New Swedish flop reveals England’s woes

England’s inability to beat Sweden for 38 years is a clue why it has won only one soccer title. And that was even longer ago.

If it can’t beat one of the middle-range teams in world soccer, how is it going to beat the likes of Brazil and Argentina and win the World Cup for the first time since 1966?

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team twice threw away the lead in Tuesday’s group game against the Swedes in Cologne. Although the 2-2 tie meant England achieved the target of finishing atop the group standings and avoided playing host Germany in the next round, the performance showed up even more problems.

Traditionally, England is strong at set-piece soccer. Corners and free kicks with David Beckham as the prime provider are one of its main sources of goals. That means England should also be good at defending against corners and long throws.

Guess how Sweden scored its goals.

Eriksson was horrified that a team with so many players who are strong in the air — John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher — should allow Sweden to score from a corner and a long throw-in.

Marcus Allback was allowed a free chance off a corner and his glancing header flew past two defenders on its way into the net via the top of Ashley Cole’s head. That was 1-1.

After Steven Gerrard had made it 2-1 five minutes from the end, it looked as if England was about to beat the Swedes for the first time since a 3-1 victory at Wembley in 1968.

Tags: World Cup