The essential England v Paraguay thread

[undercover]

I was watching the highlights on one of the MOTD shows and they were comparing us holding the ball up before and after Owen went off.

They showed over ten replays from the first half when Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, and (most worryingly) Robinson aimed 40+ yard balls into Crouch and picked up by Owen and others.

Then they showed where it was going wrong, another 10 replays of long balls up to Crouch with no support.

The common concensus seems to be that taking Owen off was the big mistake, and, in the way we are currently playing tactically, that's probably right. But surely the fact we are playing the long ball game at international level at a world cup finals is more of an issue?

I hated paying route fucking one football at Sunday league level, whenever you came up against any team who could pass the ball even reasonably well, you would struggle.

Much as I admire Coruch for his effort, having a 6 foot 7 bloke up front totally dictates the way you will play.

 

[SonOfGoatboy]

Still you've got to back England to beat the Swedes and then only my mighty Trinidad and tobago can stop you winning the group. Mon the Warriors!

http://toronto-lime.com/music/2006/fighter.htm

Didn't think much of the Paraguay game. Especially by comparison with the Germans and the Portugese.

 

[iROBOT]

You folks are judging Carrick on one friendly performance. Isn't this the same ideology used for the near-deification of Beckham with his Greece performance? He's been very average in a lot of games but we never went anywhere near dropping him. Carrick does defend very subtlely, sitting with superb discipline in the deep hole and providing a shield for the defence. Because his distribution is so peerless I think this part of his game gets overlooked, and one game in a friendly should not be enough to totally ruin any future opportunities.

Yeah totally agree and so does Man United. If they are after him then he must have something, right?

On the game, I'm a little worried about relying on the long ball to Crouch. It's an artless way off playing football and Crouch seemed not to notice that Owen had gone off and kept heading the ball into the spaces Owen frequents. There was little brain power being exhibited in the second half.

Still just one game, so I'll hold judgement till thurday.

 

[undercover]

Yeah totally agree and so does Man United. If they are after him then he must have something, right?

On the game, I'm a little worried about relying on the long ball to Crouch. It's an artless way off playing football and Crouch seemed not to notice that Owen had gone off and kept heading the ball into the spaces Owen frequents. There was little brain power being exhibited in the second half.

Still just one game, so I'll hold judgement till thurday.

He's also got a very natural understanding with Joe Cole, as they came through the ranks together, and seeing as Joe is looking like one of the few players capable of giving us that little extra in Rooney's abscence, I think it would be worth a try.

Anything resembling someone who can pass shorter than 40 yards (therefore bypassing the best players we have) is fine by me.


Still, as iRobot said, only one game!

 

[xenon]

I was in Edinbrough just for a trip when the England game kicked off. Booked time off work before I knew when the fixtures were.

Was very good though. Half the pub supporting Paragui as I expected. Actually thought more than that would. No bother though. ALthough I wasn't wearing an England shirt.

Later some drunk bloke mentioned something about it all. i couldn't make out what he was on about. He shouted Paragui a couple of times, but I couldn't be bothered to get involved. Was a good weekend.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

The oh-so-great France only beat Paraguay 1-0 en route to winning the 98 world cup... And that was a golden goal...