World Cup Round of 16 - Unconvincing England Wins (England 1 - Ecuador 0)

Thank God I was catching this game at Queens with Cow, Matt and Pok, if not I would have gone to sleep at half time.

England won this game on the hour mark with a piece of freekick magic from Beckham to save Eriksson's blushes in yet another terrible display of soccer from the English.

Ecuador rarely threatened the England goal except in the first quarter hour when a horrible Terry header gifted the ball to Carlos Tonerio to face Robinson one on one. Only Ashley Cole's timely intervention deflected the ball onto the crossbar to save England from going one behind early.

Ecuador didn't deserve to win this game. They showed no urgency after going a goal behind, playing the ball around without purpose. Unfortunately, both teams lacked ideas, passion and imagination. Even with a victory, I doubt England would make it far in the tournament unless Eriksson changes his conservative tactics.

I don't understand why he put Rooney upfront alone without any support, and it was terribly obvious he was stranded up there with neither Beckham, Gerrard nor Lampard able to find him. To make matters worse, England was so devoid of ideas, they constantly pumped the ball over the Ecuador defence, hoping Rooney could latch on to it.

Against a poor Ecuador coach, Eriksson could have at least showed some adventure, but instead chose to play it save. He could at least have Crouch on at some point in the game, or played Lennon, whose pace could have troubled Ecuador.

And towards the dying minutes of the game, the disgusting English played keep ball at the opposition corner flag and I utterly hate teams that do that. Good thing for the English, Eriksson is leaving after this World Cup. He's been a 4 million pounds a year worth of rubbish for a team that promised so much and yet produced so little in terms of entertainment.