your daily recap

[rone]

Germany 3 - Ecuador 0: Except for Méndez and Mora, Ecuador played like crap, and the ref was decidely partial towards the home team; there were three clear yellow card infractions committed by Germany that went by unsanctioned.  It doesn't matter that many of Ecuador's starters were out, because what does that say about their depth?  This was a depressing loss.  Let's move on.

Poland 2 - Costa Rica 1:  Didn't watch it.  Doesn't matter much, except to the Poles as a point of pride.  Costa Rica is another team that, since their excellent debut in `94`90, has seen nothing but rough times in the Cup.  Good luck in `10.

Paraguay 2 - Trinidad & Tobago 0: T&T didn't score a goal in the Cup, but at least they didn't lose every game.  Paraguay's first goal was an own goal by T&T's Sancho, but their second goal was finally one they could call their own.

England 2 - Sweden 2: England played as well as they should have in their last two games, and having Rooney starting probably helped, even if he was gassed by the middle of the second half.  Owen's knee just gave way very early, but i don't think the English will miss him, because he was taken out in the first two games after not doing much at all.  Joe Cole scored the goal of the tournament so far.  The Swedes played better than they had, too, and scored the tying goal at the end of the game that was nearly comedic.  I was at first glad to think of Ecuador facing England, but now that England seems to have found their form, it's going to be rough.  I hope Ecuador gets their heads on straight when they have their full team back.

Comments

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Minor nit: Costa Rica 1 - 0 Scotland (and their subsequent win over Sweden) was in Italy, in '90.

There's a strong suspicion that Owen is going to be out for a long time. That means England have two established forwards left, plus a 17 year old who was just along for the experience (he hasn't even played for Arsenal's first team). They really should have picked 5 forwards in the first place, and one less central midfielder...

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

You are correct, of course.

The way Owen went down, it's gotta be a ligament, probably the MCL.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

The way Owen went down, it's gotta be a ligament, probably the MCL.

Close: it was the ACL (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5100516.stm). Sounds like he's going to be out until next year.

[khrister.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 1990, the year when Sweden marched out of the world cup (1-2, 1-2, 1-2).

All in all, I'd have to say that a draw was pretty fair, even if Sweden had two hits in the bar and one save on the goal line by...Gerrard, was it?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that it strikes me as rather bizarre that Sweden have this good record against England (unbeaten for 38 years, now), but a much poorer one against us Scots. Most of the time, although it pains me to admit it, England have a better team than us.

Of course, we have had our share of luck along the way. I remember one of the qualifying games for France '98, in which Sweden absolutely murdered us, but the score was only 1-0 . . . to Scotland. One of the most extreme cases of result != performance that i've ever seen.