England huff and puff and blow T&T down

Freddie leaves it late for Swedes

Ecuador go through for first time

—– England appear to be perfecting the art of playing poorly and winning.
A turgid performance against rank outsiders Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg eventually ends in their eighth consecutive victory and safe passage through to the knockout stages of the World Cup with a game to spare.
As they struggle to breakdown a T&T team mostly made up of players from the Football League, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson makes dynamic substitutions to raise the tempo of the game.
47 days after suffering the infamous metatarsal injury, Wayne Rooney replaces the ineffective Michael Owen with half-an-hour to go and he also introduces wingers Aaron Lennon and Stuart Downing into a progressive 2-4-4 system.
It finally works as goals in the last seven minutes from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard mean England have now won their first two games of a World Cup finals for the first time since 1982.
T&T’s respected Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker makes some telling observations though: “Little by little they lost their patience. That’s exactly what we wanted and what we expected.
“The first option then was looking for the high ball for Peter Crouch. That is an option but it should not be the only option. If you do that you’re eliminating some important midfield players.”

—– England come within a minute of winning Group B with a game still to play until Arsenal’s Freddie Ljungberg scores Sweden’s only goal of the game in the last minute against Paraguay in Berlin.
Paraguay put up stubborn resistance but the Swedes finally gain their reward and will go through if they avoid defeat by England - coached by fellow countryman Sven-Goran Erikkson - in five days time.
A second defeat for Paraguay means they cannot progress beyond the group stage.

—– Ecuador reach the knockout stages of the World Cup finals for the first time, and they do it in style with a 3-0 win against Costa Rica in Hamburg.
Carlos Tenorio and Agustin Delgado both score their second goals of the competition then former Crystal Palace striker Ivan Kaviedes caps a fine team performance with a superb third.
The win means Poland and Costa Rica cannot progress while, due to their superior goal difference, Ecuador will finish top of Group A if they avoid defeat against hosts Germany.
Coach Luis Fernando Suarez summed up their feelings: “Today is a very important day for Ecuador, a historic day. It’s a day of celebration.”

—– Meanwhile back in England, another day, another new manager.
Today it’s League Two Lincoln City who promote former player and first team coach John Schofield following the departure of Keith Alexander to Peterborough United.
They also appointment a new director of football after John Deehan leaves a similar post at Northampton Town.