After years are international nobodies they seem to have suddenly become a decent international side overnight. Is this due to them being the hosts and having a partisan crowd behind them or have they, like in most other sports... been getting ‘assistance’ from other means?
They got one of the easiest groups to qualify from along with England as they were seeded as hosts. They will be gone after next match.
They had been useless in the run up to the World Cup. Big surprise today. They just managed to hang in there with the fans helping to kick every ball.
The Russians, famous for state sponsored doping, are hosting the World Cup. If you think they haven't been tested plenty then fair play but I suspect they've been looked into more than anyone else. They aren't a terrible side they just aren't a good one. Well organised and motivated and you can over-achieve; they're at least as good as the Greece side of 2004. They'll give whoever wins out of Croatia-Denmark a good match but in truth will get turned over again 3 or 4 nil against an aggressive talented team.
In many ways, Spain probably gave them an easier game than England would have. Spain passed the ball in front of them for 120 minutes. A low tech side like England would have lumped more balls in the box and run at them more.
Spain were pretty useless I thought. All the ball and did absolutely nothing with it of any real note. Had the Russians running round in circles chasing the ball but that's about it. We would have given them a better game I'm pretty sure of that. I think this world cup is showing that international football is very difficult whoever you get and England fans need to get on board and support this new generation now. We have got a clean slate so lets push on from here and become more consistently competitive.
