Once freed from the agony of penalties, surely England will win every World Cup from now until the end of civilisation.

Just one quarter final penalty defeat at Euro 2008 left to go, and then it’s plain sailing.

Old News: We didn’t want Steve McClaren, but then we got him, and… so far so good. Dropping Beckham was the right decision (same goes for all the over 30s who didn’t survive the cull) for a variety of reasons. Liking the youthful approach. Also liking the width McClaren has us playing with, that he split up the dysfunctional Lampard/Gerrard central midfield relationship, and that he’s turned Crouchy into a prolific international goalscorer. There was even a place in my heart for Owen Hargreaves, until he broke his leg. An exciting win over Greece, thrashing Andorra, and grinding out an away win in Macedonia. Could be worse.

New News: England play Macedonia at Old Trafford on October 7th. There’s a bit of an injury crisis in midfield (Lennon, Cole and Hargreaves all out) so it will be interesting to see what Steve does. Squad should be named around September 29th.

The Soccer Weblog

Thanks to loyal readers and new internet friends. Thanks to Bob and the gang for hosting and inviting me aboard. Thanks to an English squad that always engaged the imagination — if not with excellent play then certainly with sensationalism.

I may drop in for the next day to have a look at comments, but with this post, I am retiring my keyboard as England blogger.

I remain,

Yours,

Shawn

DAVID BECKHAM — Absent for long stretches and absolutely vital for key moments of 3 of the 5 matches; 5.5 overall, 7.5 for set pieces

WAYNE ROONEY — Never found his pace, never figured out a way around in the 4-5-1 system that Sven designed, then had his inner Gazza emerge at the worst possible moment; 5.5

PETER CROUCH — His specific skills were never properly used save for one moment against Trinidad; looked awful when asked to work outside the box; 5.5

STEVEN GERRARD — Smart, tireless and self-effacing, yet too often hobbled by tactics which required him to share space and duties with a player whose game mirrors, rather than echoes, his own; 7

FRANK LAMPARD — Much of what I say about Gerrard applies here, with the additional and painful note that he was in absolutely dreadful shooting form from Day One; could turn out that he is broken as a player; 5

JOE COLE — Early on, a note of promise, but he seemed to wear out as the tournament progressed; a non-factor on Saturday; 6.5

OWEN HARGREAVES — Despite negative response to his being selected, he emerged as a key player and the most potent midfielder; fought hard, never griped, made his penalty, raised himself in everyone’s esteem; 8

JOHN TERRY/RIO FERDINAND — I give them a joint grade because they played so well together at the back; for all the talk about England’s failure to score, let’s not forget that the side only allowed 2 goals in five-plus matches; 8

ASHLEY COLE — Fine defense (saved the day against Ecuador) but not enough service as a winger; again, I blame Sven in part for clogging the middle and taking away his route up the touchline; 7.5

PAUL ROBINSON — Never really tested much until the penalties, and he seemed to wither with each miss by his teammates; 7.5 for matches; 5.5 for penalties

AARON LENNON — for his brief moments of play, lively and determined; 7.5

MICHAEL OWEN — never truly fit; 5.5

Insufficient impressions to earn a grade: Michael Carrick, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Stewart Downing, Sol Campbell

Didn’t play: David James, Scott Carson, Jermaine Jenas, and, of course, Theo Walcott

Yesterday’s match was a battle of wills between two teams afraid to lose. Both sides featured egoistic foreign coaches, both had superstar players who’d grown up together and were likely participating in their final World Cup tournament, both had some hot young stars, both had underperformed in the tournament (England by a wider margin) and yet scraped through to the quarter-finals.

England seemed to struggle with the conditions, suffered an unfortunate injury with the loss of Beckham, and had a harsh but justifiable decision against it by a referee who, unfortunately, has a history of such calls against the side.

All of that would seem to bode well for Portugal, but they were unable to make a significant charge despite having an advantage of one man for nearly an hour of regular and extra time. Indeed, in the final 10 minutes or so of the second extra period, England — playing a ludicrous 4-4-1 with Peter Crouch up front — looked likelier to break through.

And then the penalties, and, well, you know the rest.

From my perspective, the match was generally played without violence in excess of hard play and without too much in the way of theatrics. The exception, of course, was the incident involving Wayne Rooney, Ricardo Carvalho and Cristiano Ronaldo, and as that’s being beaten to death elsewhere I won’t dwell on it. Suffice to say that the combination of the stomping — intentional or not (intent isn’t part of the rule, friends) — and the shouting and the shoving was a clear case of a player out of control and likely to continue so. A yellow would have been justified as well, but Elizondo, the ref, made his decision and I have no doubt that FIFA will stand by it. Not because they hate England, but because they can’t sanction the sort of combination of acts Rooney took.

But as I have said elsewhere, the blame shouldn’t be placed at the feet of Rooney or Beckham or even the trio of penalty-missers — Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher.

The fault is almost entirely that of Sven Goran Eriksson — and the FA who stuck by him irrationally despite his many failures, transgressions and indiscretions. The squad was poorly assembled, insufficiently trained and, it would appear, weakly inspired by its management.

To succeed in the tournament England would’ve benefitted from an additional speedy winger (Shawn Wright-Phillips instead of Jermaine Jenas), and two more forwards — or, rather, two forwards with international experience or even first-team Premiereship experience (Jermaine Defoe or Darren Bent or Andy Johnson in the place of the space-eater Theo Walcott, who, as I predicted from the moment his name was pulled from the hat, never saw one second of play).

That faster line-up — with more depth up front — could have pressed harder for goals (England managed only 6 in four matches, one an own goal) and played the second halves of matches at pace and not as if trying to jumpstart a dead battery. Yesterday, for instance, Lennon might have combined with Wright-Phillips or Defoe to create a true counterattack threat, not the ghastly marionette display of Peter Crouch trying to make dribbling runs in the open field.

But that wasn’t the side Sven assembled, and then Michael Owen got hurt (gee — who could’ve foreseen that???), and those options weren’t available any longer. So he had to rely on Sven’s analytic skills and ability to rally the troops. Lotsa luck. The FA had a chance to give the squad to somebody else in January — McClaren was already there, yeah? And who knows? That might’ve given the squad a sense of urgency that it never had under Sven — ‘let’s show the world we haven’t beaten ourselves’, that sort of thing. But no. Dazzled by his long-ago good fortune on the Continent, the FA stuck with him.

The squad were never truly on fire — and, indeed, never have been under Sven. Everyone who watches English football knows this. Why didn’t the FA?

2) FIFA has begun the requisite inquiry into Wayne Rooney’s red card.

3) Cristiano Ronaldo declares that he was not the instigator of Rooney’s sending-off.

4) Steven Gerrard insists that the squad
don’t blame Rooney for the result.

One asshole after another has ruined this space for anybody hoping to have a cogent and intelligent conversation.

Well done, Lowest Common Denominator!

As in American politics, you win again!

Minus its captain for more than an hour, down a man for nearly an hour, England played rock-hard in defense and continually tried to craft an attack out of shreds. It was an awful loss, and yet one to be proud of.

Firstly, hats off to Portuguese keeper Ricardo, who was brilliant during the penalties, stopping three of four and getting his hand on the one that went in. That sort of thing is tough to beat.

As to our own play, what can you say?

With Beckham injured and Rooney sent off for a combination of rough play and foolish temper, England might have collapsed entirely and lost by two in regulation. Instead, they showed enormous grit and, frankly, were the more threatening side for long stretches of the second extra period.

I need to run errands before the Brazil/France match (the winner of which I hope crushes Portugal), but I wanted to single out a few players for fine play.

Owen Hargreaves was England’s man of the match in my view: all over the pitch, hard, fast and the only man to convert his penalty.

Paul Robinson was fine, too, but withered during the penalties despite a decent showing on the first couple.

Terry, Rio, Nevile and Ashley were good but not great — and Terry should’ve been the man taken off for Carragher.

Steven Gerard was, like Hargreaves, a dynamo, and I was frankly shocked to see him miss his penalty.

(Speaking of which, I wonder if Frank Lampard will ever be the same.)

Joe Cole and Beckham were equally non-factors, but Aaron Lennon was a real ball of fire off the bench. I have no idea why he was taken off.

Rooney was ok until his meltdown — and I’m sorry, but stomping Carvalho in the balls and then shoving and shouting at people (the ref included) is out of bounds. If, say, an Italian player did it to John Terry, most English fans would be calling for blood.

Crouch was painful to watch but he was game.

Oh yes: man of the match for Portugal? Sven Goran Eriksson. England lost this match the day they hired him five years ago and again every time they didn’t let him go for his lackluster tactics, his complete inability to inspire his squad, and his repeated personal transgressions. He’s a disgrace and the best thing about losing is it marks the end of his run.

But that was simply gutting.