MIKE HEWITT / Getty Images
Carlos Paredes of Paraguay wins ball from Steven Gerrard. |
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FRANKFURT, Germany – Somebody asked England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson about his team's chances of winning the World Cup – which, he admitted, is “our target” – following yesterday's yawner of a 1-0 victory against Paraguay in their Group B opener.
Eriksson grinned behind his round spectacles and began talking in measured tones about how the fitness levels of his players should increase over the monthlong tournament, how their crispness on the field would improve, how the weather might not be so hot.
He was speaking in the interview room underneath Frankfurt's World Cup stadium. The real answer, though, was still out on the field doing fitness work with the English players who didn't get in the game, pumping his legs between little yellow cones, going forward and then left and then right, starting and stopping to the commands of a trainer.
Eriksson's interview was broadcast on the stadium's giant screen, but the few thousand English fans who remained inside weren't watching it. They were transfixed on Wayne Rooney, with equal parts hope and trepidation.
The 20-year-old phenom was given the all-clear by team doctors earlier this week after breaking the metatarsal in his right foot in late April, but he spent yesterday's match wearing a yellow substitute's bib, glued to the second-to-last seat on England's bench. And until Rooney plays, if yesterday was any sort of barometer, the legitimacy of England's chances in Germany remain an ambiguous proposition.
The match's lone score came in the third minute, on a David Beckham free kick lofted into the penalty area that 35-year-old Paraguay captain Carlos Gamarra inadvertently headed into his own net. Five minutes later goalkeeper Justo Villar had to be substituted after sustaining a calf injury that likely will knock him out of the tournament, and frazzled backup Aldo Bobadilla instantly gave up an indirect free kick inside the penalty area for taking too much time before punting the ball.
“In the first 15 minutes we had some errors,” said Paraguay coach Anibal Ruiz, whose impoverished South American nation managed to reach the second round in the past two World Cups. “We tried to correct them quickly, and we were able to get better control. We were able to hold England back from scoring any more goals.
“I think we were in control.”
England went to extraordinary lengths preparing for yesterday's match, even finding out the Dutch farm where the grass for the World Cup fields was grown and ordering some itself – and having England's practice facility in Germany re-sodded with it. England even sent its own groundskeepers to Germany weeks ahead of the team to monitor its growth.
But the one thing England couldn't prepare for was the notoriously fickle German weather. For the past three weeks, it has been unseasonably cold, with rain and even snow in some areas. Yesterday: 84 degrees and sunny.
A perfect day for a boat cruise down the Rhine River looking at castles.
Not ideal conditions for a soccer team from England still trying to prove its 1966 World Cup title wasn't a fluke.
“The last minutes of the first half and long times in the second half, we suffered,” Eriksson said. “But in football, you suffer. It's good to see the team suffer and hang on.”
Added captain Beckham: “We let them pass the ball around too much. But we were exhausted.”
The heat also seemed to sap England's famed fans, who still draped their personalized flags over balcony railings and belted out “God save the Queen” but went uncharacteristically silent for long stretches. In the 72nd minute, with Paraguay effortlessly knocking the ball through the midfield, the Brit fans started up a new chant, louder than any of the others.
“Roooo-neeeey, Roooo-neeeey.”
Eriksson didn't flinch, leaving open the mystery of when Rooney will make his World Cup debut and whether, indeed, he'll make enough of a difference to elevate England from just another team in Germany to a legitimate World Cup contender.
It was the first time in World Cup history that a 1-0 match was decided by an own goal, and the earliest a goalkeeper has been subbed out.
“We were not lucky enough today,” said Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz, who overcame recent injury questions to last the entire 90 minutes. “Somehow we respected them too much in the beginning. We had doubts about our potential, but we did dominate during some parts of the match.
“I suppose a draw would have been a fair result. But it is not always fair what soccer has to offer you.”
Santa Cruz spoke near Paraguay's locker room underneath the stands. Outside on the field, in the lengthening shadows, Rooney pumped his legs between little yellow cones.
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com
