It’s sometimes hard to criticize a team that wins its World Cup Qualifier 4-0 on the road after a long domestic season, but to me, England still don’t seem to be very convincing, even after today’s (June 6th) comfortable win in Kazakhstan.

The starting lineup wasn’t too bad. Although I’m not really sure how good Matthew Upson really is yet, or how good he can be. And I still don’t know what manager Fabio Capello sees in striker Emile Heskey when Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch are sitting on the bench. Even though Heskey did score, it was his first competitive goal for England in seven years. His last one came against Denmark in the 2002 World Cup.  Crouch, for the record has 15 goals in 33 games for England. Robert Green started in goal for England as David James and Ben Foster are both out with injuries. I prefer Paul Robinson myself, but have no problem with Green getting the call.

The problem with England though, is that they usually play to the level of their opponents. Against teams like Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina, they can look like a pretty good football team. However, against the likes of Kazakhstan, Andorra, and the Faroe Islands, etc. they don’t look much better than their opposition does.

It took England 28 minutes to create their first chance today when Heskey finally got a shot on goal for them, while it took Kazakhstan all of 28 seconds, and should have taken the lead when Glen Johnson gave the ball away and Alexandr Kirov sent in a low cross for Sergey Ostapenko to tap it home, only to have England captain John Terry intercept it at the last moment.

Kazakhstan then put the ball in the net a few minutes later after Kukeyez swung in a free kick from the right side of the park and Ostapenko headed it home, but he was offside by a few inches. Kazakhstan players were then off the pitch celebrating and the game should have actually carried on. Ostapenko looked like he could be trouble for England all night long, but the visitors caught a break when he was carried off on a stretcher in the 27th minute and replaced by Sabirkhan Ibrayev.

England took the lead on Gareth Barry’s header in the 40th minute as he was left all alone in the box and he converted Steven Gerrard’s cross. It was his second goal for his country and his first in a competitive match. Heskey made it 2-0 just before half time as Gerrard’s deflected shot from a distance caught the Kazakhstan keeper Alexandr Mokin off of his line and he could only parry the ball, but it came right down to Heskey’s feet, who had the empty net to deposit it in.

Theo Walcott was taken off for England at half time as he looked a little lost and Shaun Wright Phillips came on to replace him, but he wasn’t much better. Rooney managed to make it 3-0 in the 73rd minute with his eighth goal in the last six games for England, as he nicely volleyed home his rebound from in close with a scissor kick after Mokin had made a nice save.

Two minutes later David Beckham was brought on for Glen Johnson, and played a pretty good last 15 minutes. Then in the 78th minute, Heskey was brought down in the box and Frank Lampard converted the penalty with a fine shot to make it 4-0.

England now sits on top of Group 6 with 18 points in six games and takes on last-place Andorra on Wed. June 10th at Wembley. Gareth Barry will miss that game due to his yellow card in the 16th minute today. Again, it was a lacklustre performance and England has a habit lately of winning these types of games by scoring goals in quick succession and bunches, such as in the 40th and 45th minute today along with the 73rd and 78th.

I don’t really expect a much better performance from England on Wednesday, but I’m sure the scoreboard will be in their favour when the whistle blows after 90 minutes.