How Will England Do At The World Cup?

[Lemon Harpic]

u scotish lemon??

No. I'm English and nobody would be happier than me if it turns out I'm wrong.

[Lemon Harpic]

The fact is we have about 4 players that would be included in the World's best 20 players and several others that would be close to that. Trinidad and Paraguay can't boast that so how can you say that man for man we aren't comfortably better than them.

Both England and Paraguay have both (relatively) recently played Denmark in friendly matches.

Paraguay drew 1-1.

England lost 4-1.

Judging from those results, saying we should comfortably beat this team isn't just optimistic it borders on the delusional.

Playing in the World Cup is a big deal. Players who are injured or not fully fit will often downplay the extent of their problem in order to get to play in the World Cup. If we are lucky then this is what Roque Santa Cruz has done. The thought of a fully fit Santa Cruz playing against John Terry, whose inept challenge nearly led to a Jamaica goal, or a daydreaming Rio Ferdinand fills me with dread!

[Ric Flair]

Both England and Paraguay have both (relatively) recently played Denmark in friendly matches.

Paraguay drew 1-1.

England lost 4-1.

Judging from those results, saying we should comfortably beat this team isn't just optimistic it borders on the delusional.

Playing in the World Cup is a big deal. Players who are injured or not fully fit will often downplay the extent of their problem in order to get to play in the World Cup. If we are lucky then this is what Roque Santa Cruz has done. The thought of a fully fit Santa Cruz playing against John Terry, whose inept challenge nearly led to a Jamaica goal, or a daydreaming Rio Ferdinand fills me with dread!

Pure bile.

[Manwell Pablo]

Both England and Paraguay have both (relatively) recently played Denmark in friendly matches.

Paraguay drew 1-1.

England lost 4-1.

Judging from those results, saying we should comfortably beat this team isn't just optimistic it borders on the delusional.

Playing in the World Cup is a big deal. Players who are injured or not fully fit will often downplay the extent of their problem in order to get to play in the World Cup. If we are lucky then this is what Roque Santa Cruz has done. The thought of a fully fit Santa Cruz playing against John Terry, whose inept challenge nearly led to a Jamaica goal, or a daydreaming Rio Ferdinand fills me with dread!

England didnt turn up for that game, we often under perform in friendlies. Looking at another way we have beaten Argentina recently, the team that beat Brazil to the 1 spot in qualifying.

Jamica are ranked 46th in the world

New Zealand are ranked 112th

Don't give me that shite about Jamica having easy oppenents all year round, NZ have it twice as easy.

Brazil 4 New Zealand 0

Jamica 6 England 0

Stop talking utter shit.

[Jon the Hat]

No. I'm English and nobody would be happier than me if it turns out I'm wrong.

Nope! Everyone else on here will be much happier to see you proved wrong! Much Much happier!!

[Manwell Pablo]

Nope! Everyone else on here will be much happier to see you proved wrong! Much Much happier!!

and when im happy i gloat.

[Lemon Harpic]

Don't give me that shite about Jamica having easy oppenents all year round, NZ have it twice as easy.

Whatever the reason, the FIFA rankings are ridiculously skewed in favour of CONCACAF nations. The USA are ranked 6th in the world, and used to be 4th. Honduras are ranked ahead of World Cup qualifiers including Togo, Angola, Australia, Ghana and Serbia and Montenegro. It's a fụcking joke. You cannot take the FIFA rankings seriously where CONCACAF teams are concerned.

Unless you have the results of a match between NZ and Jamaica, then there is no way you can compare Brazil and England using those two matches. When England and Paraguay played the same team (Denmark), the different results they got told their own story...

[Manwell Pablo]

Whatever the reason, the FIFA rankings are ridiculously skewed in favour of CONCACAF nations. The USA are ranked 6th in the world, and used to be 4th. Honduras are ranked ahead of World Cup qualifiers including Togo, Angola, Australia, Ghana and Serbia and Montenegro. It's a fụcking joke. You cannot take the FIFA rankings seriously where CONCACAF teams are concerned.

Unless you have the results of a match between NZ and Jamaica, then there is no way you can compare Brazil and England using those two matches. When England and Paraguay played the same team (Denmark), the different results they got told their own story...

As I said we will wait and see, its pointless talking to you as you clearly don't have a clue.

[Master Fox]

I personally think the Paraguay game could prove to be a little tricky. World Cup opening games don’t always go the way you would expect. I think I'm correct in saying Argentina lost 1-0 to Cameroon in their opening game in 1990 and still went on to reach the final.

So I'm predicting a score draw with Paraguay.

Then a comfortable victory over T&T say 4-0 to England

And for the final game of the group stage something like a 2-1 win for England over Sweden.

Then we'll play Poland, I think we should quite comfortably win this game.

Qrt Final - Well from here on in its luck so I wouldn't like to predict. But we would be looking at playing Portugal, Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast or Serb & Monte.

[Lemon Harpic]

Honduras are ranked ahead of World Cup qualifiers including Togo, Angola, Australia, Ghana and Serbia and Montenegro. It's a fụcking joke.

To go into a little more detail, Serbia finished their World Cup group two points ahead of Spain, yet they still find themselves five places behind the mighty Honduras in the FIFA rankings.

Jamaica are ranked 43rd in the world. If you remove the CONCACAF bias FIFA's world rankings have, I'd suggest 143rd would be a more realistic position to reflect Jamaican abilities.

[Master Fox]

I see what you’re saying; FIFA’s world rankings can seem slightly ambiguous. But to be fair there isn’t really much between Jamaica and probably New Zealand.

But I believe the rankings work on a results and past history basis. Therefore the USA has been to the last 4 Wold Cups, and I think Jamaica have been to couple as well. Teams like Serb & Monte have only just started to become good. You could also argue that Ivory Coast are a pretty decent team but have a low world ranking, this is because I don’t think they have ever made a world cup before or even won the African Cup of nations.

[Ric Flair]

To go into a little more detail, Serbia finished their World Cup group two points ahead of Spain, yet they still find themselves five places behind the mighty Honduras in the FIFA rankings.

Jamaica are ranked 43rd in the world. If you remove the CONCACAF bias FIFA's world rankings have, I'd suggest 143rd would be a more realistic position to reflect Jamaican abilities.

I do have to agree with you on this subject of the rankings. But your views on England astound me. Paraguay are no push-overs I agree and if we beat them then it's a steady start, but come on set your thoughts aside for a minute. England have 4 or 5 of the top 20 world best players and numerous others that come close. That suggests to me a team capable of doing some damage in international football.

Bookies rarely get things wrong and that's why they've got England down as one of the favourites. If we were as bad as you make out, then the majority of the tooballing world would be aware of this and incidently the bookies would have us down as no hopers and odds of alot more than 7/1 to win the ****er.

[Durnerz]

I think if we drew the germans in the second round and beat them, that would give us the confidence and belief to go on and win it.

Paraguay won't be pushovers, granted, its the intermediate game of the group but we have enough to beat them. I'd go with a 1-0.

Trinidad and Tobago should be a formality, I think it will be like our game against Switzerland in the Euro's, a good 3-0 win there I hope.

Sweden, most likely a draw.

Overall I think Final if we get and beat the Germans or Quarters/Semi's otherwise.

[Manwell Pablo]

I remeber that game well. We couldn't really get a touch of the ball until Argentina took off all their best players and we got two late goals against a confused and under-strength team.

That game scared the shit out of me. England simply aren't equipped to handle any team that can keep possesion of the ball reasonably well. Beckham and Gerrard have a penchant for 60-yard passes and always end up giving away possesion as soon as they get it. Lampard will either try a long-range shot or pass to Becks or Stevie G who will try another long-range pass which loses us possesion. Things will be even worse without Rooney who is a vital link between the midfield (Who lie too deep. This is because their fundamental inability to close down play leads to the entire team getting dragged back) and the front line.

How can you take any encouragement from that match?

Twat

[Lemon Harpic]

Twat

My predictions have mainly come true. England cannot keep the ball and are playing shit. The midfield are lying too deep and if it were not for David Beckham we would not have beat Paraguay. Only a couple of weeks back people were predicting an easy win for England and calling for Beckham to be replaced by Aaron Lennon!

I'm sorry, Manwell, but I feel the opening matches of this group have largely vindicated my analysis. England have been poor, Fat Frank was anonymous, Stevie G kept blasting the ball into the stands at any opportunity and in defence John Terry, a couple of good tackles aside, was a fυcking liability.

T&T have also shown that they are no pushovers. The way they marked Sweden's forwards (including Ibrahimovic and Larsson) totally out of the game doesn't bode well for the far less talented Peter Crouch and an out-of-sorts Michael Owen. If they stop us from scoring from a set piece they should have no problems obtaining a clean sheet against us.

Fair enough, if we'd brushed Paraguay aside 3-0 and Sweden had demolished T&T, then I could see why you'd want to call me a twat for doubting England's quality. The only thing is, England showed no quality whatsoever.

Just as I predicted.

[Manwell Pablo]

My predictions have mainly come true. England cannot keep the ball and are playing shit. The midfield are lying too deep and if it were not for David Beckham we would not have beat Paraguay. Only a couple of weeks back people were predicting an easy win for England and calling for Beckham to be replaced by Aaron Lennon!

I'm sorry, Manwell, but I feel the opening matches of this group have largely vindicated my analysis. England have been poor, Fat Frank was anonymous, Stevie G kept blasting the ball into the stands at any opportunity and in defence John Terry, a couple of good tackles aside, was a fυcking liability.

T&T have also shown that they are no pushovers. The way they marked Sweden's forwards (including Ibrahimovic and Larsson) totally out of the game doesn't bode well for the far less talented Peter Crouch and an out-of-sorts Michael Owen. If they stop us from scoring from a set piece they should have no problems obtaining a clean sheet against us.

Fair enough, if we'd brushed Paraguay aside 3-0 and Sweden had demolished T&T, then I could see why you'd want to call me a twat for doubting England's quality. The only thing is, England showed no quality whatsoever.

Just as I predicted.

No mate

England 1 Paraguay 0

Not what you predicted

Expect more abuse on Thursday

[Chairman of the Bored]

I honestly don't think we have a hope in hell of winning it. I should love to be proved wrong but we simply have minus tactical nous, a lack of players who can pass and move or any in-form predatory forwards. Santa Cruz' critique of us was spot on, "we don't have a rhythm." I'm pretty certain the long ball, backs to the wall early 1990s Italian tactics, hit 'em with a free kick if we're lucky approach will not do it, but you never know......

[Stevosevic]

I honestly don't think we have a hope in hell of winning it. I should love to be proved wrong but we simply have minus tactical nous, a lack of players who can pass and move or any in-form predatory forwards. Santa Cruz' critique of us was spot on, "we don't have a rhythm." I'm pretty certain the long ball, backs to the wall early 1990s Italian tactics, hit 'em with a free kick if we're lucky approach will not do it, but you never know......

he actually said he we lost our rhythm because of the heat. but the rest of what you say is probably true, but we do have a chance.

[Manwell Pablo]

Lemon give us a wave, Lemon Lemon give us a wave.

[Lemon Harpic]

Lemon give us a wave, Lemon Lemon give us a wave.

Our performances have been, as I predicted, utterly insipid, completely inept and totally embarrasing.

In fact, it seems that I was actually being slightly optimistic with what I said. I knew that England would be terrible in both matches yet they'd have to raise their game to play terribly! My analysis of why this England team are so abysmal is fundamentally correct.

Fat Frank has been worse than useless. Stevie G, one good goal aside, has hardly set the tournament alight. These two players, the heart of our team, are both hugely overrated.

Another of my predictions that people scoffed at was that Beckham would be our most important player. Nearly 67% of England's assists in the tournament have come from the foot of, golly gosh!, Becks himself.

I got everything right. Except the results.

[filbertway]

Our performances have been, as I predicted, utterly insipid, completely inept and totally embarrasing.

In fact, it seems that I was actually being slightly optimistic with what I said. I knew that England would be terrible in both matches yet they'd have to raise their game to play terribly! My analysis of why this England team are so abysmal is fundamentally correct.

Fat Frank has been worse than useless. Stevie G, one good goal aside, has hardly set the tournament alight. These two players, the heart of our team, are both hugely overrated.

Another of my predictions that people scoffed at was that Beckham would be our most important player. Nearly 67% of England's assists in the tournament have come from the foot of, golly gosh!, Becks himself.

I got everything right. Except the results.

And aslong as you keep getting the results wrong we will win the world cup

[Daggers]

I got everything right. Except the results.

HAHAHA riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

[Ric Flair]

Our performances have been, as I predicted, utterly insipid, completely inept and totally embarrasing.

In fact, it seems that I was actually being slightly optimistic with what I said. I knew that England would be terrible in both matches yet they'd have to raise their game to play terribly! My analysis of why this England team are so abysmal is fundamentally correct.

Fat Frank has been worse than useless. Stevie G, one good goal aside, has hardly set the tournament alight. These two players, the heart of our team, are both hugely overrated.

Another of my predictions that people scoffed at was that Beckham would be our most important player. Nearly 67% of England's assists in the tournament have come from the foot of, golly gosh!, Becks himself.

I got everything right. Except the results.

Let's give Lemon credit, he has actually predicted a few things that have happened. But it wasn't that hard to predict these in the first place. We've played badly yet still won both matches, so your main prediction of going out in the group stages has been blown out of the pond.

What will you do with yourself now? It means you've got atleast another week of England being in a tournament before you can get your knife set out.

[Manwell Pablo]

Let's give Lemon credit, he has actually predicted a few things that have happened. But it wasn't that hard to predict these in the first place. We've played badly yet still won both matches, so your main prediction of going out in the group stages has been blown out of the pond.

What will you do with yourself now? It means you've got atleast another week of England being in a tournament before you can get your knife set out.

He can F**K off, I didn't argue that our team didnt have holes and I didnt argue that Beckham would be good for us. I simple said we were better then Paraguay and T&T, which has been proven correct. Quite simple seeing as they are both poor teams, he's got plenty of things wrong regarding the class of Paraguay and T&T, espically Paraguay who were suppouse to dispose of us with little problems with Roque Santa Cruz bagging a hat trick <_< .

Alloa praise the lord the miracle has come forth and England have upset the odds to progress to the next round.

[Lemon Harpic]

He can F**K off, I didn't argue that our team didnt have holes and I didnt argue that Beckham would be good for us. I simple said we were better then Paraguay and T&T, which has been proven correct. Quite simple seeing as they are both poor teams, he's got plenty of things wrong regarding the class of Paraguay and T&T, espically Paraguay who were suppouse to dispose of us with little problems with Roque Santa Cruz bagging a hat trick <_< .

Alloa praise the lord the miracle has come forth and England have upset the odds to progress to the next round.

We outscored Paraguay and T&T.

Apart from the scorelines, though, there was scant evidence that England were 'better' than either team when we played.

As for Santa Cruz, I never said he would score a hattrick. If he hadn't had that injury before the tournament and if Carlos Gamarra hadn't scored that own goal so early (meaning that Santa Cruz had to face an 11-man defence most of the match) then things would most likely have been different.

I still stand by my claim that England lack quality, and especially the ability to keep possesion. It seems that I've perhaps been a tad harsh on Stevie G, but the rest of the squad are far too poor to make any sort of impact on the World Cup.