England 2, Sweden 2

With this tie, England finishes atop Group B and avoids Germany in Round 2. Yay! Too bad the Brits still looked awful shaky at times, lost the win in the 90th minute and, far worse, watched Michael Owen crawl off the field less than a minute into the game. There's no official word yet, but it sure looked like a knee injury that would put Owen out of the tournament.

That leaves England with just three strikers: Peter Crouch, who is big, but limited; Wayne Rooney, who looked better today, but who is not yet in peak form and who hasn't scored in an England jersey in a while and; Theo Walcott, who may be really good, but no one knows because he is totally untested. For a team that has lacked creativity and struggled to score goals already, this is bad news. I predict England beats Ecuador in the next round, then gets bounced in the quarterfinals.

Oh yeah, Joe Cole had an absolutely sickening goal in the first half. Maybe Sven-Goran Eriksson should move him up front with Rooney. Or, give Walcott some run. If he's not good enough to play, he shouldn't be on the roster in the first place.

Sweden, meanwhile, was on the ropes in the first half, but totally turned it around in the second. Only a couple goal-line clearances and the woodwork kept the Swedes from building a big lead. They get the hosts in the next round, which should be a hell of a match.

Goal scorers:

Joe Cole (34'), England (1-0)
Marcus Allback (51'), Sweden (1-0)
Steven Gerrard (85'), England (2-1)
Henrik Larsson (90'), Sweden (2-2)