Ecuador 3 – 0 Costa Rica
England 2 – 0 Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden 1 – 0 Paraguay
Yesterday I said that the Germany/Ecuador game could prove interesting, based on the fact that the German defence was looking quite dodgy. In light of Ecuador’s performance today, that match has gained a whole new level of intrigue. Both teams have now won twice, but where Germany’s shaky defence leaked two goals against little Costa Rica, Ecuador’s defence is as yet unbeaten. In today’s match, as against Poland, they demonstrated that fast attacking flair, which could easily provide Germany with their biggest threat so far.
After all that excitement, I cooled down by watching the England match. I hate to imagine how many journalists (and amateur pundit gobshite bloggers) had already written their scathing reports by the end of that eighty-minute snooze-athon… Owen really hasn’t regained his touch, Beckham was overhitting everything and Lampard and Gerrard seemed to be shooting with hobnail boots on. Joe Cole looked reasonably nippy, while John Terry was rock solid in defence, pulling off a spectacular goal-line clearance at one point. But then, a while after the introduction of The Most Famous Foot In The World and Aaron Lennon, everything suddenly slotted into place. For ten minutes we saw a fast, organised, attacking team who can beat Sweden, Ecuador and… well, let’s not get carried away, eh?
This whole “sluggish big team vs. tough-defending underdog” thing is fast becoming a cliché, and I think we can learn a lot from having seen England, Brazil and Holland’s opening games and Germany’s second game. Increased employment mobility and global TV coverage have resulted in a narrowing of the gap between superstar and underdog; it’s happened in domestic competitions such as the FA Cup, as well as in other sports (it was big news at Wimbledon in the mid-nineties). The big names just aren’t thrashing the plucky no-hopers quite so easily any more, because the no-hopers are learning to concentrate their limited resources on organised defending rather than gung-ho attacking. Speaking of which…
Sweden really didn’t deserve to win. As with Germany/Poland, the deadlock held for so long that a 0-0 draw could be the only fair result. To give Paraguay their due, they looked more dangerous on the attack than against England, but far too many chances fizzled out on the edge of the Swedish penalty box. Sweden looked thoroughly bereft of inspiration until… well, Henrik Larsson didn’t get an honorary MBE for nothing. He’s the archetypal deadly striker and took his chance perfectly, but I do feel for the Paraguayans, who deserved a point for sheer hard graft.
Another good summary Ade, you pundit!
A comment I’d like to register is about Peter Crouch. How many chances did he squander? It must have been five or six. I agree that Owen isn’t sharp, but I was perplexed when Sven swapped Rooney for Owen instead of Crouch. As it turns out, it was completely the right decision.
Who’d be a manager, eh?
Yeah, I think Crouch is still learning a lot… apparently Beckham had to go to him in the Paraguay match and say “stop jumping with your arms up”. He now needs to be told “leave the flashy volleys to Joe Cole and do the intricate stuff on the ground that you’re good at”.