Room for improvement to England's late show

BADEN BADEN, Germany, June 16 England booked their place in the World Cup second round, welcomed back Wayne Rooney and gave themselves plenty of room for improvement in their 2-0 win over Trinidad&Tobago.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's men were teetering on the verge of an embarrassing draw Yesterday in Nuremberg before Peter Crouch redeemed himself with a far post header in the 83rd minute.

Steven Gerrard's superb left-foot strike in stoppage time made the scoreline respectable and Rooney's half-hour seemed to give England a real psychological lift after a near seven-week absence with a broken foot.

Helped by the cooler conditions, the performance was certainly better than their laboured 1-0 win over Paraguay in sweltering Frankfurt five days before.

However, there was still cause for concern as England prepared for their final Group B game against Sweden on Tuesday in Cologne -- principally in attack.

Yesterday's evidence, all of England's regular goalscorers are either lacking form, fitness or both.

Michael Owen is the principal worry, getting substituted early in the second half of both England's games and looking dangerous in neither.

Sidelined after a foot injury on December. 31, the fact that he has played only once for Newcastle United this year is reflected in a real lack of sharpness in front of goal -- despite plenty of promising signs in training.

Though his record for England brooks no argument, with 36 goals in 79 games, England need him to find his true form if they are to go all the way to Berlin on July 9.

The usually-dependable Frank Lampard, who top-scored for champions Chelsea last season with 20 goals and hit three at Euro 2004, missed a hatful of chances.

Lampard had scored 10 times in his previous 22 England games before the tournament and Eriksson will certainly hope his finishing against the Soca Warriors was just a blip.

Crouch, though he scored the vital goal, had been disappointing for the preceding 82 minutes; his low point being a mis-directed volley from a David Beckham cross that was worthy of any Sunday league pub team.

Rooney, whose injury soap-opera is at last drawing to a close, is, of course, a special case.

There were some nice passes and plenty of runs, but little more could be expected from a 20-year-old who had hobbled away from Stamford Bridge on crutches with a double metatarsal fracture on April 29.

REUTERS

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