2022 World Cup.

[GreiginFife]

Normally there is a 3 week break from end of season to tournament start, time to recover, refresh and train. This year it's 1 week.

Normally England has 6-7 day break between 1st and 2nd games. This year it was 4 days, with the Wales game to follow 4 days later.

It didn't make sense for England to go all out guns blazing against USA. It's great they were able to play within themselves, although the performance was uninspiring. Southgate is too sensible for that.

England is the "big" team in the group. It's pretty common for teams to play for a draw against the big team and try to win the other two games. It was clear to me that Iran and USA both set themselves up to get a draw. Iran tried to frustrate England and were very negative, but once they conceded, their game plan was gone and they didn't know what to do. USA were very organised and played a high energy press.

The teams that thrash everyone in the group stages rarely go on to win the tournament. A dull 0-0 is no disaster.

Normally they are coming off the back of a long season. This time it's the middle of the season. If they weren't playing in Qatar, they'd still be playing in the "best and most physical league in the world". IMO, tiredness now is just lazy excusing.

 

[RichA]

Half-time pundits Didier Drogba and Laura Georges. Refreshing to hear genuinely interesting, insightful analysis after 45 minutes of Dion's drivel.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Half-time pundits Didier Drogba and Laura Georges. Refreshing to hear genuinely interesting, insightful analysis after 45 minutes of Dion's drivel.

Agree…even something as simple as DD explaining where he’d position himself between full back and central defender…and why. And LG expanding on it from her full back perspective.

 

[Orikoru]

World Cup has gone mad today. There were far too many nil nils to be fair.

 

[sunshine]

Normally they are coming off the back of a long season. This time it's the middle of the season. If they weren't playing in Qatar, they'd still be playing in the "best and most physical league in the world". IMO, tiredness now is just lazy excusing.

Nah. They’ve played extra games so far this season, started early and crammed loads into October. They can’t expect to play at 100% intensity for all three group matches. This is the same for all the European based players in top leagues.

They need to pace themselves and peak later in the tournament.

 

[GB72]

World Cup has gone mad today. There were far too many nil nils to be fair.

I guess teams play the first game or even 2 with a view to not losing and then can see what they need to do. Today a couple of teams reached that do or die stage

 

[Orikoru]

I guess teams play the first game or even 2 with a view to not losing and then can see what they need to do. Today a couple of teams reached that do or die stage

Yeah, you're right, it's the middling teams battling it out for that 2nd group spot. Of course I'm in the office today and not watching, so tonight and tomorrow's games will be back to the usual nil nils.

 

[paddyc]

A random irritation but Dion Dublin drives me nuts with his crap observations and obvious comments. South Korea get a corner in the last minute. " This is going in the box" Really!

 

[clubchamp98]

Nah. They’ve played extra games so far this season, started early and crammed loads into October. They can’t expect to play at 100% intensity for all three group matches. This is the same for all the European based players in top leagues.

They need to pace themselves and peak later in the tournament.

They had two weeks off when the Queen died.
They really should not be tired and leggy after 1 World Cup tie against Iran.

 

[clubchamp98]

For me, we needed to win the USA game, then you might have seen a few players rested tomorrow as we'd have been more-or-less guaranteed top of the group. By not winning the game we've lost that luxury. If we can get an early goal or two then we have the chance to rest players second half.

As for your last sentence - how many times have we said that over the years for various opposition and not done the job?

I did sat “ should.”
Footballs a funny old game!

 

[sunshine]

That 2nd half the other night was as rubbish as i've seen over the years.

You must have a really short memory. That's not even the worst England performance I've seen v USA! Remember Rob Green?

2010 was so much worse. 2014 was even worse than 2010... we finished bottom of our group.

Plus all the dreadful years under Graham Taylor, Keegan. What about Schteve MacLaren who took over the 2006 world cup QF team so called golden generation and failed to qualify for Euro 2008. England have frequently been miserable in the last 20 years, so I'm preperared to give Southgate the benefit of the doubt for now.

 

[Asian Dawn]

Southgate's track record - Semi-finalists in the last World Cup, runner-up in the last Euros. He has got so much leeway, the moronic tabloid press need to concentrate on the length of the skirts of the WAGs. It's about their intelligence level.

 

[nickjdavis]

Brazil dismal today. Creative spark is non-existent. Surely Neymar doesn't make that much difference to them?

 

[Swango1980]

Infuriating that VAR is ruling goals out for offside, and the images are not shown at the time the decision is made, but randomly 2 or 3 minutes later after the game has continued.

 

[Orikoru]

Infuriating that VAR is ruling goals out for offside, and the images are not shown at the time the decision is made, but randomly 2 or 3 minutes later after the game has continued.

Maybe it takes that long to make those lovely 3D renders of the players. ?

 

[Imurg]

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Expecting a free flowing, good natured game this evening ?. Maybe I'll be wrong.

 

[Slime]

I think this game is going to degenerate into a bit of a cynical mess.
Could be good viewing though!
A couple of red cards may liven things up a tad.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Ronaldo didn’t touch that!

 

[Slime]