“They’re crossing the ball to their big, strong strikers… what do we do?” — John Terry to Sven at halftime during the England vs. Sweden game.

Well, what can I say about England topping the group? All they needed against the Swedes was a draw and boy did they get one… just.

Another poor performance, but this time not by the strikers. An excellent goal from J. Cole capped an impressive display by the Chelsea bench warmer. No, this result can rest firmly on the shoulders of the English defence. Rio and John were out-muscled by a very ordinary Swedish attack. They seemed to lack height or speed to control players that had not previously challenged Paraguay and T&T.

Yes, one could argue that the Swedes had urgency about them as they had to get something out of the game, but they showed exactly what was expected and played the very typical English style game, one that Rio and John should have dealt with comfortably. With most of the Swedish team plying their trade in the Premiership there should not have been any surprises. In fact, with Allback leading the line — a player that failed to make an impact in the Aston Villa first team — the defensive duo should have looked impenetrable, with clearing up set pieces being their bread and butter.

The decision to remove Ferdinand from the game (due to either injury or because of his below-par performance) was a good one, but one that saw Sol Campbell come on. Sol is a player that is much more dominant in the air than Rio but unfortunately his first task was to defend a corner and one that saw him lose his player in the box, costing England a goal.

Well, England have topped their group and in doing so avoid Germany in the next round. Hopefully someone can tell Sven that Ecuador play a quick-passing South American style game. This way there should be no surprises again. Lets hope that they don’t do anything crazy like attack, otherwise England could be home in time to see the quarter finals from the comfort of their local pub.

In other news, Holland U21 played very well against Argentina’s second 11 in their meaningless encounter. Holland proper will now face an on-fire Portugal side. This whets the appetite further for the world game. Argentina should have little trouble against an ordinary Mexico side.