England 2-0 Trinidad and Tobago

Once again, England have a relatively indifferent performance. Once again, England get their three points in spite of themselves. They've qualified for the knockout stages (and a dream game with Germany?), so at the end of the day, I suppose I'm happy. Or at least satisfied. They do need to start attacking more, however. They'll have no chance if they don't improve quickly.

I watched the match at my local with another disappointingly small crowd. Noon on a weekday? The highlight of the day was that the guy on the stool next to me "accidentally" walked off on his bar tab.

So what should Sven do? As I see it, there are some concrete changes offensive that would help straight away. These are realistic and doable, as they take Sven's tactical stubbornness into account, and wouldn't make him stray too far from his overall plan.

1. Get Steven Gerrard off of his holding midfielder assignment. He plays on the right side with Liverpool, but Becks is Sven's right wing for England and that won't change. So involve Gerrard in the offense more, swapping roles with Frank Lampard, who's been spotty at best. When Gerrard scored yesterday, one was suddenly reminded that he was even playing. A world class talent shouldn't be allowed tobecome so invisible.
   
2. Drop Michael Owen and start Wayne Rooney. This is a difficult decision, but as much as I like Owen, he hasn't been playing up to his standard and doesn't appear to be fit. Starting Rooney, who surely isn't 100%, seems the better option, given the roster. England seemed to come alive when he replaced Owen with a half hour to go against T&T.
3. Get the left and right backs into the attack more often. A healthy Gary Neville should help things there. I'd like to see the "Cole Brothers" (Ashley and Joe) work together more fluidly.

It would be great to see them finally beat Sweden on Tuesday and sweep Group B.

Finally, Argentina has just given Serbia & Montenegro a 6-0 pummeling. Their attack was technically brilliant and they are really looking like the team team to beat for any teams with visions of hoisting the trophy on July 9. And the shots of Maradona whooping it up in the stands were very amusing. Can he really be clean and sober and still be so manic? I hope so....