The Football Thread - Season 2013/2014 & World Cup

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Is on a roller coaster of emotion, despair, apprehension, anxiety, euphoria, yeah i'm watching England.
 
cambsno said:
That said we are not putting too many passes together and welbeck and Rooney are not offering much.
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Did you pull those names from a hat ?

Welbeck has been as equally ineffective as anybody else. Rooney has looked our best threat.
 
dinners said:
Did you pull those names from a hat ?

Welbeck has been as equally ineffective as anybody else. Rooney has looked our best threat.
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Well u can't take Gerard off and put Barkley on. At half time I would have gladly taken 5 off!
 
cambsno said:
At the risk of being declared insane... Thought I would share a strong feeling I had today...

England to be 2-0 down in the World Cup final, before we come back to 2-2 with lambert then grabbing the winner with 5 mins to go!
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I wonder what odds I will get on that bet now!!!
 
Well that was frustrating. Played well enough for at least the draw. I agreed with all of Roy's subs, though would have done them earlier I think. Ultimately just not good enough where it counts. Uruguay put their chances away, we didn't.

Still we can support Italy for the next few days and see what happens and see if the agony can be prolonged!
 
dinners said:
I had a dream.

England loose 4:3 - Rooney gets a hat trick and we don't have anybody to blame it all on ;)
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Well close, we lose 2-1 and he misses two great chances! Definitely his fault! ;)
 
Honestly we've just not been good enough so far. Defending for both goals tonight poor, finishing poor tonight up front. Not a great World Cup combination. I felt fine after the Italy game, but am feeling frustrated after this - what could have been. Shame Suarez is not younger and we can't naturalise him!

//I am joking before anyone goes mad...
 
silure130 said:
Scottish fan bottom right LOL
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There was another shot with a couple of blue Scottish kits amongst the Uruguay fans. Gets them out of Scotland and travelling the World I suppose. Obviously not supporting their own team, ;) but making friends around the World anyway. :D
 
they are trying to emulate the world and European champions in not qualifying after 2 games but they even failed at doing that lol
 
Its disappointing that England lost the match , but its a game someone will loose someone will win, keeping our sportsmen spirit alive .. lets enjoy the reset of the worldcup and cheer them :)
 
mxfun said:
So....is that them out then ;-)
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I think it works as follows...if Costa Rica wins from Italy, and England beat Costa Rica then England could go through...I might have the mechanics wrong, but there is still a chance to stay in...

They just need to get rid of Rooney as a starter, I don't like Sterling much either....but perhaps going to bed on time and being awake on the pitch will help, perhaps eat some super fruit and enlist the help from Dynamo....and they'll have a chance....
 
POAH said:
italy need to beat costa rica and uruguay then england need to beat costa rica
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Aha I was nearly there :) easy then.....
 
As Liverpool fan i actually enjoyed last nights game, I've got high hopes for next season... the link up play between Gerrard and Suarez was fantastic!

On a more serious note, i thought we were pretty poor, particularly defensively. The ball for the first goal should never have got into the box! Going forward we were flat, lacked the final ball or the finish on a number of occasions.

And as for Rooney, if last night taught us anything it is that Wayne Rooney is not "up there with the best of them" Sir Alex Ferguson saw to that. Suarez is on a different planet to Rooney, his movement, his awareness and his finishing... simply world class.

I find it difficult to accept that England perform as badly as they have done at these tournaments when teams likes Croatia, Bosnia and even Australia (against Holland) can put on team performances far superior to England and yet have less talent in the team. We never seem to have anyone step up to the plate and perform yet there aren't many players in that squad that aren't star players for their premier league teams.

Didn't expect too much from England, but very disappointed with our showing at this tournament.
 
insidewildlife said:
And as for Rooney, if last night taught us anything it is that Wayne Rooney is not "up there with the best of them" Sir Alex Ferguson saw to that. Suarez is on a different planet to Rooney, his movement, his awareness and his finishing... simply world class.
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Rooney getting criticised today because of how good Suarez is.;)

I don't think last night taught us anything we didn't know already. We all know Suarez is a world class player and he's also on a different planet to Sturridge, Welbeck, Sterling, Gerrard, Henderson, Lallana etc........

At the end of the day we made silly errors defensively that cost us. Jagielka was woeful to the point that Cahill was having to do both their jobs. Gerrard was caught out on numerous occasions and along with Henderson was too deep and ineffective.

I'm a bit like you - disappointed but somehow not overly bothered due to my lack of expectation from this squad.
 
What bothers me is that we didn't look like we could be bothered. Look at the way we mumbled the anthem compared to the likes of chile.
 
joe hart should have done better with italys second goal and also the second goal last night but at the end of the day it was gerrard that cost england even though some still want to blame rooney
 
dinners said:
I'm a bit like you - disappointed but somehow not overly bothered due to my lack of expectation from this squad.
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And it's interesting that, in general, that level of expectation has been creeping up and up. The reality is that England have been playing pretty much as they always do and whilst most people's expectations were fairly low going into the tournament, once it starts that level begins to rise. We were marginally better than usual against Italy but suddenly the expectation level shoots up and then there's shock when we're beaten by Uruguay.

I wouldn't be surprised if our remaining tournament goes something like:

1. Everyone says England are crap and we're coming home early - expectations zero.
2. Tonight Italy beat Costa Rica. Expectations start to rise because everyone knows we can beat Costa Rica and Italy are good defensively and can beat Uruguay.
3. Tuesday night, expectations sky high....England have the lead against Costa Rica, split screen shows Italy beating Uruguay.
4. 85th minute Suarez gets the equalizer against Italy....everyone says England are crap.

The only saving grace for me is that (hopefully) I won't have to see Gerrard in an England shirt again after Tuesday!
 
dinners said:
Rooney getting criticised today because of how good Suarez is.;)
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I wouldn't go so far as to call it criticism, If anything too much is expected of him. Its more of a criticism of the England fans and english commentators. He is one of our best players, no doubt about it but what England lack which virtually every team has (minus the obviously rubbish ones) is a goal scorer... not just a striker... a goal scorer... someone who actually puts the ball in the back of the net each game.

Gerrard was quite good as a defensive midfielder in the opening 30 minutes for me, he broke play up well and didnt distribute to badly... but he just seemed to struggle after that. The last 5 minutes were horrendous from him... he just seemed to lose all composure and pump in long balls and go for ridiculous shots.

You are spot on with regards to Henderson and Gerrard sitting too deep. It didnt look like a 4-2-3-1... in that system the 2 get forward and help attack. England had more of a 6-3-1 or possibly 4-2-1-2-1 as the CAM was having to drop deep to pick the ball up. Very little link up play in the attacking midfield area from England.

Also if you watch Liverpool play with largely the same players and system (to some extent) they break on the counter very quickly and score goals this way... England just can't seem to get the ball out quickly from defence... i don't think i've seen us create even a poor chance from the counter.
 
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Spuff said:
And it's interesting that, in general, that level of expectation has been creeping up and up. The reality is that England have been playing pretty much as they always do and whilst most people's expectations were fairly low going into the tournament, once it starts that level begins to rise. We were marginally better than usual against Italy but suddenly the expectation level shoots up and then there's shock when we're beaten by Uruguay.

I wouldn't be surprised if our remaining tournament goes something like:

1. Everyone says England are crap and we're coming home early - expectations zero.
2. Tonight Italy beat Costa Rica. Expectations start to rise because everyone knows we can beat Costa Rica and Italy are good defensively and can beat Uruguay.
3. Tuesday night, expectations sky high....England have the lead against Costa Rica, split screen shows Italy beating Uruguay.
4. 85th minute Suarez gets the equalizer against Italy....everyone says England are crap.
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That is all too plausible.

On the radio this morning I heard one pundit shouting that Hodgson had to go, the whole FA management team had to go, time to clean out the whole lot of them, we need a fresh start na d so on. Bet he wouldn't have said any of that if the ball had come off the Uruguayan's head instead of Gerrards's and Suarez had been flagged offside.
 
Do you realise we could be heading for a coin toss.

If Italy beat Costa Rica 2-0 and we beat them 1-0 we will both have the same goal difference, goals scored and goals conceded.

Assuming Italy then beat Uruguay we'll be in for a coin toss
 
CanonDjango said:
Do you realise we could be heading for a coin toss.

If Italy beat Costa Rica 2-0 and we beat them 1-0 we will both have the same goal difference, goals scored and goals conceded.

Assuming Italy then beat Uruguay we'll be in for a coin toss
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Nope. If we end up level on points, goal difference and goals scored, as we would in your scenario, then we'd qualify based on the head-to-head record.
 
I'm even having pizza tonight - but it's not working.
 
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