The Official ENGLAND Thread - The Team We ALL Support

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Gun said:

After seeing Germany play, it's now imperative that we finish top of our group!

Agreed. That was the performance thus far - although I appreciate the really big boys have yet to set their stall out.

Here's an interesting snippet....

Italy - who won the Cup 4 years ago (2006) - also had a disappointing opening match in Germany that year. They drew 1-1 in their first endeavour and played very poorly.

The team they drew with?

USA.

An omen?

Somehow I suspect the similarities end there

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mickk said:

hornetrider said:

BBC Ticker said:

Gareth Barry to start on Friday against Algeria

Super. Only question is - instead of who? Milner? Will Gerrard be pushed to the wings? Or instead of Heskey and Gerrard to play in the 'hole'.

Answers on a postcard, but unfortunately I'm going with the former.

Didn't think he named the players till two hours before kick-off.

I think he'll play Barry with Lampard Lennon & Cole this time and Gerrard and Rooney up front.

But FFS, isn't playing with a defense-minded holding midfielder (Barry) showing the Algerians to much bleedin' respect. Christ, we should be able to play with the 2nd eleven we've taken out there and still win comfortably.

This is a must win game after all.

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Castrol Craig said:

Jonny671 said:

ArtVandelay said:

Castrol Craig said:

dreamz said:

yeah crouchy should start - his stats are mostly unbeatable.

efa.

No, dreamz had it right the first time, he's good against useless teams but I've yet to see him perform well against the best teams.

He's not had the chance to show himself!

20 minutes near the end of the game isn't fair on the chap.

12.

lets weigh it up here....we need goals, we need options.....crouch can give you both.

Just can't see Capello giving him a shot unless we're in trouble and its time to throw the kitchen sink at the opposition. Much as I think this game is tailor made for him.

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Castrol Craig said:

Riggernut said:

Hasn't Sven noted interest

...and to all you people talking about Liverpool on here:

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y2blade said:

is anyone feeling optimistic ahead of tomorrow afternoons match?

Yes...quite upbeat actually...

Thanks

Matjaz Kek

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Devilstreak said:

I wonder how many people have pulled sickies today?... And how obvious it is

Sorry, what did you say? I can't seem to read the screen properly as I seem to have come down with a streaming 24 hour cold...

Bugger

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robm3 said:

What does England actually need to qualify for next round?

Its not just about qualifying for the next round - we desperately need to win the group!!!

1st place means we have a do-able route to the semi-final - Probably Ghana/Serbia in the last 16 followed by Uruguay in the Quarter Final before Brazil in the Semi.

2nd place means we have a mountain to climb as it will probably be Germany in the last 16 followed by Argentina in the Quarter Final before Spain in the Semi.

Its a no-brainer.

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Cross EVERYTHING! Here goes...

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The route now is (in all probability):

Germany
Argentina
Spain


Damn...all because we couldn't fking kill off the 3rd smallest nation to enter the World Cup.

Poor - very poor.

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Skylinecrazy said:

North West Tom said:

Amazing. We've just played and won a crucial, crucial match and everyone's bringing out the negatives c

Thank you.

I think thats cos most football observers would not be overly-impressed with that display.

We were hanging on against Slovenia.

Sunday (if its against Germany) will be a big problem without a massive improvement even on that dsplay.

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clonmult said:

why aren't "we" better in general at sports?

Sorry - gonna call bullshine on that...



We actually fare better than our population percentage (as a percentage of the world's total population) would merit - all things being equal.

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Fittster said:

The trouble/preception is caused because we are good at sports which don't attract large numbers of spectators.

What, the Olympics, Boxing & F1 don't attract large audiences?

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We got half the medals of the USA at the last Olympics with 1/6th the population...you don't see them moaning.

We expect to much.

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More like

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shakotan said:

Just a thought.

The title of this thread is now highly ironic!

Why?


Just cos they lost doesn't mean we don't support them.

Its not a 'choice' situation for most of us I'm afraid.

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When the FA appointed Capello the general consenus was that we had got hold of the best manager in the world and that if he couldn't win things for us then it was down to our inferior players and there was genuinely no hope.

Well guess what, he hasn't gotten worse at his job...

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ukwill said:

m0ssy said:

anyone who genuinely believes that we would have gone on to win the game if the goal stood is in cloud cuckoo land imo.

You're entitled to your opinion.

Its true that had the goal stood we wouldn't have had to chase the game so hard in the 2nd half - leading to Barry getting caught upfield when Germany broke from defence for the 3rd goal.

...who knows?

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Anybody know why Cashley Hole snubbed Capello's handshake???

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Have things REALLY sunk this low?....Kevin Davis....?