Stuttgart: England captain and match-winner David Beckham said he was physically sick in the second-half of their World Cup second-round 1-0 victory over Ecuador.
Beckham’s trademark long-range free-kick on the hour handed England a place in the quarter finals as he became the first England player to score in three World Cup finals in a row.
“I didn’t feel well before the game but I thought I would be fine and in the first-half I felt fine,” he told a television channel. “But it (the sickness) continued in the second-half and it just came out.”
“We’ve got to overcome this (heat) because there will be other days like this,” Beckham added. “We make things hard for ourselves. We don’t keep the ball as well as we can do. It was ugly at times and we haven’t played to our full potential. But we’ve done our job. We’re through to the quarter finals.”
Beckham’s goals have been sparse of late. It was just his 17th in 93 international appearances, and he ended a 13-match scoreless streak since his last goal on March 30, 2005.
“I haven’t scored for a while. The last two days I’ve been struggling, even in training. Wazza (Wayne Rooney) said to me before the game, ‘you’ve been terrible the last two days, so you’re going to get one tonight’,” Beckham said. “And I got a text from Roberto Carlos this afternoon saying ‘score me a free-kick.’ And he’s brought me good luck.”
England coach Sven-Go-ran Eriksson said he had no option but to substitute his captain shortly before the end. “He was gone physically,” he said.
Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez paid tribute to Beckham’s talent in a news conference. “Whenever there’s a free-kick, obviously we have to be very much on the ball. We know of the precision that Beckham has when he takes their shots,” he said.
Suarez, however, added: “We leave with our chins very high for all that we did? It was decided as I expected, either on a dead ball or a genius move, and that’s how it happened.”
England were eliminated by South American teams in the previous two World Cups, losing to Brazil in the 2002 quarter finals and getting knocked out by Argentina on penalty kicks in the second round in 1998 ? when Beckham was ejected for a foul one minute into the second half.
“We’re in the quarter finals again. I hope that we will have a better result in the quarter final than we did last time,” Eriksson said.
Fifa’s Technical Study Group picked John Terry as Man of the Match.
TEAMS
England: Paul Robinson; Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard (Stewart Downing, 90th), Rio Ferdinand, John Terry; David Beckham (Aaron Lennon, 87th), Frank Lampard, Joe Cole (Jamie Carragher, 77th), Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick; Wayne Rooney.
Ecuador: Christian Mora; Ivan Hurtado, Ulises de la Cruz, Edison Mendez, Agustin Delgado; Segundo Castillo, Luis Valencia, Giovanny Espinoza, Neicer Reasco; Edwin Tenorio (Christian Lara, 69th), Carlos Tenorio (Ivan Kaviedes, 72nd).
Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium). (Agencies)
