World Cup 2010 Thread

[therockbox]

I know the defence of Green will be based around the idea that it 'can happen to any keeper,' but if we're being honest it's far more likely to happen to a barely average keeper who is incredibly passive and isn't physically imposing enough to dominate his area just by being there. The one really big decision Capello had to make and he got it wrong, if we go with the rumours that James' knee injury ruled him out then it had to be Hart. A far superior goalkeeper to Green in everything but age.

That said, we've still not improved on 98, or 02, or 06. We're still essentially a long ball team, knocking it backwards and forwards between the centre backs and goalkeeper before Adams/Campbell/Ferdinand/Terry/King/Carragher decide it's time to hump it up towards whichever lump happens to be furthest forward. We were the better side, but it doesn't really inspire confidence against anyone above the level of a side like the USA who have 11 workhorses but little else.

I hope Barry's fit from here on in, because if I have to watch SWP on the left again I'm going to have to kill Ian Wright.

[Rich]

Haha delighted depite losing a fiver. How arrogant was the commentator at the start when Gerrard scored

'This could be fun!'

Yeah, not so much you cocky twat.

Nice to see Ireland tearing up the world cup...oh wait..

Nice to see England being overhyped by everyone and then drawing against a vastly inferior team.

At least we were able to recieve some hype

[Dan]

Haha delighted depite losing a fiver. How arrogant was the commentator at the start when Gerrard scored

'This could be fun!'

Yeah, not so much you cocky twat.

Nice to see Ireland tearing up the world cup...oh wait..

Nice to see England being overhyped by everyone and then drawing against a vastly inferior team.

Oh come on, stop being a cunt, or is that impossible for you?

& USA are hardly vastly inferior, they're ranked 14 in the world. Are we not allowed to be fucking optimistic? All the American fans on TV where saying USA would win, what's the point in going into something hoping to get to the quarters or lose games? Seriously, idiot.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Oh yeah, England's overrated too, I've got you guys going out to Ghana in the round of 16.

[TCO]

Haha delighted depite losing a fiver. How arrogant was the commentator at the start when Gerrard scored

'This could be fun!'

Yeah, not so much you cocky twat.

Nice to see Ireland tearing up the world cup...oh wait..

Nice to see England being overhyped by everyone and then drawing against a vastly inferior team.

At least we were able to recieve some hype

Well I reckon Ireland have done fairly well considering the lack of a professional league and a population that's smaller than London. Shame your hype stems from 44 years ago.

EDIT: I'm not being a cunt, I pointed out that what the commentator said was arrogant which it was and then my country, that's completely irrelevant to the argument got personally attacked

Edited June 12, 2010 by The Cool One

[DMN in the House]

As far as I'm concerned, a respectable result from a US perspective. I don't know enough about soccer to get into specifics and shit, but it seemed decently well-played on both sides. The commentators talked about England having better players, but the US playing more like a team, and that seemed kinda true. England probably should have won the game, but who knows, Greene makes that stop, he doesn't stop Altidore. Good, entertaining game.

Had to watch the game on my phone, went better than expected.

Hadn't got to see a lot of the English players, and I know its kinda a 'duh' thing, but Rooney is a stud, as was your captain. I think Onyewu (probably fucked that up) would be the US man of the match (maybe Howard).

Hope everyone took my shit talking in the spirit it was meant, and now we can all move on to handling business against Slovakia and Algeria.

As far as that sub at the end, I think it was purely to give Dempsey a 'send-off'. Stupid to do in the first game of the World Cup in another country, though.

[Rich]

Haha delighted depite losing a fiver. How arrogant was the commentator at the start when Gerrard scored

'This could be fun!'

Yeah, not so much you cocky twat.

Nice to see Ireland tearing up the world cup...oh wait..

Nice to see England being overhyped by everyone and then drawing against a vastly inferior team.

At least we were able to recieve some hype

Well I reckon Ireland have done fairly well considering the lack of a professional league and a population that's smaller than London. Shame your hype stems from 44 years ago.

Its because we train all your players up for you.

[The Quasi Juice]

I actually thought it was generally a pretty bad match from both sides. England started well but their level dropped extremely fast. Lennon did like 2 things well, how can people say he was brilliant? Milner was going for red, but Wright-Philips was very crap as well, where is Ashley Young to give crosses to Heskey and Crouch? I was impressed with how calm all the Americans were on the ball. All in all England was slightly better, but 1-1 is pretty fair.

[Farmer Reil]

That said, we've still not improved on 98, or 02, or 06. We're still essentially a long ball team, knocking it backwards and forwards between the centre backs and goalkeeper before Adams/Campbell/Ferdinand/Terry/King/Carragher decide it's time to hump it up towards whichever lump happens to be furthest forward.

That's a bit harsh, even for an Englishman? ¬_¬ Glen Johnson/Aaron Lennon completely owned the right flank, and had several chances via that route. When you play Heskey or Crouch up front, you're bound to go the long ball route sometimes. You won't be happy until we play Defoe/Rooney up front, will you? ¬_¬

Although we'll still probably try the odd long ball or twelve even then. >.< We're just not Spain/Brazil/Argentina/Good enough.

At least it's over, I can enjoy the world cup for a week or so until I have to get up tight and angsty again. ¬_¬

Edited June 12, 2010 by Farmer Reil

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Talking of Milner and SWP, I still don't even understand how they're ahead of Joe Cole. Both still too inconsistent. Just hoping Capello switches it up in the next game.

[Dan]

We didn't play badly, a shitty goalkeeping error meant the USA could defend real deep and Tim Howard had a good game, but overall our play was good.

Oh and I thought TCO would ignore my comments.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Version Dan

[Szumi]

Because we don't expect to win, we don't take ourselves seriously? No, we're realistic. We realize that despite improving as a soccer nation, we are still underdogs against upper tier teams. Against England, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Argentina, etc., we are underdogs. That's just how it is. We don't evenly match up in terms of talent. Are Denmark supporters not taking their squad seriously if they don't expect to defeat Holland? We, America, should get out of the group, and I expect us to. If we have to face Germany in the Round of 16, I know we're underdogs. I'm realistic. I support my squad, and I hope we do well in the World Cup, but I don't expect us to win, or make the semi-finals. Very few squads have a realistic chance of winning the whole thing. Does that mean the other 20-something nations who don't stand a good chance of winning the World Cup don't take themselves seriously?

I'm pleased with the scoreline. We only needed a draw tonight, and that's what we got. We're favorites for our other two matches, so this is great for getting out of the group, which we should do. Tim Howard was great tonight, and despite the nonstop bashing of Howard by someone in this thread, he's a great goalie. He would certainly be England's number one keeper, in my opinion. While that may not say a lot considering Green's performance, I maintain Howard's one of the tpo keepers in the Prem. Reina, van der Sar, and Given, better than Howard. But he's right there with Cech, Friedel, and Schwarzer in terms of other top keepers.

We definitely did not deserve the win, despite what some will say. England was the better team, by far. We scored on a fluke goal, although Altidore should've put his chance away in the second. England had many chances too, far more than us. However, Howard was great, Gooch and Demerit were class, and Cherundolo and Bocanegra did their job well. We take our point, knowing we could've easily lost, but still with a good opening point.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Szumi

[therockbox]

That said, we've still not improved on 98, or 02, or 06. We're still essentially a long ball team, knocking it backwards and forwards between the centre backs and goalkeeper before Adams/Campbell/Ferdinand/Terry/King/Carragher decide it's time to hump it up towards whichever lump happens to be furthest forward.

That's a bit harsh, even for an Englishman? ¬_¬ Glen Johnson/Aaron Lennon completely owned the right flank, and had several chances via that route. When you play Heskey or Crouch up front, you're bound to go the long ball route sometimes. You won't be happy until we play Defoe/Rooney up front, will you? ¬_¬

You obviously haven't read my thoughts on Defoe >_>

I have no problem with Heskey playing, in fact I think it's probably the best option. Yet again though I'm struggling to think of any chances we created that built up from the back. As the tournament goes on and the opposition we face gets better, teams are very quickly going to figure out how to stop us from doing anything - press everyone but the two centrebacks. They don't have a clue what to do with the ball when there isn't an obvious pass on. Even Ferdinand, who if you listen to the English press is some sort of Beckenbauer figure, when really he's just the best of an awful bunch. Barcelona figured it out in the Champions League final two years ago, and I'd imagine the majority of decent teams will do something similar; let the central defenders have the ball and mark everyone else. It'll get twatted aimlessly forward, cleared, and then we can start again.

There were some good passing moves down the right, but I got the feeling they came about by 'accident,' almost. We got a lucky bounce or intercepted a pass, then worked the ball into space. Most of the time thought we were limited to relying on Heskey to outmuscle the USA defenders.

[DMN in the House]

When I said well played, I should have specified defensively. Outside of the idea that no-one should mark Rooney, I thought the US played well defensively against an obviously superior offensive squad. I would have liked to see a counter-attack, but we don't really have the players for that.

The US had some chances out of set pieces, and England was much better pretty much everywhere else offensively. Our backfield did a workmanlike job, and got a solid result.

Don't think this is me being 'happy' about it, I'm not. When the US got gifted a goal, they should have won it. I'll take a draw, though, considering that, by all rights, we should have lost. Its a 'good' result, not a 'great' result.

[The Third Dukes]

Hi.

Where do I get my Robert Green Appreciation Society membership card?

In all honesty, that was probably the best game of what's been a rather subpar Cup so far. Both teams went for goal a lot, and were it not for good plays in defense and keeping, this could've been 4-2 England. As it is, we'll take 1-1 and run like hell to the next match. Here's hoping for three points against Slovenia!

[The Quasi Juice]

Thinking about the game, Capello actually made some stupid mistakes. Green ahead of James and in-form Hart. Joe Cole not playing and not even getting on the pitch. Crouch being brought on too late.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

So, after 3 hours sleep I spent £15 on a taxi to get to the bar to watch the game with my friend.....and it's a bloody draw.

Gerrard played really well, Lennon looked good but I'd like him to drive into the area more often cos it worries defenders having quick, small players running at you in the box.

SWP was ok but lost the ball too often. Lampard wasn't good. Carragher is frighteningly slow.

Joe Cole needs to play the next game, Heskey impressed me with his control but I like strikers who can score when they're through on goal.

Rooney's great cos you can look at where he's playing on the pitch to see how well England are doing as a team.

Today he started playing as far back as the centre circle when we were on the attack. Lennon also swapped wings, when wingers do that you have to worry about the team getting frustrated.

Every Glen Johnson cross went far too deep as well.

Hmph.

[therockbox]

Oh god, as if it couldn't get any worse, ITV have two games again tomorrow.

I really, really hope somebody buttons up Gareth Southgate's shirt this time.

[Jimmy]

Cor, that really sucks. Feel like for Green, though. I bet he's feeling horrid right now. I felt he redeemed himself somewhat with the superb save to stop them from going 2-1 up. It's a disappointing start. We didn't play badly, but it was hardly inspired play outside of the England goal. Which we missed first time round because ITV fucked up.

[Baddar]

Well, at least the Slovenia-Algeria match is actually interesting now. A win for either side puts pressure on England to win their remaining games. Let's be honest though, they should do that quite comfortably.