ENGLAND BANK THREE POINTS IN OPENER
(Image taken from Soccernet)
The last World Cup was back in 2002 in the Far East and England was there. Back then I had just completed my first year of a(later aborted) degree in Internet Computing at South Bank University and I wound up watching England's group matches in Japan at three different locations. The 1-1 draw with Sweden I caught at my then-home in Teddington. That classic 1-0 win over the Argies was caught at the SBU student union bar and the 0-0 cruiser against Nigeria was watched after overnighting at my best friend's place in Twickenham.
Well the year is now 2006 and the tournament's much closer to home this time. I couldn't get tickets so all I can say is those that did are jammy gits. England's group looks much easier than the one in '02, the domestic season has been over for the best part of a month. We're had the friendlies, we've had the hype and now I think I can safely speak for all football fans worldwide when I say "let's get on with it".
First up for England is Paraguay. The South American side looks decent enough despite the fact that they don't have Chilavert any more. Decent doesn't mean grade A though and they've been freaking out over Roque Santa Cruz as much as we've been freaking out over Rooney. They may gotten luckier, Santa Cruz is fit but history's still on our side, the last time we faced Paraguay was when we battered them in an April '02 friendly and the one time we faced them in the World Cup was in the second round in 1986. Gary Linekar got two goals and Peter Beardsley got the third.
For England's part...well the run up hasn't been that smooth. The good new being that Rooney will be fit to play at some point(though it was still Owen and Crouch up front for the time being) but Gerrard was certainly iffy for a while though his back was cool and he did start the match in the Waldstadion. As for me, I wound up at the Imperial pub in Exeter trying(not always successfully) to get a decent view of the match.
Well England started out on the front foot and in the 3rd minute, the place went mental. The next time I got a decent view of the match it turned out that Paraguay defender Carlos Gamarra had panicked after a Becks free kick and put the ball in his own net. After this, particularly with the South American goalie Justo Villar having to be brought off injured, a second goal looked inevitable but did not come.
In the second half the Paraguayans started to get their act together but overall it was nothing that either the England defence or Paul Robinson couldn't deal with. England had the odd attacking bursts but though we really should have got a second, nothing happened. Judging by his substitutions, Sven looked happy to settle for 1-0 but you know an English pub has got bored when pockets of it start singing 'Ten German bombers'. Not going to complain about the result, just hope we can find extra gears later on.
In the Signal Iduna Park though, Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago wrestled each other to a 0-0 draw despite Trini being forced to put Shaka Hislop in goal after an injury to first choice goalie Kelvin Jack and then getting Avery John sent off after two yellows. Exactly what I was looking for from an England point of view as it leaves the Three Lions top of group B with three points, Sweden and T+T joint second with one point, a goal difference of zero and no goals scored each and Paraguay bottom with no points.
As things stand, England will make the second round, where they'll face a side in Group A. The entire tournament kicked off very nicely with Germany beating Costa Rica 4-2 at the Munich World Cup stadium, decent defending seemingly not a requirement for either side. This was followed up by Ecuador somehow beating Poland 2-0 in the Arena AufSchalke. So, after one round of matches Group A looks like this: Germany in first place with 3 points, +2 goal difference and four goals scored, Ecuador in second place with 3 points, +2 goal difference and two goals scored and Costa Rica in third place with zero point and equal with Poland on goal difference but having scored more goals.
So, after one round of matches, here's what the second round line up currently looks like
Germany will play either Sweden or Trinidad and Tobago(as things stand the two sides would have to go into a draw for the second round two space out of group B)
England will play Ecuador
Argentina(beat Ivory Coast 2-1) will play Portugal(beat Angola 1-0)
Mexico(beat Iran 3-1)will play Netherlands(beat Serbia 1-0)
Czech Republic(beat the US 3-0 - that's the Yanks tournament over) will play Brazil(weak 1-0 win over Croatia - that was not the real Brazil)
Australia(great comeback for a 3-1 win vs Japan) will play Italy(2-0 win over Ghana)
South Korea(2-1 win over Togo) will play either Tunisia or Saudi Arabia(a 2-2 draw between the two sides)
Spain(beat Ukraine 4-0 - ouch!)will play either France or Switzerland(0-0 between the two sides - not what France were looking for)
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