England 1 - Paraguay 0

A great result, but a bad performance. England did poorly in the heat, with only goal of the game coming via and own-goal off of a Beckham free-kick.

Ulimately Sven-Goran Eriksson helped England beat its opening-day jinx by defeating Paraguay - and little else matters. Hopefully this is a poor game for the Brits and great teams alway find a way to win even when they play badly. It is clear, however, that England will have to return to their pre-tournament form if they want to go on and win the ultimate prize, but England fans should be glad that this display wasn't against a stronger team in the knock-out rounds.

Of course the press will be clambering for Rooney to play, espicially after Owen's performance, but only an idiot will ruch Rooney back. England should put away TNT and I fully expect them to beat Sweden in the final game - although I'm sure it will be close. At that point I would hope that Rooney was back although in truth there are really only a handful of teams that should worry England (which I would like to have the option of Rooney for) and we're not likely to face any of them until the quarter-finals.

The positives are that Gerrard is fine after the back-injury scare (despite what all say about Rooney, Gerrard is the one we really need, Rooney will make us better, but we can still do well without him), and we kept a clean-sheet.

Hopefully tnt game will be a real carnaval affair in which England dominate the islanders and show just what they can do.

Match Photos: 1 2 | Highlights Video | Virtual Replay

Match Reports:

• FIFA
• Sporting Life
• BBC