Apologies if there's already a thread for this... So with Wales winning last night eyes turn to the other home nations... as I believe all can still qualify. Indeed, England are perhaps no longer carrying the flag as they now sit below Wales in the FIFA rankings - one above England in 9th. Scotland are above Russia, Poland and Ecuador in 31st. Northern Ireland are a reasonable (but surprisingly low) 41st - but are still ten places better off than the Republic. Friday Georgia v Scotland Faroe Islands v Northern Ireland Saturday San Marino v England Sunday Wales v Israel Monday Northern Ireland v Hungary Scotland v Germany Tuesday England v Switzerland For the Irish among us, the Republic play Gibraltar tonight - they beat them 7-0 last time round. I know there's a lot of apathy around England... but there's much cause for excitement in Northern Ireland right now - winning tonight would be a huge step towards a once in a generation achievement. We look to our premier league 'stars' - Davis, Brunt, McCauley, Evans and the talismanic Kyle Lafferty to deliver. Not many tasty fixtures this round - England v Switzerland, Germany v Poland and Turkey v the Netherlands are probably the stand out games. Of course in South America most of the PL's stars are playing international friendlies...
Weirdly all the teams are doing well I think, especially Ni and Wales. Aren't Scotland doing alright and close to qualifying as well? would be nice to see as many as possible through to the euros. As much as everyone moans about international football, it's mainly the qualifiers which are boring and pointless most of the time. When it comes to actual tournament football, love watching it just like any other game and comp
I've never been this apathetic about England football team in my entire life. Hodgson the nail in the coffin that just epitomises all that is wrong with the FA and the England team
I can't support England whilst Roy is in charge. Simple as that. England FA is dead to me until Roy goes. Wales, Germany, Hungary, or Romania for me until Roy is kicked out of England- then I'll go back to supporting England.
Strange how supporting a less successful international side is probably more exciting than a team like England who will always qualify but never win. Romania were absolutely awful at Windsor. Such a boring game. They were throwing flares too... hit a photographer.
I don't really support them... don't watch their games etc... I'd just be happier if they won than England. I have ancestors from those nations- so nominally support them when watching them in a neutral setting (not normally Germany due to them being England's rivals- but since I hate England at the moment because of Roy I feel OK semi-supporting them) ... I don't have any Welsh ancestors- but I had a lot of Welsh friends growing up in one of the border counties and a little glory-hunting is OK once in a while.
Was in Hungary a few weeks ago and was very pleasantly surprised. Always think the safest thing for England is if they do reasonably but not brilliantly. If they fail we never hear the end of it... if they win it's just as bad.
My desire for Roy to fail is greater than my desire for England to win... But not living in the UK anymore, I wouldn't have to put up with the media going on about it 24/7 if England actually won something- so I have no qualms with England winning (once Roy's gone).
Can getting slaughtered by the ITV pundits. he's playing right back. even Germany are playing him out of position. Rodgers will feel justified by that.
Rooney is useless Next game we get a pen sub him on to take and off again afterwards so he can **** off and retire with his record, and England might have a chance of achieving something
Unbelievable that a striker of Rooney's supposed class couldn't score against San Marino. It sums up England's current attacking quality that none of their starting front 3 could score against San Marino from open play.
What if they appoint Gary or Phil Neville, or David Beckham ....? England could do a lot worse than go completely leftfield and appoint a coach from another discipline like athletics or rugby union. It cannot be that hard to coach an international football team if one has a bit of a brain.
