Sunday, June 11, 2006
Paraguay 1-0 Paraguay...
*YAWN*
Long ball, struggle for possession, win ball, pass ball backwards, pass ball backwards again, pass to keeper, long ball, repeat ad dormium.
What a boring game. If that was what we're expecting out of England then it'll be a short and uneventful Cup for them. At least, that's what I can get out of what little I saw over and through a sea of heads at the Pig n Whistle!
Sven discarded all his pre-Cup tinkering for a classical 4-4-2, and initially I thought it would be a hammering. Paraguay's defence looked awful, and even gifted a goal, but England could not make the most of it even after their keeper went off due to an injury (poor fella). After a while, Paraguay became tougher to break down although they very rarely threatened.
Eriksson's lack of strikers has already shown itself to be a problem as Owen was subbed, then Crouch looking very tired as the game wore on and with only Walcott available to replace him.
Having said all that, Paraguay are a decent side but England never looked like losing it. Things can go pear-shaped quickly in a match, of course, but the laws of probability were certainly in their favour. They won while playing poorly and that might just be a good sign.
Player ratings (note: I could barely see for much of the game so this might be dodgy..)
Robinson 5, Neville 6, Ferdinand 7, Terry 6, Ashley Cole 5, Beckham 7, Lampard 6, Gerrard 6, Joe Cole 7 (Hargreaves 6), Owen 6 (Downing 6), Crouch 7.
Long ball, struggle for possession, win ball, pass ball backwards, pass ball backwards again, pass to keeper, long ball, repeat ad dormium.
What a boring game. If that was what we're expecting out of England then it'll be a short and uneventful Cup for them. At least, that's what I can get out of what little I saw over and through a sea of heads at the Pig n Whistle!
Sven discarded all his pre-Cup tinkering for a classical 4-4-2, and initially I thought it would be a hammering. Paraguay's defence looked awful, and even gifted a goal, but England could not make the most of it even after their keeper went off due to an injury (poor fella). After a while, Paraguay became tougher to break down although they very rarely threatened.
Eriksson's lack of strikers has already shown itself to be a problem as Owen was subbed, then Crouch looking very tired as the game wore on and with only Walcott available to replace him.
Having said all that, Paraguay are a decent side but England never looked like losing it. Things can go pear-shaped quickly in a match, of course, but the laws of probability were certainly in their favour. They won while playing poorly and that might just be a good sign.
Player ratings (note: I could barely see for much of the game so this might be dodgy..)
Robinson 5, Neville 6, Ferdinand 7, Terry 6, Ashley Cole 5, Beckham 7, Lampard 6, Gerrard 6, Joe Cole 7 (Hargreaves 6), Owen 6 (Downing 6), Crouch 7.
Posted by whubris at 9:29 am
beggers said...
Dead right whubris. Bloody awful really. Paraguay were poor and there for the taking. But that's England, we'll limp through the tournament with uninspiring results then lose to a powerhouse team and say 'well at least we went out to.....'
Sven is as beige as it gets. He takes Owen off and brings on Downing? I know that at that stage of the game he wanted to obviously play 5 in the middle , but really, Downing! Honestly what an earth does he bring to the team? The same goes for Hargreaves. Sven is content to play a super conservative game, which is ok for lesser sides but will not work against a decenet side. I fear this is all da ja voi.
Strikers, well this was always going to happen. The annoying thing is that, unlike in years gone by, England are not curently short of good strikers.
You just end up throwing your hands in the air, what can you do? So we get behind the team we've got and hope that miraculously they play to their full potential and Sven lets them off the lead.
Why couldn't Gerrard play like that a month ago?
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beggers said...Dead right whubris. Bloody awful really. Paraguay were poor and there for the taking. But that's England, we'll limp through the tournament with uninspiring results then lose to a powerhouse team and say 'well at least we went out to.....'
Sven is as beige as it gets. He takes Owen off and brings on Downing? I know that at that stage of the game he wanted to obviously play 5 in the middle , but really, Downing! Honestly what an earth does he bring to the team? The same goes for Hargreaves. Sven is content to play a super conservative game, which is ok for lesser sides but will not work against a decenet side. I fear this is all da ja voi.
Strikers, well this was always going to happen. The annoying thing is that, unlike in years gone by, England are not curently short of good strikers.
You just end up throwing your hands in the air, what can you do? So we get behind the team we've got and hope that miraculously they play to their full potential and Sven lets them off the lead.
Why couldn't Gerrard play like that a month ago?
