A scoreless draw in this match would make me feel a lot better.

Is this the same "God Save the Queen" recorded by the Sex Pistols?

Wow, that T&T anthem is great. Who knew Gilbert & Sullivan did anthems?

When do we get rid of "rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air," and finally switch to "America the Beautiful." I await that day with great hope.

Poland already blew their chances at Barrels of Vodka.

The T&T anthem was written by Patrick Stanislaus Castagne.

Yeah, that guy.

The Univision announcers love to call Crouch "Mr. Roboto!" With a very, very, extended trill of the initial r.

Yorke is thankful he's wearing his cup.

I'm not sure if this is the case with Nuremberg's stadium, but I don't think they have a scoreboard in this stadium.

They just have video screens and you have to read the time and score off of that.

My brother told me that the stadium in Cologne had no scoreboard.

The time of possession numbers will not be kind to T&T.

I love the FIFA running commentary. "Yorke is currently down...having blocked a vicious Gerrard Steven volley with the most sensitive part of his anatomy."

Oh my, you could hear the Daily Mirror keyboards clicking away from the states. That was close.

I thought England would run away with this match but they are really having tough time breaking through. I didn't think TNT was this competitive.

England has not impressed thus far in the tourney.

So far no one has scored a goal in this group of their own volition.

Lampard had a great chance there and missed the goal 10 yards too high!

The murmurs for Rooney begin...

For a totally star-laden midfield, England's buildup has been awfully weak.

Goodness gracious, settle the ball!

A young Marco Van Basten would have put that away.

Maybe a few others.

16 Sounds like Vieri's right footed (his bad foot) miss against Korea in 2002.

Wonder what's the record for most number of shots without scoring.

My grandmother could've scored on that play. Hislop was off his line past the near post. All you need is to put the ball in.

Rooney plays the second half, or Eriksson "disappears" at the hands of the Three Lions faithful.

Univision announcers:

"'Mr. Eriksson, I AM READY!" dice Wayne Rooney"

Sounded funnier than it does in print.

WOW, that was close. Great play.

Tremendous play from John Terry!

1st goal might determine the winner in this match.

19- Pre-Happy Meal, 1998 Ronaldo nails that volley.

Has everyone seen Ronaldinho's Ping Pong Ad for Nike. That was amazing even if it might have been slightly edited.

1st goal? You must mean, any goal will decide this match.

Ken's plan is all falling into place.

I hope at 1:45 that the Toaster doesn't go dead and all the pages get replaced with the words "Death to Paraguay!"

Except written in Swedish.

Stop giving Ken ideas!

How about these suggestions for making soccer games higher scoring like they did for hockey?

Make goals larger.
Allow more substitutions.
No more offsides.

32 Let them use their hands as well.

If you allowed offsides in soccer, you would get lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of long balls played down the field and probably not all that much scoring. The defenses would all stay back and nobody would ever go to the midfield.

How about leaving the game alone? I think the new rules have ruined hockey.

19 The "A" in the AIG commercial would have buried that volley in the back of the net also.

The A in the AIG commercial had to be running backwards when the cross came in or kick the ball with the back of his foot.

34 Good point. I guess getting rid of offsides is not a very good idea. But how about bigger goals.

32. Honestly, I'm not sure that FIFA is all that concerned about increasing scoring for soccer like they did in hockey, the game isn't exactly fighting for its life like hockey is. Why does it need to be higher scoring?

Mr. Eriksson, a few of the Three Lions fans would like a "word" with you under the stands.

This group redefines the word futility.

From dictionary.com

futility (n.) - Group B in the 2006 FIFA World Cup

I can send it on to the boys at the OED.

Well, the atmosphere in the stadium is a bit less impressive than the Germany/Poland match, which is odd, considering the checkered history between these two teams. And then the Rooney chants begin.

39. Soccer definitely had a low-scoring period akin to 1968 in baseball in the late 70s-early 80s. There have since been a couple rule changes that helped boost scores:

1. Goalie can't touch ball with his hands if it is kicked back to him by a teammate. They used to be able to, and it was an easy way to just kill the clock. It was like watching the four-corners offense in basketball. Boring as heck.

2. 3 points for a win instead of 2. Gives greater incentive to play to win instead of to play not to lose.

I think those two innovations were pretty successful in opening up play without messing with the fundamental nature of the game itself.

Are goalies being better athletes now days make it harder to score or are teams more defensive oriented.

England needs Gary Linekar back. Or, at least, Alan Shearer.

Ok, for now, Rooney has to try to do their best impersonations.

44. Oh, I'm aware of the disgraceful late 80's early 90's period highlighted by Argentina's run to the 1990 final, I also believe that FIFA encouraged more liberal card giving for cynical fouls and the more obvious diving at that point.

My point though, is why would FIFA at this point be concerned about changing the rules to increase scoring, the fans right now aren't clamoring for rules changes and noone that I know who follows the game really thinks that this is an issue. I think the issues that face the game right now are control of fans, particularly at the club level.

I think all the athletes are better. At every position. It's not like baseball where there is a distinct difference between pitching and hitting skills.

45 Actually, it was pretty fun for a while to watch a few funky goalkeepers (but I guess those were before the rule changes). Jorge Campos and Rene Higuita would sometimes go way up above the center line to help with offensive duties.

Of course, one such misadventure by Higuita led to a goal by 39 year old Roger Milla of Cameroon, and such goalkeepers have not been seen again.

47 Well said. The other major issue is the continued theatrics on the field. Booking players for diving was a great step, but they also need to expand the "stretcher" rule. If the trainers have to come on the field, the player should have to stay off for at least 3-5 minutes. Just my opinion.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, that's no fun...

First goal scored by the team that wanted to score it in this group.

Donde esta Robot Dance?

Great cross by Beckham and Crouch's height finally paid off.

Who is the tallest striker playing in World Cup?

Rats.

45. Scoring is down in world cups primarily because there is not as large a difference in skill levels between teams as there once was. The 1954 World Cup is the highest scoring primarily because of Hungary, noone knew how to defend the Hungarians and they could score almost at will. Scoring levels outside of 1990 and 1970 have stayed pretty consistent since 1962 in the World Cup staying between 2.52 and 2.81 goals per game, so I'm not exactly sure why you are asking why it is harder to score nowadays.

I think Koller of the Czech Republic is the tallest. He's 2.02 meters.

Or around 6'9".

Crouch is 6'5" or 6'6" I think.

56 It's gotta be Koller at 6'7"

Yeah, my math was off. 202 cm is 79.5 inches, so Koller is 6'7 1/2"

Even ratsier.

Dios Mio. This should keep the fans at bay until...well, the next game.

T & T will now be rooting for the scoreless tie later today.

Well, might as well root for England to kill T&T's goal differential! Score again!

For the record, I don't blame Trinidad...I blame Tobago.

I doubt that any of the players on the team are from Tobago though.

But the Boolean logic teams are 0-2-1 now.

Since this is the USA, I write it W-L-T!

58 Appreciate all the info. I was just thinking of ways to increase soccer fan base in US and IMHO, more scoring is just one way that might attract more fans to soccer here in US.

England is through to the next round.

68 I think the vast majority of US footie fans have made peace with trying to convert our fellow citizens. In fact, I rather enjoy the red-headed stepchild status.

Ken is stealing my interesting bits of info for the intro the next match!

Also, USA's performance so far in World Cup has not helped in attracting more fans to soccer.

I would love to see FIFA add a rule to take players off the field when they go down and writhe around for 30 seconds and then get up and run like nothing happened.

If they are hurt bad enough to put on that kind of show then they should be off he field recovering. Bring on a stretcher and make them sit out for the next play, and make it mandatory!

Maybe then they will start to act like real atheletes and "shake it off" instead of a bunch of "sissy-boys!"