Day 7: Trinidad & Tobago vs. England

Trinidad & Tobago 0 -- England 2

#21 PETER CROUCH (England) 83'
#4 STEVEN GERRARD (England) 91+'

A charactersitic trait of this World Cup is that teams that were thought to be cake-walks were not, wlays giving heartwarming performances and taking the fight to the other side. Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana, Australia, and Togo to name a few, but the one team that has made a great impression with its legions of noisy fans and upbeat attitude is the Trinidad & Tobago team. They gave Sweden a run for their money in the first round of round-robin games and held the strong Swedes to a draw while being one man down. Today's performance against England was very similar to their opener against Sweden. The English were made to work very hard for their three points today as the Carribbean nation held them at bay for a good 83 minutes when a David Beckham cross found the lanky Peter Crouch who headed in the opener. A minute into stoppage time Steven Gerrard unleashed an unstoppable strike that sealed the deal for England and saw them through into the next round.

T&T should not be too disappointed in their performance as they showed great heart and spirit in holding off two great teams and they had to hold on for just a wee bit longer to ensure another point but more importantly another upset draw. Alas, the last minute goal, that has been the curse of so many teams in this World Cup, Poland, Saudi Arabia just to name a few have been at the receiving end of the curse. England ought to be really concerned over their performance as they have shown little sparks but no real collective form. Is it that the English are going to peak as opposed to have past their peak? We never will know until the game against Sweden.