rone | your daily recap (Reply)

Ecuador 3 - Costa Rica 0: Ecuador looked very solid, and Costa Rica looked quite lost. Ecuador qualifies for the second round in their second Cup, and i'm hopeful that their game against Germany is going to be exceedingly exciting and well-played. Delgado's goal was easily one of the top goals of the Cup so far.

England 2 - Trinidad & Tobago 0: Didn't see it. T&T held on for a long time, and almost pulled off the tie. England seems to continue to be lost, but Eriksson's subs (Rooney and Lennon) seemed to make a real difference, from all accounts.

Sweden 1 - Paraguay 0: Paraguay's just not very good this Cup. The important players are mostly too old. They showed occasional flashes in the second half, but not enough. Sweden knocked the winner near the end, and their relief was as visible as England's after they finally broke through, too.

T&T needs to win by at least two goals and Sweden needs to lose for T&T to make it through. If T&T were to win 1-0 and Sweden to lose 2-0, they'd be all tied up, and i don't know what the tiebreaker would be at that point (they'd have the same amount of points, goal differential, goals scored and allowed, and they tied). I think it might come down to a coinflip at that point.

In the next round, Ecuador and Germany will play England and whoever comes in second. I hope Ecuador doesn't end up facing a Rooney-revitalized England, but either way, i think they'll do very well.