Ok, so we're in the quarter final, but have still to set anyone's shirt on fire.
I wish anyone else but Beckham had scored the goal, because that will allow Sven-Notverygood Eriksson to justify yet another woefully inadequate performance (and that's before he was ill). And that's another thing! Why did Eriksson allow him to stay on the pitch for 20 minutes before subbing him? There were at least two occasions in that period where Ecuador threatened our goal from wide left because Beckham failed to make a tackle. Why can everyone else but him see that Lennon is more than ready to take Beckham's place in the side?
As for the rest, it was a generally good performance against awkward opposition in extreme heat. Rooney continues to improve, and get closer to full fitness & form, Hargreaves put in another good show, as did Carrick & Gerrard. Lampard seems to have left his shooting boots at home, though, and isn't it strange that after having been our best player in the first three games, Cole J should suddenly have a stinker?
Oh well, better go see who we meet in the quarter-final. Whoever it is, we still need to get a lot better.
I wish anyone else but Beckham had scored the goal, because that will allow Sven-Notverygood Eriksson to justify yet another woefully inadequate performance (and that's before he was ill). And that's another thing! Why did Eriksson allow him to stay on the pitch for 20 minutes before subbing him? There were at least two occasions in that period where Ecuador threatened our goal from wide left because Beckham failed to make a tackle. Why can everyone else but him see that Lennon is more than ready to take Beckham's place in the side?
As for the rest, it was a generally good performance against awkward opposition in extreme heat. Rooney continues to improve, and get closer to full fitness & form, Hargreaves put in another good show, as did Carrick & Gerrard. Lampard seems to have left his shooting boots at home, though, and isn't it strange that after having been our best player in the first three games, Cole J should suddenly have a stinker?
Oh well, better go see who we meet in the quarter-final. Whoever it is, we still need to get a lot better.