England

The two sides face each other in Bloemfontein on Sunday with a place in the quarter finals up for grabs. Much has been spoken about in the press regarding the two sides’ previous meetings in major competitions but James says the squad are paying little attention to what’s being said in the media and focusing solely on the job at hand.

The goalkeeper told reporters: “It’s another football match, obviously there’ll be a lot of external references and whatever else, historical references. But for us it’s a game against a decent outfit – one we have to win to progress.”

England were disappointing in the group stages, drawing with both the USA and Algeria, but qualified for the last 16 thanks to a 1-0 victory against Slovenia and James is keen for the side to carry their form on.

“We can’t do anything about what happened,” he said. “We look back at the America game and the performance of Tim Howard which prevented a win.

“Algeria are very difficult to score against, and then we did what we needed to against Slovenia on Wednesday.”

However, the Three Lions were forced into second place in the group after Landon Donovon scored to fire the USA through as winners of Group C, leaving England to face Germany in what is possibly the pick of the second round ties. If England win the match they will go on to face a possibly even tougher test against the winner of the Argentina vs. Mexico match meaning they will have to win the tournament the hard way if they’re to lift their first trophy since 1966 (England 9/1 to win outright).

James started the World Cup as England’s second choice goalkeeper, despite being handed the number one shirt for the tournament,  but was given his chance after Robert Green’s blunder in the opening match against USA. James has looked solid on his return to the side and is keen to make the most of his opportunity after finally being given his chance at his third World Cup finals. James was an unused substitute in both Korea/ Japan 2002 and Germany 2006 and is yet to concede a goal during this tournament.

“When the squad was announced and the numbers issued it was more of a numerical thing than a suggestion of the first XI,” said the 39-year-old, the oldest player at the finals.

“True to Mr Capello’s previous selection process, he must have gauged something in training and felt Robert was the right goalkeeper to start with. I’m happy with that. I’m part of a squad. This World Cup isn’t about David James – it’s about England being successful. I trained as well as I could, got the chance to go back in and I’m happy.”

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