World Cup Discussion Thread
And for this morning - England again play well but get no points.
Rooney finally breaks his World Cup duck too.
Man I hate Suarez so much! But he is so lethal on goal.
England goooooooone!
Isn’t it still statistically possible if Italy beats Costa Rica and Uruguay, AND England beats Costa Rica like 7-0? 
well yes its still very possible for them to make it! But i’m happy to call it
Even though I am a Liverpool fan, I used to strongly dislike Suarez, despite his obvious brilliance. I didn’t think his attitude and behaviour reflected the values of the club.
Since he came back from the biting suspension though, in my opinion, he is a different player. His attitude has changed immensely. I watched nearly every single one of liverpool’s matches this last season and it was really noticeable. Is he now some kind of angel? No, of course not - is his attitude 50x better than previous seasons? Most definitely. I noticed this all through last season, but as an example, the last couple of games of the season were when it was most obvious. The game against chelsea and the one we drew with palace are matches where he would have completely lost the plot before…got frustrated and lashed out, but it didn’t happen.
Just my 2c
Yeh he has definitely matured slightly. Interesting to see if he keeps it up full time now.
So that was worth waiting for years for as an England fan. I think the majority here knew it was coming though.
For Euro 2016 i’d like to see most of the under 21 squad given a go. The older players are past it and haven’t learnt to play together. In 2009, the under 21’s got to the final against Germany. Only 2 of those players are in the current England squad. Germany had 6 in their game against Portugal the other day.
It won’t happen, but i’d like to see Glen Johnson, Rooney, Gerrard, Jagielka, Lampard, Milner, Baines etc dropped in favour of younger players. It’s worked for Germany and Spain in recent years and it couldn’t make the England team much worse.
So that was worth waiting for years for as an England fan. I think the majority here knew it was coming though.
For Euro 2016 i’d like to see most of the under 21 squad given a go. The older players are past it and haven’t learnt to play together. In 2009, the under 21’s got to the final against Germany. Only 2 of those players are in the current England squad. Germany had 6 in their game against Portugal the other day.
It won’t happen, but i’d like to see Glen Johnson, Rooney, Gerrard, Jagielka, Lampard, Milner, Baines etc dropped in favour of younger players. It’s worked for Germany and Spain in recent years and it couldn’t make the England team much worse.
I think that might be a bit too much. Baines has had a great world cup, Johnson hasn’t been terrible at the back and Rooney is enough of a talent to at least have in the squad. I understand why he cops the hate but at the same time I think his performances are generally a lot better than British media would have you believe.
Who from U21 Euro 2009 do you think deserves to be there? Wilshire, Welbeck, Sturridge, Barkley, Shaw and Sterling were all in the world cup squad and are all under the age of 24, 3 of them under 20. That seems like a lot of youngsters to me. Germany’s players from the Euro in 09 are all around the age of 25-27 and so would the English players if they were there. England are doing well to get the young guys some experience and I’m glad they said they’re keeping Roy in charge because honestly he deserves it. English people will bash their team no matter what though.
I think that might be a bit too much. Baines has had a great world cup, Johnson hasn’t been terrible at the back and Rooney is enough of a talent to at least have in the squad. I understand why he cops the hate but at the same time I think his performances are generally a lot better than British media would have you believe.
Who from U21 Euro 2009 do you think deserves to be there? Wilshire, Welbeck, Sturridge, Barkley, Shaw and Sterling were all in the world cup squad and are all under the age of 24, 3 of them under 20. That seems like a lot of youngsters to me. Germany’s players from the Euro in 09 are all around the age of 25-27 and so would the English players if they were there. England are doing well to get the young guys some experience and I’m glad they said they’re keeping Roy in charge because honestly he deserves it. English people will bash their team no matter what though.
I agree Baines and Johnson have had a good tournament, but by the time the euros come around, they’ll be 31/32 and then too old for the 2016 World Cup. I’d like to see Luke Shaw or Kieran Gibbs become starting LB and Kyle Walker or Micah Richards as RB. As for Rooney, he’s alright but he’ll never live up to the hype that surrounds him. I prefer Ross Barkley for the number 10 Role and we have much better outright strikers than Rooney. I’d like see Sturridge become first choice striker along with a youngster like Saido Berahino as back up. He’s proven himself at Under 21 and Premier League level over the past 18 months.
To be fair, I was saying this last year. I’m not bashing the team as such, this is just what i’d prefer to see. I’m looking toward the the Euro’s and the next world cup. I’d like to see 8/9 of the players from those tournaments getting games in now.
As for the 2009 squad, Walcott should have been there, and probably would, if he wasn’t injured. Micah Richards, Kieran Gibbs, Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell should have all had a place in my opinion.
walcott is over-rated. He is quick but has no footballing brain. Sterling impressed me from what I have seen. Can beat a player and score a goal.
I have never been much of a fan of Johnson, he has never impressed me defensively.
AS for the young guys like rodwell, they need to be playing for their club before claiming a national team spot. no point sitting on the bench.
how many more times am I going to say WOW this world cup. But WOW
Poor USA. they only had another 10 seconds to hold on. That last goal from Portugal was mint though. The cross from Ronaldo - WOW. FIrst USA goal a peach too. I think and hope USA will go through in second, they have a 6 goal swing over Portugal, unless Ghana can beat them and they get smashed by ze Germans.
Oh man, that was a brutal end to the game. USA were really in control. They gave away a weak first goal and Bradley also missed a sitter. Even so, it looked like they were going to walk away with the 3 points and a guarantee into the next round. Now they’re probably going to need some sort of result against Germany to see them through (I haven’t added up the numbers, but a Portugal or Ghana win and USA loss will put it to goal difference). Portugal don’t deserve to go through!
Heartbreaking for the US… 
(I don’t really know what that smiley is, but it seems to reflect how everyone feels right now)
USA have got 5 GD on Portugal and 2 on Ghana, so a Portugal win should do. I don’t see Germany winning by more than 2 goals, so if Portugal win by 2 or less USA should be through. If Ghana win by 1 and USA lose by 1 it will go down to ‘goals scored’ to decide it…right? Either way I’ll be flicking back and forth a hell of a lot between channels while they’re playing haha.
It definitely makes for more interesting games for the fans!
A disappointing morning for the Socceroos. We came out so well, but against a class team like Spain its hard to play that style for a whole 90 mins. We missed Cahill badly and Bresc to while he was off. McGowan was pretty woeful today, he makes some great blocks and tackles but he gets exposed a lot and he seems to ball watch a bit too. Most of the goals we have conceded have come down his side. McKay was poor, he gave the ball away too much, Mile was average and Leckies touch let him down again.
Probably our least convincing display, but hey the boys did well overall in a hard tourney and can hold their heads high.
They really did have the toughest group IMO. It makes me wonder what would have happened in a different group.
Good signs for the future with a young bunch of players and for the upcoming Asian Cup. So good having Ange at the helm also, under Pim or Holger it would have gone a lot worse for us I think.
stupid fucking Croatians….