England fans were hoping that Sven Goran Eriksson would bring Wayne Rooney on as England struggled to a 1-0 win over the erratic South American team from Paraguay. England blamed their poor second half performance on the scorching heat in their shaky start to the World Cup.

The game was played in Frankfurt in front of a crowd of 48,000 excited people of which there were more than 35,000 hopeful England fans passionately supporting their country.

As soon as Paraguay kicked off England put them under pressure straight away and they had to play it back to their unfortunate keeper, who was shortly to be replaced due to a self-imposed injury. In the first few minutes England had most of the possession with a lively yet nervous looking Joe Cole who was immediately on a run down the left wing when he was tackled clumsily from which England won a free kick about 40 yards away from goal. Once again David Beckham was on form for the dead ball, and made a beautiful delivery into the box, which took a deflection off Paraguay's most experienced player Carlos Gamarra, who then scored an own goal in 2 minutes and 45 seconds, which gave England some confidence. England were soon kicking the ball about well and had a few chances to score another. However despite the great start they couldn't finish it off with the likes of Michael Owen not performing at his best and untypical Frank Lampard who had a few shots all of which ended up over the bar. Steven Gerrard played well throughout his appearance and once again put some great tackles in and did some good passing. I thought he was the man of the match but received a yellow card half way into the first half from the inconsistent Mexican referee. Just before the end of the first half Paraguay looked promising and looked like they would equalise on more than a few occasions.

When England came out for the second half they began to play sloppy and were not creating any chances. In response, Sven Goran Eriksson substituted Michael Owen in the 55th minute for Stuart Downing who made a few good runs and was useful but didn't turn the game around and create any major chances for the England team. After that Peter Crouch was left isolated upfront and very few chances were made after that. The robot would not be dancing today!

When Paraguay were attacking, the defence looked very strong with Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Gary Neville all looking confident and competent, with Ashley Cole looking generally good after coming back from injury, although a couple of wayward passes were noted in the second half. Also Paul Robinson had a very good game and looked very comfortable throughout, which gives both the fans and players confidence that England can go all the way.

The England fans were getting annoyed and their anxiety grew in the last half-hour as Paraguay were creating more and more chances and looked again like they were going to score an equalizer, the England fans started to chant "Rooney! Rooney!"

There was never a chance that Wayne Rooney would come on and play while he was watching the game from the bench, hopefully Wayne Rooney will be able to play in the last game of the group stages against Sweden and the whole nation is praying that he can get his fitness back up to scratch and that he doesn't injure his foot again by coming back too soon.

Like most young hopefuls, I would like to think that England have a really good chance to win the World Cup. However, my confidence is less strong based on yesterday's performance and I think we should at least reach the semi-final. I am worried that we lack an effective strike force up front and that Sven Goran Eriksson has made a mistake by taking the un-tested Theo Walcott who hasn't even played in the Premiership when he could have opted for a player such as Jermain Defoe who has pace, a good shot and the experience that is needed to play in the top flight competitions such as the World Cup.

At least the 1-0 game was a first win in an opening game of the tournament under the management of Sven Goran Eriksson. In the past England have a record of poor starts and despite their performance in Frankfurt, we all remain hopeful that this could still be the most successful World Cup for England since the glory days of 1966.

Sam's next comment - Trinidad and Tobago 15th June 06

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