The England thread

[IAceI]

I never said you weren't, and I scrolled back through the thread and I was the person saying "If it was us we'd be doing exactly the same." Was just a light hearted remark.

And yeah, regarding the FIFA Rankings, just ask the English FA to write a letter saying you should be moved to number one as I'm sure there'd be no objections to the idea that you would have beaten us. It does seem a little bit odd, though, that friendly matches can effect the rankings of teams. We could arrange a friendly with Macedonia, get beat 1-0 because we played a bunch of 18 year olds in an experimental formation and Macedonia would gain all these points? Seems a little unjust. Should just be confined to competitive football if you ask me - although then we end up with USA and Mexico hammering Bermuda and Canada and being ranked in the top 10 or whatever so the whole system has it's flaws. If only we had some sort of tournament where the best teams could play each other to determine the overall best..

Edited August 11, 2011 by IAceI

[Lineker]

Edafe Egbedi scored the second-half winner as Nigeria edged England 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia.

Nigeria, who reached the final in 1989 and 2005, play France next on Sunday.

"It was a difficult match but we were the ones who took more risks," said Nigeria coach John Obuh.

Striker Matthew Phillips had two chances late on to equalise for England, but he fired over the crossbar both times.

Obuh, who was wearing a Colombian sombrero and earned the support of the local fans, added that he felt the English played very defensively.

The Nigerians, who have won all four of their matches, had a few chances to extend the lead with long-range shots near the end, but England goalkeeper Jack Butland came up with difficult saves to keep his team in the game until full time.

More than 30 eligible English players were not released by their clubs for the tournament.

"If you look at the results, you can say it was a failure," England coach Brian Eastick said.

"The only way to change that is to change regulations to make the clubs release their players."

[IAceI]

No reference to the fact there was no goals scored by England? Poor. There should have been mind, Billy Knott could have had 3 no problem but fluffed them all, but he was one of the few players actually looking to try and make some movements. Berahino of West Brom - I believe - was utter garbage from first game to last. Selfish and not very good at it either, he was summed up when he was put through on goal and spaffed it into row z.

Still, when you have Canales playing for Spain and Nigeria are turning up with a bunch of 25 year olds () - and you then look at our team, it was always going to end in tears. Bloody Ganso is there for Brazil and then we have bloody Berahino.. shocking really. The rules probably do need addressed in some form.

[Starvinho]

I've got tickets for England vs Wales on the 6th Sept!

[IAceI]

Well colour me jealous.

[Starvinho]

I've been to many games over the years from all different levels of football but have never been to an England game. Will also be my first football match at Wembley too so I'm quite excited.

[IAceI]

I got see us play Denmark at Old Trafford I think it was, we got beat 3-2 to a Tomasson hat-trick I believe. Was also Glen Johnson's debut and he was utter clart.

[Lineker]

Gary Neville has said England have no chance of winning Euro 2012 and that he often felt playing for his country was a "waste of time".

"I don't see us competing seriously for a major tournament for at least 10 years," said recently-retired Neville.

And he added: "There have been times when I've reflected on my international career and just thought: 'Well that was a massive waste of time.'"

The ex-Manchester United defender won 85 caps and played in two World Cups.

"[i am] sorry for sounding sour, but my best mate, David Beckham, got butchered after the World Cup in 1998, then my brother, Phil, after Euro 2000," he continued.

"The whole lot of us got it in the neck at other times. Sometimes we deserved it, but playing for England was one long roller-coaster: some ups and downs, but also quite a few moments when you're not really sure if you're enjoying the ride."

Neville, who played 400 matches for United, claimed many England players fear playing for their country.

Writing in his book, Red, which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday, he added: "It should be fantastic, the best moments of your life. But there is no doubt that too many players spend too much time fearing the consequence of failure when they pull on an England shirt."

Neville, who is now working as a media pundit, says he feels sorry for the players who are now embarking on their international careers with England.

"They are caught between these massive expectations and the reality of being good, sometimes very good, but probably not of tournament-winning quality," he wrote.

"The Premier League years have seen a rise in technique and skills and tactical intelligence, but it's not a transformation that can happen overnight. It will take time."

England's next fixtures are the Euro 2012 qualifiers in Bulgaria (2 September) and against Wales at Wembley (6 September) which follow the recent cancellation of the friendly against Netherlands because of the riots in London.

Nice to hear it finally admitted!

[Starvinho]

England back up to fourth in this month's World rankings, Holland take the top spot away from Spain.

1  Netherlands

2  Spain

3  Germany

4  England

5  Uruguay

6  Brazil

7  Italy

8  Portugal

9  Argentina

10 Croatia

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html

[TCO]

Can someone explain to me how England got 31 points and the Netherlands 54 without playing since the last rankings?

[EddieG]

It's the thought that counts.

[Starvinho]

Can someone explain to me how England got 31 points and the Netherlands 54 without playing since the last rankings?

It's not just points from the last month, it's points from the last 2 years.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Starvinho

[EddieG]

Well, it does say point difference since July 2011

[Starvinho]

Actually it's points from the last 4 years and here's the formula they use.

The final ranking points figure for a single match is multiplied by 100 and rounded to the nearest whole number.

Ranking points = 100 x (Result points x Match status x Opposition strength x Regional strength)

Results for all matches played in the year are averaged together (assuming at least five matches have been played). The average ranking points for the four previous years, weighted by their multiplier mentioned above, are added together to arrive at the final ranking points.

It's all explained here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings

It's a very complicated method...

Edited August 24, 2011 by Starvinho

[Lineker]

Wales have been overtaken by Haiti.

.... :lmao:

[Starvinho]

Under-21 squad for Azerbaijan (1st September) and Israel (5th September):

Goalkeepers: Ben Amos (Manchester United), Jack Butland (Birmingham City), Declan Rudd (Norwich City).

Defenders: Nathan Baker (Aston Villa), Joe Bennett (Middlesbrough), Matthew Briggs (Fulham), Steven Caulker (Swansea City, loan from Tottenham), Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion), John Flanagan (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Martin Kelly (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Andre Wisdom (Liverpool).

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Dan Gosling (Newcastle United), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Emmanuel Frimpong (Arsenal), Henri Lansbury (Arsenal), Josh McEachran (Chelsea), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Jack Rodwell (Everton), Jonjo Shelvey (Liverpool).

Forwards: Nathan Delfouneso (Aston Villa), Marvin Sordell (Watford), Martyn Waghorn (Leicester City), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Connor Wickham (Sunderland).

[stokeriño]

Yay Josh!

Wouldn't expect him to be involved much (or at all) though, since he didn't play in either of Chelsea's league games so far.

[IAceI]

This is what I like, new tournament and some relatively new faces to see if we can do well this time. Hopefully Pearce removes himself from that dreadful - but very English hoofball - from the last U21 tournament, and goes back to the style of play from the two tournaments prior.

We'll be relying on the likes of Welbeck and McEachran for the next two years you would imagine so lets hope they do well and push on with their clubs. The last thing we need is them to do a Wilshere and get too tired, awwww...

And nothing screams "Ing-ur-land" quite like a name such as Emmanuel Frimpong. At least he's been sent off, so that'll probably endear him to us lot.

[Lineker]

Apart from the fact that he's flip-flopped between whether to play for England or Ghana internationally several times?

[IAceI]

Has he actually shown interest of playing for Ghana? I know he's been capped at England youth level a few times, perhaps it's a case of when he's an adult - if he can't get in the England team - he'll revisit his Ghanaian citizenship. A bit like Ameobi with Nigeria.