World Cup 2010 paper view: It was the Mirror wot won it and where's Wayne?

 As the country revels in Jermainia, the Sun absolves 'magisterial' John Terry, while the US press lose the run of themselves.

History is written by the winners. Or by the well-fed hacks shuffling around after them. And this morning that hackery clamours to congratulate Fabio Capello for masterminding a 1-0 victory over Slovenia and steering England to second place in their group behind the USA ("Life looks Fab again" reckons the Daily Star; "That is what you get, I suppose, for £6m per year," deduces an approving Alan Smith in the Telegraph.)

The Daily Mirror, of course, feels that Capello must share the acclaim with, well, the Daily Mirror. Because having struck a money-for-unenlightening-quotes deal before the tournament with yesterday's goalscorer Jermain Defoe, the tabloid is able to scream that "Mirrorman wins it for England!" under the headline JERMAINIA! The Sun, meanwhile, chooses to shine on a different player, namely John Terry, who happens to occasionally offer exclusive words to them. "After an old-fashioned, all-round team performance … it might seem invidious to single out one player," admits the paper before singling out one player. "But after the corrosive few days John Terry endured in the build-up to this pivotal match, the Chelsea skipper is entitled to take a huge, magisterial bow. There's no reason for him to apologise about anything now." That came in a piece that began with the Sun comparing England's narrow win over the east European minnows with Nelson Mandela's epic struggle against apartheid.

So let's look somewhere else. Over at the Daily Mail, Martin Samuel also singles out a player, but not for praise. Because the player is Wayne Rooney, the star who has so far failed to turn up for this tournament. Samuel reckons the player is being held up by inflated senses of his worth. "At present, Rooney appears to be stranded somewhere between believing his own publicity and being crushed by it. That is the feeling of England's management, anyway. They suspect Rooney has placed too much pressure on himself in this tournament, that he has believed the publicity that this is his special time and his career will be defined by this month, as it is in his Nike advertisement."

Folks in the United States, meanwhile, are starting to believe the hype too. Landon Donovan's dramatic last-gasp winner against Algeria has been hailed by scribes across the land as the most important in American soccer history, with many suggesting it finally ignited widespread passion for the game Stateside. "Soccer has always been a foreign sport that frightens people — well, except for the millions of Americans lined up in pubs and dens and offices all over their country on a weekday morning, going crazy after the best, or the most dramatic, or the most important soccer match in American history," bugles the New York Times before explaining that it was the athleticism of the American performance that made it seem less alien. "Wednesday's match turned into a track meet, with wicked elbows and vicious kicks at full tilt, played by Americans with great legs and cardiovascular systems — plus that collective organ known as heart." Donovan's goal, reckons the NYT, "felt like a sporting event that could unify America for a few screaming moments. These were not foreign athletes. These were Americans doing something recognizable — Jordan thumping his chest, taking the court for the last shot; Jeter clapping his hands upon getting to second base, summoning something from within, something Americans have seen before."

The goal was not so rapturously received in Algeria, of course. There, all that remains, according to Le Buteur, are "eternal regrets". Manager Rabah Saâdane's cautious tactics were "an unfathomable mystery", groans the magazine. "By the same degree that he tactically outmanoeuvred Fabio Capello in the heroic draw with England he lacked offensive conviction against the US. Why didn't [Ryad] Boudebouz, the little imp who had pestered the English, play against the Americans, who are powerful but slow? Why introduce [Adlène] Guedioura, a holding midfielder, for [Karim] Ziani, an attacking one? Why not go for broke and stick on three strikers in a bid to score at last? We waited 24 years for Algeria to return to the world stage but Saâdane's lack of panache spoiled the party a little. We are condemned to live with that frustration."