Group C

England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

England 3 Egypt 1 in London
England fought back after a slow start, trailing at half-time, to defeat African champions Egypt 3-1 at Wembley Stadium with former skipper John Terry making his first national team appearance since his affair was made public. But Peter Crouch stole the show with two crucial second-half goals.
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Crouch's goals pressed his case for a spot in England's first eleven and after the game team manager Fabio Capello said: "Peter Crouch is in one good moment of form. He played very well but it was not only he who played very well. All the team played a good game.”

Netherlands 2 USA 1 in Amsterdam
USA were defeated 2-1 by the Dutch in a performance which wouldn't have done much to inspire American fans hoping to see their side go far in South Africa. A late Carlos Bocanegra goal did make the scoreline look okay, but the US were hurt by some individual errors.

US midfielder Landon Donovan said: "We had some moments in the first half that were OK, but I don't think we put enough pressure on them. It took us too long in the second half before we made some real plays."

Algeria 0 Serbia 3 in Algiers
A 3-0 scoreline won't make Algeria feel too good, but their performance wasn't as poor as that suggests against a clinical Serbian side. Algeria probably were the opposite, too wasteful in front of goal.

Algeria boss Rabah Saabane did give a debut to new Racing Santander recruit Mehdi Lacen in a match which offered with an entertaining first-half in a festive atmosphere, before both teams opted to make numerous substitutions.

Slovenia 4 Qatar 1 in Celje
Russia's conquerors Slovenia produced a commanding performance to oust Middle East nation Qatar 4-1 with FC Koln stalwart Milivoje Novakovic encouragingly amongst the scorers, while West Brom's Robert Koren missed a penalty which might have made the win all the more mighty.

Novakovic said afterwards: “We should have scored more goals but it is clear that a team plays differently in friendly matches than in the more important ones. For the World Cup I just hope all players will be healthy."