A tale of the referee, his linesmen and strange Italian style ‘protect the lead’ decisions. Who is David Beckham going to cross to when Peter Crouch is in the middle of the park winning the ball? England got the three points ‘hooray’, but the performance was decidedly scary in the second half. I suppose if one of Frank’s shots had flown in (he struck them well but not as well as Fring’s shot in the Germany opener) then my 2 - 0 prediction would have been more likely. But apart from that there was little to shout about in the latter half of the performance. Proper scariness ensued when Paraguay’s number 13 had his volley incident as Robinson came chraging out at him.
Not many decisions went England’s way in the second half. The Mexican Count Dracula seemed to want to stamp his authority on the game and show up England’s stars. Joe Cole gave away a free kick for being sandwiched between two Paraguay players. Reminds me of when you could get booked just for being Paul Ince at one time. Someone I knew looked a bit like Paul Ince if you squinted your eyes and was cautioned.
All in all then A decent performance. Sven does make some bizarre substitutions however. And if you take Theo, then why not play him? Chants of ‘Rooney, Rooney’ from the England faithful around the 60 minute mark after Owen had been taken off aired the fans view of what England needs up front. Michael Owen is Mr Reliable, what did he do wrong? “We were losing possession” Sven told Garth Crooks after the game. He might have noticed that we lost possession even more without him.
On another note a friend of mine who went to the game in Frankfirt told me that he saw no security checks. Although his ticket was from a corporate sponsor. So here’s to Trinidad & Tobago…
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