Dull England opener with bizarre substitution
Posted by DavidM in England, Paraguay, World Cup | 10 June 2006
To call England's opener pedestrian would be to associate it with a level of dynamism that was lacking throughout the game. It was hot and humid so was never going to bring out their best but even so - England failed to score in the second half of a World Cup finals game for the eleventh time in a row, which has to tell you something.
At one point it looked like England could scrap a 1-0 win without either side actually having a shot on target, and while it was an encouraging performance in that England rarely allowed Paraguay to threaten, we hardly looked to have a broad range of attacking options and flair going forward. We won't be able to rely on lucky own-goals against the big names in the tournament.
The only significant talking point was the substitution of Owen. Having read Sven's post-match comments I can understand that he wanted to dominate the midfield more and hold onto the ball (though why players the quality of Beckham and Gerrard find it so hard not to pass to the opposition when they pull on an England shirt is beyond me).
But by taking off Owen he removed our only real goal threat. I've not been a big fan of Crouch but I can see his value as the holding/flick-on player just behind a pacey frontman. He's not a poacher, he doesn't stretch the defence, he is a focal point for forward balls to distribute to the main goal-scorer.
But as a lone striker he didn't work. The balls came in to him at head height so he had to knock them somewhere, but there were only Paraguayians around him. Each ball into him was wasted as there was nothing he could do with it.
It would have made more sense to keep Owen on and replace Crouch. With five in midfield we should have held the ball and dictated the pace of the game and Owen would have presented an occasional attacking threat.
Having now seen Argentina, there was a chasm between quality of the two teams. England need to be sharper and cleverer if they are to compete with the likes of them.
