England 2, Trinidad & Tobago 0: You gotta love English understatement. From the first line of Auntie Beeb's account of today's game:

Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard spared England's blushes with late goals against Trinidad & Tobago to book their place in the last 16 of the World Cup.

"Spared England's blushes ?!?" Wayne Rooney, the latest in a line of miscreant English soccer stars that includes Paul Gascoigne, entered the game in the second half as a sub for former teen phenom Michael Owen, only six weeks after breaking his foot.

For me, the big difference between watching this and past World Cups is the use of TiVo. I had to be in court most of the morning, so I was unable to watch the game live. When I got home, I was able to watch the whole thing in less than fifteen minutes, putting the replay on maximum speed and reading the score line at the top to see if anything was happening. With eight minutes left, and the game still scoreless, I decided to watch the rest in normal time, and sure enough, Crouch gets his header almost immediately. The marvels of the age we live in....