The countdown begins…England vs. Sweden
It’s now just 8 hours until England play one of our bogey teams - Sweden - in our third group match of the World Cup. We haven’t beaten them for 800 years (approximately) - ok, really “just” 38 - and even having a Swedish coach hasn’t helped our cause. Let’s hope we put an end to the dismal run later…I’m going for 2-0 to England. Any one else want to add your prediction?!
technorati tags:world cup, football, england
June 20th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
I think it’ll be a near thing. They did the same against paraguay but England did better against T&T.
I’m going to call it England by 1.
June 20th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Have you got no faith?! Just kidding…you may be right…I’m an optimist though!
June 20th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
England - 2: Sweden 1. A good game - lots of action and near misses, but England pulls it out of the bag eight minutes before the end with the second goal.
Go on Beckham . . . make us proud . . .
1966 was a long time ago.
June 20th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Are you sure it won’t be seven minutes from the end?!
June 20th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Oh please England win the World Cup so we don’t have to hear anything more about 1966!!!
No but seriously though, come on the winners!!!
No but even more seriously, come on the Eng-er-land!
June 20th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Hey Sam! It was great to meet you guys at Origins - I’m excited to watch all you are doing with Mosaic Sheffield - Great job on the radio interview, btw.
And yeah, maybe 7 mins before the end. Either way, it’s the winning and not the playing that counts (unless we lose)
June 20th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
55 minutes to go…the tension is building!
Mark - don’t even entertain thoughts of losing!
June 20th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
And we’re off…c’mon England!!
June 20th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Man that’s unlucky…Owen out already.
June 20th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
You beauty!!! What a goal!!
June 20th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
England’s got their goal but still a bit of a nail biter here at half-time.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
True…but England are playing much better than they did in the last 2 games which is good news…c’mon England - more goals please!
June 20th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Rubbish! 1-1.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Arrgh! Sweden scores.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Oh how we needed that!! 2-1!
June 20th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
A great second score by England.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
I don’t believe it! Stupid, stupid goal!
June 20th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
What a frustrating result! Why can we never beat Sweden? And what went wrong with our defence? Our defending of set-pieces were awful. After a good first half, things just went to pieces. Very disappointing. At least we still won the group and won’t have to play Germany next or Argentina in the quarter-finals. We’re really not looking like world beaters at the moment.
June 20th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Your into the quarter finals so chin up!
-Mel
June 20th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Well, last 16…we have to beat Equador first!
June 21st, 2006 at 1:55 am
I was watching the game in a Brazilian restaurant with both of my brothers and a friend and we were all screaming and yelling like crazy! You almost had them!!!
June 21st, 2006 at 3:34 am
Thanks. I’m able to watch the games but that’s about as much time as I have for following it so I haven’t really been able to educate myself about tournament play. All I understand is the soccer itself.
Which is the fun part, anyways!
June 21st, 2006 at 5:42 am
Well I got the run down here…maybe I’ll get to catch more games this week!
June 21st, 2006 at 6:05 am
Everything has been pretty much said here… I’ll just add I was excited to see Hargreaves (a Canadian) in there tormenting the Swedes. I’m hoping his getting play time was unrelated to the Owen injury tho (I missed the first 6 min of the game).
And watching Joe Cole was a thing of beauty.
nooc
June 21st, 2006 at 10:08 am
Erica - I know…I can’t believe we let that slip away!
Mel - basically the tournament is 32 teams split into 8 groups of 4. Everyone of the 4 teams in each group plays each other once and then the top 2 teams in the group progress to the next round which is the last 16. And then it just goes to quarter-finals, semi-finals, the final (plus a 3rd place play off between the 2 teams who lose in the the semi-finals). Hope that’s all clear!
Deana - missing the England game?! Disgraceful! (I hope Steve has been wearing his England top?!)
Greg - yep, Hargreaves had a good game (about time as he’s never looked that good when playing for England). He was on because they didn’t play Gerrard in case he picked up another yellow card (which would mean he couldn’t play the next match). And you’re right about Joe Cole. Great game and a sensational goal!
June 21st, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Erica, now that’s the right way to watch a game! I won’t get to do that until the finals it seems. They air the matches live, but they’re all while I’m at work.
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Mel, if you lived in England and we were playing, you’d get time off work!! I once worked in a call centre where we phoned people throughout the day but during the world cup we had to stop work to watch the matches. partly cos we knew everyone would be watching it and no one would want us calling. We used to watch them in school when it got to the later stages. Sam got to go home early for England’s last game. I wasn’t that bothered. I was just excited that the roads were clear as I drove home!! I listened on the radio.
When it gets to the end stages, we’ll watch them in the pub or have parties in houses. Should be fun. Hope En-ger-land last a while…