16 saves!

Phew, that was quite good.

doubt they’d want to go for a recovery ride tomorrow 🙂 A much better world cup without england.. its been great so far..

Belgium just win that game with ten men too!

USA were not a patch on the mighty lions of the England team, lead by the effervescent Roy Hodgson.

Indeed, I expect Klinsmann to be replaced by Hodgson.

Maybe a straight swap.

That was the best match I have watched in ages. Wanted them both to win and gutted for America. Really, really enjoyed it 🙂

Is that a Klinsman for England lobby I hear? Why not….

Team of the tournament so far has 5 goalkeepers in it!

So the next round will be …

I want those in bold to win.

Fri 4 Jul 2014 – World Cup

France v Germany 17:00
Brazil v Colombia 21:00

Sat 5 Jul 2014 – World Cup

Argentina v Belgium 17:00
Netherlands v Costa Rica 21:00

I just hope the Dutch machine will win the tournament.

France
Colombia
Belgium
Costa Rica

is my predictions.

Great game. Gutted not to see USA go through. Howard was amazing

Klinsman has a long term contract in USA and has lived there since retiring. He has been linked to the England job before. Can’t see him leaving the US

Klinsman has a long term contract in USA and has lived there since retiring. He has been linked to the England job before. Can’t see him leaving the US

I don’t think anyone was being serious re: Klinsman taking Woy’s job.

Klinsman will do very well in merica.

It would be a downgrade if he takes on the England job as England will now be a first round team only for a long time.

Costa Ricacacacaca!

I have a mate who lives just south of Denver he says they have gone football/soccer crazy over there. Why couldn’t england put as much effort into their games?

*checks fixtures*

Just because they get paid high wages the english players think they are great. The money is funded from tv rights which is marketing the premier league as the best in the world. Even Rio genuinely believes last nights game was as “good” as a premiership derby. Most derbies end up in a draw I think. The mentality of the players have to change, they are detatched from the fans and the rest of the world.

Foregin investors want in on the action so buy some top clubs and hoover up foregin players to buy silverware. English players still believe they are great as they play with such talented foreign players.

When they go to tournaments without the support of those players they get found out. . Funnily I see foriegn investors dwindling due to the high costs of players over here, why come here when you could buy into other leagues and gain success ( psg, monaco etc).

Bring back Bobby Robson and the team of 1990 please. They didnt win anything but gave plenty of heart and determination ( and they had gazza 🙂 and John barnes rapping )

I just hope the Dutch machine will win the tournament.

Whilst I acknowledge Robben’s brilliance……I’d hate to see him pick up a winners medal for his ridiculous behaviour on the pitch. It would spoil the world cup for me.

I see Shearer was still backing Brazil last night, expecting Neymar to pull them through. Hard to argue as ALL the other teams seem to be looking rather fragile…..even ze Germans! 😯

Bring back Bobby Robson and the team of 1990 please. They didnt win anything but gave plenty of heart and determination ( and they had gazza and John barnes rapping )

That will ALWAYS be the best WC for me….wonderful until we lost! 🙁

Hard to call the tournament right now, no one is looking that good and teams always have a blip (eg Spain losing to Switzerland in the group before inning in some style). This contributes to it being the best WC I can remember.

France are still going to win it.

columbia v (belgium / costa rica) in the final would be awesome. Or something along the lines of the film dodgeball ( germany, argentina,brazil, netherlands)

As the teams are quite open, I’m genuinely watching the games with anticipation. Clearly the established teams are there for the taking and it doesnt matter much if you have a neymar, messi in the other teams make up for it with 11 players ready to step up 🙂

I think Roy is doing a reasonable job. Just wish the England players could just concentrate on playing and stop talking.

Columbia will beat Brazil, but they wont get past the French/Germans.

Coming to think about it, this tournament could do with a Ned – Ger final. For all that quality entertainment we have been getting so far, it needs a proper grudge-match to decide the outcome

Just because they get paid high wages the english players think they are great

Yes all th eother players for all the other teams get a pittance and do it for love…you missed the teams who were refusing to play until paid and them FA having to fly over money for them then
The only thing worse than England getting knocked out is reading the same old stuff tournament after tournament

Only one team can win it
Two of the teams in your group were rated above you. you were unlucky against them both etc.

When they go to tournaments without the support of those players they get found out.

So basically other teams have better players….can this really be the reason they are better…..who knew ?

your defence is poor is the reason and you were in the toughest group. you would have beaten many of the teams in other groups. Belgium have been gash and are in the quarters fro example

So basically other teams have better players.

This is my contention. Unless I’m deluded, a bloke who can’t get a regular game for Watford is not better than Phil Jagielka. Fulham’s second best player isn’t better than Daniel Sturridge. Sure, there are some world class players in most of the remaining teams, but there’s some pretty ‘average’ ones as well. What are we collectively missing that means we are less than the sum of our parts, whereas others seem to be more than?

What are we collectively missing that means we are less than the sum of our parts, whereas others seem to be more than?

Ah, now that is the $64,000 question!

My belief is that the answer is ‘fear’. Too many of our players are fearful of making mistakes, looking stupid etc. Only our young players seem to play without fear, Sterling, Barkley, The Ox etc.

But why are they fearful…why does Ashley Cole (for example) go haring up the line, come face to face with a defender, stop and pass back to another defender. Why did Stevie G, stay back with the defence most of the time instead of making attacking runs. Maybe some of the teams who made it through were a bit fearful too seing as ALL the underdogs pushed them so close with a brand of mostly adventurous footie.

Poor Woy could tell em whatever…..but if they’re too scared to go for it, then it won’t happen.

Coming to think about it, this tournament could do with a Ned – Ger final. For all that quality entertainment we have been getting so far, it needs a proper grudge-match to decide the outcome

Excellent idea ! The Dutch need to redeem themselves after 2010 final too.

@Jamie, I generally miss obvious sarcasm ! I am not sure I could cope with a French win, not because of the stick I would get from my French gf but from the controversy of players like Benzeema who said they don’t sing the national anthem as they are not French and they only play for Les Blues for the money and prestige. Giroud tried to change this around by singing the anthem on the stadium PA after they won the qualifier play-off but that still riles me.

Tim Howard was fantastic by the way

jonv look who you played and look at who they played

Italy and urugauay are FIFA top 10 teams [ or were pre World Cup] there is no shame in narrow defeats to them

Looking at other teams playing well against weaker teams makes, IMHO, little sense.

I’m not talking about playing against weaker teams. i’m not talking even about the performance of Brazil, or Germany, or Argentina, who are stacked with world class players in every position, against these weaker teams. after all, we couldn’t beat Honduras or Ecuador either in the lead up to the WC. Or Chile at Wembley in the winter. Or……

I’m talking about Algeria – ‘none’ of those players are man for man the equal of the England players. I’ve had a glance at their squad, they’re playing for teams in ‘second class’ leagues, they’re at clubs like Rangers, and Sheff Weds.

Or Chile, who took Brazil to penalties and nearly beat them in ET. They’ve got no ‘stars’ either.

Or Switzerland, or Costa Rica, or USA, or….. all of whom have massively overachieved compared to Spain, Portugal, Italy, England…….

It comes down to that either the ‘star’ players in these big teams aren’t actually that good – which i can’t accept given their performances week in week out for Prem, La Liga, Serie A sides. Or that something else is missing, and it’s not whether we can pass the ball effectively, or whether Rooney is better as a traditional centre forward or in the #10 spot, or any of that. It’s something more deep seated – is it really desire, commitment, or as Rockape said, is it fear? We haven’t won anything for 50 years nearly, what are we scared of?

the reaction of the fans IMHO [ not trolling honest].
You put so much pressure on the players they just cannot perform to their usual ability and then criticse their heart, desire , say they dont care or they are overpaid etc.

Take rooney – played out of position and still got an assist – reaction slagged off, called lazy [ he ran the furthest] etc
next game scores the only goal [ and unlucky with the header and free kick] – reaction slagged off
third game – dropped

The fayns dont help IMHO

Plus it is football every tournament some team over perform and some underperform – you have under performed for the last two though.

We haven’t won anything for 50 years

you have won one tournament, once, at home.
you have made no other finals
You have made some semis
the fans speak like you are germany or Brazil or that you should always be there
You are a top 10 ish team at best.

i think we’re scared of winning well.. last great game may have been 5:1 drubbing of germany.

Its all about the result but as Roy says ” england are playing well”

You are a top 10 ish team at best.

Maybe i’m not expressing this well, or maybe you misunderstand, but it’s nothing to do with past glories or otherwise, or whether we made the semis 18 and 24 years ago.

Based on the quality of our players, compared to the quality of the players in the lesser sides, we should be nailed on for qtrs or semi’s (with due nod this time to being in the group of death) – if only those players could achieve the sum of their parts let alone greater than the sum of.

I was encouraged by the performance against italy, knocked back a bit against Uruguay where the old fears came back in, didn’t understand the rationale of playing a different team completely against CR, when we have a difficult EURO qualifier in a couple of months time. Since then I’ve got steadily more worried, by the fact that other relative minnows have made a far better fist of it than us, against the same sorts of teams.

So all these FA plans of having academies that will teach tika taka skills from 7 years old, or limiting the numbers of overseas players so that more home grown talent can come through…. I’m wondering if that misses the point. Which is that we won’t win anything until we actually start to believe that we can, and stop being frightened by the prospect of not.

England (we) should be getting out of the group for certain and probably reaching the QF’s. We didn’t but neither did other good teams.

In terms of the broader failure to win a tournament or get into the final there have been lots of different reasons over the years. In the more recent past I personally think it’s very much due to the fact that the FA don’t run the domestic league and as such the interests of the national team are not at all represented in running of our top league. Secondarily I think we’ve made some very poor choices in terms of managers, not a single “foreign” choice has been a good one. I don’t much rate Hodgson but he’s far superior to the three poor choices before him (inc McClaren). Hoddle self destructed for non-football reasons (definitely a victim of the press dragging up old and irrelevant “dirt”) and neither Rednapp or O’Neill was considered suitable, this was an error of judgement. In my view we haven’t had a decent manager since Venables and no one has come close to Sir Bobby.

Random thoughts:

– When I looked at the England squad, I didn’t see a “team”, I saw a bunch of players who would rather be playing for whoever pays their wages.
– I can’t help but get away from the fact that football in this country is very divisive. Yes, South American football is as well, but the majority of their player play overseas, so when they do come together they play for each as comrades.
– As most of the stars and managers in the PL are foreign, English football no longer has an identity. We all know how the Spanish, Germans, Brazilians etc play: What style is the English way, now?
– English footballers aren’t as good as they think they are: As above, most of the top players are foreign. Even the lower leagues, where English footballers are supposed to learn their trade, are now buying in foreign players instead of bringing through English player; again, resulting in England having no football identity.
– Out of the u-17 team that won the Euros several years back, only two went on to make full caps (I think that was the stat.)

Possible solutions?
– Limit the number of foreign players coming into the league with quotas that become increasingly stringent as you go down the league. Wage capping will also help with this.
– Pick a good, English national team coach and stick with him for many years.
– When players play for England the FA pays their salaries and they actually have a contract.

Probably all nonsense.

mikey74 – Member

Random thoughts:

…

Probably all nonsense.

Good solutions.

But, ya, they are all nonsense because too much money is involved and there is no way of turning back unless the money is gone from the game, which is highly unlikely.

Twitterists should check out Soccer Guy @usasoccerguy.

This article was from a while back, but it gives an insight into why Germany are where they are now after finishing bottom of their group at Euro 2000. Didn’t take them that long did it?

A telling couple of paragraphs from the article on comparative number of high quality coaches and the relationship between the DFB (German FA) and the Bundesliga. Compare and contrast to the relationship between the stuffed suits in the FA and the money men of the EPL.

The incredible depth of Germany’s coaching resources, as well as the DFB’s close relationship with Bundesliga clubs, helps to make the programme. According to Uefa, Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence and 1,070 (115) with the Pro licence, the highest qualification. It is little wonder that Ashworth said last month that there will be no quick fix for English football. The country that invented the game has forgotten that we need people to teach it.

For Germany, post-Euro 2000 was about changing philosophies as well as employing more full-time coaches and upgrading facilities. The DFB wanted to move away from playing in straight lines and relying on “the German mentality” to win matches. Instead coaches focused on developing fluid formations that required the sort of nimble, dexterous players who would previously have been overlooked because of their lack of physical strength.

Full article here: Really worth a read

Central contracts is an interesting idea. The ECB have done it with reasonable success.

In footie and the PL, Im not so sure a full time England team playing in the PL would work, but it might engender some team spirit.

I share the doubts that Roy Hodgson isn’t the right person for the job. he is way too happy with a draw or a hard fought / narrow defeat. Not good enough!

Do any of the 8 quarter finalists at the world cup utilise central contracts?