Own goal enough for unimpressive England

England 1 - Carlos Gamarra (3) own goal
Paraguay 0

In one word: disappointing. That’s how I will describe England’s opening game against Paraguay earlier today.

In all, in the first 45 minutes, they conjured to score an early goal – albeit an own goal, played a possessive game without any real penetration and made Paraguay look easy.

However in the second half, Paraguay emerged with more purpose, made some threatening runs through the middle and made England very uncomfortable.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson blamed the wilting heat for their performance but was nevertheless happy with the points.

However I must question his tactical decision to take off Michael Owen in the 55th minute, to be replaced by Steward Downing. That changed whatever potency England had up front as Joe Cole who was pushed up to play alongside Peter Crouch had no understanding with the tall striker.

Sven could have pushed Steve Gerrard further up to look for goals, as he had tested him playing that role in the last two warm up matches. However the formation England played meant Gerrard was just sitting in front of his defenders. Frank Lampard had some chances to forage forward and to be fair he had two shots on target.

Ardent England fans should not be disheartened though as this team has a history of making slow starts to major tournaments. So watch out Trinidad and Tobago on June 15.