Ecuador turned in a disappointing performance to gift England an easy passage to the quarterfinals. Not that England won easily, far from it in fact. They played terribly, but more on that later. Ecuador suffered from a major case of stagefright, as commentator Martin Tyler eloquently stated. They were just far too nervous and never really attacked England. Carlos Tenorio waged a lone battle, and unsurprisingly exhausted himself and got replaced midway through the second half. The rest of the team looked timid- awed by their big name opponents. Which clearly they should not have been. Not one of the Ecuadorians seemed willing to take on the English. They passed aimlessly between each other until they either lost the ball or gave it away with pointless long balls. I was extremely saddened by Luis Antonio Valencia's (in case you havent noticed, my favourite player at the cup so far) unwillingness to run at the English defence, to show his skills and to deliver the deadly cross that he is so capable of. Mendez's refusal to push forward and put the defence in two minds as to whether he'd pass or shoot was equally baffling. de la Cruz and Reasco were out of their depth and outplayed by their English opponents. The highlight for Ecuador was captain Ivan Hurtado's marshalling of the defence and Espinoza's powerful display alongside him. Nonetheless, a bitter letdown for me as I was expecting England to at least be given a real scare....
Ok, England!!! They are a confused team at the moment. Eriksson chose to play the most un-English of formations (well, not the most, but still....), the 4-5-1. With Carrick coming into the heart of midfield in his favoured anchor role, England enjoyed a glut of possession. But they were absolutely clueless as to what to do with it. So, in good old English fashion, they pumped it long as often as they could, in the process making lone striker Rooney chase the ball like a dog. Rooney was understandably peeved by the latter parts of the game. He has probably never played as a lone striker, which is a tough skill to acquire if your not a born lone ranger (like van Nistelrooy). Hargreaves at right-back had a superb game, mostly when he came into the centre of midfield which is his natural position. His hassling, strong tackling and infinite reserves of stamina make him a perfect man to partner Carrick in the anchor role. But he has been a marginal player for England because of Eriksson's insistence on selecting traditional English midfielders Gerrard and Lampard who hit it long, and make a forward run hoping that a striker would have held up the ball so they can shoot from the edge of the box. This sort of unimaginative has gotten England nowhere in the past, compared to their aspirations anyway. Lampard particularly had a shocker. He lost confidence in his shooting (close to 20 shots, yet to actually trouble a single goalkeeper in the tournament) and decided to try his hand at short passing and managed to bomb the few half-chances England had. Gerrard was equally uninspiring. Joe Cole is the proverbial jewel in a dungheap. He is such a complete midfielder with all the skills- passing, shooting, dribbling, one-on-ones, that it is amazing to find out he was born and raised in England. He is clearly on a different wavelength to his teammates. I love watching Cole play- he is the one Englishman I would love to see play for Barcelona. But in this English setup, he will rarely have an impact except with long-shots. And finally, Beckham. This man is a true champion. If not for him, England would not have won. His ability to hit freekicks and corners is phenomenal. Countless times, he has been England's saviour. Yet still they talk of axing him, questions about when he will retire seem to pop up all the time, doubt is cast over his passion and determination to represent his country....This just goes to show that Englishmen are idiots when it comes to soccer. Beckham is England's only hope of achieving anything. Because of him, I refuse to write England off, which otherwise I would do unhesitatingly. I dont think England will win their quarterfinal let alone the world cup. But if they do, it will be because of Beckham!
Now Portugal are no longer the team they were four years when their golden generation was at its peak. Players such as Rui Costa, Joao Pinto, Sergio Conceicao, Fernando Couto, Vitor Baia and Jorge Costa are no longer there, in fact, only Figo remains from the famed Portuguese youth teams of the early 90's. But their new generation of players should dissipate any Portuguese pessimism at their golden generation having missed out on the big titles. The likes of Simao Sabrosa, Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco, Maniche, Pedro Pauleta and Hugo Viana have all the flair and aggression of their predecessors but have one extra quality, toughness. The choice of Luis Felipe Scolari as manager after the disastrous showing in the Far East has proved to be a defining moment in Portuguese football, and may see them emerge as the new European superpower. Scolari has instilled a fighting spirit in his young players like no other previous coach. This team, despite having played in a somewhat subdued fashion in the group stages, came out in their second round fixture against Holland with steely determination and never looked like losing. They played like a winning team and helped stretch Scolari's record to an unprecedented 11 straight wins!!! The loss of Deco and Costinha will prove costly, but against a passive English team this shouldnt hamper Portugal severely. Simao will slot in seamlessly and Figo will play a more central role with Armando Petit sitting deep in place of Costinha. Maniche was the best player on the field against Holland I felt. I advocated the use of Sabrosa instead of Maniche, but I was proved wrong once again, because Maniche proved too hot to handle even for van Bommel, which came as a surprise to me (in all fairness, van Bommel was yellowed early and this blunted his tackling). He is an English style midfielder who makes runs down the middle hoping to feed off holding strikers. But he has extra dimensions which make him far more valuable than your average Englishman. He has ball skills which he demonstrated in a superb effort as he jinked past Mathijsen and Cocu to score a marvellous goal after Pauleta played him into the box. Also, he spreads the ball to his speedy wingers as often as he shoots or runs making him unpredictable. And most importantly, he does not shirk his defensive load; he always drop deep after attacking to help out Costinha/Petit. So overall, Portugal have a lot of momentum going into the final 8 and will steamroll an English side devoid of ideas. I think they may have just the combination required to take on Brazil!! But I'm not brave enough at this stage to tip against the champions. That'll have to wait!!!!!
A final word on tonights games. Australia to beat Italy 1-0 in a tight affair where Australia dominate possession. Expect some physicality- Grella will not be shy of hard tackling and the Italians will not be sparing any words either. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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