Well done usa!!

[Kev]

I don't know why everybody is so surprised...

We didn't even qualify for the Euro's. How exactly do you go from that to winning the world cup? Just making it past the first stage will be an improvement.

We are not an elite world class team... it's not the management, the players don't need to get inspired to awake some slumbering football rapture - we're just not that good, not much more to it than that I'm afraid.

If we were that good and it was management and tactics etc, then maybe we'd have only beaten Algeria (who haven't been in the world cup for 24 years and who's captain had never been in an international tournament) by 4 nil and not 5 nil. Not had a goalless draw

Massive hype job... every time round... ignore the papers...

No amount of changes is going to have us beating Brazil, Spain, France, Argentina etc. no fucking chance.

That's why I loved it when Newcastle went down... all these dick heads blaming the club owners and saying that Newcastle were a slumbering giant... as big as Chelsea etc... fuck off

This post is ridiculous Adam. So are you saying we should just give up supporting our national team and that we'll never amount to anything?

Besides it crap, as we SHOULD be good. We have some of the biggest clubs in the world, in fact I believe Man Utd is the biggest, we have arguably the best and richest premiership league in world football, and we have undoubtably several absolute world class players.

With the players, domestic infrastructure, fanbase, money, name etc we should be one of the top 4 or 5 teams in Europe no excuses.

Players like Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard etc could get into virtually any national team in the world. But they are not simply not performing.

That's not the best these players can do, not even close.

Not at all Bilbo... Algeria and the USA's etc fans are supporting their teams, who I'm sure 99% of them know are not going to win the world cup. Nothing wrong with that.

It's the arrogance and gullibility of the average English football fan during the pre tournament hype that gets me... we've 'consistently under performed for decades'... are you not seeing the pattern here?

A few of our players probably could get into most top clubs... but they wouldn't see half of the fuss that they do over here.. they wouldn't ge anywhere near the appraisal of accolades off the fans of those clubs.

They're treated like gods in this country... which is part of the reason why they think they don't actually have to play any football and still win.

It's a lot easier to play well when you're surrounded by the best players in the world, but when you're getting balls from the likes of Heskey and every touch you make needs to count for something thats when you see whether you're a good player or not.

Gerrard managed to trip over thin air for fucks sake... every touch of the ball Rooney had (all four of them) was bollocks... I could play a better game of football than he did, not even joking.

There's under performing and then there's being out played by Algeria... it's not like you could see we were better but nothing was coming together... England didn't look a class above Algeria... in my opinion Algeria were pretty unlucky not to walk away with 2 points.

good individuals don't make a good team... they don't have the attitude (Rooney being 'upset at the fans' who are stupid enough to make him obscenely rich says it all) to be a good team... and it's the team I'm talking about. I would be more shocked at us making the quater finals than I would if we went out this round.

Not saying don't support the team... but people need to get real... that way they'll be able to enjoy the cup instead of suffering the sheeple angst they seem to go through every time we 'underperform every time' (ie our expectations are always set higher than our actual ability)

You are totally missing the point of being a football fan Adam. People don't sit down and make an objective assessment of their national team's realistic chances before they decide how much to support them, it's the World Cup, it only comes around every four years and most blokes, and even a lot of women like to celebrate it for the massively partisan sporting occasion it is. It's a great month to get behind your national team, support your country if not even the guys on the pitch and to hope and believe that this time we can pull it off.

There is nothing wrong at all with that, it's a festival not a science, and most of us with pathetically ordinary lives and nothing of universal significance going on like to take advantage of this month long carnival by catching up with mates, going to the pub en masse, enjoying the type of collective community and comaradre with strangers amongst the people of Britain that apart from during the World Cup and the Euro's never ever happens in this country.

You don't even have to be a big football fan to appreciate it, it's a great unifying celebration for everybody, just cheer on your national side.

I really think you are missing the point of what the World Cup is for most people.


Anyway, that said, England should be much better than they are. The individual compenents are better than the actual machine. What we can do to fix it I don't know but with the football heritage, the league infrastructure, the financial resources, the domestic player base and the fans that we have there is no real excuse for us not to be a top 8 footballing nation consistently.

I haven't read many papers I admit but I've not heard any serious commentator say we are favourites for the world cup so your whole argument is a straw man.

I think before the tournament anything less than a quarter final place would have been considered disappointing and most hoped we could reach the semi's.

I see no reason why those expectations are too high at all, even now.

Germany lost to lowly Serbia, tournament favourites Spain were defeated by fucking Switzerland, France are all but out of the competition and Italy laboured to a draw in their first game.

The Netherlands aside the whole of Europe has looked pretty crap, in fact only Argentina have really impressed thus far.

England aren't out of it yet, and instead of sitting back and critiquing them negatively just so you can have the frankly weird satisfaction of being able to say 'I told you to so!' to those who are actually patriotic, why not put on an England shirt, get down the pub with a group of mates, paint your face, get pissed and cheer like mad for England?

Sure, we may not win, but I guarantee if we do you'll have one hell of a great fucking night conga-ing through your city centre and jumping up and down celebrating like an idiot with mates and even strangers.

That's what the World Cup is all about!