I'LL SEE YOUR OZIL AND KLOSE AND RAISE YOU GERRARD AND ROONEY

Momentum. It’s all about momentum. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself between now and Sunday afternoon, because I have a hunch the momentum might be with England, not Germany. Oh, and it’s all in the head. I’ll be telling myself that as well because I think England (unusually) might be in a better state of mind than their old enemies on Sunday. So it’s all about momentum and it’s all in the head. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as frustrated as the next England fan about World Cup 2010 so far. USA was typically uninspiring England fare punctuated with a ridiculous individual error. Algeria was the worst, just the worst performance ever and deserved every bit of anger and bile it received in the media. Then Slovenia was OK. Just OK, nothing more than that, but there was evidence of the green shoots of recovery. Minus Robert Green of course. So there’s some momentum there. But what about the Germans you ask ? Have they not produced one of the best performances of the tournament so far ? Did they not top a group that looked a lot harder than England’s ? Well yes, and for that matter, yes. But with my £2 St George’s cross tinted spectacles on I’m choosing to look a little deeper at Germany’s campaign so far. They looked a well-drilled Teutonic winning machine against the Aussies, but all was not as it seemed. I was speaking to Sunderland goalkeeping legend Jimmy Montgomery the following day (about Rob Green’s howler) and he thought both of Germany’s first two goals were down to bad goalkeeping errors from former Boro man Mark Schwarzer. At that point in the game the Aussies had their best player, Tim Cahill, dubiously sent off. Fuelled by a sense of righteous indignation, the boys from Down Under continued to chase the game and Germany picked them off on the break for a couple more goals. Next up, Germany lost to Serbia. Yes, Serbia. Then they huffed and puffed to get the win they needed against a very limited looking Ghana team (and yes, I dearly wish England were playing Ghana and not Germany this weekend). As a team, Germany are decent. BUT THAT’S ALL. They don’t mesmerise like Argentina. They don’t have the balance and menace of Brazil. I don’t think they’ve got the flair of the Dutch. I think they’re about the same as England. In Mesut Ozil they have potentially one of the stars of the tournament and in Miroslav Klose they have a striker with World Cup credentials that can’t be ignored. But I’ll see your Ozil and Klose and I’ll raise you Gerrard and Rooney. THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF. Has everyone forgotten we played them off the park and beat them in a friendly in Berlin less than 2 years ago, albeit with both teams fielding experimental line-ups. We can do this. Then there’s the strange case of Franz Beckenbauer having a pop at us this week. To recap, Der Kaiser said we had gone back to the dark ages with our football, then followed that up by saying we were stupid for finishing second in our group and we look tired and jaded. Now fair enough, if he watched the Algeria game, that was more pre-historic than dark ages. And fair enough, any scout tasked to watch Wayne Rooney during the competition is going to scribble down words like “tired and jaded”. But why fire up potential opponents like that ? I don’t understand. It makes Capello’s team talk easy and if there’s even the slightest chance that a single German player is lulled into a false sense of security, then it can only work in our favour. I’m probably overstating this, because I heard a German media bloke on 5 Live saying that Beckenbauer is still loved and revered for his achievements, but he’s now seen as a bit of an old eccentric and people take his outbursts with a pinch of salt these days. But anyway, it might be an advantage for us, so let’s big it up. I expect Capello to pick the same team (having finally found a winning formula, why change it ?) and I expect us to give our best performance of the World Cup so far. We’ve got some momentum now. We always play better against better opposition. I like the fact that the world sees us as the underdogs and, let’s face it, Rooney’s due a goal or two. It might be enough. I hope we, as a nation, can resist the war imagery over the next 48 hours and I believe we can win this football match. But if it goes to penalties, I’m leaving the room and going to stand in the back yard with a good stiff drink, because I just won’t be able to stand it.