Day 2: Match - 3, 4, 5

Day 2 of the World Cup, and we had England taking on Paraguay, Sweden against minnows Trinidad and Tobago, and Argentina & Ivory Coast kicking off the Group of Death. Well, I woke up at 8.30 to watch the England-Paraguay match, and after 2 hours of not-so-impressive football, was wishing I hadn't! "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction", said Newton, and I proved the law by falling asleep in front of the TV during the Argentina-Ivory Coast match (which actually turned out to be the best match of the day!) At least it wasn't entirely MY fault...the commentary was in Italian, and those guys keep blabbering away non-stop, almost like Shankar Mahadevan's "Breathless"! Well anyways, I'm going to mostly talk about the England game, for obvious reasons, so here's my 'analysis':

Match 3: England vs Paraguay

Result: ENG 1-0 PAR

Goals:
C. Gamarra (OG)

MoM: Frank Lampard

Stats-a-Surprise: 13 Fouls committed by either team, but that's not the surprising bit. Peter Crouch alone was guilty of 6 fouls. The question is: Was he really guilty?

Comments: To be honest, England played way below potential, and came through because of an uninspired Paraguayan performance. The referee didn't help either, and awarded foul after foul against Crouch for leaning 'unfairly' over defenders. Everytime Crouch went up for a header, you could almost predict that the whistle was going to be blown. It was a frustrating match for the forward and even worse for Owen, who didn't get into the game at all. But people who bash Crouch have to understand that he is not supposed to be a prolific goalscorer. He is a Target Man, who sets up balls for out and out strikers like Owen. And for that to happen, the delivery from midfield has to be good. As my brother and I were discussing, the problem seemed to be a breakdown between midfield and attack. Beckham was being the playmaker, but he was on the right side of midfield! Lampard was adjudged MoM, but I don't think he really deserved it (Actually I don't know who 'deserved' it). Lampard is not a very creative player. He scores goals for Chelsea but its because of Makelele who sits back and feeds him good balls. Personally, I think Gerrard is way better and way more creative than Lampard. Read what my brother had to say here. I think Eriksson is wasting Gerrard in that defensive position (He did quite well there though, and his interceptive qualities were highlighted). Joe Cole played well. Most of the defenders had an easy day but it was, again, due to a listless Paraguay. I wonder how they'll fare against stronger attacks. I guess we have to wait till 20th June. Or maybe earlier??

Match 4, 5 coming up...