Britbillsfan

Doubt it Ukraine are a piss poor team and the games have more or less gone as I expected. Of the teams with a chance of winning at the start seven are still in there, so it will get harder from now on. To be honest I would love it if England had the same history of unachieving as Italy - I mean one World Cup win and that's it for us. Mostly down to the way the game has been run over the years in this country, although we are now starting to produce more top quality players, we still have little idea on how to use them. I am warming to Italy in this tournament. They are playing pretty well (not magnificently, admittedly, but then no one really has been with any consistancy) and are not boring (after all sport is supposed to be a form of entertainment). Much better to watch than England so far for the neutrals.

Yeah, worst underachievers ever. Even worse than England.....

A strike against a stadium or plaza full of England/Oz/Iranian fans would be fairly tastey, though. Trying to split America from its allies is a tactic they have used successfully before (Madrid), and the UK & Oz are probably the closest allies the US has (in tems of deeds and not just words). And of course Iranians are a worthy target what with them being 'filthy heretics' and all. I do not think it likely but in their way of thinking such an attack would be legitimate (IMO) and is much more in line with previous attacks than a random attack on the tournament.

No Deco, no Costinha, probably no Ronaldo (injured) and quite possibly no Figo (that headbutt and theatrics could get him suspended yet). England slowly improving (but still weighed down by some stupifying tactics). Heh, I can still dream of a semi-final, especially as a full strength Portugaul have had a couple of difficult, close games versus Enbgland in recent years....... The game against Ecuador was the best for England so far (not saying a lot, though) - they did not go into their shell for any of the game, pretty much closed down the Ecuadorian attack to long range shots, and were not QUITE as awful on set pieces (although the why they have 11 in the box at corners, etc is beyond me and drives me to distraction). Not a pretty game, for certain, Beckham without Neville at right back is not very good at all, but Rooney and A. Cole seem to be playing into some form after their comebacks from injury, and Carrick had a good game. Now if Lampard could rediscover his shooting boots......

My boss is half Ukrainian. So in the spirit of togetherness I will be half Swiss tomorrow.

Pretty much the same goal as Joe Cole's against Sweden. Absolutely awesome!

Alexei Lalas was a world class player. I was impressed with him whenever he played, a superb defender. Of course he is retired now. Unfortunately you need at least 3 or 4 players of such talent to have a realistic chance in the World Cup and the rest of the team be of a good standard, at the moment the US has no player of that calibre. This will change, but it does take time. At the moment the Aussies have some very good players who on their day can play against anybody (Viduka, Cahill, Schwartzer, Kewell) however they do not have the depth to be ranked highly. (And you will also need a good manager - thank you Sven )

Nicholaldo.

Crouch is the only recognised striker Sven picked who was fit. Owen and Rooney were both coming off injuries - Owen hardly played all year and Rooney broke his foot 5 weeks before the start of the tournament. Walcott has yet to play a single minute of top flight football in the EPL. McBride started well last season, running up 9 goals in the first couple of months. However he only added one goal to his tally in 2006 (in 5 months of football). Considered an okay striker, but not a great one. No idea where Howard went.....

Don't get me started on squad selection - England's forwards = only one recognised, fit striker. Two unfit (one already back home with an injury) and one who has NEVER played a single minute of top flight football........and that's it. And we don't have the excuse of a comparatively limited talent pool, there are plenty of good strikers out there. So I can sympathise with dodgy squad selection - one more injury or a couple of bookings and England will really struggle (or struggle even worse.....).

Pretty much......

The French team has gotten really old quickly. And it shows. Meanwhile the England team still can not work out how to work together.......

There he blows!!!!

Awful rule. Also used if players take free kicks before the ref is ready. Free kicks and penalties are given to penalise foul play, if the team with the kick takes it quickly in order to try and punish their opponents for said foul play then whatever then happens should stand, the referee should let play continue from there. The onus should be on the penalised team to get their house in order, since they have created their own problem.

Man has tried to come up with a fully comprehensive explaination on how the offside rule works since the dawn of time. Sometimes it is obvious but at others.........

Back on the 'other football' forums is there a game that goes by that does not have someone accuse the referees/umpires of being crooked for the sole reason of there being a plot to screw the Buffalo Bills? There are always questionable decisions in sport and there are very few sports that are totally untouched by poor judgement calls or corruption (to some degree). Proving it can be an issue, though. Why is there more corruption in football? - well it IS played by a lot more countries so there is a lot more opportunity there for corruption (especially where it is played in countries with corrupt government officials running the place (eg: most of Africa, large chunks of Asia & S America and Italy (sorry Meazza - but Italian governments do not have a great record of avoiding criminality amongst leading figures, not knocking Italy just some politicians there)). As to poor officiating at the World Cup - this is multiplied because FIFA insits on using a selection of referees from around the world rather than just trying to get the best referees there are. Although you can get poor games from any referee (Collina excepted) some of the incompetants that turn up every tournament are a joke. As for the USA sendings off, as stated in the other thread they were justifiable under the rules of the game. It can be argued they were a little harsh, but they were not appalling decisions in the context of the rules. A former England captain once said something along the lines of: 'Fans should understand the referee has an impossible job as there are twenty two players on the field that will try to fool him into making the wrong decision by cheating in some way.' (And that is true of players in almost every professional sport there is as well).

Under FIFA rules the ref made a solid decision, although it could have gone either way as you have said. Of courseit is any fan's right to bad mouth FIFA (in fact I would encourage it). I still reckon the Italian defence looks shakey......

There were difficulties in England's approach. With the T&T team often having all 11 players in their half and behind the ball made the way they were attempting to make opportunities difficult with too many long crosses (again). Some poor finishing did not help. With the speedier Lennon and Downing on the field England were able to stretch the T&T defence and get some better chances in the last quarter of the game and get behind the T&T defence on the wings - leading to the win. Now England are through they will be playing teams eager to win the game rather than defend in depth, which will make the games more open and MIGHT allow England to play a better game. However with Sven in charge you never know what England will turn up. At least the Sweden-England game I can watch without any stress whatsoever as we are now through into the next round.

Bizarrely Crouch is not THAT strong in the air, and has normally got pretty good touch on the ball for such a big man (if he did not there were several other strikers that would have gone to the finals instead of him). His touch certainly deserted him today. However even when he uses his skill to good effect the spectacle of those limbs looking so uncoordinated and all over the place is quite disconcerting.

ROONEY !!!!! (Sorry, had to get that off of my chest)

Brazil does not have many divers. None in their current team, I believe. The Germans have had some players who have would have beaten Greg Louganis (sp) to gold if they weren't too busy playing football. They seem to get three or four somersaults when falling from a three foot height, outstanding athleticism!!! Diving is a real problem in football, and FIFA should actually make a real effort to get rid of it, with the technology they have with all the games being televised a few bans (eg: dived on camera = out of the tournament) would get rid of the problem in short order. They have managed to rid the game of a lot of foul play over the years, but never really gone all out against the diving in the sport. Mind you Italy were easily the better team and deserved victory in their game. Defence looked dodgey, though, which is unusual for them. Can't see the US making it through to the next round, a lack of worthwhile opponents in the qualification stages (apart from Mexico) time and again hurts them (Australia are in a similar situation, except their league provides even weaker opponents than the US gets).

Rooney is probably our most gifted player since Gascoigne in the early 90s (before Gazza decided to go dancing with a broken leg......), he might also be the dumbest since Gascoigne (but he has plenty of competition there!). There are a good number of creative talents on this England team, out of the players that are likely to play today both fullbacks, the entire midfield and Crouch have pedigre going forward and creating goalscoring opportunities, whilst Owen is still super quick. England should win comfortably, but with football you never know! England have a lot of talented players at the moment, and the midfield is stacked. The only real issue I have with the team, and England in general, is with our forwards. There are only four in the squad. Rooney and Owen are both coming off of injuries and Theo Walcott has hardly played. That leaves Crouch as the sole, fit and tested striker. Not good. But fortunately he could play on his own up front with the midfield depth England has there are plenty of good players able to come off of the bench (in fact half the England bench would have started on almost any England team since 1970!). As far as hating other teams are concerned I only really do not want two teams to win. Argentina and Germany. Argentina because they not only have the entire cheating aspects of football down to a fine art but it is almost regarded as being as good a skill as the ability to actually kick a ball. The Germans over the years have been notorious for gamesmanship as well. I expect cheating to some degree (sadly) it just seems these two have been consistantly and thoroughly rotten in the way they play over the years. If Italy get their arse in gear they can be good to watch, but all too often they are so mind numbingly negative in their play it has a strong soporific effect. I do not mind strong and good defensive play (it is half the game), just the Italians sometimes seem to think 1-0 is a safe result and so frequently end up paying for it against worse teams. You could always go out and hate Iran.......after all they are in this tournament as well.........

Well Rooney is a total Chav, so he does have a point. I don't really mind who wins, as long as it is not Italy....

Oh thanks, I guess I will go crawl back under my rock now.......

Nope - Crouch the 6'7" monster is not the fast one. He does have exceptional touch for such a big player. Not such a powerful headerer of the ball as you might imagine but because of his very height he can get balls that others will not be able to reach. An excellent player to have a fast player play off of (which is what England will have Owen do) or to have as a lone striker to hold the ball for midfielders coming up into support. Had a good year with Liverpool (who he just joined), scored plenty of goals in the second half of the season but had a lot of good games setting up goals and opportunities for his team mates. By the time he took the Penalty England were 5-0 up in a friendly - the miss was down to him not really taking it seriously enough - he learnt his leason I think (when he realised that he missed a golden opportunity for a hatrick he was gutted, but his last goal made him feel a lot better). Good awareness, the last goal he scored was very similar to one he scored against Hungary with a nice turn and unstoppable shot right by the post. He is certainly in form at the moment. Mr Insanely fast is a young player by the name of Theo Walcott, who 'plays' for ARSEnal. Last year he did not get to play as he is behind T Henry in the pecking order but he is regarded as an exceptional talent who is quite possibly the fastest player in England right now. Good skills, attitude and not a bad 'football' brain either. Actually, compared to most other footballers his non-football brain is pretty good as well (listening to half the England players when they speak (Beckham, Rooney, J. Cole and others) they appear to have had a lobotomy at some stage in their careers).