Play of the game
Even with his kicky hissy fit in 1998 and the near one in 2002, if it were not for Beckham England would be exactly nowhere at all as far as football goes. The man of the match was actually Ashley Cole who undid the Ecuadorian plan to move the ball forward solely on the outside right - not to mention, shown above, his saving the goal his team mate John Terry almost set up for Ecuador. Beckham merely did the one of two things he does very very well, the bend from a set piece. The other thing he does is the cross from outside mid when no one is on him but as Sven did not provide Davey B. with anyone at forward that part of his game was not brought into play.
So - so far England has tied #16 in the world (Sweden) and beatened #33, #39 and #47 by a total goal difference of four. The saddest thing is that it is largely a problem with management as the skills of the players are far ahead of the results. Mexico, Argentina, Holland and Germany each would have hammered the England seen today.
Comments
Mike - June 25, 2006 4:07 PM
Aside from Defoe and Johnson, I look at 3 of the top 15 goal scorers in the EPL last year - Darren Bent, Marlon Harewood and James Beattie - could at least be useful on the bench as they would present some options. Crouch doesn't do it for me, and Walcott doesn't appear to do it for Sven.
I had hopes that Sven would go for a 4-4-2 with Rooney and Walcott in the second half, but then he obviously had Crouch in mind.
What are the chances that Frank Lampard and that play-by-play announcer are having dinner tonight?
Sean 1967 - June 25, 2006 4:36 PM
I dunno how Gerrard et al can sleep peacefully tonight after that showing. Beck's goal was very good mind you, excellent for a geezer (in football terms). Oops. I should be watching the Argies play if only to psychically bolster my pool predictions.
The pic of the swedish fan on MY blog is better ;)
Sean 1967 - June 25, 2006 4:51 PM
Revise previous post:
Go Portugal!
Gotta read the schedule once in a while..