SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums College, Pro & International Soccer England/Paraguay game thread DO NOT READ

Not that they would show any highlights anyway, but, no not to many.

Paraguay played horrendous, but England played good enough to beat Paraguay. Hopefully theis is not all they have cuz if it is, then they're gonna be disappointed yet again in England

Main problem I saw for England was not being able to get chances inside the box. A lot of this, I believe, stemmed from the fact that Crouch was called for a foul every time he even thought about going up for a header. Extremely unfortunate for him and with a better referee I believe England will get a lot more chances inside the box and won't have to just resort to set pieces and long shots.

Hopefully...had it not been for silly behavior drawing a first yellow, Crouch could have afforded to be more aggressive there at the end.

Ashley Cole is a liability, he should be replaced by Bridge.
Beckham was a non factor in this game. You cannot just have a guy in your team because he can hit a sweet dead ball from set pieces, he has to do more than that.!
Lampard and Gerrard are both attacking midfielders and cancelled each other out. They do not work as a partnership. Gerrard should be on the right, as he does for Liverpool, and have Carrick and Lampard central. Then you have a holding midfielder and an attack minded midfielder. It is called balance.
Crouch was useless I'm sorry. No way he should wear that shirt. He did get called for some stuff he didn't do, but he did commit a lot of fouls and got booked for dissent. At this level that is unforgiveable. Why does a guy who is 6'7" tall need to commit a foul to win the ball in the air?? His positioning and anticipation are terrible as is his timing. He should win everything in the air and he doesn't.
Once again we had the comment that he has good feet "for a tall guy". Why she he get a pass for having a lousy first touch and average ball skills just because he is tall??
On the subject of the officials I have to say that FIFA have not made good choices. You should not have a Hispanic crew working when you have a Hispanic team playing a European team. They have enough refs to have a neutral crew. This is not sour grapes as England won but it is flat wrong to do that.
Also England did sit back, got complacent and tried to defend that slender lead. They managed it but against a better team they can't do that. Again Sven's tactical incompetence. He is way too cautious. I wish he would get sick with something that would cause him to be sent home!!!