Ok.. not a match to go down in historical annals but nonetheless important to win. I think England needs to look at this like Brazil does. Believe that you're going to play seven games and just make sure that every game you play better than the one before.
I had never seen Aaron Lennon play and I was happy to see him overlap Beckham and cross the ball decently well. Not quite as well as Stewart Downing on the other flank but still competent.
I would love to see a midfield of Downing, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham. Have Lennon and Downing run rampant down the sides - you need width to win the World Cup - and have Beckham withdraw a bit to cover Lennon's position. Of course, one could then use Cole to replace Lampard or Gerrard as needed.
Sadly it means sitting him on the bench unless you go to one striker (like Wayne Rooney) with either Owen or perhaps Cole/Gerrard/Lampard playing in the hole behind him. That would be interesting..
Sadly, as much as I love Owen's play he just didn't seem sharp (none of the England strikers do yet).
But then France won without a goal from their strikers in '98 as the commentators keep reminding us.
And for the love of God, get rid of the idiotic American commentators and put the British ones back in. The Americans think and report like they are covering a football match. An American football match. Utter crap. I quite misliked their Schadenfreude over England's difficulty breaking down the Trinidad defence.
Posted by artandscience at June 15, 2006 12:40 PM