England still waiting for things to click

England's dreams of World Cup glory will remain just that unless they can improve on a scrappy group phase that cost them the services of Michael Owen.

After two laboured wins over Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago, they had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Sweden on Tuesday after being let down by sloppy defending at set-pieces.

Though it was enough to finish top of Group B and line up a second round game with Ecuador on Sunday in Stuttgart, the performance and Owen's agony left England in no mood for celebrating.

Owen had a scan on a knee injury yesterday before he was declared out of contention for the rest of the World Cup.

After Tuesday's match, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson limited himself to saying Owen had "maybe" played his last game in Germany, but team-mate Jamie Carragher told reporters that Owen was out of the finals and keeper Paul Robinson said the team were "devastated".

Owen's mishap is a body blow to England's chances as Eriksson is so short of strikers. The Swede surprised many last month by naming only four in his squad and picking the untested 17-year-old Theo Walcott ahead of Jermain Defoe.

He is now left with Wayne Rooney, making a promising but gradual comeback from a broken foot, and Peter Crouch for his two starting places up front.

Walcott will almost certainly come on as a substitute for one of them in Stuttgart but the fear of injury or suspension is likely to haunt Eriksson for however long his men stay in the tournament.

His only alternative is to use an attacking midfielder as a second striker - either Steven Gerrard, who scored twice in the group stage, or Joe Cole, who volleyed Tuesday's opener from 30 metres.

Gerrard has only played in the role once, and was unconvincing despite scoring in a 3-1 warm-up win over Hungary at Old Trafford last month.

The ball-playing Cole looked a better option when he provided the link between midfield and Crouch in the latter stages of their opening victory over Paraguay.

If the attack needs more work, England's much-hyped defence clearly needs to go back to the drawing board.

Marcus Allback was allowed a glancing header to level for 1-1 and Henrik Larsson tipped the ball home in the 90th minute after substitute Sol Campbell misjudged the flight of a long throw-in.

Eriksson needs to tighten up his defence and hope the groin injury that forced Ferdinand off on his 50th England appearance will not keep him out on Sunday.

Yesterday, Ferdinand was given the all-clear after a scan while injured right-back Gary Neville is improving.

"Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville's injuries were scanned today at the team's base camp in Baden Baden. Both scans provided positive news," said FA spokesman Adrian Bevington.

Ferdinand was clearly struggling on Tuesday and asked to be substituted shortly after half-time.

"Rio picked up a groin injury during the match with Sweden," Bevington added. "However, today's scan result was clear."

Neville, who picked up a calf injury last week, has not played since the opening group game against Paraguay with versatile defender Jamie Carragher having deputised.

However, Neville is responding to treatment and will continue his rehabilitation having had a positive scan result.

Though they achieved their minimum target of a draw that steered them away from hosts Germany, who the Swedes will now face on Saturday, England know they have not yet delivered the goods.

"We've got to be a lot more positive if we are going to win it," captain David Beckham told reporters.

"We know we've got to play a lot better than we have done to go all the way. But we're in a good position.

"It's not all down-hearted, apart from obviously Michael's injury... it's his knee that's gone and we're all feeling for him."

Summing the hopes of the team, Eriksson and the England fans, he added: "It's just at some point it will click. And we need that to be very soon."