World Cup 2010

[dcharlie]

lol, second great finish of the day for Tulio!

[neorichieb1971]

Japan gifted us the game.

[JAPJAC]

A win, a clean entertainig game and no injuries. A result.

Even on a bad day we still win, love it.

Well played Japan, you done well for you.

Cheers.

[dcharlie]

England have been a lot better in the second half , but they couldn't have been any worse than in the first. They still looked lacking and we had very little in terms of ideas. I lost count of how many long cross field balls went out of play too.

Bent did himself no favours, neither did Huddlestone, and the whole back line in general looked there for the taking.

Not usually a big fan of J.Cole, but he's made a big difference and looked like he could make things happen going forward and Hart was solid inbetween the sticks.

Big boost for Japan's morale i'd have thought - despite losing they looked light years better than they did against S Korea.

[neorichieb1971]

I laugh in the face of anyone that says thats a world cup winning team.. ANYONE?

A winning team pushes forward like a war machine, England are not a war machine.. They literally look like a bunch of pussy's passing the time. I've seen better football in league 2. I don't understand the Rooney thing either, if the only move he did was a big turd in the Japan box people would say "Rooney was the only one who had a good game".

England are also a very BAD advertisement for football. They are so BORING and LACKLUSTRE. As usual the crowd travelled 1000's of miles to be insulted by the performance.

[dcharlie]

well, all i can do is repeat what i've said before : on paper there is absolutely no reason why England should not be in with just a good a chance as anyone. In qualifying they produced a string of good performances too, so they are capable of playing. However, as i said before - this all tends to be on paper and when it comes to the competition we rarely seem to live up to it. Of course last night was about having a bit of an experiment - but again, you look at that starting line up and theres no reason that shouldn't be a "good England squad". In the second half we looked better with what was close to a true starting line up, but not by that much.

Last nights game we still seem to have the exact same problems as we always have: we seem to be stuck in counter-attack mode a lot of the time, though amazingly we have this bad habit of slowing things down in the middle. Even more frustrating - we'll take the ball up to just inside the opponents half, string together several lateral passes going absolutely nowhere, giving the defense time to get back in numbers (as Japan did) and THEN we will launch a long ball. I find that maddening! If you're going to do that, then just hump the ball down field. We also needed Japan to turn the ball in twice for us (of course, own goals don't just happen, both were the result of dangerous balls into the box) as - outside of Rooney - we simply didn't look like scoring. The back line is a mess too - too many errors and against a team with a more composed front line we'd have conceded a lot more last night.

Disagree on the Rooney front to be honest - amount of ground he covered was great last night, always has a great work rate, nearly scored a truly great goal (the back heal flick) and was denied with his curling effort by a great save, and was one of only a handful of players who looked remotely interested. That said his passing was a bit wayward and, more worryingly, it's clear he still has no temper control which is so often a factor in us going out (he went for Tulio a couple of times then swug an arm out after Lampards penalty miss). In a friendly he can get away with that - at the world cup he'd be off with a straight red for the arm swing.

Though again, it is just a friendly and i don't think too much can be read into this - with just 10 days to go to the world cup i'd assume some players were more interested in not getting injured. Though some of the fringe players HAD to have been playing for their place and, as i say, Bent can forget it on that performance (which i feel a bit sad about as i'm a big fan) - as can several others. Perhaps the shot near the end of the be-suited England non-players laughing heartily with 10 minutes to go showed that , really, they weren't taking this too seriously. No one will care about an abject performance in a friendly as long as we perform at the world cup - but if we play like this against the USA first game and we might find ourselves in a spot of bother. Play like this against a true world class team and we'll get tanked.

[Mills]

Judging by the way England played in their friendly match against Japan on sunday, i don't fancy our chances of even reaching the quarter finals. All this money and preparation and we still don't play like a team that is ready to take on the rest of the world.

[neorichieb1971]

I would rather England play good attacking football and lose than play like that and win. When Capello came to England he said our players lacked self belief. When I watch them I see they lack not only self belief but a sense of urgency. I'd want to kill the game off in the first 30 minutes if I could. Once your 3-0 up you can do that lateral passing and slowing the game down. But at 0-0 you really need to show that you want to win. When England players put that shirt on, something happens.. Its like a switch.

There are 7 other teams in the quarter finals and on paper I can't see England beating any one of them. If England get knocked out on penalties its because they are too crap to score goals.

Highlights of Englands shortcomings -

Rooney - Too many passes going astray
Walcott - Still needs some kind of direction. He looks like he's lost when he's got the ball.
Back four - Too many back passes
Midfield - No pressure going forward

Unless Capello has an ace up his sleeve, England are out in the quarters. Personally I think they will lose quite heavily as well. About 3-0.

[dcharlie]

There are 7 other teams in the quarter finals and on paper I can't see England beating any one of them

well, you wouldn't have to worry about all 7 teams, because they only need to worry about those teams - the team they are likely to play if everything goes to "rank" would be France.

You can't see England beating France? a team that struggled in qualification and then had a mighty scare against Ireland? Not even on paper?
Come now. If England play like they played against Japan (remember: a pre-world cup friendly where there really isn't anything at stake - we are all guilty to some degree of throwing away England's qualifying campaign which was done at a stroll with some excellent performances) then yes - me and my mum could give them a good game. If the two teams play like they played in qualifying, then France will lose. So there we go - though everything that has gone on before gets thrown out the window once the tournament starts. It's all going to be how we perform in the tournament (obviously, but the point being that past results and performances will count for nothing, good or bad)

but come now, you can't see us on paper beating France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Brazil, Spain etc? Even though at the back end of last year we went and drew with Holland in their back yard? Beat Germany at the end of 2008?

Again, whilst i though the display against Japan was very poor indeed it's only a warning at the moment - nothing was at stake and it's not like we are the only team having shocking pre-world cup friendlies (Portugal, Germany, France all had recent terrible results). On paper , they have the team and talent to beat any team in the world. But again - it's got to be more than on paper. You've got to beat the best to be the best and all that.

[neorichieb1971]

Statistics never tell the true story. Your right, nobody is in 5th gear yet but England don't have a 5th gear and the other teams do. Football is one of those games where playing for a draw is feasible no matter who you play, especially at international level where everyone is so conservative. Even then England have the worst record on taking penalties. England have to play at least 3 top teams to win the world cup, I don't remember EVER in my whole life England beating 3 top teams on the bounce. Maybe 1, maybe 2, but NEVER 3. Your asking a hell of a lot from England. For England to win the world cup, you have to basically say that England were at their peak at the exact right time.

[dcharlie]

but that's the thing - every team once we are out of the round of 16 is going to have to beat 3 world class teams on the bounce. It's not like England are the only ones in this boat - it's a tall order for any team.

I think we are in general agreement on England in terms of usual performance levels, but i think the point still stands that once we are down to the last 8 then it really is anyones game and that, theoretically, on paper - if England produce - then it is not outside the realms of impossibility. It's not like we have a dire squad of no hopers and we have absolutely no chance. Personally i think France and Argentina are the weakest teams in that last potential group of eight, but even then there's no reason for either of those to think they can't win. It's cup football and , as Greece proved, you don't have to be the best team to win a major tournament (and on paper Greece look awful)

And of course, winning the world cup is all about form and peaking - even the mighty Brazil have peaked too early in contests before and faltered, where as other teams have started poorly then got their act together going into the later stages to go on and win it.

[Stormwatch]

Where's the "I hate sports" option?

[dcharlie]

Anyways, Neo did make me look at the World Cup paths - seems they will be (on rank, past)

Brazil
1st in group : Chile -> Netherlands -> England -> Spain
2nd in group: Spain -> Italy -> Argentina -> Netherlands

England
Australia -> France -> Brazil -> Spain
Germany -> Argentina -> Spain -> Brazil

France
Greece -> England -> Brazil -> Spain
Argentina -> Germany -> Spain -> Brazil

Germany
USA -> Argentina -> Spain -> Brazil
England -> France -> Brazil -> Spain

Italy
Denmark -> Spain -> Argentina -> Brazil
Netherlands -> Brazil -> England -> Spain

Netherlands
Paraguay -> Brazil -> England -> Spain
Italy -> Spain -> Argentina - Brazil

Portugal
Chile -> Netherlands -> England -> Brazil
Spain -> Italy -> Argentina -> Brazil

Spain
Portugal -> Italy -> Argentina -> Brazil
Brazil -> Netherlands -> England -> Argentina

Whilst none of these are particularly easy, especially once into the 1/4s, out of those - Portugal finishing second (having to already play Brazil in the group) would be on course for a horror run - Spain , Italy, Argentina, Brazil.

Spain will not look forward to playing Portugal - effectively a "local derby" which raises the heat even more.

If England finish first - they've got as good of a chance as they have ever had. They -should- beat Australia and they've a good chance of removing France. Brazil and Spain are obviously the two powers in the world right now, but you are going to have to face them at some point - unless of course Portugal account for Spain.

[GaijinPunch]

USA -> Argentina -> Spain -> Brazil

Lol... we don't have a fucking prayer.

NZ can't catch a break. In anything.

Including luck of the draw on those born into citizenship.

[CIT]

USA -> Argentina -> Spain -> Brazil

Lol... we don't have a fucking prayer.

Those are Germany's opponents.

USA will face the same ones England might face, so:

Australia -> France -> Brazil -> Spain
Germany -> Argentina -> Spain -> Brazil

If we finish first in our group (possible if we draw against England) we definitely make it to the Quarters, and we probably even stand a good chance against France.

[neorichieb1971]

Brave move by Capello to drop Walcott. I think he made the right choice though.

[GaijinPunch]

If we finish first in our group (possible if we draw against England) we definitely make it to the Quarters, and we probably even stand a good chance against France.

Your dual citizenship makes that "we" a bit vague in such a tournament.
On a similar note I work w/ someone who's half Spanish half German, so he was a bit torn 4 years ago to say the least.

[CIT]

I generally root for the US during World Cups.

The expectations are always so high for Germany, and if they aren't met, the disappointment is that much greater. With America pretty much anything can be counted as a success, so it's more fun.

[GaijinPunch]

I guess this is time to tell my story of an American totally disprespected the sport. I had never met the guy but it was one of my bosses' friends from ages ago. Heard it over a bottle of wine at dinner.

Basically he was working in a UK bank, and was not a football fan in the least. This was front office, so most of the people have deep pockets. There was a pool that was, if I'm not mistaken, about 1000 GBP a head. For each game of the season, each participant chose the score and who would win. He was so fucked off at these guys have these debates on why the game would be 3-2 and not 1-2 or 2-3, that he declared he would flip a coin before each game. Heads: 1-0. Tails: 0-1. At his peak he was 2nd, and I believe he won 3rd at the end, for a nice chunk of change.

[Mills]

Well its all about to kick off next weekend so let the battle for world supremacy begin.

[Dragoforce]

Rio Ferdinand and Didier Drogba out

France lost to China

Things are heating up!

[caldwert]

I think Ferdinand being out is a blessing in disguise for England. He barely played for Man U during the year, and when he did, he got roasted by a barely fit Torres during that one Liverpool game, and to me was a nonfactor in a lot of their other games.

[1up]

Ivory Coast is going to have a damn hard time without Drogba. I bet the whole team was centered around him.

Also, EA did their thing with FIFA World Cup 2010 and their 'simulation' said that Spain would win

France losing to China doesnt come as a surprise to me. They had to cheat to even qualify...

[dcharlie]

I think Ferdinand being out is a blessing in disguise for England.

came to post this - massively over rated, error prone too.

Lol... does this make Terry captain again?! loool.

[Skykid]

I think Ferdinand being out is a blessing in disguise for England.

came to post this - massively over rated, error prone too.

It is a blessing in disguise, agreed. The boy ain't great.

Only a week now. I've already booked my holiday from work, gonna be great!

[dcharlie]

yup, off for the first 2 weeks of the WC too. Should be good.

[neorichieb1971]

Looking forward to it. Come on England... Make sure you don't play in wellies.

[Super Laydock]

damn, can't wait for this to start, so much that I even bought the official game already.

Holland won a practice interland against hungari by 6-1 today, which is good, but suffered possible major damage by Arjen Robben getting a (hopefully not so serious) hamstring injury...
Hope it's not as bad as it looked, because he's a superb asset to our team...

[Mills]

Looking forward to it. Come on England... Make sure you don't play in wellies.

Well if Fabio Capello, doesn't get to grips Wayne Rooney's temperament, he's gonna see the red card on his first game especially after the way he behaved in front of the ref from the recent friendly warm up game. We just can't afford for Rooney to be behaving like a ticking timebomb at this stage.

[Mero]

I suspect it will end in disaster as usual, England just don't have strength in depth