World Cup Day Seven

I knew I wasn't going to have time to watch any of the games today, so I just followed the game logs on the BBC website. Brief observations:

* Ecuador! I guess that whole thing about winning at altitude turned out to be kind of overrated, huh? Not that Costa Rica are the greatest out there but Poland aren't awful. I guess the real test will be the German game. If Ecuador don't lose the game, they'll actually win that group, which is kind of crazy when you think about it.

* How much can it possibly suck to have absolutely nothing to play for? Costa Rica and Poland are both eliminated and they have to play each other, which means they don't even get to play the role of spoiler. I guess they can avoid trying to finish last. Costa Rica are on no points and -7 GD, which by my count currently puts them dead last in the Cup.

* That entire Group B has been pretty uninspiring, huh? Kinda sad when your most exciting game is a 0-0 draw. England are through despite not looking great at all. You have to give the edge to Sweden to be the second team, as the chalk would have dictated, but Trinidad and Tobago are, shockingly enough since they have yet to score a goal, still in it. They need to win, have England beat Sweden, and make up three goals in the process (and even then that would only draw them dead-even with Sweden, so really they'd want to make up four if possible). Considering the level of scoring in this group so far, I'm doubting that one.

* This absolutely has to be the most talented England team in at least a generation, so you have to wonder why they look so bad at times. I think it comes back to the all-star team problem. These players don't play together that much all year, but even when they do, the "get as many stars into the lineup as possible" method presents some problems since Rooney and Owen are totally different types of forwards and they don't start a single holding midfielder (not a natural one at any rate). They've also had all kinds of second-half problems under Eriksson (see: 2002 World Cup, especially games against Argentina and Brazil), which at least they squashed a little today. That comes when Eriksson suddenly yanks the stars in the midfielder and throws in a bunch of defense as long as England have a lead, however slim. It's fashionable to bash the manager in England, and he's invited plenty of it on himself, but no matter how you feel about his extracurriculars, there is little denying that he is overly cautious at times. A team with this much talent, especially on offense, shouldn't sit back so much. Does Brazil?

* An England-Germany round of 16 game sounds pretty good if you're a soccer fan, doesn't it? Maybe not so much if you're a fan of those two teams, though. Despite Ecuador's early success, I'm sure England fans would rather their team face the South Americans than the home team.