Given my vast experience with the international game at the highest levels, I feel qualified to question England's tactics. Supposedly today they were supposed to play at a higher level because Gary Neville would be returning at right back. He had a long-standing partnership with David Beckham on the right for Manchester United, and for that reason Beckham has always pushed for Neville to start for England and usually gotten his wish. The two of them used to overlap well, and Neville comes pretty far forward, which Beckham couldn't do this World Cup since he's past it and can't get beat anybody on the dribble, or get behind anybody off the ball either. Instead of bringing out his best, Becks was just invisible for most of the game, until he went out injured early in the second half.
Starting Beckham and Joe Cole on the wings, Lampard, Hargreaves, and Gerrard in central midfield, and Rooney alone up front meant arguably England was playing with 5 attacking midfielders and no strikers. Rooney's best touches were sending the ball forward into dangerous areas with nobody on the end of his passes, since he had no striker to play off of, Beckham can't get forward on the wings, and Gerrard and Lampard were trying to set Rooney up out of midfield. France plays a 4-5-1 but they have a scorer up front, they expect their wingers to come up and get on the back side of everything, and of the two defensive midfielders, Vieira comes forward out of midfield into the box to play off of the wingers, strikers, and playmaker. Consequently, they looked better when Aaron Lennon came in for Beckham because he's fast as hell and gets forward.
I came into this game wishing there was a way they could both lose, because I hate watching these teams. England's over-stimulated, energetic style means that when they come up against a team with speed and control, England are just out of control. Portuguese players have speed but can stop on a dime and can hook up on short, controlled passes in a confined area, so against this, England players get all fired up to chase somebody down and then slam into him when he stops makes an unexpected pass. Combine that with the Portuguese penchant for diving and cheap shots, and the game gets a bit rough. In my opinion, Cristiano Ronaldo's reputation cost him some calls, since he has such a reputation for diving and whining. In general this game was pretty flat, with very few really good chances created.
Of course, England never goes out because they lost to a better team, there's always some freak stroke of bad luck that costs them the trophy. There was Beckham's red card ('98), Ronaldinho's 'lucky' goal ('02), the hand of god ('86), the piece of sod that moved ('04), or at worst, some minor tactical decision like their formation was a bit off ('00). Fortunately they have two "if onlys" for this tournament, Beckham's injury and Rooney's red card. Ignore the fact that Beckham was totally useless for most of the tournament, and just assume he would have had the winning goal in the 83rd minute off a free kick taken by Frank Lampard in his absence, despite scoring only one free kick goal for England in the last 3 years.
Rooney was carded after three consecutive offenses, but really going after somebody's balls twice isn't the mark of a classy guy. After the whistle blew Cristiano Ronaldo came over to check on his teammate's testicles, and Rooney, who was in serious risk of being tossed, decided to make it official by shoving Ronaldo. Two more guys came in to join the argument with the ref, and both paused to give Ronaldo an extra shove. I hate that little bastard, but seriously what a total lack of class, which wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't coming from guys who constantly whine about how the rest of the world doesn't hold to the same honorable standard they do, and having 28 TV cameras on them kind of proves what a joke that is. Enough already, I'm even sick of complaining about it, much less watching it. (I have so many complaints about the inferiority of this world, and so little time to address it all.)
For their part, Portugal are dive-happy, classless cheap shot artists and Figo shouldn't have been on the field after his head-butt against Holland. Hugo Vianna got poked in the eye going for a ball, but sucked it up and kept fighting for the ball. He kept possession, and kept his feet until England took the ball back and started a rare fast counter-attack. Then suddenly his eye started bothering him again and he grabbed his face and fell over, meaning a sportsmanlike team would put the ball out of play so he could get treatment. England didn't buy his sudden relapse and ignored him. This whole tactic of stopping the game through fouling (Germany) or fake injury (Portugal) to get a chance to kill counterattacks and reorganize your defense is really starting to be a problem. Portugal has showed flashes of brilliance on their goals, but I've really not enjoyed watching them this tournament.
I was definitely impressed with Aaron Lennon, both for his play and for showing some class in a game that needed it. He went down in the box after a slide tackle by a Portuguese defender, killing one of England's best chances. The largely pro-England crowd went nuts, which is what I would do since it really looked like a penalty in real time. At the next stoppage in play a few seconds later, Owen Hargreaves got in the referee's face about it and got a yellow card for dissent, which is pretty poor sportsmanship. The only guy in an England shirt who didn't raise his arms and act as if he'd been robbed was Lennon, who just got up and ran back downfield. Lennon knew he hadn't been fouled, and the replay showed it was a clean tackle, so good for him, showing some sportsmanship with a whole generation of kids looking at him to know how they're supposed to act on the field. Lennon was later subbed out for Jamie Carragher, anticipating a penalty shoot-out, which turned out to be not such a brilliant game-winning decision.
On PKs, England just sucked, which is about par for the course. The other legendary horrible on PK teams are Italy and Holland, and the Dutch claim it's because they don't practice them because they think it's all down to luck and not skill. Sven-Goran Eriksson says England practice them constantly, but they're still 1-6 all-time to Holland's 0-5. The gold standard is Germany, who as a nation is around 90%, including their youth teams, women's teams, etc.
Anyways, 4 of the 5 Portuguese penalty takers faked out Paul Robinson by changing direction or hesitating to leave him flatfooted, even though Vianna put his off the post. Petit took a wide shot trying to get it past Robinson, who read that one all the way, so Portugal made 3 of the 5 they took. Cristiano Ronaldo, like the prissy little brat he is, did a double hesitation to force Robinson into just guessing, and then put it in the upper corner beyond reach while sending Robinson the other way anyways, so it was basically perfect, and that was the last kick that clinched it for Portugal.
England was a disaster, Ricardo read all four of their shots, and was only beaten by Hargreaves. Ricardo got a hand to that one, but Hargreaves had too much power on it for Ricardo to even slow it down. Lampard, who'd been taking crap shots all tournament, did the I'm too cool for school slow jog and then took a weak shot well within Ricardo's reach with no misdirection, basically a shot that would only work if Ricardo just chose to dive the wrong way, which he didn't do. Gerrard took a better shot, higher up with a lot more on it (like Hargreaves) which would have worked if he could have frozen Ricardo for a split second, but he just ran up and plunked it. I think they just played it expecting that half the time the keeper would dive the wrong way, so you just put the shot on target, expect 2-3 to go in for each team, and hope that the lucky break goes your way. The standard of English goalkeeping has plummeted in the last decade relative to the rest of the world, so this is probably how English keepers play it, figuring it's a 50/50 chance with no skill involved.
The one exception was Jamie Carragher, who came in specifically to take a PK, and thought he'd be tricky by walking back from placing the ball all slowly, and then whirl and run back to take it quickly, to get Ricardo out of his rhythm. Ricardo didn't even bother to go for it, and just stood there with his hands up looking at the ref while the ball went into the net. Because you can't take your shot until the ref blows his whistle. Carragher could potentially have gotten a yellow card for that, and had to go back and retake his kick. The second time he tried to hesitate so he could change direction while Ricardo dove the wrong way. Unfortunately, when Carragher pulled out of his fake kick, turned his body the other way, and looked up to take the kick, Ricardo was on his feet ready for it, and now knew exactly where it was going. I see why he would be England's secret weapon on penalties, since he seemed to be the only guy who figured out Ricardo was going to read their hips to know which way to dive, not just flop over whichever way he felt like.
Portugal reaches the semi-finals for the first time since England'66, where they will play France.
Portugal* 0-0 England
(3-1)
Red Card: Rooney ('62)
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