World Cup 2010 - GROUP C (England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia) **spoilers**

[Lord-Jaffa]

Has Lampard ever played well for England? I can't recall a single game where he has played better than average.

The whole team is absolute rubbish, if that team played week in and week out in the premiership they wouldnt win a single game!

 

[dunker]

hmm rooney "fat"? nah, playing like **** yeah.

 

[neoboy]

I can't see us doing anything vs Slovenia and if we do win it probably be due to a red card or a controversial penalty.

Funnily enough we could technically still pass the group if we draw 2:2 and other result goes 0:0.

What scares me looking at the squad list now is that on paper we have all the quality we need just little spirit. Another thing is that a lot of players will not make it to the next world cup as we have a quite few players already 30+ and a lot in their late 20s. We took our time to employ a manager with proven track record of success and still we can't make it work in any way. So this is probably the best shot we had at a World Cup for some time, I know 4 years is a long time but do we have enough young blood coming through to replace the (well not at the moment) world class players who will simply be too old for next tournament?

 

[ShaolinDreams]

The only plus I have is that I got 25/1 earlier today for draw/algeria. So if they do nick it in the second half I get 250 quid.

i'm going to burn my jabulani football.

Also saw some vuvulas horns in sainsburys today

 

[antijoke]

What an awful game.

Although I think the solution should be clear to everyone, play 9 men and a Liverpool beach ball and call up united's own goal. Job done.

 

[Jimbeam3678]

stayed up until 5 am to watch that shower of ****!

 

[FrankJH]

What an absolute joke the England squad is currently (or certainly the starting XI plus 1st sub which is usually SWP)

That was a managerial foul up as much as anything imo - the subs where a complete waste really

Heskey should have come off a lot earlier - Gerrard should have gone as AM/ 2nd striker centrally, and Joe Cole should have come on down the left

SWP is a complete waste of space - yes he did conjur up a few things after coming on but I still think Lennon would have made more of them than SWP did

The middle of the park was completely over-run majority of the time, Algeria of all teams were just picking us off too easily, yes Barry saved a couple of decent chances from going in, but I still dont think he actually adds much to the team (surely he should have been doing the hard tackling further up the pitch not at the goal mouth)

Terry was an absolute disaster - Carragher was better but stupidly booked so out of the next match (I guess Upson is his replacement)

Capello HAS to change things for the final game, otherwise we are out (yes I know we could technically go through, but I cant see the USA not scoring, and really they should have won yesterday anyway against the better of the two sides - Algeria/Slovenia - on current form at least)

AC was ok of a bad bunch , thought GJ was attrocious (wasting shots from far out)

We reeally need to play 4 - 5 - 1 but Capello wont do that, so what about the below

Hart

GJ Upson Terry AC

Lennon Carrick/Barry Gerrard Milner/JC

Crouch Rooney

Gerrard HAS to be central, and Lamps hasnt been great either game really so before its too late , it desperately needs to be changed especially the misfiring/ not working midfield who have been diabolical both games

Once a Blue, always a Blue!

Its WELL past time to get over that - face it, its been practically 6 years (sep 01 2004), and Everton are always going to be a tiny club compared to Utd, if he didnt want to grow as a player with (amongst) the best players then he wouldnt be the player he is!!

 

[fadetoblack]

What an absolute joke the England squad is currently (or certainly the starting XI plus 1st sub which is usually SWP)

That was a managerial foul up as much as anything imo - the subs where a complete waste really

Heskey should have come off a lot earlier - Gerrard should have gone as AM/ 2nd striker centrally, and Joe Cole should have come on down the left

SWP is a complete waste of space - yes he did conjur up a few things after coming on but I still think Lennon would have made more of them than SWP did

The middle of the park was completely over-run majority of the time, Algeria of all teams were just picking us off too easily, yes Barry saved a couple of decent chances from going in, but I still dont think he actually adds much to the team (surely he should have been doing the hard tackling further up the pitch not at the goal mouth)

Terry was an absolute disaster - Carragher was better but stupidly booked so out of the next match (I guess Upson is his replacement)

Capello HAS to change things for the final game, otherwise we are out (yes I know we could technically go through, but I cant see the USA not scoring, and really they should have won yesterday anyway against the better of the two sides - Algeria/Slovenia - on current form at least)

AC was ok of a bad bunch , thought GJ was attrocious (wasting shots from far out)

We reeally need to play 4 - 5 - 1 but Capello wont do that, so what about the below

Hart

GJ Upson Terry AC

Lennon Carrick/Barry Gerrard Milner/JC

Crouch Rooney

Gerrard HAS to be central, and Lamps hasnt been great either game really so before its too late , it desperately needs to be changed especially the misfiring/ not working midfield who have been diabolical both games



Its WELL past time to get over that - face it, its been practically 6 years (sep 01 2004), and Everton are always going to be a tiny club compared to Utd, if he didnt want to grow as a player with (amongst) the best players then he wouldnt be the player he is!!

Rooney should have come off not Heskey what did Rooney do all night? Also wright Phillips on what wrong with joe cole?

 

[semi-pro waster]

Interesting to read that Adidas sent us 25 Jabulani balls to practise with, before the WC, back in February but the FA lost them. As a result we only started using the ball in May where as everybody else has been practicing with it for months.

Who says the FA is incompetent?

I thought I heard on the commentary that the EPL couldn't use the balls due to a contract with Nike unlike a number of other leagues who simply used the Jabulani for months beforehand. However without wishing to take anything away from the English FA (they are pretty hopeless), they're hardly unique in national FAs for their incompetence.

Capello should ring Shearer, send him on a plane and put him in the team to show that fat useless **** Rooney how to play.

Shearer is already out in South Africa as part of the commentary team isn't he? So it needn't cost that much to get him to take part either.

 

[FrankJH]

Rooney should have come off not Heskey what did Rooney do all night? Also wright Phillips on what wrong with joe cole?

I stated JC should have played - and SWP is a waste of space

just laughs at Rooney being subbed instead of Heskey (England wouldnt have got the ball past the 1/2 way line without Rooney most of the time)

I thought I heard on the commentary that the EPL couldn't use the balls due to a contract with Nike unlike a number of other leagues who simply used the Jabulani for months beforehand. However without wishing to take anything away from the English FA (they are pretty hopeless), they're hardly unique in national FAs for their incompetence.

I read somewhere that an allocation of WC balls for the English FA were stolen in Feb, which is why the English team couldnt practice with it as early as some other teams/countries

Not sure about how much fact its based on (or how much of an excuse it is lol)

 

[zootfloot]

Not an awful lot to add here, it was an awful game with some dire personal performances, the only plus side is that we didnt get beat although we probably deserved to.

One thing that concerns me more than anything at the minute is the amount of time we seem to spend in our own half and the way we use our keeper as an outfield player rather than the last line of defense.

I dont think i have seen any other international team pass back to their keeper as much as we do, its like all our players have morphed into David "Backpass" Batty!

 

[peterattheboro]

I read somewhere that an allocation of WC balls for the English FA were stolen in Feb, which is why the English team couldnt practice with it as early as some other teams/countries

Not sure about how much fact its based on (or how much of an excuse it is lol)

To be honest, a balls a ball. Unless they are filled with helium then I don't see the issue. These are pro footballers so they should be able to kick a ball around a field.

All they need to do is get shots on target instead of kicking them to the south pole!

 

[zootfloot]

To be honest, a balls a ball. Unless they are filled with helium then I don't see the issue. These are pro footballers so they should be able to kick a ball around a field.

All they need to do is get shots on target instead of kicking them to the south pole!

Lol, was thinking the same thing, in my mind this whole ball at fault fiasco is just pure tosh.

 

[Loki]

Rooney should have come off not Heskey what did Rooney do all night? Also wright Phillips on what wrong with joe cole?

Your right What did Wayne Rooney do (loving all the Rooney hate on here, I am sure he will get booed up and down the county next season ala David Beckham style, then again he might bang in the winner against Slovenia and everyone will be up his arse again)

The problem with the last two displays is simple, because football by all accounts is a simple game, Capello is not playing to the players strengths. Look at Argentina, Maradona has gone through 100 players in qualification to realise that the full backs he had were turd so he goes for 3 Centre backs and a make shift right midfielder, everyone in the team is being utilised to to their skills, more importantly they are going out and expressing their skill.

We can all go on from now till doomsday why certain players didn't perform but being fair it's not just one player is it. So if its not the players performing then the buck stops with the manager for poor tactics. When did players like Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard ever play in a system where the ball is played from the full back, misses the midfield out and played upto a target man. It was so easy for Algeria to defend against it was untrue.

Lampard, Rooney and Gerrard do their damage when they are in possession of the ball. All this long ball crap Capello has us playing certainly is not playing to our strengths. Another thing to consider is that whilst everything is being pumped through the middle, Johnson and Cole were literally on the periphery of the game for the full 90 minutes. So that's five outfield players who we are not using to their potential.

God loves a trier and yes lets go out of our way for congratulating Emile Heskey for 'putting in a shift' full of 'pride and passion' all noble qualities but still won us **** all on the night.

For the next game he needs Cole & Johnson to create some more width, drop Lennon, Drop Barry, Drop Heskey. For gods sake get Joe Cole on at least he runs at players and looks to play 'Football' God forbid we try and play football in the final 3rd of the pitch unlike the last two games, here's something radicall, we might actually look like scoring.

 

[Tute]

Bent isn't there and why on earth would you change keepers again?

Edit: And Tute, Bent isn't in the squad

Fair enough, my mistake.

And regarding the keeper situation - because Hart is the youngest and could do with the chance to prove himself?

 

[fadetoblack]

I stated JC should have played - and SWP is a waste of space

just laughs at Rooney being subbed instead of Heskey (England wouldnt have got the ball past the 1/2 way line without Rooney most of the time)



I read somewhere that an allocation of WC balls for the English FA were stolen in Feb, which is why the English team couldnt practice with it as early as some other teams/countries

Not sure about how much fact its based on (or how much of an excuse it is lol)

And if Rooney stayed up front and not kept coming back we may have scored ; ) after all he is a striker. Anyway he needs to be dropped to get his fire back in his belly

 

[wozzizname]

I think I'll get behind one of the other teams that's showing a bit of passion and determination, such as North Korea, Mexico or Chile rather than our bunch of overpaid and spineless muppets.

 

[MikeB]

watching that i saw most of our team simply couldn't be assed, terrible passing, sad faces, lack of energy, maybe they are all on?

 

[Fr0dders]

been listenning to talk sport since the match ended, and in typical talk sport fashion, theres been lots of vary (angry lol) commentators, and varying viewpoints.

One thing that is obvious, is that Capello and the F.A cant be to blame for this. Adrian durham had it right, there were 11 men that walked out on that field, and with maybe 1 or two exceptions, all of them played like garbage. Capello is having the same problem as all the england managers before them - england players who play better for their club than they do for their country.

We've done things capellos way, kept the media away, let them train behind closed doors, let him keep the players in the dark till the day etc.. etc.. and its still not changed.

Only players can go out on their field and play as well for their country as for their club. But they dont appear to give a damn. Its the only possible explanation for years of shoddy performances.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Yup, lets be honest, can the players kick the ball along the ground and it stays down, yes, then the ball doesn't magically fly upwards if you touch it. Its still about how you kick it, a lighter ball might be harder to make dip but I don't really buy that either.

Remember that every year, every competition theres a new ball, and remember that EVERY time its lighter and keepers complain it moves more, dips more, curves more, etc, etc.

Yet England are complaining it doesn't stay down apparently, do people not remember that gravity won't work differently on a light or heavy ball, drop any ball from any height, they'll come down at the same speed.

Anyway, the actual situation is that England couldn't use the all in the EPL, because its under contract with whoever they are under contract with, every player in the EPL and La Liga hasn't practiced with it for 6 months, yet Messi, Tevez, Higuan are doing fine with it. Belhadj overhit the new ball just as much as he does in the EPL, SWP, Lennon, Heskey and Johnsons crossing is just as over and behind the goal as usual.

Lots of countries have used the ball in friendlies since Feb though, England didn't use it in friendlies either as they are under contract with Umbro, and apparently Umbro/England thought the sponsorship cash was more important than practising with the ball they would be playing with. THey only played in competition with the new ball in the final friendly before the world cup.

But they've been training with it for months, I would imagine behind closed doors they've been using the ball in training since a long time ago and anything else is a complete excuse, it doesn't take long to adjust to a new ball, you hit it a little less hard, or harder, which is already a skill players have, well some do. With any ball you get used to kicking it between a couple yards and 50 yards, its an incredibly minor adjustment and England/Fa are just trying to come up with an excuse for the waste of cash that is Capello.

Most cups/EPL seasons, and other leagues get a new version of a ball every year, they adjust, it takes no time at all, its sorted before the first game, people make excuses and it always turns out to be complete rubbish.