England 1Gammara - Own Goal - 3 minutes
Paraguay 0Beckham's cross swung in from a free-kick swung the match in England's favour to the tune of 1 goal to nil. An excellent result for the 3 lions. Not massively impressive performance-wise, but all considered, not describable as a bad show.
1st Half (England 1 - Paraguay 0)
The first half was all England pressing the play, thereby keeping the Paraguay players busy with their defensive duties. I think the Paraguayans defended reasonably well after a shaky looking first 10 minutes. The Paraguayan 1'st choice keeper Villar had to be replaced by stopper Bobadilla on 6 minutes.
Full Time - (England 1 Paraguay 0)
The heat told on the England players in the second half. The Paraguayans got stronger and stronger throughout the game, understandably unaffected by the high temperature(90's). The Mexican referee would'nt allow water to be taken on board during natural breaks in play, which was rather odd considering.
Michael Owen was replaced after 55 minutes by Sven, bringing on Downing. England went to a 4-4-1-1 formation, Joe Cole in behind Crouch, with Downing going left midfield. Joe Cole was dangerous for a bit, but the Paraguayans called his number pretty quickly.
Sven took off Joe Cole with about 10 to go and brought on Hargreaves to protect the back 4. The 4-5-1 formation did'nt work so well to the naked eye, but the Paraguayans never got the equaliser, which is all that matters.
England Blog Comment ::
Hopefully the temperature in Germany will drop a few degrees over the next few days and the England players can keep up the fast paced football for atleast 70 minutes or so, rather than the 45 seen in this match.
All in all a good performance and an even better result for the England team.
♠ England fans - If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.
Posted at 4:36 PM, Saturday, June 10, 2006
2 Comments
Well, I for one was happy about the result, we'll improve, and let's face it, at least we didn't lose like Poland did, or draw like Sweden did. Not a bad start at all, no matter what the venomous media say!
I thought Paraguay played well, especially the bloke in the red shirt, he played a blinder for them. Come on England!