England vs Sweden

[Scott]

Joe Cole's goal?? Amazing! I couldnt quite believe it when I saw it hit the net. Amazing. Absolutely incredible. It's a good job England have a single player, or a couple, who save them every time. In the first half, we looked pretty good, which is pretty incredible. Second half, we were abysmal. And then Sven, the master of shite tactics, figures at 1-1 the best thing to do is bring off Rio for Sol?? Lol what the fuck is that going to do?? Aside from screwing up the equalising goal, what does Sven expect another centre back to do?? If he'd picked a decent squad, then we'd have other options. I dont understand why Lennon didnt get a game.

I find it hard to praise individuals, when over all, everyone didnt play very well. I'll give credit to J Cole and Beckham again, because they deserve it...but Rooney isnt match fit, Crouch is crap, Lampard cant seem to get a shot on target to save his life (where the fuck are all these rebounds now I want them??) and the defence looked shakey everytime there was a corner.

Cant wait to see Gary back in the team. Carragher, smashing centre back for Liverpool, nothing at right back. Gives us nothing on the wings. Cant cross, cant take players on. Would love to see Neville and Beckham doing the right wing again.

[Red Yank]

I'm waiting for England to have a match that will make me confident in their ability to make it to the finals. Yes, they've managed to get wins against Paraguay and T&T but neither of those matches were ones where I saw the quality that will be required to beat teams that have had great overall performances (Argentina anyone?).

Now I'm all for seeing England in the final but they need to step it up because the kind of defending we saw against Sweden today from set pieces was uninspiring. The England we needed to see was one that was going to hold off the Swedish attacks by stripping the ball and maintaining the tempo of the match, instead they were scurrying back attempting to prevent the inevitable...the dreaded equalizer.

Joe Cole's goal, well what else can be said about it? I must have spilled my pint of Guinness on a few people when it went in, same for Gerrard's goal but it was so frustrating when shortly thereafter Larsson scores and Sweden are level yet again. Why can't the Swede's just stay down a goal?? Don't they hear us singing "we will score more one than you"??

So England's going through and now they'll face Ecuador whom I'm sure people are going to write off after their result against Germany. It'll be a tough match day for me because I've supported England in many a Euro and WC campaign, but I can't root against Ecuador because well my parents are Ecuadorian. So my love for both teams will leave me to wish them both well and may the best side win! From a football perspective I don't think England can think Ecuador too easy of an opponent; when they come in confident they can piece together formidable attacks and the defense has been solid. It will really depend which Ecuador shows up, the confident attacking one we saw against Poland and Costa Rica or the one which played Germany that seemed overwhelmed by the hungry Germans. We shall see....