Bored and Frustrated

Beckham celebrates his goal by preparing to blow chunks...

Let me make this perfectly clear; if England had played anybody other than Ecuador in the round of 16, they'd be going home. This is a team that had very few ideas today offensively. That worked out for them, as they played an Ecuadorian team that had ZERO ideas offensively today. W/ the exception of his brilliant free kick, and a soon-to-be famous picture of his on-field vomiting, David Beckham was once again invisible. England's wing play is supposed to be a huge advantage for them, but so far it's been non-existent. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard also need to step up their game, and it looks like Wayne Rooney could use some help up top. Defensively, England will be able to stay in every game, as they're only giving up 2 or 3 chances per game. Against stronger competition, that might be enough for the opposition. This 2006 England team is eerily similar to the Argentine team of 1990 and Italian team of 1994,where they played JUST well enough to keep winning and find themselves in the Final.

Ecuador, after starting out in such great fashion the first 2 games, crashes out after 2 straight dismal performances (they rested several players for the Germany game, so I'll give them a pass for that). Other than Tenorio's one v one opportunity against Robinson in the 1st half, the boys in yellow seemed content to play slow, methodical soccer, rarely venturing forward. At times, it looked like they were playing for extra time, hopefully then taking advantage of the tremendous heat, and maybe even willing to take their chances in penalties. I just think that if they tried to force the issue a little bit, they could have created more against an English team that was noticeably dog tired in the final 15 minutes. However, they're now going home, but they should be proud of their overall performance in the tournament.

As for game 2, well, at least I got the score right, just had the teams reversed. They'll be talking about this one for a long time to come in both Portugal and Holland. First, what initially looked like a great game was soon ruined by shoddy officiating, poor coaching decisions, and a reinforcement in the stereotype that too many soccer players are the biggest wussies on the planet.

1. Officiating - For all of the great soccer we've seen so far, this tournament might be remembered for the officiating. Unfortunately, it's playing too big of a hand in matches, and this gentleman from Russia lost control of the game and then made the players pay for it, to the tune of 4 red cards and 16 yellows. I'm not sure how to fix this, but that's FIFA's job, not mine. I'm here to 2nd guess and critique. :) All I know is that, once again, England gets a big break, as they'll play a Portuguese team that'll be short-handed at least 2 starters, maybe a 3rd if Ronaldo is unable to shake off the injury that forced him from the game in the first half. Heck, even if Holland had come back to win, they'd be down 2 starters as well. England, for as bad as they're playing, are actually staring the semifinals square in the face...

2. Coaching - Portugal's Costinha committed at least 3 or 4 fouls worthy of yellow cards in the 1st half alone. Scolari, after seeing his player barely escape an ejection late in the first half, left the player on rather than subbing him, and the undisciplined midfielder saw red 2 minutes later. I understand he had already used a sub on Ronaldo, but he had to have seen the direction the game was heading, and known Costinha was not long for the game. Now Portugal goes into the England game w/ as many as 3 starting midfielders out of action. As for Marco Van Basten, he should probably go on a long vacation, and fax his resignation from wherever he is. I understand his unhappiness w/ Ruud van Nistelrooy's play recently, but once Portugal went down a man and played more conservatively, there was no way Holland was going to get in behind them. Ruud's size, strength, and ability to hold the ball would have been a tremendous advantage in the 2nd half. What made it worse was that the guy starting in place of Ruud, Kuyt, was basically an oxygen thief on the field today, adding little except for the occasional dive, which leads me to...

3. This whole "Please help me, I've been shot!" routine being perpetrated by too many players in too many games. Want to know another reason soccer hasn't caught on here in the U.S.? Because of the crap we saw in both of today's games (not so much England as was Ecuador), plus the Ghana game against the U.S. on Thursday. I've already had some non-soccer friends give me grief about it, particularly watching the U.S. game. Listen, I understand it's a part of the game, but does it really have to be? Faking an injury in the hopes of getting a player on the other team booked or sent off is just plain wrong. Doing it for the purpose of time-wasting and delaying or breaking up another team's rhythm is also frustrating. But trust me, I'm not the only one who's tired of it. I got a phone call from a professional coach on Friday who thinks FIFA should implement a rule that if they bring out the stretcher, you must sit out at least 3 minutes. I can hear you purists shrieking in horror, but let's give it a try to see what happens. Sure. it's a pipe dream, but as you can tell, I'm frustrated. Portugal/Holland could have/should have been an absolute classic, but it was ruined by the various problems I've raved about for the past few paragraphs.

Believe it or not, I still think this has been a great tournament so far, it's just that as we get to the later rounds, and more and more star players are sitting because of yellow and/or red cards, I think it'll take some of the shine off the potential classic matchups we'll soon see.

Thoughts? Post 'em and let me know.

See you tomorrow.