England's World Cup campaign got off to a great start and after only 3 minutes, Paraguay put the ball into their own net from a great Beckham cross. The whole of the first half England dominated and the opponents looked extremely vunerable every time we approached their goal.
As usually happens though, despite all the pressure and positivity from our boys, we failed to score another. The second half was almost dire - I don't know whether the heat had got to the players but all the good play of the first half just disappeared into a puff of smoke. Paraguay had sniffs of chances but didn't look like they were going to score, but at only 1-o it's always a worry that one little slip up could spoil the game. Sven strangely and debatedly substituted Michael Owen 10 minutes into the second half which was a so called tactical decision. I hope he learns by his mistake because this backfired terribly as this left Crouch up front on his own with no-one to run onto his flicked headers. This put us under increasing pressure and the defence were pushed further and further back, allowing Paraguay to have most of the possession.
I suppose we have to be thankful for the 3 points rather than the performance. If we can beat Trinidad & Tobago, we know we can take it easy for the final group game against Sweden.
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