The 2006 World Cup was the third and final time that Sven Goran Eriksson took England to a major tournament. For the third time they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage, and for the second time this was decided by a penalty shoot-out. This was arguably the most disappointing of the three efforts as England never really got going during this tournament.
England were blighted by a lack of fit forwards with Michael Owen recently back from injury and Wayne Rooney in the squad but not ready for the start of the tournament following a broken metatarsal. Eriksson made the bizarre decision to supplement his threadbare strike force with the untested teenager Theo Walcott - who remained under wraps throughout the tournament! Owen then picked up a serious injury in the group stage, which compounded the problems of England’s depleted attack.
England limped through a mediocre group by beating Paraguay 1-0, labouring to victory over outsiders Trinidad & Tobago and securing a draw against Sweden. At the commencement of the knockout phase Eriksson opted for a 4-5-1 (4-1-4-1) formation against Ecuador with Rooney as the lone forward. This enabled Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard to be fielded together in central midfield with a defensive midfielder behind them. It was hoped that this midfield configuration would enable Lampard and Gerrard to play their natural midfield games unshackled from excessive defensive duties. On this occasion, Michael Carrick took the holding slot behind this pair.
This second round fixture represented England’s overall form in Germany. They performed competently enough but had little cutting edge. England failed to test the keeper from open play and it required a Beckham free-kick on the hour to separate the teams. The 4-5-1 formation performed with an absence of adroitness; Rooney was painfully isolated up front and scant penetration was provided from midfield. Gerrard and Lampard underachieved and were well marshalled by Ecuador’s central midfielders, Castillo and Edwin Tenorio. Joe Cole had performed well over the group stage but made negligible impact on this game, while Beckham was pedestrian on the right. England were successful in denying Ecuador the capacity to build any attacks of their own, although there was a scare early in the game when a miscued John Terry header played Carlos Tenorio through on goal – a flying challenge by Ashley Cole deflected the shot onto the bar. The inflexible 4-1-4-1 provided enough security in this instance to enable progression to the next round. But fundamentally, England had toiled to an unconvincing win over arguably the weakest side to make it through to the last 16.
England were despatched by Portugal in the next round. They performed well enough in this game after they were reduced to ten men following Rooney’s sending off; but a quarter-final exit was as much as England deserved. Their performances were remarkably stilted and a paltry number of well-worked attacks were contrived over the five games. The only player to leave the tournament with a significantly enhanced reputation was Owen Hargreaves who had previously been considered something of a joke to fans and pundits.
England’s flat performance at the 2006 World Cup seemed to encapsulate the ‘less than the sum of their parts’ ambience which permeated the Eriksson years. But it must be conceded that three consecutive quarter-finals isn’t a bad return, and Eriksson’s departure didn’t yield an immediate upturn in form (and they weren’t great before he started either)!