So Ashley Cole and Freddie Ljungberg are safely through to the knock-out stages of the World Cup but it was another limp England performance characterised by sloppy defending unadventurous play.
When Michael Owen went off after 1 minute with a knee injury (Newcastle must be delighted) and Sven resting Crouch and Gerrard because they have yellow cards you thought there was a chance we might see Theo Walcott. But no. Quite why England picked him if they have no intention of playing him is beyond me. Sven obviously doesn’t trust his squad outside the 13 or 14 ‘first picks’.
Sol Campbell came on for Rio Ferdinand (was he injured?) and his flailing attempt to clear a Swedish throw led to Sweden’s second equaliser. I’ll pay his petrol to Portsmouth so he can go talk to Harry Redknapp. We’ve been linked quite a bit with Sweden’s keeper, Andreas Isaakson, but based on last night’s performance I can see why we’ve never brought him on board. Rubbish keeping for both England’s goals.
Still, England finished top of the group and they avoid a pretty decent looking German side who beat an admittedly under-strength and not terribly interested Ecuador 3-0. Jens didn’t have much to do and a question I asked over on blogfc – why is Miroslav Klose never linked with big sides? Last season he scored 25 and made 16 goals in 23 starts and 3 sub appearances for Werder Bremen. He’s been the striker of the tournament for me so far, better than Torres.
Tonight sees Holland play Argentina (and we’ve been linked with Javier Saviola – most unlikely, I’d say) and I’m really looking forward to that one. The Ivory Coast take on Serbia and Montenegro.
Speaking of Argentina Diego Maradona was full of praise for Cesc Fabregas after his performance for Spain against Tunisia. The portly ex-goalkeeper said:
I hope Fabregas will always play football like that. He was spectacular against Tunisia. He gave Spain the final ball which they had been lacking in the first half and he changed the game around.
He then asked for king sized bucket of KFC, four cheeseburgers, a gallon of Basque cider and a suckling pig. He got them too. He is Maradona, after all.
Cesc was typically modest afterwards and also revealed he’d been in touch with his Arsenal chums during the tournament. Depending on results in the next games Spain could play France in the next round. That’s if France can actually win a game.
Anyway, after what’s happened to Owen fingers crossed our boys come through unscathed the rest of the games.
The latest pics of the new stadium from the Scouser.
Finally for today a competition for a rather unusual book. It’s a collection of pictures of dugouts from non-league clubs around England. It’s far more interesting than it sounds and has some really cool pictures. To win all you have to do is answer the following simple question:
What do you call a man with a shovel in his head? (Google is your friend!)
Answers to [email protected]. There are 10 copies to give away thanks to New Holland Publishers.
Winners will be announced tomorrow! Have fun.
