By Myles Palmer
Sven-Goran Eriksson once managed Gothenburg.
I vaguely remember the way Gothenburg played back then.
Gothenburg hit some great diagonal balls. They were forceful, took the initiative wherever possible – nothing fancy.
That was my fleeting impression.
Sven, I think, believes in the geometry of penetration and the arithmetic of percentages.
I was one of the first to figure out that Sven’s England would play an hour of power football.
If England are not winning after 60 or 65, they will switch to Plan B : Sheringham and Fowler.
Or maybe Plan C : Joe Cole.
It was obvious stuff, and many hacks have been writing that in recent weeks, and today. Some slag it off as long ball, Route 1.
England don’t play Route 1. It’s not flick-on football.It’s just energetic channnel-running by Owen, Vassell and Heskey, trying to stretch their back four.
Myself, I don’t mind that approach because it is realistic.
I knew long before Sven got the job that we lack skill, lack flair, lack Latin technique, lack craft, lack the bits and pieces of disguise and shuffle that allow you to hold the ball long enough and create openings with moves of eight passes or more.
I’ve said this many times:Having watched Portugal
train, having watched Bulgaria, Croatia,Argentina, Dynamo Kiev,Sampdoria and many other teams training – they are FAR,FAR MORE SKILFUL than us.
We are clumsy by comparison, pedestrian.
If you watched England train after watching Argentina train we would look like a pub team.
But we are good at competing, winning, at stopping them showing us their superior skills.Very good at scoring first, at battling back from 1-0 down. We have more heart than most of them.
Trouble is, Sweden are like us. They play Swenglish football.
They love the way we play and when theiur Arctic winter comes they watch our league games live on TV.Have done for 30 years.Can’t live without it. They export players here and they fit in well.
The two main influences on Swedish football, historically, are Germany and England.
So they play a methodical, robust 4-4-2 game.
PREDICTION?
England should beat Sweden by one goal.
If Beckham can give us 80% of Beckham for 80 minutes that might be enough.
But I have to admit : when the draw was made this game had 1-1 written all over it.
Kieron Dyer is our Ljungberg, but he won’t start the game.
Sweden will try to hit Allback early, try to hit diagonal balls to Henrik Larsson, get him one on one with Sol or Rio. He’s nippy and brave and people are very keen to see what the Celtic ace can do in this game.
Owen Hargreaves is the Alan Ball of 2002. A late arrival, fiery,focused, a good short-ball man with tons of stamina, a tenacious terrier who can cover every blade of grass.
How will it go? Who knows?
Ashley Cole and Beckham will be rusty. Seaman could get found out.Heskey could plod or terrorise.
Michael Owen could be good and not score.Or bad and score two goals. We just don’t know.
But I hope Sven sticks around for 2006.
He is on a steep learning curve. He has never played in a World Cup. He has never coached in a World Cup. He has never coached in any international tournament.
But Tord Grip has. He was Sweden’s No.2 in USA 94.
It’s a 10.30 a.m. kick-off, which is more viewer-friendly than the 7.30 for Cameroon last week.
When Sky presenter Richard Keys said, “England will make six changes – among them Trevor Sinclair” I thought, “Oh , no!I’m going back to bed!”
We did OK in that 2-2 draw, although the press said we were awful. Many people expect too much, but I’m not one of them.
Until further notice, count me among the realists.
Like Sven and Tord, I know how good we are and how bad we are.Unlike them, I often say how bad we are.
Enjoy!
Saturday June 1st 2002.