Official 2010 World Cup Qualifying Thread

[FireDoughnut]

It's amazing how 90 minutes can turn England into World Champions. ugh.

[therockbox]

The headline in at least one of tomorrow's red tops will be 'Trio Walcott!' Put money on it.

[lanky316]

That sending off killed the game, tight even game we were just edging then Joe Cole collapsing at the sight of blood and game ruined

I told you years ago Walcott would own! *accepts it may not last long*

[IAceI]

Why isn't the trophy being booked onto the next flight from South Africa to England? We deserve that trophy now dammit.

[King Ellis]

Did he actually collapse? I figured he dived.

The headline in at least one of tomorrow's red tops will be 'Trio Walcott!' Put money on it.

Beats the 'CapHELLo' that I was expecting.

Edited September 10, 2008 by King eLLis

[ravenjuice]

Fantastic result, not so sure about the overall performance though, brilliant in midfield and Heskey was a godsend, however Terry looked poor for Croatia's goal, and I really haven't rated him since he got injured last Christmas, James nearly caused a calamity too.

Can't forget about Ukraine either. I'm confident of us progressing but it might still be through the play offs.

[The Future]

Wow! I was not expecting that at all, jeez is Heskey England's solution after all? he was brilliant against Israel and Russia last time around and worked tirelessly to allow Walcott to have the space. Hopefully England can carry on the form who are their next opponents?

[Farmer Reil]

That sending off killed the game, tight even game we were just edging then Joe Cole collapsing at the sight of blood and game ruined

He got elbowed in the face, what's he supposed to do? He's not a rugby player.

Edited September 10, 2008 by Farmer Reil

[alldaws1]

Fantastic result, not so sure about the overall performance though, brilliant in midfield and Heskey was a godsend, however Terry looked poor for Croatia's goal, and I really haven't rated him since he got injured last Christmas, James nearly caused a calamity too.

Can't forget about Ukraine either. I'm confident of us progressing but it might still be through the play offs.

Wait, wasn't John Terry the one down on the floor because the Croatian player kicked him in the head and the referee didn't call a free kick?

If it wasn't for a couple of poor refereeing decisions we could have won that game 5 or 6-0. Finally Capello realises Defoe + Rooney doesn't work and played Heskey who was very good. Croatia were the only team I thought we'd struggle against, I think we can get four points at least from Ukraine so I believe we can win the group.

[Summers]

Lol. Kicked him in the head? Didn't touch him, Terry went down because he knew the player was through. Heskey seemed meh. Walcott was lucky on a couple of occassions, but showed quality finishing when it mattered.

I argued with most of the pub about the sending off, never a red card. I argued with most of them all night. However, blind England fans are impossible to talk sense with.

Superb win, caught them on a long overdue bad day and got what we needed.

[Pesci]

Agreed about the blind England fans. One was thumping his hand on the table going I'M ENGLAND TILL I DIE. Well no shit, it's not exactly a choice.

Brilliant performance though. The atmosphere made it kind of hard to examine it through a microscope but to beat a team like Croatia by 3 goals doesn't happen through playing badly.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It's funny. English fans are thinking "Theo Walcott?" when the Scotland fans have that beat

"Kirk Broadfoot?"

Kirk Broadfoot has a foot like a shovel....

Apparantly.

[The Third Dukes]

lol, Brazil

And the US with a dominant performance tonight. We've got one foot in the hexagonal now! 3-0 win.

[Scott McFly]

Hooray, Scotland won a match. We still played shit, but playing shit and winning is far preferable to playing sit and losing. And thank god we're quick off the mark with our penalty rebounds. Although McManus got himself red carded, just what we needed.

[lanky316]

That sending off killed the game, tight even game we were just edging then Joe Cole collapsing at the sight of blood and game ruined

He got elbowed in the face, what's he supposed to do? He's not a rugby player.

Nooo he jumped into a challenge he had no chance of winning and got caught. Happens to plenty of players every week and they're fine. Elbowed my arse.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

Good result for England, although now we can get back to the league finally - which is awesome. Luxembourg beating Switzerland cost me 137 quid, fuckers.

[The Quasi Juice]

Good golly miss molly Macedonia sucks to play against away. We won 1-2, but it was difficult 'cause they kept falling and the referee kept falling for it. I'm looking forward to playing against Scotland now, should be a better match.

[Liam]

The Joe Cole business, I was also certain wasn't a red card, till they showed it from one angle where it was clear that he got clattered with the elbow, rather than just caught with the arm. I don't think for one second it was intentional, but he caught him so....

As for Terry, whether he was caught or not, that was a high foot, and the goal shouldn't have counted.

If Kovac didn't deserve to get sent off, Simunic did, so even if that was a bad decision on the straight red, it made up for the three challenges that Simunic made that were bookable, of which he got done for one.

I'm not going to start celebrating the inevitable World Cup victory now (>_>), but even before the red card, we were looking comfortable with the one goal lead, rather than 'just shading it', as lanky said. Croatia weren't being allowed to play football, and although they didn't play well, England worked hard for once and made it difficult.

At work, I was saying to a customer that I can't remember the last time I enjoyed watching England (probably Germany 5-1), but thankfully, yesterday wasn't the torture it usually is.

[Mongrel]

Really important to get the win over the Uzbeks first up - never easy to get all the points in Uzbekistan. We we're lucky that they had two games in three days at extreme temperatures, though.

Finally, after the shit time under Arnold, Verbeek has just about pulled it together. A win over Qatar is really important if we want to avoid a playoff.

[alldaws1]

That sending off killed the game, tight even game we were just edging then Joe Cole collapsing at the sight of blood and game ruined

He got elbowed in the face, what's he supposed to do? He's not a rugby player.

Nooo he jumped into a challenge he had no chance of winning and got caught. Happens to plenty of players every week and they're fine. Elbowed my arse.

And what exactly do you think cut his head open, Kovac's arm pit? Kovac lead with his elbow, and as Liam said if that wasn't a sending off, Simunic's challenges should have been.