Watching the team England perform so poorly in our laboured defeat of Paraguay on Saturday put me in mind of the country as a whole, where an awful lot of outstanding, creative people perform poorly by working for limited managers. At the top all that passes around is the buck.
Why does the England team always perform so poorly in the second half of a game, particularly it has performed creditably in the first 45 minutes? Does Sven slip a few rufies into the half-time tea?
Coach Sven Goran Ericcson strikes me as a triumph of style over substance. The players seem to like him, but perhaps a little too much.
Game of the Tournament so Far: Argentina vs Ivory Coast
Player of the Tournament so Far: Aryan Robben, Holland
What do you think?
vinnie mirchandani says:
June 13, 2006 at 12:53 pm
after US performance, you still think UK was bad?
Ric says:
June 13, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Well … some of us enjoyed the Australia v Japan match. But I did watch Robben in the friendly against Australia, and he is impressive.
Yellek says:
June 14, 2006 at 8:40 am
Australia versus Japan definitely. Lulled into a false sense of quiet despair we suddenly get 3 goals in 8 minutes! Tim Cahill, we love you!
Koranteng says:
June 14, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I don’t know, I’m still psyched about the way they played.
I think did they did fine, they won, that was important, they’ll get better… Brazil were quite ordinary too (on a par with the way Ecuador played). Also those Czechs and the Dutch looked excellent and clinical but who knows how they’ll fare in later matches…
And don’t underrate the Paraguayan team, this is the world cup after all, they didn’t come to be tourists… The teams that looked to be tourists were Angola and the US.
Allow my mid-Atlantic self to have some faint hope in this business.
England and Germany (the honorary Odonkor and current benchwarmer Assamoah) are up.
Of the rest: France were marginal, Ghana need a striker. Cote D’Ivoire are unlucky and needed a weaker group. Togo, well borderline…
Good choice on the best game and player.
Patrick says:
June 15, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I thin you’re spot on – the England players like Eriksson too much. The squad has a strong first XI, but there are too few players challenging for positions: this is in large part Eriksson’s fault, as he has never really given “possibles” much of a chance to depose the “probabales”.
James Governor says:
June 15, 2006 at 2:59 pm
cheers koranteng. enjoyed your write up.
well folks the time is soon upon us. which england team will show up today?
i also found your coverage to be excellent Patrick… thanks.
tim Cahill should have been on from the start. he is as good as the much vaunted ballacks of the world. super hard working and scores a lot of goals.
rosicky is my player to watch now though. truly stunning performance against the US.