England closer to WCup, Beckham, Rooney to records

WEMBLEY, England — England moved closer to World Cup qualification, David Beckham to breaking its appearance record and Wayne Rooney halfway to becoming the country’s career scoring leader.

What Wednesday’s 6-0 rout of Andorra — the seventh straight qualifying win — didn’t provide is any evidence of the team’s chances of ending its 44-year wait for a world title in South Africa next year.

Getting there should require just one more win from the last three Group 6 matches, a position of strength within Europe the team has Rooney to thank for.

Despite playing only the first half at Wembley Stadium, the Manchester United striker contributed another two goals to finish the seven-match international season with 10 goals — the highest season total for an England player since Gary Lineker in 1990-91.

With 24 goals for England, Rooney is tied on the country’s leaderboard with Geoff Hurst, whose hat trick won the 1966 World Cup.

But Rooney has already set his sights on bettering Bobby Charlton’s mark of 49 goals, an attainable target for the energetic 23-year-old should injuries not curtail his flourishing international career.

“If I could beat Bobby Charlton’s record, it would be a great achievement and I do have that record in mind,” Rooney said. “I have been delighted with the way the scoring has gone for me in the last few games and this has been my best season with England.”

The only blot on the season when he won the Premier League, League Cup and Club World Cup with United was last month’s loss to Barcelona in the Champions League final.

Any ill-effects were clearly out of his system against Andorra. His scored his first goal on a header four minutes in and the second came in the 39th when Rooney volleyed home Glen Johnson’s cross.

“I love playing and getting on the ball and getting involved in the game and I am doing that with the goals coming on top of that as well,” Rooney said. “Hopefully the goals will continue but we are performing as a team and I believe we have one foot in the World Cup finals now.”

Beckham hopes to join him there after making his first competitive international start in two years, playing the full 90 minutes to extend his England record for appearances by an outfield player to 112.

Beckham owes his enduring international career to the loan move to AC Milan in January from the Los Angeles Galaxy, ensuring he continued to play top-level club soccer.

“Beckham was chosen because he is still one of the best players,” said manager Fabio Capello, betraying not a hint of sentimentality for the player he dropped while Real Madrid coach, forcing the 2007 move to Major League Soccer.

Like Rooney, the 34-year-old midfielder has a personal milestone in mind: breaking the national all-time record of 125 caps held by retired goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

While that could happen at the World Cup finals, he is just more concerned about ensuring the team rejuvenated under Capello doesn’t miss out on a major tournament as it did at the 2008 European Championship.

“We’ve got to be careful,” Beckham cautioned next to the dressing room. “We’ve won seven games, we’ve put in seven good performances but we’re not a team that gets carried away and we’re not a squad that gets carried away. We can’t afford to.

“At the end of the day, we want to qualify. That’s the goal. Once we qualify, then we see what happens in the competition.”