This is for you, Sandra. . . grrrrrr

We're all trying to get past England's loss, I know, and the fact that England continues to repeat history -- well beyond tragedy and well into farce -- is worth remembering. I, for one, lay a great portion of blame for this particular exit at Sven's feet. Sure, Lampard stank up the joint. Also, one would like to think that had Beckham not torn his Achilles, he would have played the captain's role in diffusing the situation that led to Rooney's sending off. Finally, the loss contained all the hallmark features of a typical England tournament: 1. The critical player (Rooney) gets injured before the tournament, putting everything up in the air, and putting the English players themselves on edge. 2. England gets to the quarters, not without a little drama, but they get there. 3. Said critical player gets red carded, and is sent off. 4. The quarterfinal match goes to penalties, which they lose.

It's just silly, how many times I've seen this script replayed.

But Sven's tactics played a huge role in their questionable play throughout the tournament: that is, Sven chose to bring a forward (Theo Walcott) he never intended to play (just insanity, at a World Cup), which forced him to use that ludicrous 3-5-1 formation once Michael Owen was injured. If you have the right forwards, you're scoring, and it doesn't go to penalties. Further, had Sven had more strikers in -- er, why sub Crouch with Carragher, when the match is likely to go to penalties?? -- they might not have bombed the penalties so badly. While Rooney is famous for his temper, and I don't forgive him for that, noone was there to get him the ball, and if there's one thing Rooney doesn't do, it's dive -- which he could've easily done during the play in question. He wants that ball, and will stay on his feet to fight for it and play on.

Having said that, then, it's come to my attention that some of my mates haven't seen the replay of this critical scene concerning his sending off, so I have to present this. (Thank you, Sandra, a Leicester lass, for making me break my silence -- it was hard to talk about for a couple of days there . . . though perhaps the rest of you aren't so grateful!) I am now to the point where I do look forward to the next three matches. . . if Germany and Portugal lose, that is . . . Bile churning. . . grrrrrr . . . and of course this is all a creative distraction from the fact that I defend my dissertation on Friday . . .

But let's take a moment to review:



Just galling. No doubt, Ronaldo cannot return to Man U.

Nice to see Alan Shearer again, though. . . (mmm).

And the qualifiers for Euro 2008 start in a month.