Paraguay's captain Carlos Gamarra put through his own goal with the game just underway and it turned out to be the only goal England needed.
English fans who expected a win and an entertaining performance. (Historical note - when England won the World Cup in 1966 Alf Ramsay was absolutely slaughtered for England's performance in the their first game a 0-0 draw with Uruguay).
Anyone Swedish and in particular Lars Lagerback the Swedish coach. Lagerback makes Sven look like a maverick.
It was a good day for....
English fans who were happy just to win and to start the World Cup on the right foot.
All of Trinidad and Tobago who pulled off a stunning draw against Sweden despite playing almost all of the second half with 10 men after left back Avery John collected a second yellow card.
Leo Beenhakker the ####mp;T coach who reacted to John sending off by pulling off an attacking player (Collin Samuel) and replacing him with Cornell Glen, another attacker. Glen then proceeded to rattle the crossbar and almost win the game.
Juan Roman Riquelme who set up both Argentine goals in their win over the Ivory Coast.
And the most overstated fact of the day...
Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country ever to reach the World Cup.
Bobby,
I dont understand your extreme view on Argentina's chances in this world cup. After watching yesterdays match between ARG and IC. I am quite sure that you would agree that defence was the best part of Argentinas game. I think Argentina are holding back their true potential and are merely trying to get out of their group. Watch out for this team to explode in the knock out stages
I thought the Argentine defense didn't look very comfortable at times. However, I was impressed by a lot of Argentina's play and Riquelme's contributions were fantastic.
I agree that Riquelme's contribution was great. However I thought IC missed the plot a little by allowing far too much time and space to Riquelme.
I believe its going to get a lot tighter for Riquelme as the WC progresses. However plan B for Argentina in case Riquelme has a bad game(he tends to have those far too often for a world class player like himself)is Aimar and Messi. Also I like Saviola but thought that Tevez will be a much more effective partner for Crespo.
I thought Heinze looked a bit out of the match and I'm not a big Sorin fan, but Ayala was impressive.
Isn't it surprising that IC didn't employ the Arsenal approach to Riquelme when they have 2 Aresenal players? The guy is slow and needs space to work, close him down and he's done.
This was by far the best game to watch. A fair result would have been a draw. I'd still love to see the IC go through. I love thier pace down the wings and spirit.
Last edited by Durham_Gunner on June 11th at 4:02 PM.
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