Congrats Col, well deserved. Walcott in the mix will make you a more unpredictable. You have played the English way in the last two home games, very intense and high tempo. That is something that can not be achieved in the heat in Brazil next summer, and something Hodgson need look into. There is going to be very imporant to keep posession for longer periods like Spain and Germany does at the moment. To put into perspective what you are up against, Spain played their 53rd World Cup qualification game without defeat tonight. Germany back from 2-0 down to win 5-3 in Sweden tonight, not lost away from home in a World Cup qualification match since 1985, and only two losses at home in that period, a total over 80 games with over 60 wins. But maneuver yourself through the group stages and get to the knock out rounds. A bit of luck with the draw and England can soon find themselves in the quarter finals, from there on in anything is possible. Most importantly, enjoy every minute of it! Good luck
Well played England and about time!... France ran Spain close so its now the play offs for my team but if they make it I fully expect them to win it now
Ha! One post and the italics are gone. Great, I can dump this gothic crap. You bastard, retrospective editing ........you're too single minded for me, I surrender That's a relief
Some intresting posts and i dint see the game yet. gonna watch later. Intrested to read everyones posts and then see how they stack up in the clear light of day. Personally thought the Monte game was a bit of a non event & apart from townsend i wasnt really impressed, so its good to read diffrent posts esp Cols I'd love to buy into the belief that we can do well this time round, but as Igor/Norway (?) said, we cant play "the English way" in Brazil because of the climate. Should be intresting to see what they do about that. I guess we should all be hoping for Scotland to get the WC then we could play our way & the Brazilians, Mediteranians , Mexicans etc can all freeze
Check this out DT, from my favourite player at the moment and imo the best performing player of the last 12 months. [video=youtube;MrMoRO8ZCPY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrMoRO8ZCPY[/video] Had to include this one to from the French training this week [video=youtube;Y66U7Lfx1Wc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y66U7Lfx1Wc[/video]
I hope France get Portugal, so either way a team I can't stand goes out but I'm sure Fifa will have the warm balls out to keep them apart.
Is that how they do it?! Knew they had a way to always pick their "prefered" matches. please log in to view this image
I'm just thankful you post that image and not something worse. they can freeze them too. its happened in the NBA, I wouldn't put it past Fifa, they often get the draw that would be best and some have been leaked the day before a live draw and it was correct at astronomical odds.
Sorry Norway, but those are not amazing skills.My lad was doing that in training at age 11 and he's a rugby player (in fact he can do it with a rugby ball), I'm sure Col's boy is much more impressive. Ribery is a very good player, though both he and Robben are somehow, I don't know, err......punchable.
Good skills Norway and nice to see the odd Anglo saxon gene rise to the surface ... I love Football and what the French are doing at the moment is very good on the eye. As the clip mentions at the end if this lot click then they will match anyone i have seen to date for the World Cup: Hugo Lloris Olivier Giroud Karim Benzema Loïc Rémy Yohan Cabaye Franck Ribéry Samir Nasri Moussa Sissoko Paul Pogba Blaise Matuidi Paul Pogba Laurent Koscielny Mathieu Debuchy Mamadou Sakho Ãric Abidal Gaël Clichy Bacary Sagna Ãtienne Capoue Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa P. Evra M. Valbuena S. Mandanda M. Sakho Sorry but this country has produced again and look strong in every position
Agree DT, with that squad France should be playing quality football, and scoring freely. But banana skins lurk everywhere, in the playoffs. Pressure will be mounting !!
Me too - I think Baines' defensive play is very underrated, and going forward he's definately a better option than Cole. Very close to MOM for me. Townsend was playing on the left - not sure how he can cover both flanks! On Friday he was far better helped having Walker at left back than with Smalling, who looked extremely nervous and uncomfortable all game. Wellbeck was playing on the right side of the two behind Rooney, so tracking back was his responsibility. However, his main role was to score goals, and he was utterly useless in that regard, and should have been replaced by Defoe at half time.
My thoughts exactly !! Plus defensive midfield is my concern if Gerrard ever got injured, England would struggle is this position, with the least quality cover.
If that's true I need at complete revision of my understanding of left and right. So are Baines and Cole actually right backs in this new world? Confused of Leamington Spa.
Brain not working - I put it down to the sheer elation at having Iceland in the playoffs. Not a bad achievment for a supermarket chain... OK, slight change to what I said... Townsend was playing on the right - not sure how he can cover both flanks, as Baines was on the left! On Friday Townsend was far better helped having Walker at right back than with Smalling, who looked extremely nervous and uncomfortable all game. Wellbeck was playing on the left side of the two behind Rooney, so tracking back was his responsibility. However, his main role was to score goals, and he was utterly useless in that regard, and should have been replaced by Defoe at half time. Clearer, SB?
From now on lets use points of the compass South= back, North = forward, east = right, West = left. So Rooney was heading NNE when he scored. With longitude and latitude we could also plot games on GPS, thus bankrupting Sky.
Hey - if we did that, we'd need to pick players wearing electronic tags, and I don't really want to have to pick Jermaine Tenant and Andy Carroll any more...
Glad you managed to sort that out Willy. However, Smalling was badly exposed by Townsend's lack of tracking back which is why he looked poor some of the time. I thought he got better as the game went on though. We played 4-4-2, which meant Wellbeck was on the left and Townsend was on the RIGHT emoticon-0105-wink. There weren't two behind Rooney. Wellbeck tracked back to help Baines on the LEFT. Wellbeck's main role wasn't to score goals, it was to play left midfield and get forward when we had the ball, which he did. Townsend didn't track back to help Smalling on the RIGHT. Rooney and Sturridge played up top with Rooney usually the one dropping deep between the lines. Townsend is a great talent and I want him in the side, but there's no way we can play 4-4-2 against the better teams with him in the side.
