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.

Spain gain is pain for Ukraine

Two Wanderers leave Saudi and Tunisia all-square

—– An added time winner by sub Oliver Neuville puts hosts Germany on the verge of the knockout stages of the World Cup and all but ends Poland’s interest.
Amid a tremendous local derby-type atmosphere in Dortmund, Neuville’s last-ditch strike means the Germans will progress with a game to spare if Costa Rica fail to beat Ecuador tomorrow while the Poles - who have Radoslaw Sobolewski sent-off late in the game - will be out if the Costa Ricans don’t win.
Germany’s win delights students of the form book. Including West Germany games, they remain unbeaten in 15 meetings with Poland and have failed to win only one of 15 games they’ve played in Dortmund.
Just as predictable was the trouble that preceded the game. More than 300 so-called people are held in police custody.

—– The World Cup’s great under-achievers Spain get their 2006 campaign off to a spectacular start with the biggest win of the tournament so far.
They beat debutants Ukraine 4-0 in Leipzig as the newcomers suffer in the continuing 30deg+ heatwave.
Xabi Alonso and David Villa put sunny Spain two up at the interval.
Any hopes of comeback are halted when Vladislav Vashchuk is harshly shown the tournament’s first straight red card and Villa converts the resultant penalty. Fernando Torres adds the fourth.

—– Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are the last two teams to take to the World Cup 2006 stage, and they battle out a 2-2 draw in Munich.
With the game locked at 1-1, sub Sami Al Jaber puts Saudi ahead with six minutes to go but the former Wolverhampton Wanderers striker’s strike is cancelled out by a stoppage time header from Bolton Wanderers defender Radhi Jaidi.

—– Meanwhile back in England, the summer managerial merry-go-round continues apace. Plymouth Argyle boss Tony Pulis returns to Stoke City only 13 months after leaving the Britannia Stadium.
The former Gillingham and Portsmouth chief - who was in charge of the Potters for three years - was sacked by the Championship club’s former owners. He places Johan Boskamp.

—– Leroy Rosenior is named as Martin Allen’s successor at League One Brentford.
He had been first team coach at Shrewsbury Town after ending his four-stint in charge of Torquay United in February.
Allen resigned last month after guiding the Bees to the Play-Offs.

France can’t roll Swiss over

First away day for South Korea

—– Brazil open their defence of the World Cup with a 1-0 win against Croatia in Berlin.
Kaka’s brilliant strike just before the interval clinches the reigning champions’ eighth finals win in a row, so surpassing Italy’s record of seven consecutive wins in 1934 and 1938.
They generally struggle to trouble a well-marshalled Croatia team with the ineffective performance by Ronaldo causing most concern.
The star striker is two goals short of equalling Gerd Muller’s aggregate World Cup finals goals total but his participation in the rest of the tournament is brought into question.

—– 1998 winners France begin their bid for glory with a drab goalless draw with Switzerland in Stuttgart.
The French and Swiss met in the Europe qualifying groups and, as both those games ended in draws, a close encounter was expected.
As the hot weather continues, both teams found it difficult to raise the tempo though.
The consolation for Switzerland is that they have, at last, kept a clean sheet in a World Cup finals game. It was their 23rd attempt which, not surprisingly, is a World Cup record.
France are on the verge of an unwanted competition though. They have failed to score in four games since the 1998 Final. If they fail to find the South Korea net in their next game, a team containing the likes of Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane will equal Bolivia’s record of five goalless games in a row in 1930 and 1934.

—– At their 15th attempt, South Korea win their first World Cup finals game on foreign soil.
Having contributed so much to the competition when they co-hosted the finals four years ago, the Koreans are pushed all the way by debutants Togo who take the lead through Mohamed Kader.
The Hawks’ hopes are hit early in the second half though when captain Jean-Paul Yaovi Abalo is sent-off by Premiership referee Graham Poll for a second bookable offence.
South Korea take full advantage with goals from Lee Chun-Soo and Ahn Jung-Hwan as Togo tire in the heat.
Having resigned four days earlier, coach Otto Pfister takes charge of the Togo team but his future remains in doubt.

—– Meanwhile back in England, only days after pledging his future to Hull City, manager Peter Taylor is named the new boss of their Championship rivals Crystal Palace.
The Tigers chief had led the Yorkshire club from 18th in the old Third Division to 18th in the Championship in less than four years in charge.
The England Under-21 coach rejected a move to the Premiership with Charlton Athletic last month stating he still had ‘unfinished business’ at the KC Stadium.
One of Palace’s most popular former players, he fills the vacancy left at Selhurst Park due to the departure of Iain Dowie to…. Charlton Athletic.

—– Hartlepool United also have a new boss as Danny Wilson replaces Paul Stephenson at Victoria Park.
The former Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday boss was sacked by Milton Keynes Dons last month.
Both the Dons and Hartlepool were relegated from League One at the end of the season.