day 12 wrap-up

well, one-quarter of the round of 16 is set: germany v. sweden on saturday at 11:59pm and england v. ecuador on sunday night at 11:59pm.

germany, roared on by an intimidating sell-out crowd in berlin, looked back to being well in-form in their 0-3 rout of ecuador last night. two miroslav klose goals before intermission combined with a third by lukas podolski 12 minutes after the restart gave germany a well-earned victory and saw them finish first in group A. one would have to favour the prussians over their scandinavian opponents at the weekend, but it won’t be easy. the south americans, playing their worst game of the tournament so far, finish as runners-up. they most likely will not play so poorly at the weekend against england.

rounding out group A’s final matches was costa rica v. poland. the poles fell behind in the 24th minute to a ronald gomez goal, only to level 9 minutes later on defender bartosz basacki’s first goal for his country. though it was a day game played in sultry weather and the two teams were playing only for pride, there was passion and a fair amount of energy on both sides. pressing the issue finally paid off for the poles when, nearly at the midpoint of the second half, that man bartosz scored his second goal of the night to put the poles up, 1-2. they held on from there and salvaged three points from another disappointing world cup campaign.

in group B, paraguay were playing for pride while trinibago were playing for a win and lots of england help. the islanders didn’t get the win, as their defense, which had been resolute and solid in drawing with sweden and losing late to england, was exposed more in this match because they were pressing for goals. paraguay went up a goal just past the midpoint of the first half when the soca warriors’ brent sancho turned the ball into his own net. this made the tiny islanders’ plight even more precarious. they pushed hard in the second half, needing at least two goals, but their lack of quality in their opponents’ end was as glaring as ever. nelson cuevas sealed it for paraguay four minutes from time and the south americans got the deserved win.

though trinibago failed to score even one goal, their effort and desire to battle their asses off made them lots of new fans, including nearly all the neutrals in the crowd and me watching here in korea. a testament to that was that i split my time fairly evenly flipping back and forth between this game and the sweden-england match.

speaking of which, where to start on this one? owen’s injury, rooney’s superb first half and subsequent fade after the restart, joe cole’s smashing volley, or england’s shit play on set pieces? well, first things first, i guess: england and sweden drew, 2-2, to leave england atop the group and sweden as runners-up.

there isn’t much to say about owen because we don’t know anything at this early point in time. his knee twisted up on him in an ugly manner after a minute of play and he was stretchered off (i needed a few drinks as i watched him writhe in agony, already thinking ahead to how this will affect my beloved newcastle’s upcoming season; i could just imagine the geordie cries of anguish all over the northeast of england, especially on tyneside, as owen lay there). rooney looked nearly like his old self in the first forty-five minutes, but slagged off after the restart and was replaced 20 minutes from time by steven gerrard. rooney was none too happy when taken off, although it’s now unclear whether he was angry at his poor second half or at being replaced. knowing rooney, it’s probably a little of both.

meanwhile, joe cole’s goal, the match’s first goal, was a cracker of a volley. he was divine in this match, much better than he was against trinibago–and england are going to need him to continue to be in form. however, five minutes after the restart of play, marcus allback brought the swedes level with a header off a corner. sweden were the better team for most of the second half and will feel aggrieved not to have gone ahead on several occasions after the score was levelled: a couple of shots hit the woodwork, a claim for a handball in the box was ignored, and gerrard had to clear a ball off the line.

then, five minutes from time, gerrard gave england what was thought to be the winner (which would have been england’s first win over the scandinavians in my lifetime) on a header, but henrik larsson equalised in the 90th minute on a goal as ugly as ji-sung park’s against france, if not uglier. i’m still not sure larsson got his foot on the ball, but it counted and the match ended with honours even.

sweden have a formidable task at the weekend against rampant hosts, germany, and england are going to have to step it up another notch if they are going to slip by ecuador; they certainly are going to have to tighten up their defense on corner kicks and set plays, as both sweden goals came from there. and with owen’s world cup most likely over, sven will have to go into that match with only three fit strikers. lovely prospect for the rest of england’s germany adventure, whether it’s one game or two or more…