Absolutely true

And of course, there was never going to be any doubt that you'd be the guy to say it. If we play like that against Argentina, say, in the QFs, we'll struggle.

But since I can remember, first games have been tense, scrappy affairs - and perhaps a little rusty too. And given that it was 30 degrees in the shade and the hottest part of the day, the football was bound to get sluggish, the decision making can suffer (literally in the 'heat of the moment') and the end product looks pretty iffy.

My main concern was with the decision to take off Owen - curious one that - but as we had started the half badly a change of some kind made sense and beefing up the midfield did too.

I am not at all unhappy because, unlike in 1986 (when we didn't score until our third game) or 1990 or 2002 we have won our first game and our defence looked rock solid. We will undoubtedly improve and we don't have to play another game at 2pm - which makes a big difference to our high energy game.

6/10, points on the board and, to be honest, no real change in my overall view of our chances.

Posted By: The Judge, Jun 10, 16:39:41