"I'm not going to keep arguing, Scoring more goals in group play > Winning. That's flawed logic, just because things have been that way for a long time doesn't make that logic any less antiquated or flawed. There's a reason the expression goes "Play to win", wins and losses should always take precedent over scoring. If you subscribe to that logic then you believe a team with 1 better goal differential in group play is more deserving of advancing then the team who won the head-to-head match between the two teams that are tied. Go ask 10 random people what's more important in sports, winning head-to-head or scoring. 10/10 are going to tell you winning. Every other major sport on the face of the Earth put's winning over scoring, but all those other sports have the flawed logic right?" Statement by a dumb American as to why H2H>GD (not to mention that USA is in more danger of elimination via GD than H2H) Bolded part is funniest because a.) Points are a higher tiebreaker than GD b.) How the hell are you supposed to win? Not scoring more goals than your opponent?
For England not to get out of the groups stages is a massive disappointment but not altogether shocking Losing the first two games and getting eliminated before they've even finished playing the group games is a bit of a shock to be honest.
Agreed, England not getting out the group was not a shock and quite a few were saying we weren't. I personally couldn't see how we would too, but was pleasantly surprised that we played some decent stuff and got close. As Cym said, Spain by far has been the most surprising, especially with the top quality players they have at their disposal.
To be fair the first two games were the games some expected England to lose anyway so them being eliminated after two games was always on the cards
I think England were unlucky they could just have easily been top of their group with six points now rather than be bottom with nil.
Besides Spain: - Italy in considerable danger - England, while not shocking, no one thought one of these teams would go out by losing a place to Costa Rica - Portugal is basically out If Italy, Switzerland, Croatia and Russia make it there will be more European teams than last time (I guess my memory of the last competition wasn't so good...), but I suppose it was looking bad to me due to the teams that went out. (I also thought Bosnia would have a decent chance to make it out)
Although it's not ideal to be knocked out so soon but the players acquitted themselves well. Most of them are young and will peak come the next WC. They were missing a few good young players too like Wilshere (still recovering from injury), OXO (injured) and Walcott more importantly. I reckon having Walcott out has been detrimental to both club and country. We missed his goals for Arsenal and that plan B and I reckon he would have changed the result of at least one game for England.
I reckon so too. The youngsters are also technically quite good now, no more long ball tripe. Not only do we have Wilshere but players like Barkley, OXO, Sterling, Sturridge, Lallana etc are all good with the ball.
My own view is that Hodgson should be kept on as coach until after Euro 2016 and Gary Neville should be groomed as his successor.
I like that plan. The players seem to like and respect him so maintaining some consistency would be good. Also Neville looks like he knows what he's talking about but would it be risky to have him as future manager with minimal domestic experience? Saying that, Klinsman doesn't have major domestic experience and he's doing very well with USA.
Yeah I agree with this. Would be nice to get a good technical coach in there too. (someone who camera through Ajax like Berkamp)
Netherlands looking good. Van Gaal is such a good manager - bit worrying he's united bound. Also been watching Alexis Sanchez.. would be an amazing signing for Arsenal. Quick, aggressive and technically superb.
On paper this must be one of the worst Dutch teams for a while but Van Gaal is certainly getting the best out of them.I've been impressed with them up to now.
