maybe we should pretend to be disabled and enter the special world cup!!!

[jim]

Yeah, cos Slovenia are top of the group, two points ahead. So if we win, we get three points, and go ahead of them. Only the USA could match us, and the top two teams go through.

So it would be guaranteed.

[petercook7]

haha funny, out we go, lets hear it for the boys... BOOOOOOOOOO

[TooNice]

Ahh, I read the table wrong

What happens if the USA and the England draw their respective matches? They'd be tied 3 points each.

[petercook7]

Yeah, cos Slovenia are top of the group, two points ahead. So if we win, we get three points, and go ahead of them. Only the USA could match us, and the top two teams go through.

So it would be guaranteed.

If we draw and the usa draw we lose, we need usa to loseand uk to draw or win to go to the 2nd stage.
The US will beat Algeria we are out of the world cup.
If the US wins, we draw we are out
If the US draws we draw we are out.(we need to draw 3-3 thats if usa draw (0-0) if they draw 1-1 we need to draw (4-4).
only option now is a win.
we have no choice but to win.

[santa claus]

Imo, it's better that they just come home quietly now before they meet a team like Argentina or Spain or 10 germans. The game was dire and England are shapeless. The poor fans went all that way to see that because of the hype they've somehow managed to keep warm since 1966 (when none of this team were even a twinkle in their Daddies eyes). I'd resume the home nations games that they turned their backs on - they need the practice.

[Lee H]

Last night was an absolutely shocking performance from England.

They could not even string together simple passes without giving the ball to the Algerians.

Fair play to Algeria, they came to play against England and for periods of the match they made England look like a sunday league pub team who have all just drank a litre of vodka and decided to have a kick around on the field.

I feel sorry for all those who have spent thousands on getting to the world cup, only for England to give one of their worst performances I've seen for a while.

Heskey was terrible. How many headers did he jump up for 2 weeks to early only for the ball to either hit him on his head, or roll down his neck and back. Did anyone also see that lovely stepover he tried in the second half which resulted in the ball hitting one leg, then the other and he staggered forward with the ball. What was going on? I've seen newly born deer more stable on their feet than Heskey.

[Lucio]

The problems in the England team can be summed up as follows "overpayed entertainers".

The Premier League has for years been about "entertainment" rather than competative sports and as such fails to provide our local lads any hope of playing the same game as the rest of the world. What we need to do is get enough English players out to the various European and South American leagues where they can learn to play competative football again.

[HSK]

^ Yep, I think that pretty much sums it up well Lucio.

[TooNice]

The Premier League has for years been about "entertainment" rather than competative sports and as such fails to provide our local lads any hope of playing the same game as the rest of the world.

Or if I was naively optimistic, I'd say this is all a set up to drive up the drama ('entertainment') so that they can pull an astonishing come back by scoring two goals in the last 20min of the next match after going down one goal

[jim]

The problems in the England team can be summed up as follows "overpayed entertainers".

The Premier League has for years been about "entertainment" rather than competative sports and as such fails to provide our local lads any hope of playing the same game as the rest of the world. What we need to do is get enough English players out to the various European and South American leagues where they can learn to play competative football again.

So why have Premiership teams dominated the Champions' League for the last few years?

[j1979]

So why have Premiership teams dominated the Champions' League for the last few years?

the majority of players from English teams that play in the champions league are not English. and it true that if you have 2 players, with the same level of skill and one is English and the other foreign.. the English man will get higher wages. This is even more pronounced if the player comes from outside the EU.

[jim]

That's not what Lucio said though. He said that the Premier League isn't competitive.

[Lucio]

That's not what Lucio said though. He said that the Premier League isn't competitive.

You're right that Premier League teams do well in the Champions League, but then again it attracts a similiar kind of "entertainment" football. At the end of the day though, my main point is football in the UK has gone from a team game, to being a bunch of "celebrities" who are used to getting their own way. Couldnt' for a second imagine Rooney passing up a chance to shoot at goal in favour of a pass to another, better placed striker.

[jim]

You're right that Premier League teams do well in the Champions League, but then again it attracts a similiar kind of "entertainment" football. At the end of the day though, my main point is football in the UK has gone from a team game, to being a bunch of "celebrities" who are used to getting their own way. Couldnt' for a second imagine Rooney passing up a chance to shoot at goal in favour of a pass to another, better placed striker.

Sorry, but I really don't agree with you there.

Rooney created 5 goals last season for United, and 7 the season before that. In fact, the main criticism of him in previous years was that he spent too much time away from the goal and trying to play in other players rather than going for goal himself.

This season he's been pushed up top by Sir Alex and told that he's the out and out striker for Man Utd - proven largely by the purchase of Dimitar Berbatov who is a link-up player. Being told to actually shoot instead of pass and so on has led to him nearly being top-scorer in the Premiership this season, rather than his usual position with 10 goals or so, in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo, Louis Saha, or Ruud van Nistelrooy.

If you look at a team like Man Utd, they all play for each other, and are an incredibly effective team. The same goes for Chelsea. I don't see how you can explain the ineptitude of the England team by the Premiership.

[mmh]

As someone that doesnt watch football, at all.... i saw the last game and i was shocked!

The hype the media has given the team made them look like, as soneone said, a sunday league team...

Rooney, ROONEY... that guy should have been subbed... everytime he got the ball, he either fumbulled it, or shot from half a mile away straight to the keeper... yeah yeah, atleast he was taking shots... bu if he had played the field he coulda got the ball into much better positions...

The only person that actually looked like he was playing for his country - to me at least - was that shaun wright phillips geezer on the right wing... he looked like he had something to prove when he got on the pitch... worked for the ball and run his taters off when he got it...

If everyone on the pitch played with that kind of enthusiasm, a goal would have been guarenteed!

but rooney... he just looked like he couldnt be bothered... at all...

he'd lose the ball and just stand there shrugging... not turning and putting pressure on the other team... just waiting for the ball to come back to him to make another triumphant cockup!