I think the ref has had a good game, but agree our two bookings were poor. I liked it that he came out and explained what was going on to our pundits during the storm break. You never even get to hear our refs speak about anything until they've retired.
I have never rated the man. In my opinion he's neither good enough for Manchester United nor England.
Such a great game we're all watching that we're now discussing the weather! Very disappointing performance by England - we should be capable of taking a team like Honduras apart, and ditto for Costa Rica.
Wasn't there a game in the 70s at Loftus Road when the referee collapsed and died at half-time? I seem to remember Frank McLintock managing the visitors...Leicester City? Or did I imagine the whole thing?
Wellbeck is cack, sturridge is playing like wellbeck. There's more than a little QPR in this performance. England will struggle to get out of the groups and if they do, they will get knocked out by the first half decent team they play. This is the worst England team in my lifetime, I won't even blame the manager for losing!
England looked very ordinary. They need Rooney to up his game considerably. I can't even remember the last time he played well for England or United. It will be a minor miracle if England get out of their group. I hope I'm totally wrong of course.
BBC: Our chief football writer Phil McNulty has picked Danny Welbeck as his man of the match, narrowly edging out Jordan Henderson. Phil's player ratings will be available to read on the BBC Sport website soon. Time for a trip to specsavers Phil!
Honduras? I saw them play against Canada (#110 in the world just now) and they came out like they were going to put on a clinic on ball control and then they lost interest after 20 minutes. They were very lucky to escape Toronto with a draw as Canada played quite well in that game and should have won. I won't go into the gory details but it wasn't so good for us in Honduras where the Hondurans won 8-1.
They were picked as opponents because they are from the same region as Costa Rica, only the Costa Ricans are a better side. They seemed to just want to kick us off the pitch. The match was a bit of a mess with the stoppage and our substitutions didn't seem to make us any better. I think the Italy game next week will be a cagey 0-0 as neither side will want to lose...
So whats new then.....? Never heard anybody to say "boy, that england looked good", since 1966....They will go through from their group stage and then eventually lose to some better team. With penalties of course......
I was out last night, but my son texted me towards the game - "England match making me want to peel my own face off". Warm ups are always crap, and Italy only managed a home draw with Luxembourg (though they played around with their team and formation a lot). It's good we are playing them first, they are slow starters in these competitions.
Weve had teams that could have won it, in the 90s for example. This bunch are just no hopers. Think of 4 years time with no Gerrard and Fat Frank, the midfield will be scary.
========= LATEST NEWS ========= Hodgson announces last minute warm up game with especially matched opponents. please log in to view this image ..............Team Paper Bag England expected to try to hold out for a draw.
