Peter Crouch and his England teammates spent most of the game missing chances in front of the net. With the time ticking away and England only minutes from a shocking draw against tiny Trinidad and Tobago, Crouch made the best of his last opportunity.
Crouch headed in a cross by David Beckham in the 83rd minute to help England advance to the second round of the World Cup with a 2-0 victory Thursday.
"It was disappointing, but you can't let your head drop and obviously you've got to keep getting in there," Crouch said. "I think with our delivery, and especially from David Beckham from the right, I think you're always going to get other chances. Thankfully, I managed to take one of them."
Steven Gerrard added a goal in injury time and England got its second straight win in Group B to clinch a spot in the next round.
England controlled play for most of the game, but Crouch and others missed countless good chances, raising Trinidad's hopes of holding its second straight favorite to a 0-0 draw.
"People expected us to walk through this game," Beckham said. "We knew they were going to play 11 men behind the ball. They made it hard for us all game. We knew if we kept to our game plan that we'd break them down."
England got a boost from Wayne Rooney's early return from a broken foot in the 58th minute, and finally broke through near the end. Aaron Lennon, the 19-year-old winger who came on in the second half, got the ball to Beckham in open space on the right side.
Beckham took his time and found the 6-foot-7 Crouch in front of the Trinidad net. Crouch leapt over Brett Sancho and headed the ball past Shaka Hislop for England's first second-half goal in a World Cup since 1998 — eight games since Michael Owen scored against Romania.
"To be honest, I think he was all over my back," Sancho said. "He was definitely pulling me back and definitely over my back. Then again, we're tiny Trinidad and Tobago. There's no way the referee is going to blow that whistle."
Crouch's goal brought relief to England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and his players, who seemed to be just minutes away from a stunning scoreless draw.
"We are always relieved when you go at a team as much as we did and we got nothing for 80 minutes," Beckham said. "But we were always creating chances and if we had taken them, we would have been a few up. The positive thing was that we finished strong and kept creating chances."
England joined Germany and Ecuador, which have advanced from Group A. The English will play one of those teams in the next round.
Trinidad and Tobago, which tied Sweden 0-0 in its opener, nearly scored late in the first half, but defender John Terry made an acrobatic save at the goal line. Stern John headed a ball in the middle of the box that appeared on its way into the net in the 45th minute, only to see Terry clear it off the goal line while falling down.
That was the best chance for Trinidad, which was outshot 23-7.
"Through 83 minutes I thought we played well and had a few chances," Hislop said. "With a little bit more luck, we could have gone in at halftime one-up. It just wasn't meant to be. In the end, when the dust settles we will be very proud of our performance today. Right now, we're very disappointed."
Any shot at a draw ended when Gerrard beat Hislop with a hard, left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area in the final moments. Gerrard had scored two goals and a penalty kick against Hislop in the FA Cup final, which Liverpool won in a shootout over West Ham on May 13.
"As the minutes tick by and the game goes on, your hopes build and you get more and more excited," Trinidad coach Leo Beenhakker said. "Our heads dropped after that and I wasn't surprised to see England score the second."
Trinidad and Tobago has one point after two games, and still has a slim chance to advance to the second round if it can beat Paraguay next Tuesday and England beats Sweden. England can clinch first place with a tie against the Swedes.
Trinidad's defensive strategy frustrated the English and quieted the crowd that had been singing and cheering loudly at the start of the game.
It was Rooney's entrance in the 58th minute that turned the tide. The 20-year-old forward broke a bone in his right foot on April 29 playing for Manchester United and wasn't expected back this soon.
But he was cleared to play by doctors earlier in the day, and combined with Lennon to bring more energy to England. The early struggles prompted the fans to chant Rooney's name in the first half, and they broke into a loud standing ovation when he came on in place of Owen.
"The fans want to see him play and so do we," Beckham said. "Considering he's been out for six to seven weeks, he changed the game a little bit. Wayne said he felt fine, so that's the main thing.
Owen missed one of England's first-half opportunities when he shot wide all alone in the middle of the box off a rebound in the sixth minute. Crouch also blew some early chances, including one rushed shot all alone in the middle of the box that went well wide.