England 1 Ecuador 0
In the NCAA tournament, the mantra is "survive and advance". That's what England did today - survived and advanced. England still hasn't played a good game. You see a ton of negative comments about how England is playing, but they're still playing, and that's all that matters.
Rooney played great - the only England player to really play well, and his fitness was so impressive, given that he was still going strong late in the match. But a single striker isn't working. Didn't for the US and isn't for England either. Now we see the error of bringing as your alternate strikers Crouch (who isn't very good) and Wolcott (who it looks like SGE just brought along for the ride). You need someone who can work with Rooney - run off of him to give him somewhere to go with the ball. The midfielders just don't seem like they can do it.
Got to love the Beckham goal. Shuts up all the know-it-alls who want him benched: "Beckham sticks! Sit him down! ... Oh, nice goal, thanks for winning the game for us." He's really just an average field player because he doesn't have pace, but you keep him on the field for just those situations. Plus, he's got some heart - seeing as how he was throwing up all over the field today and yet still scored the only goal (which was a thing of beauty, to be sure - you can't place a ball better than that).
Also nice to see Ashley Cole play so well. I've thought for a while he's England's best defender because of his pace. He can run off of Joe Cole well and, as we saw with the play on Terry's error, he can still get back. Very impressive.
Lampard and Gerrard - what's with them??? They have absolutely sucked so far this tournament. It's not even that they aren't playing well together - they haven't done the simple things either. Lampard just skyed a point blank shot set up by a beautiful Rooney play (where he meg'd the defender). England's midfield should be their stregth, but two of the four haven't shown up.
Rooney played great - the only England player to really play well, and his fitness was so impressive, given that he was still going strong late in the match. But a single striker isn't working. Didn't for the US and isn't for England either. Now we see the error of bringing as your alternate strikers Crouch (who isn't very good) and Wolcott (who it looks like SGE just brought along for the ride). You need someone who can work with Rooney - run off of him to give him somewhere to go with the ball. The midfielders just don't seem like they can do it.
Got to love the Beckham goal. Shuts up all the know-it-alls who want him benched: "Beckham sticks! Sit him down! ... Oh, nice goal, thanks for winning the game for us." He's really just an average field player because he doesn't have pace, but you keep him on the field for just those situations. Plus, he's got some heart - seeing as how he was throwing up all over the field today and yet still scored the only goal (which was a thing of beauty, to be sure - you can't place a ball better than that).
Also nice to see Ashley Cole play so well. I've thought for a while he's England's best defender because of his pace. He can run off of Joe Cole well and, as we saw with the play on Terry's error, he can still get back. Very impressive.
Lampard and Gerrard - what's with them??? They have absolutely sucked so far this tournament. It's not even that they aren't playing well together - they haven't done the simple things either. Lampard just skyed a point blank shot set up by a beautiful Rooney play (where he meg'd the defender). England's midfield should be their stregth, but two of the four haven't shown up.
posted by Al at 10:20 PM
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