On the bright side for England, Italy have been known to have a rather shaky defence at times in Euro and World Cup qualification games and perhaps Suarez will chomp on someone and pick up a ban?
Could have been worse imo. At least we avoided Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Holland and France. As Norway says, the humidity will be the biggest opponent!!
At least 2 groups of death B & D, with Ecuador and Honduras detting out of group E!!!!!!!! England will do well to get out of the group stage.......also what ejit decides to hold a world cup in mid summer in the tropics, next they will allocate one to some where like Qatar............oh wait......
I don't buy the 'other' teams are used to the heat argument. Half of the players live and play in Europe and by the same logic england should win every game if it rains which of course they won't. And what about the huge travelling distances? What, are they going by local bus ("move over andros there's twelve goats and 45 Canadian backpackers to get on yet.") I hope england do themselves proud and i can't wait. Just don't need six months of media talk about warm weather and long journeys hampering our chances.
I think that point falls down about the heat for you. Most of the South American, and even some European players may play around the world now(or over the last few years), but most were born and raised in the heat & humidity. Take it from someone who has travelled a lot and now lives in a bloody hot place...It does make a diffrence. Personally I've been here 5 years almosat and still cannot fully aclimatize to the heat. I have to have a fan or air con on most of the time and always during sport. I set my office at 20 degrees and its purely because I'm not used to the heat. My kids on the othe hand have become almost fully aclimatised and its noticable that you youngest copes with it more easily than my eldest. I think it becomes harder to change with age. The point about the travel is more valid but regardless of what coach they are travelling on, they still use the same decrepid roads. the air travel is obviously not an issue but I would wager that not many of the grounds will have international airports or even landing strips nearby. they will stil need to use coaches etc. Thats just my experience & it would be intresting to hear from others like Newbury, farflung, houston and Kampala to see if it matches up....or maybe Im just odd..
You are right mate, in an ideal world that would be the case but in reality i dont think thats how it works. Imagine for example the WC was played in Finland or Canada or even Scotland. I dont think to many people would put thier money on a South American or African team doin that well. Same as not many will bet on a European team winning in Brasil. i know its a bit of a lame excuse given the amount they are earning but its like the old saying "White Men Cant Jump"! (not in any way racist), just other outside influences will come into play. Heat & humidty wil definately play a big part. If we can get all our games at around midnight then we might stand a chance
As far as I know it's only one game mate. Agree with Hodgson about the distance potentialy being the toughest opponent. Maybe not during the group stages but for the teams that progesses the ones with less traveling during the group stage could have an advantage. Same goes for the European sides who are located in the Southern part of Brazil, around Porto Alegre, imo they will have a big advantage as the climate will be much the same as in Europe during summer. Which should leave them fresher come the knock out matches.
Pushing deadline: The Arena Amazonia stadium in Manaus could be delivered late please log in to view this image http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...stadiums-are-stemming-enthusiasm-8968053.html Perhaps a quick training match to acclimatize? please log in to view this image Transportation? please log in to view this image But they do have an airport? please log in to view this image Image ID: 236707 Views: 1036 Operator: Skymaster Airlines - PR-SKI Aircraft: Douglas - DC-8-62CF Airport: Brazil - Manaus - Eduardo Gomes (MAO / SBEG) Category: Cargo Photo taken on 2012-3-15 by JPC van Heijst
