By Myles Palmer
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England 1 Brazil 2
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Owen 23 Rivaldo 45 Ronaldinho 50.
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RON ATKINSON, what a buffoon!
Five minutes into the second half Paul Scholes gave away a typically stupid free-kick.He clatters into Kleberson 30 yards out and 10 yards in from the touchline.
Ronaldinho sees Seaman four yards off his line. A dozen players line up expecting a cross but Ronaldinho clips the ball perfectly into the postage stamp, just under the bar-Nayim from 30 yards.
And Big Ron says,”The two most surprised people there, Clive, are the goalkeeper-certainly, because that got up in the air, that carried a long old way through the air-and the kicker. He’s just playing that. Nobody’s gonna convince me he intended that.”
Ron, you should retire. You embarrass yourself every week. You are a fat, bald, old bluffer.
Ronaldinho was always going to chip Seaman.
Watch the replay: Ronaldinho’s eyes never looked at his own players. He only looked at the goal and the ball. He aimed that ball towards the top corner because he knew he could surprise Seaman.
Seaman had been injured after 42 minutes. He caught a high ball,fell, held it well- and his legs whiplashed up behind him,causing a traumatic pain in his back. If he was not fit he should NOT have come out for the second half.
Becks and Sol both said the Ronaldinho goal was a fluke. Watch it again lads.
Big Phil proved today that he is a good coach who knows what he is doing. He dropped Juninho for Kleberson, which gave him more bite in midfield. We saw 23 minutes of sparring but nothing to suggest that England could score.
Then a blunder by Lucio, who panicked when Owen got near him, just as Martin Laursen did, as Pochettino did. Heskey played a probing ball down the middle and it hit Lucio on the thigh and broke sweetly for Owen, who firedpast Marcos from 13 yards.
1-0 to Engerland – 23 minutes.
Brazil’s equaliser came in first-half stoppage time.
Beckham jumped over the ball to avoid a Roberto Carlos tackle on the touchline, Roque Junior kept the ball in play and stroked it infield, Kleberson’s tackle won the ball from Scholes, and Ronaldinho picked up the loose ball in the centre circle and cruised down the middle and as Ashley Cole came across the kid bamboozled him with a stepover & spurt and gave Rivaldo a pass so perfect that he was able to shoot comfortably past Seaman for 1-1.
Ronaldino had two options : Ronaldo was unmarked on his left, five yards ahead of Danny Mills and in a good scoring position.Good scuffling, good move, good finish.
Only surprise: the goal came from a move down the middle,not the flank.
After the Ronaldinho goal for 2-1 England ran out of energy, ideas ,tactics,everything. They had two more rest days than Brazil but they wilted, faded badly.
Sven’s substitutions? He put on like for like, so it didn’t change anything.
After 55, Dyer for Sinclair, on the left. Dyer is not match fit and cannot play on the left.
After 58, RONALDINHO was sent off for a forward’s tackle that went over the ball onto the ankle of Danny Mills. The trigger-happy Mexican ref Ramos Rizo Felipe has now sent off four players in three games.
After 70, Ronaldo was knackered so Edilson came on for him.
After 79, Vassell for Owen, Sheringham for Ashley Cole.
All irrelevant, made no difference.
Brazil had gone a goal down, scored twice, lost a man and played out the last half hour easily with ten men.
England were revealed as the team of journeymen I always knew them to be.
For once I did not argue with Peter Reid, who said,”They were better than us today. We were second best all over the park.”
After Denmark, anything else was a free ride for Sven. Because nobody will blame a young team for losing to Brazil in a World Cup quarter final.
But there are regrets because we never had a go.
In 1990, England had a go against Germany in extra time. In 1998 in St Etienne we outplayed Argentina with ten men and lost on penalties. Here we lacked leadership, initiative,inspiration.
Maybe it’s because Sven plays Italian tactics with English players.Sit back, keep it tight, hit long balls, get a goal,defend, hope for another goal on the break.
Svengland are far too Italian for me, I’m afraid.
The Gazza-DesWalker-StuartPearce-ChrisWaddle team of 1990 was far better than this team because it used the players in the right way.
This team uses Scholes in the wrong way. He was far too deep.
We didn’t put our game together. But what is our game? Does anybody know what our game is? We competed for 50 minutes, then collapsed into oblivion.
We never pressed them, we never had any ideas in the last third and WE NEVER EVEN BOMBARDED THEM IN THE LAST TEN MINUTES, even though Brazil are vulnerable in the air.
Marcos never had a save to make!
One with his feet in the first half.
Costa Rica had six good chances against Brazil and Belgium had eight. We had none.
Sven, so far, has given us an efficient, workanlike England team. He has built a good back four – not much else.
We were rubbish against Sweden, played well to beat a repressed, static Argentina, never looked like scoring against Nigeria, and were handed a gift-wrapped 3-0 by Denmark.
Then we competed with Brazil for 50 minutes, helped by a gift goal.
FACE IT : We lost to a technically superior team.
It was like watching Arsenal v Deportivo La Coruna.
21st June 2002.