England lack team spirit, says Klose - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

England lack team spirit, says Klose

29/06/2010 05:43:03 AM Comments (0)

Germany striker Miroslav Klose believes England's World Cup campaign was doomed by a lack of team spirit which was dramatically exposed in their 4-1 last 16 mauling.

Klose, who opened the scoring in Bloemfontein on Sunday with his 50th international goal on his 99th appearance, was not impressed by Fabio Capello's highly-rated team.

"They have fantastic players, but we asked ourselves if this team was better than the Premier League teams we have seen during the season," said the 32-year-old.

"If you look at the players in their squad, they are world-class, but the key factor is presenting yourself as a team and a unit and I didn't get the feeling that was the case with England.

"We thought about what England could have achieved, the '40 years of hurt' came into it, and they could have broken our World Cup dreams, but we saw in the opening minutes they weren't up for it."

With an average age of just under 25, Germany are growing in stature as the World Cup progresses and Klose says confidence is the key to their success.

"It's the self-confidence, it is all down to a certain quality we have," said Klose, who has now scored 12 World Cup goals and is the only player at this tournament who can attack Ronaldo's record of 15 in all finals.

"It is crucially important to believe in yourselves and present yourself as a team and this helped us take the wind out of England's sails."

Germany now face Argentina in the quarter-finals at Cape Town on Saturday and Klose says his side can shock Diego Maradona's side.

"If you look at the two sides, you have to say Argentina look stronger on paper, but the same went for England, they were better known and are more famous than us, but that wasn't represented on the pitch," he said.

"We were compact and have proven again that we are a 'tournament team' and we can raise our game.

"Argentina are a class up from England, but we can hurt them with our tactics and we have to believe in ourselves."

England feel they were robbed at 2-1 down in the first-half when they were denied an equaliser when Frank Lampard's shot was ruled out despite the ball having crossed the line after it came off the underside of the crossbar.

Klose said it is time for the sport's governing body FIFA to bring in technology to ensure such mistakes do not happen again.

"I think if the technology is there, it should be used whether if it is a goal-line camera or a chip in the ball," said the Bayern Munich striker.

"They have it in other sports like tennis, so why not in football?"

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