Freindly Fallout

March 2nd, 2006 | by: Shawn | View Comments

There is — what is the technical term? — an assload of stuff out there today about yesterday, which I will sift through in a moment.

First, my thoughts after a night’s sleep:

1) One or two injuries could devastate this team. Imagine England without Rooney, Terry, Beckham, Lampard, Cole or Gary Neville — or some combination of them — and you are imagining 3-and-out in Germany.

2) We are stronger up the middle than on the wings, but ironically we are more dangerous when the ball is brought up the wings and crossed in than when it’s belted up the middle. I can’t think of one fully-developed piece of attack yesterday that came through the middle of the pitch. But Wright-Phillips, Cole, Neville and Beckham created multiple chances from the touchlines. Only Rooney seemed to have the wherewithal to bring it up the middle — and he was soloing.

3) The Uruguayan defense was in dissaray in the final ten minutes and we got lucky. They were fighting, flopping on the ground, bringing in late substitutes and so forth in an effort to kill the clock. England, to their credit, never flagged, but if they hadn’t been playing at home, the clock might have run out before Cole’s score. And a better team would have been more resillient.

4) I think that Cole, Crouch and Wright-Phillips went very far in proving their worth. SWP was our only meaningful player with pace, Cole fought like a jackal and infuriated the fellows defending him into multiple fouls and cards, and Crouch did the one thing he’s there for to perfection.

And now, notes from around the web:

— It’s not just me: Sven and the lads hail Crouchie

— The Sun is so excited about Crouch’s jersey, which said 21 on the front and 12 on the back, that they make an incoherent pun on it

— Sven says the team have a “winning mentality”

— Cole is looming larger in Sven’s plans for Germany (and, no, I don’t know why that site is called ‘Pink Football’ — it’s not for the reason I first thought)

— Jose Mourinho’s role in developing Cole’s brain, heart, body and game is extolled.

— Don’t forget Carrick! Sven was happy with him, too.

— A roundup of how the various UK papers handled the match

And now for the analysts and their notes of caution, in descending order by degree of optimism: the BBC, The Guardian, Football 365