Random Rants: World Cup Blog

England survives the scrutiny of fans -- and Paraguay -- for opening victory.

Thousands of fans greeted England's bus when it arrived at Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt for Saturday's match against Paraguay. -- Photos by Chris Courtney --

By Chris Courtney
SoccerTimes

FRANKFURT, Germany (Saturday, June 10, 2006) -- After an exciting goal-fest of Germany's 4-2 defeat of Costa Rica Friday night, today it was off to Frankfurt to see the England face Paraguay. An England match is something special, given the expectations it carries and its army of dedicated fans.

And why not? After all, the English did invent the game.

The English fans scrutinize their team, every move on and off the field -- to a degree few in the professional sports world ever experience. Even a woman rumored to be dating one of the players can expect to be stalked by the paparazzi. Today was England's chance to start on its quest to lift the World Cup trophy (which is strangely not even shaped like a cup) 40 years since it won its one and only Cup in 1966.

England fans have been hanging around the greater Frankfurt area for days, waiting to see if Sven-Goran Eriksson's men can get the job done. One fan, Brian from Brighton & Hove, England, has been attending his nation's World Cup matches since 1966, when he was only 14. Since 1998, he has not missed a single England World Cup match, wherever it was played. He predicted a 2-1 victory for England, but like so many of the English fans we've met, he could not bring himself to predict his team winning the tournament.

After weeks of unseasonably cool weather, the temperature in Germany has jumped to a balmy 80 degrees. England and Paraguay fans packed the stadium and did not stop singing until the match was all over. While there was a spirited mass of Paraguay fans at one end of the stadium, the Barmy Army turned this match into an England home game.

Two question marks all week were whether Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz and England's Steven Gerrard would be fit to play. It has been accepted that England's most dangerous weapon, Wayne Rooney, will not be available until the second round, but rumors around the camp indicate he might see a few minutes in group play. Both Gerrard and Santa Cruz started with varying degrees of success.

England came out in its expected 4-4-2 with and launched most of its attacks up the left side through Joe Cole with striker Peter Crouch, getting into the action early, flicking dangerous balls to Michael Owen and Gerrard.

The Haerringers, a Paraguayan-German family, clad in Paraguay jerseys, considered themselves living a dream to see Paraguay play at a World Cup. They predicted a 2-2 draw, but England won 1-0.

England scored in the fourth minute on an own goal by Paraguay defender Carlos Gamarra, who was battling Michael Owen to clear a David Beckham free kick from the left side. A short while later, Paraguay goalkeeper Justo Villar collided with Michael Owen on a 50-50 ball and had to be replaced by Aldo Bobadilla -- the earliest substitution in World Cup history.

With a strong back line of Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, and Ashley Cole, England held strong and denied Paraguay many meaningful chances, especially in the early going. In particular, Ferdinand and Terry were rock solid, frustrating Santa Cruz and Valdez all day. Terry gave no quarter to Santa Cruz until Paraguay switched him into another zone, where he was denied by Ferdinand and Ashley Cole. England keeper Paul Robsinson had little to do for most of the match. His distribution was solid, but he seldom sought to exploit opportunities further upfield.

In central midfield, neither Steven Gerrard nor Frank Lampard looked particularly sharp although Lampard did come to life in the second half. Gerrard appeared a step slow and out of synch with his teammates. He is obviously still not 100 percent after his recent injury. With the attack focused on the left side for most of the match, Beckham did not see many touches, but he proved excellent on set pieces. Joe Cole was simply brilliant in directing the attack from the left side and unhinging the Paraguayan defense with great runs and clever passing.

Despite having the door slammed in its face over and over, Paraguay pushed up the middle in first half with little effect. Paraguay midfielder Carlos Paredes did look lively, but his runs were not well supported, resulting in few real goal chances. The opportunistic Paredes dove at least four times in the penalty area, but his acting never managed to convince Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez. His wily play did manage to occupy Gerrard's attention for much of the match, especially when he shifted forward in the late going.

Paraguay's other central midfielder, Roberto Acuna was a disappointment and his lack of playing time at Deportivo goes a long way to explain his lack of sharpness. The insertion of Paraguay striker Nelson Cuevas in the 68th minute gave Paraguay a much needed boost to an attack that was smothered by the England defense. His spark led to a few of Paraguay's dangerous chances as the speedy Cuevas created space for Valdez and Paredes Cruz to exploit. In injury time at the end of the match, Valdez managed to turn Ashley Cole and get off a rocket of a shot which skittered just inches left of Robinson's goal.

Owen and Crouch paired up well up front and created a fair number of chances, but few hard shots. That having been said, they'll need to pull the trigger faster if England are to score more than one goal per game, with or without Rooney. By the 77th minute, England fans started to do the wave (something they call the Mexican wave, not knowing it actually started with the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers, but I digress) and then started calling for Rooney.

Commerzbank Arena is packed in the moments before the England-Paraguay game.

In the end, England did just enough beat Paraguay 1-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 48,000. To its credit, Paraguay did well to disrupt a potent English attack, kept a good share of possession and pressured well late to threaten stealing a point. Eriksson kept Rooney on the bench, giving him a few more days of rest to rest his broken foot before his services might be needed against Group B opponents Trinidad & Tobago or Sweden. All in all, it was not the prettiest match, but was surely a fair result. Despite the official selection of Lampard as "Man of the Match," I'm going with Joe Cole and Terry, both of whom made a significant impact on England's success. After the match, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson seemed happy with the result: "What is important is that we go all three points, so I'm very pleased. Our defense was strong and I think we should have had a bit more possession. The crowd was fantastic. Everyone was telling me that only 5,000-6,000 England fans could get tickets, but it seems like the whole crowd was behind us. "

When asked about how he feels about the upcoming matches, especially against Sweden, he remarked, "We can't expect any easy games. It's the World Cup, so you never know what is going to happen."

Paraguay's Uruguayan coach Anibal Ruiz offered: "We did well to control a strong team which could go to the final. We just couldn't find enough space up front to create enough chances. I think we'll be ready to go after the points we need in the next two matches."

Paraguay's injured keeper Justo Villar will be out for at least three weeks with a strained calf muscle. No new injuries have been reported from the England camp.

Tomorrow, we'll take you to Gelsenkirchen for the United States men's training as the excitement builds for their Monday opener against the Czech Republic.

Chris Courtney is SoccerTimes European correspondent and lives in Brussels. He is in Germany covering the World Cup.