It was always going to be a tough ask for England against Slovenia with many of the old tired legs in the squad looking ragged, and it took some desperate defending and mix of good fortune to keep the Slovenians out in the first half.
There was a delay in starting the second half as Paul Robinson (who had been so superb against the Algerians) wondered outside the stadium at half time to get some air, stumbled into a pie shop, and couldn't be pulled away. McLaren had a tough choice to make, with Chris Kirkland out injured and Manuel Almunia severely lacking confidence, Schteve turned to young Theo Walcott. A surprising choice but Ray Clemence had assured us that Walcott had shown amazing prowess in a 5-a-side match at the end of training yesterday.
The Slovenians bombarded the England goal but young Theo was coming out and claiming everything, making diving saves to his left and right, and reminding everyone of a very young and much shorter Gordon Banks.
As the game entered injury time news came through that the United States had taken the lead against Algeria so the Slovenians pressed harder not wanting to face a possible tie against Germany in the next round. They won a corner and pushed everyone but their keeper into the area. Young Theo leaped at least 3 feet into the air, plucked the ball out of the sky and in one motion rolled it out in front of himself. With an amazing burst of pace Theo was away and one on one with the Slovenia keeper, the nation's expectations resting on his tiny shoulders. Could he handle the pressure? Of course he could, it was just a game of football after all, and he calmly placed it into the corner, putting England through.
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