England will surprise

May 30, 2014 -- 6:21PM, 247lol wrote:

Well the last 16 should produce at least one clash of the big guns with the likely winners of group A Brazil playing the runners up in group B Holland or Spain.Its tough for England which ever way you look at it, if they are runners up in group D they will meet the winners of group C Columbia-Cote D'ivoire-Japan-Greece but victory in that could put them against Brazil in the last 8, on the other hand should they win group D they will likely met Spain or Holland in the last 8, the only respite is at least England have an easier looking assignment in the last 16 should they qualify.

I'd love to meet Spain or Holland at that stage, think of what a tense, possibly epic night that could be. either way, it'd be awesome.

little disappointed to see Welbeck in tonight. not because I don't think he's a good player, just because on form, Sterling should play. but the rest of the team is good, who would have thought a year ago that Henderson and Lallana would complete England's midfield at the start of our WC warm-ups. hopefully an encouraging performance from both tonight

someone needs to tell Danny Mills to stop saying ''y'know'' every other sentence too. and the rest of the BBC commentators not to suck as hard as well

Yes Argentina do appear to have the dream draw all the way to the semi final so obviously their price reflects that but lets not forget they have Messi and Aguero in a very strong looking squad so maybe they are better value than Brazil.

Welbeck was sh**e tonight and an unfit Rooney.

Good result/score, but much of the play was stodgy.  Most of the first half was playing across the back.  Rooney contributed nil.  And things perked up when Gerrard left.  The team playing at the end should be the World Cup starting team (less the non-squad players).

Well Rooney could improve when fitter but I would not hold my breath on that happening his world cup finals record of 8 games no goals does not exactly fill you with confidence time to give someone else a chance and many people think Gerrard has completely lost any pace he had hence another yellow card tonight.

Hart looks back to his best in goal but whatever back line he has he will need some pace in midfield to protect the defence so having Sterling and Lallana makes sense two talented individuals that can run all day and help out in defence when needed, to be honest I like Lampards grit and professional attitude and I think he would work well with those two with the pace of Sturridge up front with Lambert unless Rooney shows something miraculous in the next 2 games.

would love to see the youngster really given a go ,ie Sterling, Barkley ,but we know he,l go with the experienced players in the starting line ups unless there is a key injury ,the youngsters will get bit parts and prob end up a bit to late .
Wasn,t great last night was it , 3-0 flattered them a bit , their keeper was awful ,they actually played the ball about far quicker than us too

in honesty it was standard welbeck, runs like a headless chicken past a couple of players then falls over and loses the ball,lets hope he does better  in the big games , but don't hold your breath.

in honesty it was standard welbeck, runs like a headless chicken past a couple of players then falls over and loses the ball,lets hope he does better  in the big games , but don't hold your breath.

To be honest England were not playing in top gear but a young inexperienced Peru were and they were trying their best so al in all it was ok as a first warm up game and it tells the manager a lot.
Unless Rooney improves dramatically in the next 2 matches I would have him on the bench simple as that and go with the only real shining light of Sturridge with your only other real option which is Lambert, inject pace into that midfield with much improved Sterling with the useful looking Lallana and maybe Henderson or Barkley whose not afraid to have a pop from distance.
England badly need those sort of players in midfield to add a bit more of an unpredictable edge to their game, that last night was same old one dimensional performance apart from Sturridge and Hodgson is going to have to be brave and not go with the old guard and be happy to play ok and go out because we were the same old England and lacked a cutting edge

I think that unless he is properly crocked Rooney will always play regardless of his form simply because he is Rooney.

Hodgson will pick on reputation rather than on form

I think Roy has to have a word with Rooney and tell him he needs a performance in these warm ups. unlike most groups, we have to be at it right from the off, or we'll get beat, and he can't afford to figure out Rooney needs to be dropped sixty minutes in with Italy 3-0 up. hopefully it was Rooney not wanting to get injured, which is understandable, I think he's putting a bit of pressure on himself this WC, with the stuff he's said.

Rooney at 70% is still better than most other players at the WC, but it'd be nice to have him at full tilt, as he'd be one of the top five players there

personally think he may fare better in midfield, but that won't happen

otherwise, 3-0 against Peru wasn't too bad, the first of three games, hopefully the momentum will begin to build. Sterling will certainly start against (is it Honduras or Ecuador first?) and hoepfully play well, as I think he could be great at the WC

though the Honduras game could be a bit of a no-win, as they're utter mugs and we should be putting six past them. ecuador should provide a good challenge

Lol Rooney has 8 world cup matches and 2 world cups and never figured in the top 50 in either tournament top 5 JC dream on.

at the moment I'd drop Rooney for Barkley, but who knows, maybe he'll turn it around when the proper games begin.

read today that Jose thinks England cup surprise, great minds

cup = could

I think Morinho realises that England have enough electric pace in the team with Stirling, Sturridge, Welbeck and Oxlade-Chamberlain that could take apart most teams if they get their act together, Rooney just isn't showing enough to warrant starting the Italian game and if I were the Italians I would be more worried if he started on the bench, they will get hit with pace from the younger players early then a fresh Rooney could maybe come on later in the game which could cause the Italians all kinds of problems, that for me would be the best way to play the Squad right now.

You have to worry that Pirlo is praising Rooney.  I think he wants Rooney to start.

Mind games lol Pirlo doesn't pick the team

What's pace if you can't shift the ball better than the worse South American sides

In the past we wouldn't worry about even the like of Paraguay....but even equator worry us.
Costa Rica game is a wooden spoon decider

Well to be honest Equator would worry me as well apparently there's an awful lot of seismic activity around there and ECUADOR were gifted both their goals.
Being serious though we are on that friendly discussion again which has been totally examined and the results of those 3 games have about as much meaning as Roy breaking wind on the team bus.
Roy's excited and Morinho thinks England will surprise a few people and I agree, the level of commitment and quality will be ten fold in the Italy game compared to those warm ups.

England may surprise but never surprise.

England might surprise us and be even much worse than we actually think they are.

Watched France beat jamaica 8-0 and Germany beat Armenia 6-1  both of them looked very good and you could see they were well drilled from training... wonderful free flowing attacking football from both teams

I know it was a friendly and they had the thunderstorm etc but really England looked  beyond awful V honduras.. their play was so disjointed and England were utterly horrible to warch.. a team of englands supposed class and quality should be beating honduras any day

another problem is that Hodgson is just Sven Goran Ericsson in disguise..another boring and utterly mediocre coach who hasnt a clue what he is doing

I hope I am wrong but I think England could get found out badly by this world cup...

just heard on the news that the pitch for the england v italy match is really poor and is not suitable for skillful football so that should help england as it could bring the italians down to the english level.

The general consensus of opinion is Roy will play safe which we don't really want to see, seen enough safe England teams I would rather they try and play fast attacking football and lose 4-3 than try and play safe and lose 1-0 at least we could say "these young lads can play a bit".
Prayer mat out and hoping Stirling and co have a right go at the Italians and try and run them ragged.
I have said it before and will say it again just run at them at every opportunity because I think there is more goals in the England squad than the Italians have in theirs.
funny comment outpost

The only thing that surprises me about surprises, is that people get surprised by them!
Having said that if England show the required technical ability (control, first touch, passing etc)at this level,I will be amazed!

DO NOT be surprised if the so called certs  DO NOT finish bottom of their respective groups, as their WILL be shocks.

think England could stun the world personally and reach the semi finals.

Think England will get out their group, get past Colombia/japan, and then stun the world and by beating a Spain team who I think will have lost the hunger after recent successes.

you think it comes down to hunger ? it is unbelievable that here we are after all these DECADES of utter English cr@pness and forums are still populated by people talking about "hunger" and "passion" and "pace" and "they don't like it up 'em". jesus wept.

Its 1am Sunday 15th June and England have just beaten Italy 4-1.
The Italians could not cope with pace of Sturridge and Sterling and Italy are left stunned as are the majority of the football experts !
(a) Does unique, myself and a few others get apologies from the doubters ?
(b)Do the know it all's and slag off merchants finally admit they know little about the beautiful game and just come on here and post drivel because nobody else will talk to them ?
(c)How many will just put it down to a lucky guess ?
(d)Will someone start a new thread about the possibility that at least one of us knows Steven Hawking and worked out how to time travel

I think with this Spanish side it does come down to hunger. How many other teams have won three in a row? If England faced Spain in the last 8 of course Spain would be favourites, they are miles ahead, but I think England could stun them with their fearlessness and pace.

If England faced Brazil however in the last 8, that would surely be the end in this tournament. Can't see Brazil letting anyone spoil their party!

England won't win the world cup, or get to the final, but certainly do not discount them getting to the quarters or with some luck 1 step further.

Unique,the eternal optimist,but I hope your right.

Lets hope so.

If we get through our group, we may have the belief to beat a lot of other teams. If you get past Uruguay and Italy you can go quite far.  Colombia/Japan in the last 16 would be tough but we could get past them.

If we faced Chile, Holland or Spain in the quarters, we'd be underdogs and rightfully so, but all are beatable with the right tactics. If it goes to penalties, we have some better takers now, so we may need to go down that route.

We'll see, but I stick with what I said, aslong as we avoid Brazil in the quarters, we have a realistic chance IMO of going one step further than our usual quarter final tournament exit.

But to avoid Brazil England will need to win their group because Brazil will win theirs

Well it is possible England can win the group.

Wouldn't say any team are certs to win their group, even Brazil, Argies, Germany etc, there are only 3 games and there is bound to be one or two surprise results.

If England did face brazil in the quarters, and somehow beat them which I wouldn't expect, that would probably go down as one of the greatest world cup shocks ever IMO.

Agree but Brazil and Argies I wouldn't care to oppose, i think the Argies will run riot against Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia

I agree with 247lol Argies will murder Nigeria,Iran and Bosnia.

Di maria-Messi-Aguero-Huguain

Argentina are so lucky, easy draw until the semi's.

Don't think Germany will do much at this world cup, quarter finals I think. Reus a massive blow.

what price do you think brazil and England would be if they faced each other in the quarter finals? Price to qualify and match odds?

cheers

Unique imo match odds brazil 8/13 england 5/1 draw 3/1
To qulify brazil 1/3 england 5/2

Looks about right but always take note if bookies are getting generous because they're looking to take you money in 90 minutes and are normally better informed than us lol

Your(even) typo

Jun 11, 2014 -- 6:57PM, 247lol wrote:

Its 1am Sunday 15th June and England have just beaten Italy 4-1.The Italians could not cope with pace of Sturridge and Sterling and Italy are left stunned as are the majority of the football experts !(a) Does unique, myself and a few others get apologies from the doubters ?(b)Do the know it all's and slag off merchants finally admit they know little about the beautiful game and just come on here and post drivel because nobody else will talk to them ?(c)How many will just put it down to a lucky guess ?(d)Will someone start a new thread about the possibility that at least one of us knows Steven Hawking and worked out how to time travel

this is a weird post.
I think England may well get out of the group as I don't think Italy or Uruguay are particularly great shakes. It's possible they will stumble through a last 16 game and even a QF as well. None of this means much really. Personally I have money on them to reach the semis simply as the odds for once seem to offer some value (at least compared to the outright price). At the same time, it would come as no surprise that England come home having played 3, lost 2, drawn 1, scored 1 and conceded 4.

Lol just a little bit humour or is it ?

I reckon our tor scorer will be L. Baines......1   a free kick
My bet is total goals 1 Baines
Rooney as usual 0

thanks.

I certainly wouldn't back England 5/2 to qualify against Brazil.

5/2 to qualify against Holland or Chile in the quarters I would be tempted :)

and I guess the other thing is that we have heard it all before. Before every embarrassing debacle of a tournament. England do not just fail. Sure there may the odd 15 minute purple patch, often against one of the bigger nations. But then there are the hours of ineptness. Trinidad, Algeria, USA, Romania, Cameroon (add your own personal hell here XXXXXXXXX) running us ragged. The head scratching, the thinly veiled xenophobia, the ignorance. So to be fair, if you really think England have a chance with their "pace" we don't need to hear it thanks. we heard it before each lamentably sh!t tournament. Perhaps it'll be different this time, but I very much doubt it.
ps. think I've got a trapped nerve in my neck and it's making me very cranky!

I think because there's so many young players some of us are raising our hopes because we don't really know exactly how good they are or could be, I can't remember an England squad like this and they have not really played together for long so there are possibilities about this lot.

every dog has its day, and my god have England had to wait a long time for their day. Maybe England will face a traditional power in the quarters and get some luck for once, maybe the opponent hits the bar twice, has a goal incorrectly ruled offside and generally dominates play, but maybe England score against the run of play with their only shot on target and go through. That's the beauty of this game, you just never know. Englands day will come.

England get slagged a lot normally by their own supporters but to be fair besides the 1966 win they were ROBBED in the 1/4 final by the "hand of god" goal from the eventual winners Argentina in 1986 and were ROBBED again in the 1990 semi final against Germany(eventual winners) by a scabby deflection when Waddle hit the woodwork twice, I think England are due a bit of luck.

England need luck and are due luck, I hope they get it god willing.

But it is only one-eyed English who think they have been unlucky. England have had their share of luck right up until the point they have been unlucky. You will never agree with this.

I hope if England are in a "a la maradona" situation ever again that they don't just stand there and watch him run past 5/6 players and someone crunches the B***ard

1990 England should never have been anywhere near the semis. They were largely abysmal. The penalties versus Cameroon, Scifo hitting the bar (twice I think). England had huge luck.

have England experienced bad luck? sure. have they experienced more than others? of course not.

loser, are you one of the millions of immigrants who have invaded our country who have no regard for England and even less of our national side?

no team should be depending on luck

No team, should depend on luck, but you do need a slice of it, somewhere along the line, to do well.

That is a fact cricket and with goal line technology helping at least we won't have a repeat of that Lampard "goal" and on the point of immigrants its little wonder England can only pick from 20 odd percent of players 70 odd percent of the entire population must be immigrants.

It sounds like England will surprise with a new excuse.

72 per cent of players playing in prem are foreign fact.
Fact white English are a minority  in London.
I couldnt agree with 247lol anymore hes right.

Lol i don't live in the uk and its changing the subject a bit but no wonder UKIP are doing so well in the polls the Tories and Labour have sold the brits down the river as they say, I think old Camerons sh***ing himself with all the excuses he's been coming out with recently

The reason the main parties have done precisely nothing over immigration is they were afraid of being called racist.
The Uk is sick of it hence UKIPs rise in popularity.
I digress, but its true,least its off my chest.

tough to take, we played very well and didn't deserve to lose. but I still think we'll qualify and Uruguay losing is a big plus

Your sounding like Lineker and Shearer ans Roy ffs , did you all watch the same game as me

Italy won comfortably , slick and neat intricate passing , attacked better , defended better and only time England played well was when Italians were happy to let them pass it around without invention

rooney couldn't even hit the pitch with a corner

keep the plane engine running imo

Clueless thread

still big chance england qualify

england,never beat italy twice on bounce,in world cup matches,same goesfor uraguay

I think people are clinging to the idea that we were narrowly beaten by a traditionally strong nation. Unfortunately, the current Italian outfit are not a patch on their better sides. It is only a matter of time before they are exposed as such. England should have been looking at a draw minimum and a loss now makes even qualification difficult.

Other than the 'perfect' goal I couldn't see that much to enthuse about. Yes, it was better than four years ago but realistically how could it have been worse?

It was a pretty even match for an hour but we pretty much faded away over the last half- hour. The three 'impact' substitutions made little or no impact. The play was very one-dimensional and there appeared to be no aerial threat whatsoever. It looks as if we are always likely to concede so goals at the other end are going to be essential. Other than Rooney's miss I can't remember that many chances being created. Henderson and Gerrard don't create much at all. Gerrard has made a career out of bombing forward, is he really worth a place in a holding role? With Chamberlain presumably unavailable I am not sure what they have to change things. The likes of Milner have never good enough. 

Sadly, an early exit now looks the most likely scenario.

you're awesome jc, wd

if you want to make some money lay your boys at 32. real price is around 100 so you can lap up some patriotic mug money

rooney couldn't even hit the pitch with a corner Laugh



my wife just shouted downstairs to ask what i was laughing at

Jun 15, 2014 -- 9:13AM, Charlton2005 wrote:

you're awesome jc, wdif you want to make some money lay your boys at 32. real price is around 100 so you can lap up some patriotic mug money

well, I got England @ 34, I think it is, so I could actually still cash out now for a profit. but I won't, because Uruguay are, like I said earlier in this thread, a one-man side, that man is not fit, and they were outplayed by Costa Rica, so I still expect us to go through. but I would only make a tiny profit anyway (a big profit to yourself) so I wouldn't anyway.

Jun 15, 2014 -- 9:13AM, differentdrum wrote:

I think people are clinging to the idea that we were narrowly beaten by a traditionally strong nation. Unfortunately, the current Italian outfit are not a patch on their better sides. It is only a matter of time before they are exposed as such. England should have been looking at a draw minimum and a loss now makes even qualification difficult.Other than the 'perfect' goal I couldn't see that much to enthuse about. Yes, it was better than four years ago but realistically how could it have been worse?It was a pretty even match for an hour but we pretty much faded away over the last half- hour. The three 'impact' substitutions made little or no impact. The play was very one-dimensional and there appeared to be no aerial threat whatsoever. It looks as if we are always likely to concede so goals at the other end are going to be essential. Other than Rooney's miss I can't remember that many chances being created. Henderson and Gerrard don't create much at all. Gerrard has made a career out of bombing forward, is he really worth a place in a holding role? With Chamberlain presumably unavailable I am not sure what they have to change things. The likes of Milner have never good enough.  Sadly, an early exit now looks the most likely scenario.

no, I'm not having that. the only difference in this game was the Balotelli goal, we didn't deserve to lose. up until they scored their first we were the better side too. Amazing how Italy are a lot of people's dark horses, then they beat us, and suddenly aren't any good. I'd be shocked if Italy didn't go far in this tournament.

it was the same in the Euro's. everyone sad how bad we did to go out on penalties to Italy, then they played Germany off the park in the next match. some folks never learn

England were outclassed by classier Italians

The only time they looked good was when Italy were content to let them aimlessly knock the ball around

Italy hit the wood twice and had one cleared of the line , it could have been worse , far worse

Rooney has to play a deeper central role , folk slag him but from what I see he has vision and is as good a passer / crosser of the ball as ive seen

Sticking him wide is completely mental

England's defence is so bad they'll need to score at least 3 goals to win any game in this tournament. Apart from that it's going swimmingly.

"no, I'm not having that. the only difference in this game was the Balotelli goal, we didn't deserve to lose. up until they scored their first we were the better side too."

almost the whole game was controlled by italy and although england were very lucky to meet a slightly off form italian team, they were very flattered by the close scoreline as on play italy could and should have scored 4 or 5.

what price England to beat Uruguay ?

You might as well play my wife on the left instead of Rooney.
Rooney world class? How many goals has he scored in the World Cups? NONE.
Play him upfront or drop him for god sake.

Well I did tell everyone Rooney produces one moment of brilliance(the pass that led to the goal) then falls back to sleep and dreams of all the cash he's making, maybe Scholes was right and he's past his best or maybe he just can't handle the pressure of the biggest stage in football take your pick but in an otherwise decent performance from England a few players just were not good enough.

They toyed with England again but some mugs on here can't be told know matter how many times you try to help them :)

Last night Italy broke passing records not touched since 66. It really was a masterclass

Jun 15, 2014 -- 4:19PM, Winner_Winner_Chicken_Diner wrote:

They toyed with England again but some mugs on here can't be told know matter how many times you try to help them :)

why do you assume that because someone has started a thread on their national side that they are wasting loads of their cash on them? Like I said earlier in the thread, I've had £100 on them @ 34 for a trade, but £100 isn't anything to me where gambling is concerned. or are you just the degenerate gambling sort that has to bet on every sporting event they see?

why is there so much vitriol towards the English team as well from people on here? Did a bunch of you lose your family to an England team?

Well we even have a few Aussies on here and we know the Jocks  and Irish hover the forum because lets face it its the only way any of that lot will ever get to talk about WINNING a world cup , not that they're bitter or anything like that

"Whats yours Skippy a pint Of Fosters and a verse of Waltzing Matilda" "What about you Paddy a pint of the black stuff and a hockey stick for a game of Quidditch think you call it hurling" " And how about Hamish a wee dram a pile of crap wrapped in sheep's gut"
Look lads if you want to compete on the big stage and chat with the elite you have to eat an athletes diet, stop being a bunch of p**s heads and playing silly girls games.

JC I have backed Italy and my opinion was posted on here pre tournament. Italy made England chase shadows and my prediction of 0-1 points is on course unless Woy grows a set and drops Gerrard, Rooney etc. You might have a glimmer of hope

Woy didn't grow a set as expected

no. leaving Welbeck on for as long as he did... it boggles the mind.

well, they did surprise, to be fair, I never thought they could be as gash as that. if Rooney AND Welbeck start the Costa Rica match I'm boycotting it. I probably will anyway

g1099 • June 19, 2014 11:22 PM BST
Wayne Rooney was absolute terrible, gerrard didn't no what day it was didn't look bothered passing the book as usual not desire no heart lack of commitment should hang his international boots up for me, defensively poor jagielka Cahill awful along with glen Johnson only player who could keep their head held high was Henderson fantastic from start till end, overall England a milion miles away fans have to keep dreaming

England play the best ive seen them play ever for about a minute after the goal. Pace and directness. Then all of a sudden it goes to the midfield and they start passing round the midfield. Then we all know what happens.... Roy at his best.

^ yes. that really irked me. we equalised, didn't deserve to, and then had a five minute spell when we had them on the ropes, Sturridge had a shot saved. then we started passing it sideways, like we were 3-0 up. we deserved to lose after that

4-2-3-1 is just 4-4-2 (4-2-4) in disguise.  Eng have deployed 4 players (Sterling, Sturridge, rooney and Welbeck) where they should have been playing three.  Thus they've been undermanned in midfield and have had no control over games. The Rooney/Sterling left centre argument is a bit of a sideshow but dominated the coverage because we are thick as a Nation.  We are proud we "had a go" but we didnt even have a go because with only two midfielders we never stood a chance.  Everyone gets two against us and that's when they miss three other decent chances.  We blame the defenders for the specific goalscoring incidents and thus miss the salient point that the team is not set up correctly.  I was very confident Roy's European experience would see him be a bit more canny and get the draw Italy would gladly have traded with us first time out.  But f'k me if he's not as f'kin stupid as all the rest...
4-5-1/4-3-3 with a tight midfield 3 is an absolute must in International football these days.  Gerrard's aging legs as one part of a two man midfield is just insane.  And that's why England lose to teams where man for man there's little talent difference.  The fact that Suarez is mustard will see Roy dodge the tough questions.  Everyone just thinks he was the difference which is bullsh1t.  Other teams will stop him...

big pop good post very true

pmsl

Unique19 • June 11, 2014 6:32 PM BST
think England could stun the world personally and reach the semi finals.

Think England will get out their group, get past Colombia/japan, and then stun the world and by beating a Spain team who I think will have lost the hunger after recent successes.

LoyalHoncho • May 6, 2014 2:45 PM BST
England have no phucking chance.  How are this squad of under-achievers going to succeed where no European side has done before?  The dreamers on here are unbelievable. LaughLaughLaughLaughLaugh

yes, because that's exactly how football works. muuuuuuuuuug