THE ENGLAND BANDWAGON ROLLS ON TO Stuttgart, where Ecuador await on Sunday at 5pm local time. The first piece of good news is that Ecuador’s reputation as dark horses took a battering at the hands of Germany yesterday. The second is that England get extra recovery time before the knockout stages, playing 24 hours later than they would have done had they finished second in the group. Plenty of time to work on the basic art of keeping possession, then.
WHAT KIND OF TEAM ARE ECUADOR AND SHOULD THEIR STYLE SUIT ENGLAND?
When did we last see any opponents with a style that “suits” Sven-Göran Eriksson’s team? Ecuador lack star potential — as the presence of Ulises de la Cruz, a fringe player in a poor Aston Villa side, and Agustin Delgado, who flopped at Southampton, would appear to testify — but this is a team who are more than the sum of their parts. Their limitations were exposed by Germany , but previously they had produced some excellent attacking football, with Delgado and Carlos Tenório forming a potent strike partnership with a goal apiece in each of their first two games. Look out, too, for the powerful Luis Valencia on the right wing, while Iván Hurtado and Geovanny Espinoza, with almost 200 caps between them, form a vastly experienced central partnership at the back.
BUT, HONESTLY, ENGLAND SHOULD WIN, SHOULDN’T THEY?
Honestly? Yes. The flip side of Hurtado’s and Espinoza’s experience is that they looked slow when they were turned around by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski, the Germany strikers. Their forwards, hitherto impressive, made little headway against Germany’s supposedly creaky defence, while their midfield was overrun for long periods. It became voguish last week to speculate that they might, in fact, prove more difficult opponents than Germany, but that myth was probably destroyed yesterday. One word of warning, though: Ecuador did beat Brazil and Argentina during the qualifying campaign.
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REALLY? CRIKEY.
Yes, although those games took place in the high altitude of Quito, which, 2,800 metres (9,200ft) above sea level, is the second-highest capital city in the world. All but five of Ecuador’s 28 points in qualifying were won at home, although they had done well in Germany until being brought back down to earth by the hosts yesterday.
STUTTGART: PRESUMABLY THAT IS NOT LIKE PLAYING IN QUITO?
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No. Stuttgart is about 250 metres above sea level, which might sound high but is much lower than Munich (524 metres). More worrying, perhaps, is the weather forecast for the weekend, which, depending on whom you listen to, promises to be about 30C with high humidity levels. Shades of the opening game in Frankfurt, where soaring temperatures left David Beckham and his team-mates complaining of dehydration after hoofing the ball forward aimlessly for long periods.
HMM. AND IF ENGLAND PROGRESS, WHO NEXT?
Hard to say until the other groups have been sorted out, but the projected quarter-final opponents in Gelsenkirchen on July 1 (another 5pm kick-off local time) will be the winner of a tie between the winner of group D — probably Portugal but possibly Mexico — and the runners-up of group C, which will be Holland unless they can beat Argentina this evening. For those of a mind to look even farther ahead, the semi-final opponents threaten to be Brazil or Spain. On form, Spain. Realistically, Brazil.
GREAT. ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
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Just a few things. The capacity of the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion is 52,000, bigger than any of the three stadiums Eriksson’s team have played in so far, which will almost certainly mean more tickets for England supporters. It is also the stadium where England lost 1-0 to Ireland in the 1988 European Championship finals. And finally, under Fifa regulations, England must spend Saturday night at the hotel they have been assigned in Stuttgart, which is the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin in the city centre, where doubtless thousands of their supporters will be gathered. Ecuador will be staying only half a mile away, but, unlike England, their hotel does not back on to the city’s central train station.