England

[Macster]

I think my daughter & I have been watching a different game to the TV pundits.........

Whilst they were of the opinion that we played 'ever so well', I thought we were absolute sh1te.

Argentina on the other hand were sheer class this afternoon, despite coming into the comp as rank 'outsiders. They showed more skill in 10mins than we showed in 90.

Ive lost interest already.

 

[Dodger]

Dreadful but I cannot believe that the ''pundits'' are saying Friday is a toughy now....it is Al bloody geria they ae playing for christ sake!!

I also cannot believe that they are saying they played well,they were gash and should have been beaten,take Rooney and Gerrard out and it is a vey ordinary and vastly overrated side.

 

[birdieman]

Agree with the Argentina comment - great football.

England were decent I thought if a bit predictable. 2 times England were clean through in the 2nd half but they can't finish. SWT and Heskey in particular need to finish better.
The cooler weather there is making for some fast pace football. Give the USA some credit, they are not a bad team at all.

 

[Imurg]

It's difficult to say that Heskey had a good game when he missed a sitter but he didn't do too badly. The rest of them ran around a lot and didn't really achieve much. SWP gave the ball away to easily, Lennon made some good runs and its anyone's guess what Green was doing.
And Carragher was lucky to stay on the pitch.
Not a disaster but can and must do much better

 

[Macster]

Green- oh dear.

Johnson - good game......particularly going forward.
Terry - did he play ?
King - made of glass.....obviously.
Carragher - lucky to stay on, and out paced by Altidore ffs, who was sh1te at Hull this year.
Cole - very average

Milner - terrible.....no wonder he went off.
Lampard - average by his standards.
Gerrard - ditto.......except defensively.
Lennon. - perhaps 2 good runs, otherwise innocuous.
SWP. - pretty crap from what i saw.

Heskey - worked hard, our best player, but lacking class.
Rooney - hardly a touch in reality, got frustrated...again.
Crouch. - achieved little in reality, but perhaps will start next game.

Sure, the US played well by their standards, but if we are supposed to be one of the favourites ffs, its about time we learnt how to keep the ball for starters.
Is it me, but if these guys get paid £50-150k per week, shouldnt we expect a smidge better from them.

I maintain......they were SH1T.

 

[Dodger]

Chris spot on....until they learn about ball retention nothing will be won.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Even the optimist in me can't find much to be happy about. Not sure you can ever legislate for an error of that proportion but credit Green for making an important stop in the second half. I thought Heskey did well for a change but he lacked confidence with his chance. I think it'll come down to goal difference and so we'll need to be attacking against the Algerians. Overall I'd say 5/10

 

[Region3]

Totally agree with them being rubbish tonight, apart from a few odd patches.

SWP wasn't a threat because the defenders knew which way he was going every time he got the ball.
All the years we were looking for a left footed forward player and put a totally one footed (right) player on the left wing when Joe Cole is on the bench.

Lennon was a threat but needs to run at defenders more. When he did he looked dangerous. McManaman all over again.

I disagree with most that don't rate Terry. He's not quick but I think he reads the game well which makes up for the lack of pace.

Don't remember Lampard doing much.

I thought Gerrard and Heskey were better than average.

The player of the night for me was Johnson, both defending and going forward. If only our forwards ran at defenders like he did.

The thing that winds me up the most though, is a defender has the ball and a midfield player will run 20 yards towards him, only to get the ball and give it straight back to him!

Then you get centre backs playing 40 yard balls up to the front men, completely bypassing the midfield. Why do we find it so hard to (or don't want to) play the ball on the deck through the midfield.

I sound like my Dad. I'm done now. Thank you.

 

[Tommo21]

I was out playing golf tonight...thank god. The girl on bbc news said I think we'll see that goal again, again and again. she was right because the BBC were showing it again and again and again. Forget the gaolkeeper, the real howler was Heskey.

 

[Iaing]

And they joke about Scottish goalies.

 

[Tommo21]

And they joke about Scottish goalies.

BBC news are showing the past England howlers....FFS.

 

[The_Squire]

I hope the green holds the ball at the golf course better than the Green at the football pitch.

 

[The_Squire]

Obama will be happy, not all spills by the British are costly to the USA.

Like Kermit the Frog said, it's not east being Green.

Youv'e got to hand it to Robert Green, cos he won't catch it

 

[madandra]

Reports are coming through about fllash floods in the English Borders, apparently caused by 5 million jocks pissing themselves laughing at the England keepers f*** up

 

[JT77]

oh dear, I realise we were woeful, but at least we are there!

 

[CrapHacker]

I wouldn't go so far as woeful.

But

Green was like a rabbit caught in a car's headlights

Central defence is badly short of pace ( why didn't anyone think of taking Jagielka - oh sorry, shouldn't be doing the 'Told you so stuff yet').

King was never going to be a good idea in terms of his fitness. A tight groin would never have anything to do with him not training properly, would it? ( 'Told ... ' )

We needed a simple 'get and give' midfielder out there. If Barry wasn't fit enough, we needed Scotty P ( '....you...' )

Whilst Heskey makes everyone around him look better, to get all our most effective players on the park in any kind of formation they can play to, we need to have Gerrard playing off of Rooney ( '.......so ! )

All is not lost, though. We got through it without losing ground, and like '86, our manager might be forced into changing his tactics for the better.

I can still see

Hart

Johnson, Dawson, Terry, A Cole,

Lennon, Lampard, Barry, J Cole

Gerrard

Rooney

working, if we can get them out on the pitch together.

We'll still get through dead easy, and once we get into the knockout stages we still have enough decent players out there to scare most teams.

There are other problems, but Italy in '82 were poor in qualifying, and they won because they had the best goalscorer in the tournamnet. We have Rooney.

Germany did well in 2002 coz they had a lucky route to the final. We're due a lucky run.

While there's life, there's hope.

 

[RichardC]

Lennon and SWP are the most predictable wingers I have ever seen. Why he thought it would be a good idea to replace Milner on the left with the right sided SWP when he had Joe Cole on the bench

Carragher should not have been on the bloody plane and has someone needs to get Ashley his mojo as he now looks ordinary.

I thought both Heskey & Johnson were the best players on the pitch, but do we have to play a big man up with Rooney???? I think it makes us look soooooo predictable.

 

[pokerjoke]

I totally disagree with you ChrisMc we are not Sh1te,Although the performance was not great it was not poor either,we never looked like losing and that was the key to this game.You cannot win the world cup in the first game and im sure we will get better as the comp goes on.My suggestion to you is get behind England instead of slagging them all off.Im glad youve lost interest because i wont have to read the crap you write.Ive said my piece so i wont be getting into a personal slagging match.Im a true English supporter and i will be getting behind them every game.

 

[Macster]

lmao @ pokerjoke. - "we never looked like losing"
- perhaps you nodded off and missed the moment when Dozy Altidore skipped past Carragher and nearly smashed in the winner for the USA ?

There is a fundamental difference in being a "real England Supporter", and perhaps a "Real admirer of class football", and therein lies the difference.

Fact - if we cant keep play 'keepball' against the USA, what chance will we have against Brazil, Argentina, or Spain ?
Fact - apart from, lets be generous, maybe 3 World Class players, (Rooney, Gerrard, & Lampard on his day), the squad is made up of distinctly average players who think they are good enough, and have hugely inflated ego's, but who wouldn't warrent £20k/year, let alone £70k/week, if it werent for football.

I'm as patriotic as anyone, and genuinely want them to win, but so often they just look like a mid table team hoping for a result, rather than one of the supposed Tournament favourites.

In contrast, Argentina come into the tournament as written off underdogs, and completely boss their game, passing the ball around with flair and confidence, and looking like Tournament potential winners.

England - one of the favourites ? Dont make me laugh.

 

[pokerjoke]

We didnt look like losing as we created a lot more chances than them,even though i agree they had two good chances too score,but myself i never felt we were going to lose.I totally agree with you about ball possesion we definately need to improve in that area.As for Argentina i for one have never thought they would come to the world cup and not perform they have world class players and it seams there team spirit is sky high.One thing i would say is that its only the bookies that make England near favourites because we are patriotic and they would take a massive hit if we won.Just a few points for me about players.Rooney,gerrard and lampard sometimes world class.No defender in this comp will want lennon running at them all he needs is a final ball.No defender on last nights performance would like to play against Heskey all he needs is a goal.Last nights performance was not great but not bad either,we will improve and we will be a threat.