World Cup 2014

[ryanman]

France v Nigeria is close 0-0.

Couldn't be closer you might say

[Master]

France v Nigeria is close 0-0.

Couldn't be closer you might say

France turned it around last 10 minutes.

[Kirkland Laing]

For me it's not just the bite. I've seen guys in hockey get face washed by someone and bite the fingers, and I'm like "ok, well if someone was mushing my face with their hand, I could see myself losing my temper and biting them."

But I've never seen anyone actually jump on a guy from behind unprovoked and just bite someone. The guy is a psychopath.

It's a real shame. One minute you're the EPL MVP with your fans chanting "MVP, MVP" every time you're on the soccerball field but then one little bite and you're written off as a nutter and banned for half the season again.

[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.

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

The fear factor is still there no doubt. The unwillingness to play through the middle part of the pitch is a symptom of that. You take the ball there facing the oppositions goal and try and be creative and lose it you're inviting trouble. The likes of Gerrard and Lampard are still stuck in that don't fuck it up mindset. Wilshire wasn't fully fit and Henderson is average for me. The Euros will be telling, Gerrard gawd love him and all he does for Liverpool should be gone by then. I'd like to see Rooney come deeper and try to play that metronome role that Pirlo does. We've got goals in other players now, players with skill and pace, we don't need the likes of Sterling, Sturridge, Barkely, Lallana Oxlade Chamberlain dropping off and picking the ball up deep facing the wrong way. They need to be played in behind or at least facing the right direction to begin with if they're in front.

It's both enjoyable and frustrating to see teams full of average players slap on their national jersey and play with freedom and verve. It seems like a pretty simple equation. If you're desperate to not fuck it up you invariably will, might as well not give a fuck and release the shackles.

There's a real limit on just how well England players can adapt to various tactics. You have that idiot Hodgson playing the whole campaign not to lose and then the build up to the tournament the same and then the first game he goes full out attack, then changes it again.

They should have made Harry Redknapp the manager. Get them playing a set way they all know backwards, pick your best eleven, fire them up in the dressing room and send them out with their blood flowing. That's what we would have had with Harry but the suits at the FA managed to fuck the most obvious appointment ever up.

And yes, they're still having kids paly eleven a side on full size pitches so the average kid touches the ball three point something times a game. Fucking unbelievable. It's no wonder they get to the top level and look like they never passed or controlled the ball before.

[Kirkland Laing]

And well done to the Team America All Star soccerballers who managed to edge Portugal out despite a late goal from Portuguese ladyboy Christiano Ronaldo. Team USA now face Belgium, the second time in the 2014 EPL World Cup that they face African opposition.

[ryanman]

And well done to the Team America All Star soccerballers who managed to edge Portugal out despite a late goal from Portuguese ladyboy Christiano Ronaldo. Team USA now face Belgium, the second time in the 2014 EPL World Cup that they face African opposition.

You have made several mistakes there. Most notable is the African comment. Germany, Ghana, now Belgium. That makes 3 African teams, not 2!

[Master]

And well done to the Team America All Star soccerballers who managed to edge Portugal out despite a late goal from Portuguese ladyboy Christiano Ronaldo. Team USA now face Belgium, the second time in the 2014 EPL World Cup that they face African opposition.

You have made several mistakes there. Most notable is the African comment. Germany, Ghana, now Belgium. That makes 3 African teams, not 2!

He is being sarcastic.

[Master]

Brilliant match between Algeria v Germany. Quality match.

[armin]

Algeria's goalie is beyond awesome, watch him let one in now

[armin]

seriously this is insane that it is nil nil, germany had some sick chances, algeria had a couple really good ones

[Master]

seriously this is insane that it is nil nil, germany had some sick chances, algeria had a couple really good ones

It has been a brilliant match.

[Master]

Germany win, it will be a good match against France.

[Memphis]

Really enjoyed the Algeria Germany game. Of course there was an inevitability about it, the Germans come through but whilst it was a contest Algeria played brilliantly and had the German defence on toast when they broke like mentals. The dude with a nappy on his head and Mr T in goal had outstanding games. As much as I hate him Muller is a monster.

France Germany should be a good game with the added bonus of not having to look at Frank Ribery's spastic face.

[ryanman]

And well done to the Team America All Star soccerballers who managed to edge Portugal out despite a late goal from Portuguese ladyboy Christiano Ronaldo. Team USA now face Belgium, the second time in the 2014 EPL World Cup that they face African opposition.

You have made several mistakes there. Most notable is the African comment. Germany, Ghana, now Belgium. That makes 3 African teams, not 2!

He is being sarcastic.

I think you may have missed the finer details of my post Master.

'Wooooooosh'

[Kirkland Laing]

And well done to the Team America All Star soccerballers who managed to edge Portugal out despite a late goal from Portuguese ladyboy Christiano Ronaldo. Team USA now face Belgium, the second time in the 2014 EPL World Cup that they face African opposition.

You have made several mistakes there. Most notable is the African comment. Germany, Ghana, now Belgium. That makes 3 African teams, not 2!

Germany is in Asia. Just look at a map you idiot.