England v Paraguay, T&T v Sweden, Argentina v Ivory Coast

The moment has come and gone, England's first participation in the tournament ending with a win and three points. There have been mention of 'just', and indeed it was precisely that. While we allowed Paraguay little possession in the opening seconds, we took control and gained the freekick from which clearly Paraguay captain Carlos Gamarra made contact as the ball glanced off his head past the keeper. How this remained the only goal for England during the first half is something considering the possession and runs, passing and control we had. Steven Gerrard went in on two occasions in succession with block tackles on Nelson Valdez and Cristian Riveros and was unduly booked by referee Mexican Marco Rodriguez, whose professionalism I applauded but at times flexibility seemed not to be a point at all in his decisions. Peter Crouch fell foul of his tussles with Julio Caceres under high balls as the referee considered Crouch was too imposing! My goodness, he should officiate in the Premiership and increase his fan club.

The second half was something different and it did show the England players were being affected by the heat to which the Paraguyans were practically at home. Constant menaces Valdez and particularly Carlos Paredes, who clearly tried to influence the referee with his rolls when hitting the ground, almost equalised. Michael Owen came off early in the 56th minute as part of a tactical move to have Stewart Downing on the left and Joe Cole behind Crouch. Not only did it not work but Paraguay were using the advantage of the lone man up front to push one up and incessantly came forward with more vigour. Carlos Bonet and Roberto Acuna worked very hard in the same area where Frank Lampard and Gerrard were intended to dominate, the two Englishmen for me had a quiet game, more so Gerrard. Bonet ran down the right and should have been closed down better by Downing, managing to cross for Paul Robinson to palm out in the direction of Paredes. Paredes was put off by Robinson's leap to block and skyed the ball over when he could have kept it low.

However, play as you like but if it means three points, so be it. It could have been different if the scores were level, perhaps England would come out more often in the second half instead of being on the back foot, and Paraguay were little far off from equalising. It is also good sense to gain the advantage first and hold it, provided your opponents do not get the better of you too often, otherwise there is the old cliche of them eventually breaking through, as we saw with Argentina v Ivory Coast.


Next kick off England is 5pm in Nuremberg against Trinidad & Tobago, and I think it is unfair we had to endure the heat at 2pm and the Swedes do not in the group stage. Whether the Trinidadians would be accustomed to the heat is another question, but they certainly endured a different kind of heat from the Swedish pairing of Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. These two tuned in on each other particularly better than Thomas Brolin and Martin Dahlin some 12 years previous. Constantly the Trinidadian defence faced the constant knocking on their barriers by Sweden and watched as replacement keeper Shaka Hislop pulled some good saves. Preferred keeper Kelvin Jack suffered an injury on his way back to the dressing room after warming up. Particularly for the Swedes, other than the front two, was Christian Wilhelmsson, who at one point weaved away from three challenges but couldn't avoid contact on the third one by Avery John, who was booked.

Early into the second half Wilhelmsson came to the ball on the right and met another John challenge that was, for me, legitimate enough but referee Shamsul Maidin of Singapore deemed it another booking and John left to bring the Trinidadians to 10 men for almost the entire second half. this gave the Swedes the advantage but the Trinidadians were relentless in keeping out the goal threats, Hislop called to yet again produce good form to aid that quest. At the end of what was quite emphatically a better point for Trinidad than Sweden, with 10 men, celebrations started as if it was the quarter finals next.

The commentator mentioned that Group B could be decided on how many goals the respective teams gain against Trinidad, and I thought that was disrespectful, and here we have seen how expectations can sometimes go contrary to beliefs. This result means that England will go through at least to round two with a win in their next game. IF the Paraguayans hold Sweden, which is possible if both sides play as they did in their respective second halves, we can top the group though that's immaterial as long as we go through. Trinidad did us a favour, and that of football in general, in showing spirit, heart and rugged determination to deny the odds. Well done to them, but not for their next match!


I didn't give the Ivorians a chance in this group, much less the tournament, but my word they showed a different form of class against Argentina, the South Americans were practically stretched at the back on occasion and it was down to sheer bad finishing or contact that prevented the Ivory Coast from scoring. Yet when on the ball the Argentinians showed true class themselves, and while a lot seemed possible with Didier Drogba up front powerhousing the defence, equally Juan Roman Riquelme was cool and accurate in his distribution and poise to slow the play down and take the sting out of any attack on Argentina. His 24th minute corner swung over and caused a little confusion for Hernan Crespo to score the opener. Riquelme picked up a pass in midfield and then slotted quite simply a sublime through ball for Javier Saviola to just about beat the offside trap and poke the ball past keeper Jean-Jacques Tizie.

Yet I refer back to above where I said if you let a team continuously come at you and you are not competent enough to deny them and shut them out, eventually they will score, and that was the case with the Ivorians. The strength and pace of the Ivorians continued to give major stress fractures on Argentina's defence walls until it broke when Bakari Kone ran down the right and chipped over for Aruna Dindane to head down for Drogba to knock in left-footed. This was within the first minute of three minutes injury time and still time to play, but it wasn't to be and Argentina became the next side to record a first win. Superb debut games for the Trinidadians and the Ivorians.


RedsMan.