Sports/Olympics / Feature and Column
World Cup- England win but do little to impress
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-26 09:27
STUTTGART, June 25 - When Sven-Goran Eriksson predicted before the start
of the tournament that England could win the World Cup few took the
Swedish coach too seriously.
Decades of disappointment since their 1966 triumph have left only the
most rose-tinted of England fans dreaming of another triumph.
Not many are likely to have joined the Berlin bandwagon, despite England
reaching the quarter-finals for the second successive finals after a
laboured 1-0 win over Ecuador on Sunday.
Eriksson, like so many coaches, will point to a team winning despite
playing below-par as a positive sign but there were few pointers in
Stuttgart that his side have the quality to go all the way and lift the
trophy on July 9.
Surprisingly for a team based in Baden-Baden, renowned for its reviving
spring waters, England have shown little fizz in Germany and struggled
again to impose themselves in suffocating temperatures.
STUNNING GOAL
It took a trademark David Beckham freekick to lift the yawn-factor, the
captain evoking memories of his stunning goal against Greece to take
England through to the 2002 finals with another perfect set-piece that
left Ecuador keeper Cristian Mora clutching at thin air.
Eriksson had opted to pack his midfield, fielding Michael Carrick, making
his competitive debut, as the holding midfielder and leaving Wayne Rooney
to plough a lone furrow up front.
His tactics, despite an early defensive scare when Carlos Tenorio should
have scored, helped stifle the South Americans but there was little
creativity from the men in white either.
The result was a fragmented 90 minutes, notable for little goalmouth
action, misplaced passes, niggly tackles and too much time-wasting that
contributed to six yellow cards shown by Belgian referee Frank De
Bleeckere.
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