Cole had a bright first 15 minutes and his attacking skills shone with some excellent runs an at least one good shot on goal. However, as England lost the midfield, Cole was relied on more for his defensive skills which are some way behind Bridge's and a mistake late on almost cost England any points form the game.
The opposing team in the England game didn't include Anders Svensson, Saints creative midfielder. This surprised many, but seemed to suggest that Sweden were going to try and play fairly rigidly in the middle to offset any England attacks without becoming to attack minded themselves.
Svensson's introduction in the second half was the pivotal moment in the game. His creativity enabled other Swedish players to feed off him and Sweden effectively overran the English midfield. As a result Sweden came forward more and more as England dropped back and the equaliser wasn't too long in coming. Sweden could well have went on to win the game, with Svensson involved in many of the moves. Anders clearly showed why he is an important figure in the Swedish team and Saints could do a lot worse than play to those strengths next season.
It is hard to judge Saints Ecuadorian pair Chala and Delgado on their performance against Italy. Delgado, in particular was up against one of the best defence's on the planet. It is perhaps a bit unfair to criticise him considering his current market value. Had Saints paid £15 million for him then I would have expected more. As it is Saints are hoping to have grabbed another in a long line of bargains.
First impressions of Delgado were pretty positive after his Manchester United appearance although I though his first touch was quite poor. This was in evidence again against Italy where much of the possession he did manage to get ahead of the Italian defence was wasted by his own poor control. Ecuador were beaten fairly comfortably and there really wasn't a great deal of service to Delgado. A bright moment arrived a few minutes from the end where good positioning form Austin enabled him to get a shot in, which had to be saved at a stretch from the outstanding Italian 'keeper Buffon.
Kleber Chala was quite industrious in the midfield, getting in some good tackles early on. Again his team were never in control of the match and Ecuador, with the exception of De La Cruz, failed to really trouble Italy. On first impressions, he never featured for Saints at all last season before being loaned out, were that he could be a useful squad player but probably won't trouble the first team too often. There are probably just the two remaining games in the competition for Ecuador, although that could provide plenty of opportunity for Chala and Delgado to show what they can do.