In the 58th minute, Wayne Rooney, taking a pass from Frank Lampard in the abundant space afforded by a spell of temporary disarray for Slovenia, tamed the ball instantly and assumed a body shape that strongly suggested that it was about to ripple the net behind Samir Handanovic. In fact, the goalkeeper managed to push it on to a post. Rooney half-smiled.
At that moment you knew he was on the way back — if a little more slowly than some members of the England team that he was supposed to be leading from the front in this tournament — to the form that made Fabio Capello’s side look potential world champions in qualifying. Bear in mind that this was the young man who once punched a corner flag at Fulham after being sent off. Frustration infused him that day by the Thames. By Nelson Mandela Bay yesterday, his mood was milder. He had been reassured: England were in the World Cup to stay.
Who knows for how long? But Capello’s withdrawal of Rooney was a sign of how highly the manager still regards the Manchester United player as a weapon with which to take on the tougher opponents lying in wait.
The ankle complaint that influenced the decision to replace him with Joe Cole 18 minutes from the end was only part of the story; Rooney seemed a little weary and may not have been performing all the defensive duties expected of a second striker when the lead is slender and time running out. But that Rooney remains central to the campaign is axiomatic.
Although his displays in the matches against the United States and Algeria were poor by any international standard, let alone those he has reached since a richly promising tournament debut as a teenager in the European Championship of 2004, the warmer weather in Port Elizabeth coincided with green shoots of recovery.
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From the outset, his touch was sharper than before, the ball always closer to his body (a reliable sign of when Rooney is in form) and his readiness to take part in combinations constant. He linked particularly nicely with Steven Gerrard and when the two Scousers are dovetailing, classy football is bound to ensue.
If Capello appeared a little lukewarm in his remarks afterwards, it was only because of the Italian’s reluctance — shared by many managers — to dwell on the contributions of individuals. Asked if Rooney had wanted to leave the field, Capello replied: “No. I changed him. I substituted him because he was not OK because of his ankle. Rooney is a very important player. Like the other players. But, as a manager, I have to find solutions.”
While trying to understand Capello when he speaks English is never easy, the message was about collectivism. At the end of a traumatic few days in the life of the national team, the ranks that had been broken by John Terry in public, and others in private, had closed.
It was a surprise to hear that Rooney had been involved in the dressing-room politics. Despite his status in the game, he has always been regarded as a positive influence, at United and on the international scene. But last season was long and stressful for him, and having carried United on his broad back for enough of the season (especially its first half) to persuade the football writers to make him Footballer of the Year by a record majority, he found himself cast as the saviour of England at a World Cup. It may have piled excessive pressure on a footballer who is, after all, only 24.
On top of that, there was the ankle. The problem originated in United’s Champions League match away to Bayern Munich in March. Rooney, as Mario Gómez trod on his foot, endeavoured to twist clear, but succeeded only in wrenching the joint.
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Amazingly, Sir Alex Ferguson fielded him in the return match, with Bayern winning on away goals, but Rooney took inevitable punishment from Louis van Gaal’s players and has never been fully fit since, or so it now transpires; the assumption until yesterday had been that a month of mainly rest and carefully monitored training had done the trick.
According to Capello, he should be ready for the round-of-16 match in Bloemfontein on Sunday, and that is fundamental to England’s chances of further progress.
The fans whose booing caused him to refer sarcastically to “loyal supporters” on the way off the pitch after the Algeria match have had their apology and now, ankle permitting, they should get more of what they have travelled to see.
If Rooney is on the pitch, he will score goals or make them, depending on the team’s needs. That is what makes him an infinitely more valuable footballer than, say, Michael Owen. But England must hope that the curse of injury that so cruelly and repeatedly struck down Owen does not revisit Rooney, who missed not only the end of the 2004 campaign in Portugal but the start of the last World Cup.
The image of that World Cup, from Rooney’s point of view, also involves Portugal: the red card for treading on Ricardo Carvalho, after which Cristiano Ronaldo winked and Portugal prevailed in a penalty decider. Discipline had always been a worry, from the night in Madrid in the autumn of 2004 (one more often remembered for the racist abuse of England players by some Spanish supporters) when Sven-Göran Eriksson had to substitute a wildly rampaging Rooney to prevent him being sent off.
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Now he is more mature (a father, perhaps by coincidence) and should be approaching the peak of his powers. My notion that he could be England’s Maradona at this World Cup — the factor that turns the excellent footballers around him into champions — has looked sickly so far, but yesterday he began to play his way into the tournament, as did England, and so crossed fingers are in order.
When England qualified so handsomely with a 5-1 triumph over Croatia at Wembley, it was acknowledged that the rest largely depended on Rooney. That is still the case.