World Cup 2014

[ryanman]

When Di Canio pushed over the ref, playing for my team (Wednesday) he was banned for 11 matches. And despite being our only hope for surviving relegation we moved him on when his ban was complete.

Now look at this and compare it to Suarez. If this push is 11 matches then Suarez should be much more. The fact we got rid of him and wouldn't have him playing for us means more to us as a club than any points he would have won us. Suarez is not bigger than LFC and what they stand for.

[ryanman]

When Di Canio pushed over the ref, playing for my team (Wednesday) he was banned for 11 matches. And despite being our only hope for surviving relegation we moved him on when his ban was complete.

Now look at this and compare it to Suarez. If this push is 11 matches then Suarez should be much more. The fact we got rid of him and wouldn't have him playing for us means more to us as a club than any points he would have won us. Suarez is not bigger than LFC and what they stand for.

PS You dived ref!!

[Beanflicker]

The guy is a psychopath clearly. He truly latched on to him like he was a zombie.

I had a great laugh over it, especially his acting afterwards like he was somehow the victim in the situation.

It was even better than the Zidane headbutt years back.

[El Kabong]

Giroud elbowed somebody today....I mean WOW how dangerous footie has become. I was really astonished....I reckon they'll have to sell him now, no other option, can't allow for that

[Andre]

Giroud elbowed somebody today....I mean WOW how dangerous footie has become. I was really astonished....I reckon they'll have to sell him now, no other option, can't allow for that

Be better to give them a choice. A banning or they have to wear a dress and pig tails for 20 matches. It'll be biting and scratching next year, then spitting and name calling the next, the one after that will be pouting in front of the camera and banging the ground with clenched fists,its utterly horrific where we are all heading without at least a decent walloping stick each.

[Andre]

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.

Smash that grill in .

[Master]

USA behind to Germany, getting scary.

[ryanman]

USA behind to Germany, getting scary.

Ghana 1 -1 Portugal. USA still go through as it stands. A goal for Ghana though and they will take it. Close.

[OumaFan]

There would have been something special about qualifying on Sunday, when we should have, with two wins, 6 points, etc., but I will take it.

[El Kabong]

Group of Death you say

[OumaFan]

All things considered, Belgium wouldn't be a terrible draw (compared to some of the other options).

[Spicoli]

Being honest that's why I just can't my head around Soccer. Celebrating a loss and don't you just go into prevent defense for possession U.S v Germany? Its ass backwards a bit, we were totally bummed out drawing 1-1 with Portugal and still advancing, but yelling with joy not even scoring and still advancing

[palmerq]

I think the yankee doodles have a chance v the belgians, I didnt see the belgium game today but I watched their first two games and they have not looked amazing, unfortunatley for uncle sam they do have a real game breaker in hazard who is in good form but the usa are no mugs and belgium do play van buyten at centre back :S.....

[Memphis]

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.

I dont think our ball retention has improved at all, as numbers go yeah they're alright but I reckon 75% of those were across the back four. I wasnt disapointed with the effort we gave but in terms of technical ability we dont look like we've come on much. We still have players at the highest level who are getting by on natural physical gifts that worked well as a kid. Fast as fuck but the ball skills dont match up. We cant still be coaching kids badly? It's staggering really, not just in England but elsewhere when you hear commentators talk about the final pass, he needs to work on the final pass/ball or his decision making. Fuck me the cunts playing at the World cup/champions league/Premier League. Shouldnt kicking a football properly have been ironed out a bit before that?

[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.

I dont think our ball retention has improved at all, as numbers go yeah they're alright but I reckon 75% of those were across the back four. I wasnt disapointed with the effort we gave but in terms of technical ability we dont look like we've come on much. We still have players at the highest level who are getting by on natural physical gifts that worked well as a kid. Fast as fuck but the ball skills dont match up. We cant still be coaching kids badly? It's staggering really, not just in England but elsewhere when you hear commentators talk about the final pass, he needs to work on the final pass/ball or his decision making. Fuck me the cunts playing at the World cup/champions league/Premier League. Shouldnt kicking a football properly have been ironed out a bit before that?

The thing is even though this isn't a stellar squad of players, it is still a stronger squad on paper than several teams that have gone through. Costa Rica for one. So, clearly it isn't JUST about producing players.

I guess some poeple could say that they are good in the Premier League but that style doesn't suit international football. But then why have the English clubs teams being the most successful in Europe over the last ten years (in terms of Champ Leagues Semis, finals and wins). Although the last 2 - 3 haven't been so good.

We also failed in WC2010. Yet had a team made up of players playing for the top clubs that were playing a Premier League style and reguarly beating the top Spanish, Italian, German clubs playing their styles.

So it is about more than producing players, and it is about more than the style we play. It has to be if we follow logic.

Truth is it's a combination of factors. If over the last 10-12 years our players reproduced their club form for country we would have done a lot better. Not saying we'd have won anything but we would have done better. So why they don't do that is also an important part - maybe the most important. My theory on that is that it's largely down to the culture of fear around the England football team. Need to get the feeling of playing for fun and to express themselves and show thier talent. Instead I think they think 'better not be the one to fuck up royally and get raped by the media and fans for the next four years'.

A Professor at Sussex posted this the other day -
News : News and events : University of Sussex