Winning Start

The pundits wanted to pull England apart after their 'disappointing' 1-0 win but personally I'm of the opinion that 3 points is all that matters.

What I do tend to look for though is the worst performing player in the side. After all a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

Traditionally Paul Scholes wins the award but since he's improved the England side by retiring from it, I'll have to look elsewhere.

My traditional second-worst player is Michael Owen as he's had a habit of jogging around uselessly in the middle of the park but he looked pretty good today - especially considering he still needs a couple of games to get back to his sharpest.

Third worst is often Gary Neville (Except in Euro 2004 when he carried David Beckham through the whole tournament) but like Beckham he seems to be in the mindset that this is his international swansong and it showed with a great performance.

As a result of this I've had to pick Ashley Cole as the worst player of the game. In fairness to him he's also still getting back from a lengthy lay off but unlike Owen he doesn't have as great a margin for error.

He played better today than he did for Arsenal in Paris but improvement is needed from him against T&T if he plans to prevent his clubmate Ljungberg from turning him inside-out in the last group match.

My only other concern is Steven Gerrard. Having picked up a yellow card (despite failing to make any contact with the player he 'fouled') and struggling a bit with his back, he could be prone to a costly error in the next game that will see him suspended for Sven's Swedish showdown. This would mean that Carrick would play in his place which I'm not too happy about as he seems to have recently gotten into the habit of giving the ball away... lots.

And if I had to be picky:

Both centrebacks were resilient in their defensive duties but did seem to have a habit of Carrick-ing the ball when the got to the middle of the pitch.

Lampard and Joe 'Yo' Cole need to improve their supply as they didn't seem to find Crouch or Owen enough when they got to the byline.

Crouch played as well as I'd expect any stiker Villa sold at a loss to play at a world cup. He deserved a goal for his efforts but as I've already said, the supply wasn't consistant enough.

I don't think Robinson put a foot wrong all game but the best player in an England shirt (You've got to finish on a positive note) had to be the skipper.

The first half performance was the best I've seen Beckham playing in an international tournament since... ever. He was great in France 98 (until Simeone showed his Scuba diving potential) and the best of a bad bunch in Euro 2000 but what with injury and adultery, his last two tournaments have been below par.

If he can play as well as he has done for World Cup 98 & 02 Qualifiers then the rest of the world beware.