World Cup 2014

[Master]

England are doing well with the B side.

At least they are giving it a go and Milner/Shaw are getting up there a lot.

[Kirkland Laing]

England's problem isn't that they're scared of playing for the team or scared of the press reaction or whatever. Try dealing with the Brazilian or Spanish sports press if you think our press is bad. England's problem is that they can't make three passes without giving the ball away.

International football. You either need to tiki taka dominate possession or you need to be able to move the ball at great speed from player to player on the counterattack, the current tiki taka antidote.

England can't do either of these things because our players have fundamentally shit technique compared to foreigners.

Although he now looks like Uncle Fester Ray Wilkins was once a supremely gifted footballer. Captain of Chelsea at 19 and could play the ball better than Hoddle. One thing every Englishman knew was that Wilkins was amazingly gifted at passing the ball. Wilkins thought the same thing until he went to AC Milan and found that even the teenage trainees had better technique than him.

They used to have a training game where one guy went on the middle of the other players who were in a circle and passed the ball to each other. The guy in the middle would try and intercept it and the guy he intercepted it from then went in the middle. Wilkins spent almost all his time in the middle.

And we haven't got any better. Go abroad and you see pitches split in five crossways and five four versus four or five a side games going on instead of twenty two tiny kids playing on a full size pitch watching the ball soar over their heads all game. Foreign kids learn how to pass and controil the ball. English kids don't.

We breed payers who are big lads who can run all day and that's great for our end to end domestic league but shit for international football. And with the number of English players in the top league getting less every year the national team are going to get worse and worse.

That has been one problem in the past yeah. But at this tournament England had an 87% pass success rate vs Italy (the highest of any team in the first round of matches) and 82% vs Uruguay.
So on this occasion the reasons lay elsewhere.
This time I don't think there is a deeper reason to be uncovered other than we played two good teams in tight matches which could have gone either way but we ended up on wrong side 2 out of 2 (which isn't exactly a statistical improbability).
Of course though, if we were better, had better players, had a better style, then those matches wouldn't be 50/50 calls (or 60/40 or whatever) so the lack of English players at top clubs and the style of play in the EPL are issues.

Those possession numbers are the exceptions that prove the rule I think. Italy are no great shakes in this tournament, they managed to lose to Costa Rica (population 5 million) and we lost to Uruguay (pop 3 million). All three teams are finishing below Costa Rica.

Against higher level competition, last 16/last 8 level, England can't keep the ball for more than a few passes and don't have the solid technique throughout the team to be able to move the ball from front to back at high speed on the counter attack and create chances. In all these tournaments as soon as we come up against a decent team we always lose. Always. This time we didn't even get to the decent team stage.

[armin]

So suarez.craved that human flesh again?

[ryanman]

England's problem isn't that they're scared of playing for the team or scared of the press reaction or whatever. Try dealing with the Brazilian or Spanish sports press if you think our press is bad. England's problem is that they can't make three passes without giving the ball away.

International football. You either need to tiki taka dominate possession or you need to be able to move the ball at great speed from player to player on the counterattack, the current tiki taka antidote.

England can't do either of these things because our players have fundamentally shit technique compared to foreigners.

Although he now looks like Uncle Fester Ray Wilkins was once a supremely gifted footballer. Captain of Chelsea at 19 and could play the ball better than Hoddle. One thing every Englishman knew was that Wilkins was amazingly gifted at passing the ball. Wilkins thought the same thing until he went to AC Milan and found that even the teenage trainees had better technique than him.

They used to have a training game where one guy went on the middle of the other players who were in a circle and passed the ball to each other. The guy in the middle would try and intercept it and the guy he intercepted it from then went in the middle. Wilkins spent almost all his time in the middle.

And we haven't got any better. Go abroad and you see pitches split in five crossways and five four versus four or five a side games going on instead of twenty two tiny kids playing on a full size pitch watching the ball soar over their heads all game. Foreign kids learn how to pass and controil the ball. English kids don't.

We breed payers who are big lads who can run all day and that's great for our end to end domestic league but shit for international football. And with the number of English players in the top league getting less every year the national team are going to get worse and worse.

That has been one problem in the past yeah. But at this tournament England had an 87% pass success rate vs Italy (the highest of any team in the first round of matches) and 82% vs Uruguay.
So on this occasion the reasons lay elsewhere.
This time I don't think there is a deeper reason to be uncovered other than we played two good teams in tight matches which could have gone either way but we ended up on wrong side 2 out of 2 (which isn't exactly a statistical improbability).
Of course though, if we were better, had better players, had a better style, then those matches wouldn't be 50/50 calls (or 60/40 or whatever) so the lack of English players at top clubs and the style of play in the EPL are issues.

Those possession numbers are the exceptions that prove the rule I think. Italy are no great shakes in this tournament, they managed to lose to Costa Rica (population 5 million) and we lost to Uruguay (pop 3 million). All three teams are finishing below Costa Rica.

Against higher level competition, last 16/last 8 level, England can't keep the ball for more than a few passes and don't have the solid technique throughout the team to be able to move the ball from front to back at high speed on the counter attack and create chances. In all these tournaments as soon as we come up against a decent team we always lose. Always. This time we didn't even get to the decent team stage.

Yeah I hear you, but I'm just thinking maybe our ball retention has improved but at the cost of other areas. Whether it has or hasn't, it wasn't the reason we went out here. This time it was defensive lapses and not being clinical.

[El Kabong]

So suarez.craved that human flesh again?

People are still surprised? Dude that happened like half an hour ago

[Master]

England's problem isn't that they're scared of playing for the team or scared of the press reaction or whatever. Try dealing with the Brazilian or Spanish sports press if you think our press is bad. England's problem is that they can't make three passes without giving the ball away.

International football. You either need to tiki taka dominate possession or you need to be able to move the ball at great speed from player to player on the counterattack, the current tiki taka antidote.

England can't do either of these things because our players have fundamentally shit technique compared to foreigners.

Although he now looks like Uncle Fester Ray Wilkins was once a supremely gifted footballer. Captain of Chelsea at 19 and could play the ball better than Hoddle. One thing every Englishman knew was that Wilkins was amazingly gifted at passing the ball. Wilkins thought the same thing until he went to AC Milan and found that even the teenage trainees had better technique than him.

They used to have a training game where one guy went on the middle of the other players who were in a circle and passed the ball to each other. The guy in the middle would try and intercept it and the guy he intercepted it from then went in the middle. Wilkins spent almost all his time in the middle.

And we haven't got any better. Go abroad and you see pitches split in five crossways and five four versus four or five a side games going on instead of twenty two tiny kids playing on a full size pitch watching the ball soar over their heads all game. Foreign kids learn how to pass and controil the ball. English kids don't.

We breed payers who are big lads who can run all day and that's great for our end to end domestic league but shit for international football. And with the number of English players in the top league getting less every year the national team are going to get worse and worse.

That has been one problem in the past yeah. But at this tournament England had an 87% pass success rate vs Italy (the highest of any team in the first round of matches) and 82% vs Uruguay.
So on this occasion the reasons lay elsewhere.
This time I don't think there is a deeper reason to be uncovered other than we played two good teams in tight matches which could have gone either way but we ended up on wrong side 2 out of 2 (which isn't exactly a statistical improbability).
Of course though, if we were better, had better players, had a better style, then those matches wouldn't be 50/50 calls (or 60/40 or whatever) so the lack of English players at top clubs and the style of play in the EPL are issues.

Those possession numbers are the exceptions that prove the rule I think. Italy are no great shakes in this tournament, they managed to lose to Costa Rica (population 5 million) and we lost to Uruguay (pop 3 million). All three teams are finishing below Costa Rica.

Against higher level competition, last 16/last 8 level, England can't keep the ball for more than a few passes and don't have the solid technique throughout the team to be able to move the ball from front to back at high speed on the counter attack and create chances. In all these tournaments as soon as we come up against a decent team we always lose. Always. This time we didn't even get to the decent team stage.

Yeah I hear you, but I'm just thinking maybe our ball retention has improved but at the cost of other areas. Whether it has or hasn't, it wasn't the reason we went out here. This time it was defensive lapses and not being clinical.

England were knocked out 2002 by freak Ronaldinio goal, lost a lot of penalty shoot outs so may be it was down to simply bad luck.

I am sure if we beat Germany 1990 we would have beaten Argentina in the final.

[palmerq]

Mexico advances ������ but I fear we will be eliminated by Netherlands

I think it is in one of the hotter cities of brazil at this time of year so that could help old mexico, and mexico have been fairly good, very good defensively, I think the dutchmen might have a problem when coming up against a very well disciplened defence.. if robben and van persie are still on top form then it could be bad :S..

I am going to tip mexico for the upset ... 1-0 in extra time !


dutchman daley blind has been doing very well this world cup , he has had a couple of good assists so far, I think he could be on the move after this tournament

[Beanflicker]

I stopped watching for about a week, just tuned in to the Argentina/Nigeria game, very exciting start.

[Beanflicker]

Suarez latched onto that guy Dawn of the Dead style, what a nut.

[Kirkland Laing]

Suarez latched onto that guy Dawn of the Dead style, what a nut.

Don't be too hard on him. He was just involved in the greatest ever late season choke in professional sports history. The players and the fans involved are just beginning to come to terms with the magnitude and significance of their collapse. For Suarez that may have been the moment when it sunk in, so to speak.

[Master]

Suarez latched onto that guy Dawn of the Dead style, what a nut.

Don't be too hard on him. He was just involved in the greatest ever late season choke in professional sports history. The players and the fans involved are just beginning to come to terms with the magnitude and significance of their collapse. For Suarez that may have been the moment when it sunk in, so to speak.

Clearly the Italians shoulder hit Suarez's big teeth.

[ryanman]

Two options -

1) Ban for two years
2) Ban for one year with the second year served playing with a muzzle.

[Master]

Two options -

1) Ban for two years
2) Ban for one year with the second year served playing with a muzzle.

Either way Liverpool benefit from him not playing for his country and he can see a psychiatrist.

[El Kabong]

Two options -

1) Ban for two years
2) Ban for one year with the second year served playing with a muzzle.

3rd option Chiellini, FIFA, and butthurt fans can.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsz_-pVHgCA



I'm American, all of Suarez's biting incidents aren't even in the top 20 maybe not even top 100 of the insane shit I've seen in sports and that doesn't include the off the field shit certain athletes have done

[ryanman]

Two options -

1) Ban for two years
2) Ban for one year with the second year served playing with a muzzle.

3rd option Chiellini, FIFA, and butthurt fans can.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsz_-pVHgCA



I'm American, all of Suarez's biting incidents aren't even in the top 20 maybe not even top 100 of the insane shit I've seen in sports and that doesn't include the off the field shit certain athletes have done

Granted it's not biting off an ear, but still, 3 bites? He is lucky one of the players haven't removed his teeth for him. Can you really let a serial biter carry on playing without serious punishment? If Chiellini had turned round and instinctively cracked him with a left hook it would be more than reasonable.