Match Day Two review

It looked like it was going to be so easy in the first five minutes of England's 1-0 victory over Paraguay. They had been scoring those kind of free kick goals over and over in last two friendlies, and the Paraguayans looked simply shellshocked. In a way, I think losing their goalkeeper to injury actually helped, because the long break allowed them to get their heads together.

When they resumed play, it was a different match. Paraguay was applying high pressure to the English when they were in possession and disrupted the play nicely, causing many--too many--turnovers. The problem is that there was really not much they could do when they got the ball. Roque Santa Cruz was simply unfit. Nelson Valdez was energetic, but not really classy. Parades dove a lot.

By the middle of the second half, the English were too beat to do anything but defend. They needed to get the ball on the ground and dribble at the Paraguayans to get some free kicks, but their constant giveaways and a recalcitrant referee really stymied that possibility. The English press are going to get hot and bothered by this result, but frankly, a win is a win, and a win with no major injuries or red cards is even better. It could have been a lot worse.

Which brings us to Sweden. There are certain games between putatively mismatched teams where you're sure the so-called "better" team is not going to find a way to score, and there are games between mismatched teams where you just know the weaker team is going to cave. I really thought that this match was going to be one of the latter, up until injury time. That it wasn't was down in large part to Shaka Hislop, who really put in the game of his life. And did you ever think Dwight Yorke could be such an effective defender?

Personally, I put it all down to Christian Wilhelmsson's unpleasantly 80s hair. Rarely have the mullet and the rattail been combined to such nauseating effect.

Intriguingly, this makes the last match of the group stage meaningful for both teams. Trinidad will feel they stand a chance against Paraguay, and Sweden may be in a must-win situation against England, especially if they draw the Paraguay match, which could well happen.

I only saw the last 60 minutes of Argentina-Ivory Coast, but it was clear that Riquelme was the player of the game. Everything went through him, and the Ivorians simply had no answer in the midfield. It was tempting fate for Pekerman to being off Crespo and Saviola so soon, but after a rocky ten mintues where they gave up that Drogba goal, they were back in control.