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The T&T Match: First Reactions

June 15th, 2006 | By: Shawn | 44 Comments »

England are far more shite than I could have imagined.

Yes, there are six points next to the team’s name and they’re through to the next round.

But can anyone truly argue that they look as good as, oh, Spain or Italy or Germany or Ecuador? Do they look as good as Holland or Argentina? What about Mexico? And what — and I save them for last — about Brazil?

I’ll get to the bad points in a minute.

Let’s concentrate first on what’s positive.

1) No goals allowed. In two matches, Paul Robinson has yet to be tested. Terry and Rio have been superb — Terry was my man of the match today — and the midfield has offered stout support in the back.

2) JoCo continues to provide meaningful possessions — so of course he was taken off.

3) Owen looked livelier today.

4) Aaron Lennon was lively.

5) We’re through to the next round.

And…er…that’s it.

Now the bad:

1) The attack is ragged. The Paraguay own goal and Crouch’s goal today came off long service from the midfield. No build up. And Gerrard’s rocket shot was, likewise, from distance. We have no success on deep crosses, no build-up off the dribble, no worthwhile passing in the box. Our corners aren’t threatening anybody. And Crouch didn’t redeem himself by hitting one ball well after looking like a donkey for 170 minutes, not in my book.

2) Lampard missed two sitters and hasn’t really been close on the 8 or so blasts he’s tried. He and Gerrard aren’t stepping on each other’s toes, but they’re not complimenting each other, either.

3) Beckham looked awful today save for two touches: a spinning shot in the box and the almost-free kick that created Crouch’s goal. Most of his free kicks today went right into the wall. He disappears offensively for long stretches, and he provides no defense.

4) The substitution pattern is cryptic. Lennon for Carragher? Consider England very lucky that that bit of tomfoolery didn’t backfire. If the other first-line striker for T&T hadn’t been disqualified for his two yellows against Sweden, they might have been able to exploit a rickety right flank. And what is Downing doing in there? At all, I mean? Jermaine Defoe is missed.

5) Rooney was inspiring to see but was beaten to the ball a lot. There’s a difference between healthy and match fit. I would start him against Sweden at this point and save Crouch for later, but we basically have three forwards who aren’t 100% (Crouch’s 100% is, frankly, about 80% for the rest) and a kid who still probably can’t believe he’s there.

I know that England’s only supposed to win the matches in front of them, and that they’ve accomplished that. But if they had faced proper opposition thus far, they would be reeling. As it is, they’re dull, and — save for the central defense — sloppy. Lucky thing they’re in a weak group. If they were in the USA’s group or Holland’s, they’d be three and out.

By the way, all credit to the Soca Warriors. They went 170 minutes against two European sides without letting in a goal, and they nearly pulled off a critical score late in this one. I like ‘em, and I hope they can whip Paraguay and get through.

Tags: England, Group B, Trinidad and Tobago

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 44 comments.

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By Frank | June 16th, 2006 at 3:59 am

Maybe all the hype about the english players and how great they are made them a bit nervous. It’s hard to live up to such expectations. Like the overhyped Rooney, there must be a bulldozer of pressure on him.

And I’m not sure if it’s an advantage to have relatively weaker teams in the qualifying…England might be in for a shock in the 2nd round.

By LARD | June 16th, 2006 at 4:01 am

Regardless of how Englad have played so far people will always take an opportunity to stick a knife in.

Win or Lose we are Screwed because we are always the team that everyone loves to hate.

The games have not been pretty i agree but they have been wins and thats all that matters.

Come on England…

Posted from Japan

By John | June 16th, 2006 at 4:45 am

Take away the bad Crouch goal where he pulled the defender’s hair to create space, and that 2nd goal likely does not happen. TNT clearly lost their wind after the dirty goal. England was the better team, but TNT played them to a draw if the refs had made the right call. Anyway, I like England’s chances now that they’ve gotten their blah games out of the way. They’ll step it up in Round 2, even if they have to cheat again.

By CTL | June 16th, 2006 at 4:46 am

England have qualified for the next round. The big question is how England would play Sweden, on 20 June if Ecuador wins Group A?

Will England throw their match against Sweden in order to avoid Germany in the next round?

Posted from Singapore

By mc | June 16th, 2006 at 5:10 am

well maybe if T&T hadn’t had all 11 men in the box when England were attempting to score the outcome would have been a bit different. I mean, i would think it would be quite difficult to score when there are 11 red shirts in the 18

Posted from United States

By elAdi | June 16th, 2006 at 8:18 am

And why is England everybody’s favorite team to hate? Ever asked that yourself. Over the years England has progressed to the top of the hate-team-list – even atop of the Germans and Italians. Why – because I’ve attempted to have discussions about football with England fan. An absolut useless past-time, let me just tell you. Now I just want England to loose, to switch them from bragging to whinging (they will sooner or later anyway, why not right from the start).

Posted from Australia

By alan | June 16th, 2006 at 9:00 am

bragging and whinging from an aussie? pot, kettle black comes to mind.

Posted from United Kingdom

By reem | June 16th, 2006 at 9:02 am

hey..u gyz r being so harsh on them..i think England played amzingly good n u r just JEALOUS!! to all te gurls here..david backham looked sooooooooooo HOT !!

Posted from Saudi Arabia

By Yourhavingalaugh | June 16th, 2006 at 10:23 am

England are through to the final 16 .

game 1 needed the other team to score the winning goal as they could not.

game 2 A single handfull of hair changed the game and the outcome .

England to win the World Cup they can’t even win without cheating at the moment ,but of course they never cheat and only WHINGE when they get caught ,wait till they player higher ranked teams.

what a joke and disgrace

Posted from United Kingdom

By Binarybloke | June 16th, 2006 at 11:02 am

Call me controversial, but I’d take Germany over Ecuador.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Stu | June 16th, 2006 at 1:06 pm

England have a proven track record of playing badly against weaker oposition. In all honesty i’m amazed we won both matches. The performances have been disapointing but I’m not willing to write them off until I see them play some quality oposition.

By dila | June 16th, 2006 at 1:07 pm

oh well, id still say that england did their best and our Stevie G definitely proved that.
GO LIVERPOOL!!
lol

YNWA

Posted from Malaysia

By Shaun | June 16th, 2006 at 3:13 pm

It’s not how you start it’s how you finish that counts (Remember Italy in Spain 82). England probably will not win the cup but will play well against the better teams in the knock out phase. We are consistently one of the top 8 teams in the world so we can finish anywhere from 1/4 finalists to winners given our fair share of luck.

Posted from United Kingdom

By nick | June 16th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

England do usually pleay poorly at the start of a tournament, but people treat it like a surprise when they do.

Plus, I’ve never met a single person who brags about England’s chances. They whine when they win, they whine when they lose, the only time England fans stop whining is when they beat the Germans.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Dave | June 16th, 2006 at 6:45 pm

Dismal. Lets stop living in the past. England couldnt put 5 passes together without losing the ball. I’ve seen better 4th division matches. No excuses. I was in tears….laughing..at Englands inability to pass a ball of more than 10 yards to another England player. I am English..and was embarrassed by that …’performance’. I could go on and on, but whats the point…

Posted from United States

By Suraj | June 16th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

i think every1 is being VERY harsh on crouch (especially the blogger). He had a total of 3 clear cut chances, of which 1 he put away…How on earth can u critiscise him?

Lampard was utter bollocks, and to be honest owen wasnt much better either. So get of crouch’s back, he’s doin a job nd hes doin it well…

I think lampard needs to go. Hes stifling gerrard, and people who say that they can switch and gerrard can go forward sometimes ARE WRONG!!! When have u ever seen lampard do any defending? its always gerrard.

In 10, 20 years time, we are gna regret wot we did to gerrard at international level, as he is sheer class when played properly. McClaren – take note!

Posted from United States

By Suraj | June 16th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

and im not from the US..born and bred in the UK

Posted from United States

By dila | June 16th, 2006 at 7:29 pm

true..why cant he played the way he did to liverpool?
i reckon he’ll scored more after this=)

Posted from Malaysia

By Suraj | June 16th, 2006 at 9:07 pm

erikksons problem is he picks his team based on the names of the player…he should pick the best attacking player – which is gerrard – and the best defensive player – i actually think its parker, but considering hes not here, i reckon its hargreaves.

look at the argies…they play defensive players in the form of mascherano and cambiasso, leaving the likes of messi and tevez on the bench. eriksson needs to get his head out the likes of lampard, beckham and nevilles @$$, and justify his £4m a year salary

Posted from United States

By Debs | June 16th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

Hey, It does no good now to bash the Englishmen. Its done, gone and in the past…no going back. In fact folks here in T&T know that we need to beat Paraguay AND we need England to win against Sweden on the 20th as this is our only chance of going on to the next rounds in the WC.

Posted from United States

By mek | June 18th, 2006 at 12:01 am

Englishmen will always whinge until we win every match 6-0 playing liquid football.

hahahahha… it’s all good… 2 games, 2 wins… let’s make it 3 against the Swedes!

I mean we could have played great and won the first match 3-0 and then lost the second a la Czech Republic… 2 wins is 2 wins… BRING IT ON!!!

Posted from United Kingdom

By LLC | June 18th, 2006 at 6:46 am

elAdi, you are an Australian, all of a sudden you have an opinion on Football, sorry SOCCER? You haven’t been in the world cup for 32 years!!! You just have a chip on your shoulder like every other Aussie when it comes to the English. Most boring 135 minutes so far was it?.. hahahahahahaha look at the Socceroos that was painful and the most boring match of the tournament, until they got very very lucky in the last 8 minutes, and now you think that you know it all and that you can win.. hahahhahahahaha even funnier..

Posted from Australia

By RJ | June 19th, 2006 at 10:13 am

Let’s examine the knowns:
- Sancho was fouled
- Sancho acted professionally by relying on other professionals to do their job and declare a foul
- had it been the other way around, we would have been subject to an eternal barrage of “lock of hair” reporting a la “hand of god”
- come next year, they will still be broadcasting England’s only world cup victory in 1966 at every possible opportunity.

Life goes on…

Posted from United Kingdom

By LJ | June 20th, 2006 at 12:17 am

elAdi,

I’m with you. You’ve not been in the World Cup for 32 years and soccer is not remotely your country’s main sport so it’s great that you are in a position to have an opinion with your team doing so well.

Well done Australia I say, I wouldn’t want us to meet you any time soon! Hope this doesn’t sound too patronising but come the next World Cup I think you’ll do what Australia does best in many sports and run away with the competition. And you’re still a much friendlier, less arrogant country than us!

Still, as they say…

those that can, do…and those that can’t, talk about it!

Posted from United Kingdom

By anchal | June 20th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

hai backham i am anchal from india(hp) i love your game & your style
i am very impressed with your hair style so i say goood luck for wc 2006 . i hope you are the best player of wc 2006.

bye
anchal malwal

Posted from India