According to the Independent, Sven Goran Eriksson somehow inspires "performances that defy comprehension, games that come with triumph and despair in equal measure." In a typical England game, with Sven at helm, fair is foul and foul is fair, "and last night was his defining act," the article said. Consider that: England played a great first half, finally passing the ball on the ground and keeping itJoe Cole scored one of the goals of the tournamentbut not before the team lost Michael Owen for the rest of the tournament in the opening moments of the game. The second half was a disaster defensively; Sweden made England look far more susceptible on set pieces than David Beckham regularly makes other teams look, and with little time to spare, England gave away what has to be the worst goal of the tournament from a set piece: a harmless looking long throw-in bounced twice (!) in the area as defenders looked on before bobbling off Henrik Larsson and into the net. It was pure ugliness made all the uglier when compared with England's two beautiful goals. But ... they won the group anyway. That said, England won't feel too comfortable with having exposed themselves so badly. As the article said, "The second half was an aerial bombardment from a Sweden team who won 12 corners in the match and seemed like they might score from all of them."

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