'Sluggish' England Into Quarter

25 June 2006 England 1-0 Ecuador - World Cup Round of 16

BBC - Beckham defied illness to curl home from 30 yards on the hour mark, but England made hard work of Ecuador. The South Americans could have gone in front early on, Carlos Tenorio's shot deflecting off Ashley Cole and on to the bar after John Terry's mistake. Frank Lampard missed two fine chances but England had done enough to win.
Sven-Goran Eriksson's side will now play Portugal - after their stormy 1-0 win against Holland - on Saturday 1 July at 1600 BST in Gelsenkirchen.

The Guardian - Richard Williams
England have world stage and how the world laughs

...England, however, are a squad with pretensions to win the World Cup for the first time in 40 years and they should be deeply worried by the continuing poverty and confusion of their play. They have now produced 360 minutes of football without suggesting for more than a moment that they belong in the same tournament as Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Ghana, Holland and Australia.

Those teams have all shown, either consistently or in extended bursts, the ability to play football that depends on accuracy, imagination and teamwork. They have demonstrated character, intelligence and dynamism. England, by dismal contrast, lack personality either as a team or, except in so far as some of them have achieved celebrity status, as individuals. Even when they are visited by a rare moment of excellence, such as Joe Cole's goal against Sweden, they are incapable of building a performance on it. Sluggish in thought and movement, they appear to be making their games up as they go along.

...But Rooney's contribution, like David Beckham's free-kick, belonged to another match altogether. The desultory football from both sides matched the sultry afternoon, and the lack of urgency combined with the torrent of banal errors to try the patience of the 52,000 crowd. Long before the end England were indulging in habits that should be beneath their consideration, with Paul Robinson and Jamie Carragher booked for wasting time and Gerrard taking the ball to the corner flag to use up precious seconds in which, apparently, they had no desire to play football. This is so far out of keeping with the overall tone of the competition as to be thoroughly embarrassing to the coach, the players and the FA.

At the final whistle there was no real joy, only a sense of relief that England had been given yet another chance to redeem themselves and show, against all the evidence to date, that their presence among world football's elite is not to be ascribed to an extended streak of thoroughly undeserved good fortune.
[full article]