However performance wise England have been I feel very poor.
A pathetic 1-1
draw with Sweden. OK, we beat the Argies, can we be proud by the
performance? It was a good defensive performance but if the goal hadn't gone in
and England hadn't have won I have to admit it would have been yet another
boring pathetic probable 0-0 draw. I will probably get a lot of abuse for
this but I have to say the more I look at it Owen took a dive, if not then he
made it look far too dramatic. So once again not a special perfomance but 3
points. The last game, you cannot go too much into the match because if the
scenario left us needing a win then we would have played a lot better and
gone for the win. Never mind though, once again a result we needed and got.Second round, after watching Denmark I had to say that Denmark looked to cause us problems, as it turned out they were a nervous wreck. We played some good football in patches but once again in the 2nd half we were poor and didn't create too much. Got a win and 3-0 this time.
This is the
first time we managed to score more than 1 goal. Mind we had only scored 2
prior to that game but its as long as it is wide and we have only conceded 1
goal and have the best defensive record in the tournament so far!!! I just
feel that when we come up against a class team like Brazil, they will defend
with hardly any trouble and they will make attacking look like riding a tricycle.Going on what I have seen of England in this tournament I dont feel we can cut it for much longer. I know Sven is a great man but 90% of this tournament England have not produced a 2nd half performance that says 'WE CAN WIN THIS TOURNAMENT'.
I personally feel that these poor 2nd half showings are down to the warm up games. Everytime since the Greece game in our warm up friendlies Sven has always made at least 6 changes at half time, even in our last 2 games, he shouldn't have been doing this so close to the tournament.
You should be making at least 5 throughout the game. Fair enough, he had
injuries and he needed to find out who was best for each decision but surely
2 games before the World Cup he knew probably 9 of the 11 who were going to
start each game. Now you find out that we have had strong first half
performances because the players are used to playing 45 minutes in those
conditions and when they play more they cannot cope for the next 45 because
they would be sitting on the bench by now!!!Overall I feel that the boys have done ok but I feel other teams have done a lot better but because we beat Argentina the press and most of the public believe that England have had the best World Cup when in fact I believe that Ireland can come home and smile about a lot more than England despite going out at least a round earlier.
It will be interesting to see what the press make of England if they flop to the Brazilians. Being as optimistic as ever I feel they will be home by next Monday. Sorry, I am not slamming England before people think I am, I think they have done well and you have to do well to get to where they are, I just don't think it is 'BRILLIANT'.
I hope that I am proved VERY VERY and I mean VERY Wrong!!!!
