Mice that almost roared

They say a win, is a win, is a win. But for England, waiting until the 82nd minute of play to score at their second game at the World Cup, has no doubt given many of their rabid followers something to ponder.

England took on a team from Trinidad and Tobago today that almost slew a dragon as large as any that the followers of St. George might have faced.

T and T as they’ve become known fondly as, is the smallest country to ever play in a World Cup match and today they made up in heart what they may lack in geography and population.

If not for a saving kick by English defender John Terry in the latter stages of the first half, the lads from T and T would have been going into the dressing room up one nil and no doubt unleashing a river of criticism from the British press over the lack of effort from their home side. Not to mention the cries of anguish from the faithful back home.

In the first half of the match the English showed no imagination in their play, they squandered many scoring chances with shots high, shots wide and made frequently poor decisions in head manning the ball out of their end of the field. Frank Lampard had a particularly bad first half as he had far too many chances to score goals only to see the ball drift far wide or far high. Only David Beckham seemed to have any kind of control over the ball, launching a number of crosses into the scoring area which were promptly marked as worthless, as a following up shot would miss the mark.

As the first half ended it was a nervous and confused looking English side that headed to their dressing room to regroup.

As the second half began, it was seemingly much of the same for the English, more missed opportunities and some rather tentative play from their biggest names.

There was a bit of an emotional spark for the English followers with the much anticipated arrival of Wayne Rooney back on the field for England taking place as he replaced a struggling Michael Owen early in the second half. Rooney’s appearance provided some interesting play, but in the end he didn’t really factor in any of the scoring, patrolling his wing for the remainder of the game getting the occasional touch of the ball.

The substitutions that seemed to have more of an effect for the English attack was that of Aaron Lennon into the midfield and Stewart Downing, their arrival seemed to change the style of play from the midfield and allowed the English squad to spread out the T and T defenders giving them a better chance to score.

In fact, the bulk of the play in the second half took place in the Caribbean team’s end of the field. As the play went on, television fans were treated to the view of a bewildered Sven-Goran Eriksson looking quite pensive on the sideline.

By 45 minutes of play his and the rest of the English fans look would be rather puzzled, by 60 minutes they would look perturbed and at 80 minutes perhaps just a little panic stricken.

However, fortunately for the nerves of the English at the 82nd minute of play the tide finally turned the way of the English. The very, very tall Peter Crouch took a beauty of a pass from David Beckham and launched it into the T and T net, giving the English their first actual goal of the tournament (the first game featured an own goal by Paraguay which gave the English the win).

At that point the English fans heaved a huge sigh of relief and began the celebrations. Steven Gerrard followed up that goal 11 minutes later as he scored the second English goal in time added on, giving England their second victory in the tournament and a guarantee of moving on to the next round of 16.

For Trinidad and Tobago it was an amazing effort and something for the fans of soccer to wonder over for a few years to come. Even the most casual of soccer fans probably recognizes the names of the English squad, stars such as Rooney, Beckham, Cole, Owen and Ferdinand. But for T and T, outside of their captain Dwight Yorke, these were the mystery men of the World Cup.

Perhaps though they are all a little better known today than they were prior to kick off, one thing is certain they certainly will be remembered by the English squad, a reminder of what disaster looms at every turn of this World Cup.