Wicky (Hamburg); Cabanas (Grasshoppers); Vonlanthen (PSV Eindhoven), Frei (Rennes). It was one of three good openings he spurned.In the second half Frei, sent through, was thwarted by a wonderful Shay Given save and then he was only a stud's width away from connecting with a low, skidding cross.At times the Irish pushed but it was a pinball approach. Balls thudded around the peripheries, failing to penetrate as half-chances were mishit or missed altogether. On came Stephen Elliott but little changed before another substitute, Steven Reid, forced Pascal Zuberbuhler to tip over.At the end the Swiss sank to their knees. They needed to win to avoid the play-offs and it was a further indictment of Kerr's team that they came close to achieving that. And so, also, for the second successive major tournament Ireland have been eliminated by Switzerland. Last time round Kerr blamed his predecessor Mick McCarthy, who lost his job after losing to the Swiss in 2002.
