The WORLD CUP thread

[Supervox]

So much for England 'raising their game' against 'better' opposition !!

Jesus Christ !! Possession passing was diabolical - no shape or intent - just passing for the sake of it (compare it with the Argies !!)

England's Goals :-

Joe Cole - a good 'un - slight question mark over the keepers positioning though - he should have done better.

Stevie Gerrard - did what was needed.

Sweden's Goals :- (don't know names - sorry )

(1) To allow a player to creep in front of you at a corner is a schoolboy error, NOT one that Beckham should be making - well taken header though all the same.

(2) WTF happened ??? !! The last time I saw a goal THAT soft it was scored by my nephew's Under 11 team !!

All in all another pretty p*ss poor performance

I think if (& the way they are playing it's a very big if) England manage to beat Ecuador (& if the other games follow a reasonable pattern with no upsets) then the following game would be against Holland - NOT A CHANCE IN HELL of winning if they don't improve every aspect of their game dramatically !!

Yep, the defending on the last goal was atrocious. Someone should have picked up on Mellburg(sp?) and Larsson. A Cole and Campbell were the closest to them.

Am more worried about the injury Owen has picked up and Ferdinand going off as well.

England got the result.

[Supervox]

Originally Posted by The Basket

England got the result.

Yeah - a DRAW !!

WOW !!

Just making the point that I don't see us going much further in the competition unless we play a damned sight better !!

One must remember that England have played 3 poor games and still comes top of the group.

There is an old saying...'better to be lucky than good'...

[Stingo]

What about Owen? Is that right that he's only had SIX hours football this YEAR? He might be good when he's fit...but he's obviously a medical liability...about time he gave up I think or he'll be a cripple before his next birthday. Give someone else a chance.

Just my opinion!

Of course you knew I would pop along to give an alternative view right? :P

What a great edge of the seat game! I thoroughly enjoyed it and after Gerrard popped up to knock that superb header in I thought that was it! But again you see a good side thwarted by,(let's be honest) nothing more than a workman like side)

But hey guys take it all the way back to 1968 and England have had some damn good teams over those years and we still have not beaten the Swedes. There really is no rhyme or reason to it at all. In fact it is quite baffling.

Terrible basic defending errors let the Swedes in which I feel sure will be worked on big time before the German game,so let's not panic.

Joe Cole was sublime in the first half but England did not push it home in the second. However to all those that malign the guy I want to say this, overall on the 90 minutes Owen Hargreaves was easilly our best player. He was cracking, doing all the graft,making the tackles and never wasting posession with a sloppy pass. the guy was excellent.

Italy had a player like him called Franco Baresi and France had Deschamps, every good team needs what Eric Cantona calls a "hod carrier" so get offf his back and give credit where it is due.

Very worrisome over Michael and Wayne's tetchiness was all down to frustration, He was dead on his feet but all the better for it.

BTW...the last time England headed their group they became champions and on the way to winning that group people were slagging them off saying they were crap. Do not give up on them just yet.

Yeah, Owen isn't what he used to be but I still rate him over Crouch and Walcott. England now have a real striker problem if they didn't before. At least England have some good goal scoring midfielders.

You know being an ex pat it really ****es me when people who obviously don't have any great interest in football,jump straight in and slag England off at the slightest opportunity.

Ok so they did not steam roll the Swedes,hello was that ever going to happen ...but sorry Supervox on this occasion I think you are way out of line.

Compare it with the Argies! FFS they trounced an abysmal team 6-0 and now they are the only team able to play this game? B*llox...they have not played anyone yet!

You think they would have 6 nilled Sweden do you? If so then you really are dreaming!

(Dont take any of this to heart Super....I know football is not your speciailst suject! )

p.s. Super..Sweden are not a better team they are of the ilk of the well known spoilers like Switzerland and to a degree Germany who can soak all you have and hit you with the sucker punch. England have not been asked to raise their game yet by the task set them. That will come when they face a team that really wants to play as opposed to one that simply wants to stop them playing. There is a difference.

[carelesschucca]

It wasn't just for the goals though the defence WAS Crap... There was one off the bar, one off the line, not to mention the goals... Not very impressive, anything at a set piece and England were all over the place...

As for Owen It looks as if thats his world cup over B4 he even started...

Sweden were crap as well mind you Ljungberg did one thing the whole match... Over all a pretty poor game...

Only highlight was Joe Coles goal, looked slightly miss hit mind you I do think the keeper could have done better for it mind you, use your feet instead of just throwing yourself at it, but hey you can't take it away from Joe Cole...