Can't see England doing much other than maybe getting out of the group. Picking the right manager's been a long standing problem. Think of the great players England have produced in the past and how they've often under achieved and compare that to now and recently. A travesty they never made the final of Italia 90 however, along with Italy. Disgraceful final. I always used to support England (and other home nations) and would even take time off work occasionally to watch World Cup and Euro's games! Can't be bothered anymore even watching a lot of the games. You can put that down to the rise in cheating and gamesmanship etc mainly. I'm probably guilty of age related rose tinted spectacle wearing too but I don't think there's the same quantity and quality of exciting games anymore
The problem we have with all the home nations is if you look at a lot of the big national sides who will do well then they have players that play in the premiership and that cuts down the chances of producing British players to the standard needed to win trophies. There are players in the England squad who would not be internationals in other nations... If we were run like someone like germany that limit the amount of foreigners that can play for a club then we would improve our chances.....The British teams are at a big disadvantage because we put foreign players first in allowing them to get better in the best league in the world. England are nothing more than also rans who are there to make up the numbers and have no chance of ever winning a trophy as long as the premiership is run as it is....
Well said. Disagree on what you say about England's chances though. It's a **** draw, but if we beat either Italy or Uruguay I fancy our chances of at least making the next round. I think it's more likely against Uruguay who do have Suarez and Cavani, but as a unit are not better than Italy. Key players for England will be Hart, Carrick, Gerrard, Rooney and Sturridge. I know everyone loves to rave on about "hurr Gerrard and Lampard are past it", but Gerrard was one of the best midfielders at Euro 2012.
Can you imagine the uproar if he dives and scores the winning penalty and knocks England out? We can only hope
Here's an excellent explanation of how the rankings are calculated. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01m367d/More_or_Less_Football_Ranking_Mysteries_Explained/ Netherlands would have been seeded had they not played and won a friendly v Indonesia. Countries should never lose points when they've won a game. Use the Elo system as in chess. Far better.
I think that the UEFA ranking works that way, plus they don't count friendlies either. Far more reliable. FIFAs ranking is a joke. You'll see countries go 20 spots up or down within a month and then you'll see countries like Norway get seeded for the WC qualifier because they happened to be ranked 10th that month. Next month (for some reason) they were down at 30th or something. You can't base draws on a ranking system with such high variance. England is an enigma to me. I mean they produce world class players year after year and yet they haven't won anything since '66 (I believe). It can't be a string of bad managers it has to be something else.
I think it will come down to goal difference. I think England will get 4 points in that group. They will get a draw with either Italy or Uruguay and beat Costa Rica. I can see the Italy and Uruguay drawing as well. So 4 points will get second place - all depends on how the teams do against Costa Rica regarding goal difference.
