International friendlies roundup

It's international week here on Planet Football, and with teams preparing for World Cup 2010 the friendly matches on offer had a little more at stake than your common or garden friendlies.

England picked up a 3-1 victory over Egypt thanks to goals by Peter Crouch (2) and Shaun Wright-Phillips. The performance was more than adequate, if you ask me. Leighton Baines had a good debut, Gareth Barry and Wayne Rooney were excellent and Crouch's brace did him plenty of favours. Only Theo Walcott and Wes Brown disappointed.

England's Group C rivals had a mixed evening. Slovenia thrashed Qatar 4-1, which is hardly surprising. But the USA fell 2-1 to the Netherlands despite a late goal by Carlos Bocanegra, and Algeria were hammered 3-0 by Serbia. Even worse news for the USA came in the shape of Stuart Holden's injury at the hands of Nigel De Jong. The Bolton man will be out for six months with a fractured leg.

Elsewhere, Brazil defeated Ireland in London on Tuesday and the same city hosted Ivory Coast as they were beaten 2-0 by South Korea on Wednesday. Portugal beat China 2-0, and North Korea's match was part of Chile's cancelled double-header.

There were defeats everywhere for World Cup teams: Slovakia lost to Norway, Ghana to Bosnia, Honduras to Turkey and Denmark to Austria. South Africa drew 1-1 with Namibia.

In other matches between two qualifers, Switzerland were dismantled by Uruguay, Argentina beat Germany 1-0, Spain beat France 2-0 and Mexico beat New Zealand by the same margin.

So, I suppose the big winners on the night were Argentina, Spain and England. Lovely stuff.