World Cup, 6/20

Hey everyone. I love watching England play, so I spent my morning anticipating the big match with Sweden.

IN PROGRESS, LATE GAMES:
*England and Sweden, 2-2: England moved ahead 2-1 late on a perfect header from Gerrard, assist to hated Chelsea mid-fielder Joe Cole. Then SWE F Fred Ljunberg scored in the 90th friggin' minute to force the draw. What a mess for the Brits.

England wins Group B and will play Ecuador on Sunday morning. Sweden finished second in the group, and gets a fun match against Germany on Saturday morning. Those will be elimination games.

F Micahel Owen seemed to hurt a knee in the second minute. He's out. Waiting on an assessment of the injury. In his place is Robo-Flop, aka Liverpool striker Peter Crouch. In the EPL, he celebrates goals with a dumb robot dance.

This does not look good for England.
(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

*Paraguay up on Trinidad/Tobago, 2-0: Pass.

*PROGRAMMING NOTE: The daily matches no longer are staggered. There are two game times per day, and two games are played concurrently. I have to choose. I'm sticking with the England match this afternoon, and will get periodic updates from trusted correspondent Bradley Handwerger of Decatur Daily fame.
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TODAY'S EARLY GAMES
*Germany def. Ecuador, 3-0: Another butt-kicking, though this one came against a pretty goood side. Ecudaor didn't have the speed to stay with Klose, who scored twice. After his first goal, Klose ran to the side and flipped. Check out the pic below. Germany wins the group, though Ecuador moves into the knock-out round by finishing second in Group A.


Apologizes to Ozzie Smith, of course.
(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

*Poland def. Costa Rica, 2-1: Good for Poland. They played awfully against Ecuador i n the opener, but played very well in the 1-0 loss to Germany last week. Finally a win today. There's talk of replacing the coach, though this team seemed fine to me. It just was thrust into a tough group this time. No harm done.