Yesterday, a Rooney-less England with a formation again of 4-4-2 played a first half of dazzling incompetence against Trinidad & Tobago with a raring and fired-up Wayne Rooney on the bench and expected to play in the last part of the game. England has now secured a spot in the knockout stages of the competition but they need to beat Sweden if they want to top the group.

Once England got their second game of the World Cup underway in the heat of the impressive Nuremberg stadium, they were once again struggling to perform at anything like their best with the likes of Michael Owen, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch all underachieving in the first half by missing several easy chances. England once again had most of the possession and the midfield doing their part like David Beckham putting super crosses in and Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard having good shots but unfortunately didn't go in.

England were dominating play and were creating good chances but the strikers (Peter Crouch and Michael Owen) were unable to finish any of these off. At the end of the first half England had had 16 shots without scoring compared to the 5 shots by the enthusiastic Trinidad team. Paul Robinson generally had a comfortable game but very uncharacteristically had a moment of indecision that very nearly led to disaster. Trinidad had a shot that went past the keeper and would have scored had it not been for John Terry who pulled an extraordinary and vital clearance off the line, which saved England from the humiliation of going down 1-0 to the unknown opposition.

At the start of the second half the players were clearly getting anxious and annoyed along with the fans who were also getting worried and stressed and started to chant "ROONEY-ROONEY". In the 57th minute, Sven Goran Eriksson made the change that the whole of the nation wanted to see, he took off Jamie Carrigher and Michael Owen replacing them with Aaron Lennon and Wayne Rooney respectively. As expected, the emergence of the young England talisman generated a massive welcome from the England fans, not only in Nuremberg, but no doubt across the pubs, clubs and living rooms of the whole of the UK.

With Rooney and his metatarsal on the pitch, the England team looked a lot more confident with Aaron Lennon making some good runs on the right in front of David Beckham. England suddenly appeared to be far more progressive in their play, and appeared to raise the game considerably. In the 82nd minute, Aaron Lennon passed the ball back to David Beckham who put a cross into the back post with the laser-guided precision that we are all getting accustomed too. In a carbon copy of one of the three goals scored in the recent friendly against Jamaica, Peter Crouch, (the man the Germans refer to as "the goal post") was at hand to head the ball into the back of the net. The sighs of relief were evident amongst the team and their manager, as England finally got the goal that they had been threatening from the start.

In the first minute of extra time, Steve Gerrard once again did what he does best and rifled a 25 yard shot into the back of the next. The luckless Shaka Hislop no doubt felt that lightening does indeed strike twice!

You cannot take away the spirit and robust defence of the Trinidad and Tobago team. They were extremely tight and Dwight York was all over the pitch with a mission in mind.

England face there hardest opponents yet in the next game against Sweden with a team of top footballers including Arsenal's Freddie Ljungberg who again had another fight in his training camp like the incident in the Japan World Cup.

The England - Sweden game will take place in the city of Cologne on the 20th of June at 8:00pm

Good look England, based upon you current performance, you'll need it!!!!.

Sam's next comment - Sweden 20th June 06

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