England beat the United States 2-0 tonight in a friendly international at Wembley.

It is the same scoreline as when they previously met at Wembley back in 1994, when Alan Shearer scored twice. But the United States team were by far the worst USA team I have seen in the past 20 years. And therefore, to say England out-classed the USA may give a false impression of how good the England performance was.

England looked pretty average until John Terry headered them into the lead in the 38th minute from a great David Beckham cross. Beckham proving why he is still first choice and Terry repaying Capello’s faith for making him England captain for the night.

England appeared to settle down after taking the lead and played more confidently, so maybe the players are still pulling on the three lions and feeling the pressure of expectancy.

In the second half England dominated the game as the United States looked bereft of ideas. Steven Gerrard was put through by second half substitute Gareth Barry to score a second goal on the 59th minute.

I was looking forward to seeing Freddie Adu for the first time, who was brought on as a second half substitute by the USA. Adu was born in Ghana but joined the IMG Soccer Academy aged 12 and became a professional soccer player with his MLS debut aged just 14. Freddie Adu was watched by many Premier League and top European teams and was cited as being the United States first soccer superstar. Adu now plays for Benfica.

Bobby Charlton, one of the best strikers of all time, presented David Beckham with a commerative gold cap for playing 100 times for his country, before kick-off. Unfortunately Freddie Adu was not in the same league as Bobby Charlton. In fact he wasn’t even as good as brother, Jack Charlton. More like Eddie Charlton, the snooker player!

As Mark Lawrenson summed it up in commentary, Freddie is ‘much Adu about nothing!’

Fabio Capello played the strongest team he could. So, though I continue to believe Capello is doing a fantastic job, I still doubt that Englalnd are confident and strong enough to sit at the top table with the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Germany; and come the World Cup, on this performance England will be lucky to get past the dreaded quarter final stage. That’s if they qualify!

I was again surprised to see David Beckham start, and to replaced by David Bentley in the second half, whereas I believe this would work better in reverse. Bentley needs a run of games in the England team before he can relax into the role. I still think he is England’s future right midfielder of choice.

Fabio Capello played a 4-4-2 formation with Wayne Rooney & Jermain Defoe spearheading the attack. Rooney resorted to being a headless chicken again, chasing the ball and eventually got himself booked unnecessarily; and Jermain Defoe, picked ahead of Dean Ashton and Peter Crouch and given his first start for over 20 months, missed chances that an international player should score.

The Man of the Match award was given to Steven Gerrard, though personally I think Owen Hargreaves deserved that accolade.

In conclusion, England began passing the ball around and looking much more comfortable once they had taken the lead, but if this was a competitive game against better opposition, England would have possibly resorted to hoofing the ball up to Peter Crouch in the second half, had the scoreline stayed at 0-0.

Next stop Trinidad & Tobago, but with only Rio Ferdinand & Wayne Bridge expected to be the only Chelsea & Man Utd players to travel, it looks like Capello will be asking some of the fringe players to stake a claim for a place against Czech Republic in August, England’s final friendly match before the World Cup qualifiers begin.