Germany 3 – 0 Ecuador
Costa Rica 1 – 2 Poland
ln light of the influence Group A has on England’s progress to the last eight, there’s been plenty of speculation relating to the Germany/Ecuador match. If Ecuador, playing five hours before England, were to beat Germany, would England have to contrive to lose against Sweden, purely to avoid meeting Germany in the second round?
Of course, it was all academic in the end, and such an upset was never really going to happen, despite Ecuador’s solid form. With the possibility of earning maximum points in their capital city, Germany were bound to go for it, and they pulled off an impressive win. Ecuador fielded an under-strength side and never really tested the previously suspect German defence. Meanwhile, Poland, playing for pride, finally remembered how to score goals. It’s been a miserable few years for Polish football.
Sweden 2 – 2 England
Paraguay 2 – 0 Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden faced a statistical chance of being knocked out and this showed in their full-blooded style… cleary they didn’t want to be in the position of gambling on the Paraguay result. Although there was plenty of cause for concern in England’s performance, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Swedes were *really* going for it, finally breaking free of the plodding conservatism that dogged their first two matches.
But let’s not be unrealistic. England made a dog’s dinner of what could have been a hard-fought victory. For a supposedly world-class defence to flap so badly at a set-piece is poor, but to do it twice? Paul Robinson’s reluctance to claim loose balls more aggressively was a contributing factor in the second goal, but Ashley Cole, guarding the back post, was at fault both times. Given his relatively small stature, it seems unfair to put him in that situation, but if he is going to do that job, his positional awareness has to improve. It’s a pity… he looked good going forward.
Despite the result, there were several positive aspects to England’s play. Joe Cole did exactly what everyone has been waiting in vain for Ronaldinho to do, with dazzling skill, dangerous runs and a spectacular goal. Rooney still isn’t fully match fit, but he’s getting there, and Sol Campbell looks to be recapturing his best form. Oh, and Owen Hargreaves did a fair bit to answer his critics, casually relieving various Swedish players of the ball at crucial moments.
The (apparently serious) injury to Michael Owen could prove to be England’s biggest setback yet… fingers crossed, eh?
I watched the England/Sweden game in astonishment. I was impressed with Joe Cole, he really was in a different class last night. His goal was nothing short of spectacular. You are spot on with Hargreaves too, he silenced a lot of his critics. Unfortunately, thats about all the good stuff I can say on England. A reasonable first half was marred by a terrible second half. For large portions of the second half, I failed to see the likes of Beckham, Crouch and Lampard do anything reasonably constructive.
On the subject of Lampard, we haven’t seen his best yet, nowhere near.
I know we haven’t beaten the Swedes in 38 years (or something like that), but if we really expect to win the World Cup, then we should be beating these “minnows” easily.
If we’d been playing Argentina last night, we’d have been soundly thrashed.
Hargreaves…yes…impressed, but then again you don’t play for Bayern in that position if you’re crap! It’s about time we used him in a position that he is used to and it definately showed.
As for Joe Cole, i am going to disagree….yes, AT TIMES, he was excellent. A fantastic goal and a neat cross for the second goal but for the amount of times he had the ball we should have had a lot more end product. Although I am a Boro fan, I honestly feel that Stewart Downing would give England more than Joe Cole currently does…without the flashiness. The main reason why we have players in that position is to get balls in the box and land it somewhere dangerous…joe Cole just doesn’t (can’t) do that. One decent shot and one fairly easy cross to an unmarked player, in three games, isn’t good enough.
Paul Robinson infruitated me last night..he had absolutely no prescence at all in the box which is very unlike him, from what I have seen so far….can’t understand it.
….still….were through…bring on the Ecuadorians!!!!!!