World Cup Discussion

invincibleILeak wrote:

I'm not being that negative, I'm being realistic.

Milner played rubbish against Japan as well, he couldn't cope with the right back and just kept hacking him down, and that left Cole exposed, which meant he couldn't attack, which is what he does best.

I think England do have world class players, Ferdinand and Terry are both starters for the top two teams in England, which is often thought of as the best league in the world, Gerrad is supposedly being chased by Real Madrid and Barcelona, Lampard has been world class at times, Rooney is often thought as one of the best players in the world, and A. Cole is thought by many to be the best left back in the world.

So to say we don't have a good team is not true at all, what we've never had is a good team, because in my lifetime I haven't seen an England manager put together a team of players that work well together, and Capello hasn't really been tested by a top top side in competitive football with England.

Typical English hyperbole though, as you have rightly said, England have never been a good side in your lifetime, so why do you suddenly expect them to go out and play great football and win at ease?

Gerrard is a great player although has barely done anything to back that up for 18 months, RioFerdinand has been injured for most of the season, John Terry has to be the most overrated CB in World Football and Frank Lampard despite his fantastic scoring record never grabs a game by the scruff of the neck like you'd expect a 'World Class' star to be able to do

As for Capello not being tested by a top side in competitive football, well he can only beat who is put in front of him and I think 9 from 11 is not to shabby, would he have to have won 11? or would there still be doubts? England are not good enough to think they could and should be beating top sides and winning tournaments, only when they actually start doing that can that kind of mindset be justified.

England are not a top tier footballing nation if they where they would be in the latter stages of World Cups and European Championships on a regular basis

To be fair our World Cup record isn't too much different from Spain's.

From 98, they were knocked out in Round 1, Quarter Final, Round of 16.

From 98, we were round of 16, Quarter Final and Quarter Final. And at least two were on pennas

Still, up the Kiwi's, love a last gasp goal, but still think all this confirms is that Italy + Paraguay are going through.

Also, anyone else remember when exactly Gareth Barry became integral to our success

capello likes him, the media jumped on it.

i like a mysterious midfeilder who gets things done, but it really depends on how we play, barry has been our best passer recently though

Interesting when he does play, but I'm really not convinced at having Gerrard on the Left.

boschbourne06 wrote:

got a feeling we might actually get our first good game today Ivory coast Vs Portugal

Mexico vs South africa
Serbia vs Ghana
Argentina vs Nigeria

were all good just lack of goals

Germany Australia was good. The Germans really showed the rest of the nations how to play and their passing was very crisp. Expect to see a lot of the Olic man who got man of the match and I cant see past the Germans for the title.

olic is a croatian striker lol

oezul/ozil however they like it spelt with the frog face you mean

Don't expect much out of this one, they'll both be well up for the draw.

has anyone hit a free kick on target yet in this tourney too?

seems everyone just balloons them

And corners....

It's altitude 8)

thin air, light ball

aparantly theyre putting that down to a mixture of the ball and the altitude more often than not

yeh what he said

What the tournament needs is someone scoring from 30 yards then everyone will start hammering them in

someone from one of the african teams nearly did that, can't remember who though

Some random Cameroon nutter yesterday tanked the bar I recall.

Hear that too, no foreign manager has ever won the World Cup...

What's with that shitty entrance music too, sounds like it belongs on an old PES.

i noticed people are not getting their foot round the ball well enough, its like they have forgotten how balls used to work before the new ones starting curling it for them

wrap your boot round it son, then it wont float away on the outside angle (i.e right curl if youre right footed)

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

olic is a croatian striker lol

oezul/ozil however they like it spelt with the frog face you mean

Thats the one He is a fair player, I thought he was ancient when I first saw him but apparently he is pretty young. Cant see Werder Bremen keeping hold of him if he keeps playing this well.

Good to see Klose prove his critics wrong by scoring and thanking joachim loew for putting faith in him by starting him. I have always been a fan of Klose, I only wish someone from England would buy him, Podolski and Lahm.

klose also missed 2 sitters though

but his international record is class.

podolski is brilliant too and lahm, dont know how they keep hold of him

Thats what I was thinking the other day, neither Podolski or Klose could do it for club level this season only scoring three each but they always seem to do the business at the World Cup or European Championships, mabye it is the big stage, I dont know.

Would love to see them play in England as I dont really watch any other league except England and Scotland. Mabye they just dont want to play because I cant see an English side that wouldnt want them. Messi has said he doesnt want to play in England aswell, Kaka, Ronaldinho etc.

he said if he did it would be for arsenal, which is bassically saying he never will lol.

dont know maybe klose and podolski are really passionate about their country 8) to piss off june

good game bosch? lol

So basically it's whoever manages to hump Korea the most will go through out of these two??