The WORLD CUP thread

Who cares, they scored twice.


YAY!

At a time when I've found not much reason to smile, they managed it. Coom on England!

[Supervox]

Originally Posted by Ping

Who cares, they scored twice.


YAY!

At a time when I've found not much reason to smile, they managed it. Coom on England!

Whilst I appreciate your point of view Ping, I think you just about summed it up with ". . . they managed it . . ." - let's face it we all expected them (with some justification I think) to do a lot more than "manage" to beat T & T !!

They 'managed' to make me smile. :P

No mean feat.

No mean feat

You don't smile because you have mean feet?

I'm a welsh lad but I do support England throught he WC etc (no one else to). That said I would have peeved myself laughing if one of those first half goals had gone in against England.

I think England so far are lacking the ability to inpsire their fans. Poor shows againt weak teams.

Lets watch the Swiss game, we normally lost to them :P If they win that then I might get behind them.

I'd like to claim responsibility for both games...

On Saturday my bus was late so i knew i would miss the first bit of the match any way I was nearly at my mates and spied a bike shop and had to pop in for brake fluid.

I asked if i'd missed anything.......of course i had but never mind eh? we won



Today I watched all the game up to 2 minutes before the first goal. i was getting ****ed of so i thought...maybe i shouldn't watch.....


So I got up and looked out of the window with my back to the telly.....one minute later....we're winning :P :P

I promise I will endevour to miss at least 5 minutes of every England match so our first game can be scored

A complete mess until 60 minutes. So much so, i've told my other half to start the match at that point and not bother with the highlights. The substitutions couldnt have come sooner.

Rooney, didnt seem quite back to his normal self.

Lennin was great and brought a real pace about.

Both seemed to bring something functional to the team.

What a clearance from the goal mouth! Edge of my seat moment!

I'm pretty sure my 22 month old nearly fell over when i lept out of my seat when we scored. It must have been a funny sight to see. Me and a 2ft high child jumping around shouting "GOOOOAAAAALL""

Super..Sorry my friend but you are missing the point here and badly.

Believe it or not there are far more teams in this competition who knowing their own failures,aim to stop those better teams they face by being destructive. A good level of fitness, discipline at the back and packing midfield will achieve this against most very good teams,trust me on that.

Another great exponent of that art are Switzerland who themselves frankly are crap,but they stopped England playing recently and this week had French fans calling for the reintroduction of the guillotine!

It is very hard for even the finest players , when deprived of time and space...to look good. That is a long accepted fact.

It is a system that will see opponents snatch at half chances and miss what normally would be routine goals...we saw plenty of that today. England were also carrying a massive burden of expectation as surely they would steam roll T & T? From now on it mentally gets easier for them as each game is a one off chance and this will allow more freedom for the better players,of which England have plenty.

Do not expect Roy of The Rovers type performances, they will not happen but I do feel the confidance in the England camp can now only see them get better.

Up to now England full marks first mission accomplished.

Going back to expectation and the pressure it can put on you. Does anyone remember the state that Ronaldo was in before and during the last world cup final? If you do then you will know exactly what I am talking about.

(I just hope now that Steven Gerrard will be allowed to perform his more natural roaming and dynamic role than the holding player, as in a knock out stage I think he brings more than Frank who is not the player he was 12 months ago.)

Originally Posted by mysteryjimbo

Lennin was great and brought a real pace about.

should replace crouch with him!

Looks a bit rigid to replace Crouchy? :P

Err hum-9 games 6 goals is it? And you want to sack your only 100% fit centre forward? Smart move that.

Originally Posted by Supervox

Whilst I appreciate your point of view Ping, I think you just about summed it up with ". . . they managed it . . ." - let's face it we all expected them (with some justification I think) to do a lot more than "manage" to beat T & T !!

Why does T&T have this "lesser" team image?

Their striker is Dwight Yorke, who no-one would dispute his talents teamed up with Cole. Their keeper is Shaka Hislop who was good enough to play at Newcastle [IIRC].

Its not like theyve just dragged a team of men over from the Carribean who have never played football in their lives. Some of these guys play at top level and are quite capable. A concept seemly lacking from peoples grasp meaning that they werent going to be a pushover. :P