< England 1 Paraguay 0 >

England v Paraguay
Fantasy watch:
3 England players in action today…
Terry, Stevie and Mikey.
Stevie and Mikey were chosen, well, for sentimental reasons more than anything else…
Terry’s the only Chelsea player in my entire 23-man squad.
That’s because he happens to be the only Chelsea player I respect.
My brother has Terry, Stevie and Crouchy for this game.

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Half-time thoughts:
Hmm… compared to yesterday’s match between Germany and Costa Rica, this match has been a pretty boring and tight affair. Neither team has much space to work with, and thus it can get pretty dull. England clearly look the better team, but haven’t created that many clearcut chances either.

My fantasy players aren’t doing very well… Of course, in my opinion, they have to get an assist or a goal to do well! Mikey isn’t even in the game at all and Stevie has blasted so many shots way over the bar and gotten a yellow card. For my brother, his Crouchy… the ref is seemingly biased towards Crouchy! He keeps ruling that Crouchy has fouled the defender.

My brother doesn’t like this Paraguayan player… their number 13… Paredes. He has been bulldozing down almost every single one of the England players! And I don’t mean that as a compliment to him. He’s body-slamming them down, and often gets away with it.

I find watching England matches a real chore. Can you imagine what it’s like to support half the team and hate the other half?

For example, I was cheering on for England… telling the guy with the ball to “go go go!!” when he was near the goal. Then I heard the commentator say Lampard’s name and immediately I started screaming, “NO NO NO!”

And everytime England get a freekick or cornerkick, initially I was excited, thinking maybe Crouchy or Owen or Stevie can score, until I remember Beckham takes most of the set-pieces and immediately I start cursing him, wishing him bad luck.

It’s just tough.

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Full-time thoughts:
ARGHHHHH.
I feel as though I just wasted my time. It was a really dull but frustrating match. Dull because there wasn’t many chances created, and it was quite scrappy. 2nd half for England was just really messy. In the first half, at least they more or less dictated the game, but in the 2nd they were just all over the place.

So my fantasy team players didn’t do very well… I don’t know how they award points to defenders, so I can’t say much about how Terry did. But Stevie had no shots on target, hardly any crosses, and a yellow card. In fact, I think it was probably down to his role in the England lineup you know… in the 2nd half, he was only involved in defensive duties, and wasn’t really involved in the attacking… And Mikey… what can I say? He never really did anything, and was taken off early in the 2nd half. With Mikey around, the only way I expect him to get points is if he scores. He’s the sort of player who does practically nothing else except scoring. So if he doesn’t score, he hardly gets any points for doing anything else.

I thought Joe Cole was pretty good…
But eh… Downing doesn’t exactly impress me you know? There’re rumours about us signing him… to replace Harry? Err… okay, sorry. I’ve seen Downing play three times thus far, and each time he just sucked. I know he’s supposed to be good… and comparatively, I haven’t exactly seen much. But the little I’ve seen is just not impressive! I’m not being biased, ‘cause I admit Joe Cole’s good, but my brother also agreed with me that Downing isn’t very good. At least for this game. I can’t remember a single moment when he actually crossed the ball into the box, because he was always stopped by the right back. On one occasion, when he knocked the ball forward so he and the right back can compete in terms of pace for the ball, he just lost out. Oh well.

My brother got more and more worked up as the match progressed, because of what was happening to his Crouchy on the pitch. This is where the game was frustrating. THE REF IS JUST SO BLOODY HORRIBLE!!!!

WHAT THE HELL DOES HE HAVE AGAINST PETER CROUCH?!

Crouchy got caught for fouls so many times, even when he really looked like he did nothing at all. And then, he got the yellow card. GRRR… The ref was also horrible towards many of the England players. For example, Joe Cole won a header once when he had two Paraguayan players competing with him for the header, one in front of him and the other behind him. Where on earth is the foul he committed?

Maddening… but poor Crouchy… he was really a victim of bad refereeing.

Ahh, I sound like I was supporting England huh? I guess I mostly was, since obviously I have more favourite players in England than in Paraguay. I have one favourite player in Paraguay though! Roque Santa Cruz! The last time I saw him was in WC2002… so I’ve really missed him… Sadly I didn’t see too much of him today. He wasn’t involved much and watching with my brother and father naturally prevents me from switching to the player cam channels to try and “stalk” Santa Cruz or Owen… Hee.

Oh, just saw that Lampard is the official MOTM. Well… he was like a Stevie attacking… and those shots… stupid fat frank. Glad he didn’t score though. Yes, I’m bitter! I curse all England players except for the Liverpool ones and Mikey!

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FINAL SCORE

ENGLAND 1 PARAGUAY 0

Scorer for England: Gamarra (og 3)

Team for England: Robinson, Terry, Ferdinand, Neville, A Cole, J Cole (Hargreaves 82), Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen (Downing 56), Crouch

Team for Paraguay: Villar (Bobadilla 8), Caceres, Caniza, Gamarra, Toledo (Nunez 82), Acuna, Bonet (Cuevas 68), Parades, Riveros, Santa Cruz, Valdez

Other matches results:
Group B -
Trinidad & Tobago 0 Sweden 0

Group C -
Argentina 2 Ivory Coast 1
- argentina: Crespo (24), Saviola (38)
- ivory coast: Drogba (82)