When it rains, England scores.
After an entire first round spent searching the desert for a goal in open play, England’s arid offense left the sweltering heat of Osaka for a British-style downpour Saturday against Denmark in Niigata, Japan.
In a drenching rain, England poured in goals by Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Emile Heskey in a 3-0 victory that moved England into the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 12 years.
Fittingly, it took a defender to kick-start the England attack and possibly shame the forwards into following suit. Ferdinand, pushing up on an early corner kick, headed David Beckham’s service into goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen’s flailing arms in the fifth minute. As he fell, Sorensen dropped the ball across the goal line.
Owen scored his first goal of the tournament in the 22nd minute, converting a flick-on from midfielder Nicky Butt.
Heskey latched on to a long feed from Beckham and hammered the ball under Sorensen in the 44th minute.
England will meet the winner of Monday’s Belgium-Brazil match in the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think we deserved 3-0,” England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said, “but anyhow, we scored three times and had some other opportunities as well. So I think we deserved to win, but maybe not by that score line.”
With a confrontation with Brazil looming, Eriksson said “it will not make any difference” who wins the Belgium-Brazil match, even though it obviously does.
“I don’t know who is going to win,” he said. “There are two different schools of football. One is samba football, the other is European football. I shall sit in front of the TV and watch it very carefully.”
Germany 1, Paraguay 0: Three-time champion Germany opened the second round with a 1-0 victory over Paraguay in Seogwipo, South Korea.
Oliver Neuville scored in the 88th minute on a cross from the right wing by Bernd Schneider. His right-footed shot beat goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavertt.
Paraguay finished the game with 10 men after Roberto Acuna was ejected in second-half injury time.
The Germans will play the winner of Monday’s United States-Mexico game in the quarterfinals.
Agoos out: Jeff Agoos’ difficult World Cup is over. The 34-year-old U.S. defender, injured in Friday’s 3-1 loss to Poland, will be sidelined for four to six weeks because of strained calf, the U.S. Soccer Federation said.
