Wayne Cubed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/27443595 Go to highlights

Everytime I walk past the books in the book store I contemplate buying them. Then my wife talks me out of it and says we are pot commented to the show. Might as well wait for the show to finish then pick up the books.

Having lived in England for 5 years may I suggest BBC sport or ITV or Sky Sports. Those are your major TV networks covering the World Cup. If you are looking for newspaper type coverage try The Guardian (www.theguadian.com) or The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk). All of these have lots of coverage.

I'd also add, they are just running plays, they aren't game planning. They aren't looking at how the defense is lined up and picking the right play. This is early offseason practice, with a slow build up to the season. My judgement of EJ will come more when the season starts and he's played a few games. But, even then I know for a fact, he will still make some mistakes.

Yes, but practices should be perfect at this point. Obviously.

Great post.

What's more surprising to me is that Rodak has taken it upon himself to list EJ's reps in mini-camp. I find that particularly odd, considering another AFC East blogger had this to say before he commented on another 2nd year QB "Obviously, individual stats don't mean much in minicamp." Even saying that, reading the reps, I don't see too much to be concerned about besides maybe the interception. It looks as though a lot of them are mistakes dealing with the offense as a whole working out the kinks (botched snaps, dropped passes, blocking break downs). Normal day at mini-camp/practice if you ask me. Now, if every series included an interception, I may be a bit concerned.

I'm Waynildo

Talent. Depth. Tactics. If you look at most teams, they just don't have the depth and talent that these teams do. Germany, particularly, is scary deep in talent. When you have one of the best mid-fielders sitting out (Schweinsteiger) and are able to just move Lahm (normally plays full-back) into that position, and still look good. That's just something most teams can't do. The only potential problem is who replaces Lahm, Boateng who didn't look particularly strong. Can't have all-stars all over the field I guess.

Ouch, hamstring for sure. Done.

Wow. What a start!

Right, but I just gave you an example of a lower salary team, Crystal Palace, who can't just spend money on whoever, who is filled entirely with Europeans, mostly from the UK. Or I'll give you another. Sunderland, again, majority filled with Europeans, most being from the UK. EDIT: And if you even look down in the Championship League at team like Leeds United, they are filled with Europeans, majority being English.

Huh? Manchester City has the highest payroll of any team in the world for 2014, per player. The average pay on the team, per year, is $8.1 million per player. Of the 26 players on the squad, 20 are European, but the highest salary is from Aguero, who's from Argentina, not exactly "cheap". And even if you look at some of the lower spending teams like Crystal Palace, the majority of their players are from the UK with 1 player being from Argentina... So they can't be trying to save money by filling their club with cheap players from South American and Africa.

Müller looking on form again. German team looks solid even without Schweinsteiger out there.

I agree with this. The problem is it can/does sway the refs decision, so can you really blame them? I do find in international play, some teams are above the whole "acting" on the injuries and some teams really ham it up. This is something that I think annoys the casual soccer fan the most.

Yea, 2nd of the match for Palacios, resulted in the PK that put France up 1-0 before the half.

France v Honduras is real chippy, very physical.

Raheem Sterling played a great first half. He had a good season at Liverpool and there has been a lot of talk about him.

+1 Great half. Both teams applying the pressure.

I don't think he would have even gotten the ball without the "foul" he terribly misjudged his jump and the ball was way out of reach.

F5

Wow. What a game. Dutch looking strong.

Bale.

Didn't say that. But they still have a long way to go IMO, based on how the US develops players. The best player in the world isn't even in the WC this year. This will be only the 20th WC, so the chances of winning have been low considering Brasil has 5, Italy 4 and Germany 3. EDIT: anyways sorry to derail the thread.

In what way? There's is no way the US team is even close to even with Germany, Spain, Holland or Italy. Maybe they might be able to break even with England, Portugal or France... but that's a toss up. And where's this depth of talent you speak of on the US team, which position? EDIT: And Europeans are playing the best of the best BEFORE they hit 16. The under-15 leagues are huge. And players start there when they are 12.