Beckenbauer needs to show some respect - Fabio Capello

I have a feeling this is going to run and run but Franz Beckenbauer started it when he started having a pop at Capello and the football England playand you can't blame Capello for responding.

And respond Capello did, but he sort of did it in a nice way. After all, Beckenbauer is a football politician these days and he might have some influence in who gets the World Cup in 2018 and it is probably best to not completely alienate him.

I was surprised to hear [the comments]," Capello said. "Always, when you speak about someone, you have to respect their team. I respect his team and he needs to speak about them. But it's easy to speak about teams when you stay in the stands. You have to see the match [in the flesh]. My players could not play the style they like [against the USA] because the pressure was really strong.

"We had to play long balls to go forward to win. But in the second half we played very well. We didn't play long ball but a lot of passes and had a lot of possession. We created three clear chances to score. So I don't understand what Beckenbauer is saying. It was easier for Germany to play Australia, who played offside with the line of their back four, and it was too easy for them to get to goal. There was probably a penalty for Australia which would have made it 2-1 and they had a player sent off. So it could have been different."

Wayne Rooney

Rooney also wasn't happy and had something to say to: "Beckenbauer can say what he wants and think what he wants – we're not listening. But we certainly don't play kick and run. And, with any tournament, it is how you finish, not how you start, that counts. If you look at the Italians, four years ago they won the tournament and, in the group stage, they had been on the brink of going out."