England 3 Belarus 0

No Rooney, no Gerrard but a great chance for Beckham to make his case for the final half hour or so, taking his tally of international caps up to 115.
The game got off to a great start with Crouch sliding onto a cross to smuggle it past the keeper on just 3 minutes. As is their custom nowadays, England kept the ball well but they started to lose their way towards the latter stages of the first half - crosses were going astray and the team were not concentrating, a point which I feel sure Fabio Capello will have made forcibly at the half-time break.
The same format took the field for the second half, and still lacked a certain something. These are the occasions where England often become vunerable and can become a victim of their own defensive mistakes. Today could easily have turned into one of those games and there were a number of occasions where England's defence looked less than solid, but thanks to one fabulous reaction save by Ben Foster in the England goal, England kept a rare clean sheet.
At around the hour mark, an excited home crowd noisily greeted Beckham as he came on to replace Lennon. From that single moment, the game lit up and expectations were raised. Beckham's first touch was a corner taken short to Wright-Phillips who jinked inside the defense and shot the ball across the ground evading the keepers grasp and resting in the back of the net for 2-0. In the last 15 minutes, Carlton Cole had a strong shot at goal that the keeper parried, Crouch was once again first to the loose ball and slotted it away neatly for 3-0 and what passes for a convincing win if not quite a convincing performance. Incredibly, for his half-hour contribution Beckham was awarded 'Man of the match' by Steve Bruce, causing Capello to joke that it was a little like Obama winning the Nobel prize.
The heavily bearded Beckham took full advantage of the little time given him to show what he is about, measured passes and full commitment to the cause. He is battling for one of the few remaining places avaiable in the England World Cup squad, and will be hoping to seal a deal to return to AC Milan next year. Currently, we seem to be in the same position as last year, Beckham saying he wants to go, Milan saying they want him, which just leaves the question of cash!! Tonight, when interviewed, David said the deal was 95% done, so I am guessing that the 5% is all about the money...
For now, Beckham returns to LA to finish off a succesful season with The Galaxy and to make his plans leading up the World Cup in Africa.