England win 1-0

[Mallorcabantam]

Good performance 1st half -- shocking 2nd half -- not WC finalist showing
Hope I'm wrong --

[bg]

:D hey mallorca, come on, think positive, three points, and we can get bettertup:

[Mallorcabantam]

:D hey mallorca, come on, think positive, three points, and we can get bettertup:
From the start of the 2nd half, thats all we can do, and I hope we do -- but the poor 2nd half was not down to the other team being better, we just kept giving the ball away -- and the greasy hair-do ref didnt help much-- some strange decisions -- but there again it is the World Cup

Pick youselves up lads -- COME ON ENGLAND

[wykie]

I was disappointed with the second half but good game or three points?
Silly question really six more poor games but wins and we are World Champs.jump: jump: jump: jump:jump: jump:

[Loyalish2]

'and we can get better'

Yes we can bg, but will our inept manager allow it?

You expect it of Ian Wright, but when the knowledgeable, normally rational, play it safe, fence sitting Lineker and Shearer start saying 'WTF', it's time to start worrying.

'Mental substitutions' anyone???

[Dr Wisey]

"It's just like watching City , just like watching City" - circa 05/06 - the 2nd half was like a re run of most of Citys home games last season lol !

[wykie]

What the defending deep,midfield only six inch in front of the back four, giving the ball away, settling for a 1-0 but inviting a defeat. Taking off attackers and putting on Hargreaves. Leaving Crouch up front by himseen so no use at all. The constant use of long balls. Nah nothing like City:p

[B_i_N]

How did Downing manage to sneak into the squad? Never heard of him until today. Is this the FUTURE jawdrop:

[London Bantam]

Not having Defoe = Shocking decision. Typical opening game, BRING ON T&T!

[Wicker Man]

How did Downing manage to sneak into the squad? Never heard of him until today. Is this the FUTURE jawdrop:

Downing is quality imo, though i still think he's too young for this to be his tournament....still a steady replacement for cole

As for second half, it was better than watching city people, i think your memory is fading fast of last season (Not that i blame it, nor that there was much to remember)

Sven had my backing prior to today, i was willing to give him ANOTHER chance however he proved how inept he is and unknowledgable of the english game

[Jantje]

I thought the ref had put blinkers on at HT he was feckin useless.

[baldbantam]

It's 3 points and that is by far the most important thing. Beat T&T on Thursday and we're through the group stages.

[bg]

Sven made some blunders today, no argument from me on that one; will somebody tell him we will win this World Cup by attacking, when we do that as we did in the first half, there isn't many teams who can live with it. Hopefully all the strikers will survive the opening games. T&T have done us a great big favour, now all we have do is beat themtup:

Owen will come good, he just needs that extra ziz that he can produce when he is fully on song.

Crouch played ok today, defended well. He does need a striker to give the flicks on to though, cue Sven?????

Rooney is chomping at the bit to play, but I would hold him back until the next round at least!!! My worry about him is this, not that his foot will break down, but all players on oposition sides will be breaking their neck to stamp on him!!!


What a really good day for England, couldn't have gone any better tbh.

[ChuckleBantam]

In the open scheme of things, yesterday was a good day at the office. T&T did us a massive favour in our quest to win the group with their brave performance against the Swedes. A win and a draw against T&T and Sweden respectively should see us win the group and set us up a decent round two tie.

However.....

On the back of the Second Half performance yesterday we shouldn't treat our next two results as foregone conclusions. I've purposley avoided any Sven bashing bandwagons and I still believe him to be the right man for the job given the poor standard of his replacement in waiting, but those substitutions yesterday were baffling at best and downright dangerous at worse.

I think it's unfair to describe him as inept but I now think where changing things around is concerned, he's trying too hard when before he didn't try hard enough. I blame that on all the stick he gets for having no plan B etc. There is an argument I suppose that if his changes were designed to defend the lead then it paid off, but a team of our calibre, shouldn't spend three quarters of the second half on the backfoot agin a team like Paraguay! The ref din't help either, he clearly had some kind of agenda in the second half.

Plus points, Crouch had another cracking game until being asked to play a game that doesn't suit him and he still managed to make the best of it. He covers every blade of grass, gets stuck in and does his fair share of defending and helping others, I cannot belive folk can credibly say that Peter Crouch isn't an asset to this England team!

Ferdinand looked solid and accomplished at the back for once .

Beckham looks so up for it, like bg said, he's got that look about him, the, I mean fucking Business look! He was the best man on the park yesterday.

Minus Points, Lamps and Stevie were both rhubarb, given they are supposed to be two of our danger men given the lack of firepower in the squad. I couldn't believe Motty saying that it was a toss up between Cole and Gerrard as to who was our best player, because I didn't think Cole did too much either. The usually reliable Neville was out of sorts and gave the ball away too much.

At the end of the day, we've got three points on the table, we head the group and the other result went favourably for us. We can't complain really. We really do need to turn on the Style on Thursday though. I think it'll be dangerous to underestimate T&T, especially after their game showing against the Swedes, but we should really be giving them a seeing to! Get that out of the way with three points and we're through, which is the primary aim, then we can concentrate on the Sweden game and winning the group.

[Rick]

At the end of the day 3 points is 3 points however you get them and now we only need 1 win in 2 games to progress. I think I 'm quite safe in saying our performances can only get better.

Saying that thought the second half performance was awful yesterday and the substitutions extremely strange. I couldn't work out what Sven was trying to achieve by taking off Owen for Downing and then later whilst almost pinned back in out own half why we gave them more reason to attack us by putting on Hargreaves. I felt sorry for the impossible job Crouch had to do upfront on his own during that second half with no one to knock the ball down to. If Sven is going to get a 1 goal lead then sit back for the rest of the game, a tactic that has cost us dearly against Portugal, Brazil and France then we need someone with pace on at the other end of the field. Lennon was an option for a pacy counter attack as was Walcott but neither were introduced, Crouch isn't known for his pace and with no one to knock the ball down to wasn't a threat.

I don't like this 4-4-1-1 system that he keeps trying to play, it will work with Rooney as the player behind the striker but in his absence we should stick with the 4-4-2, the system that over the last few weeks and months has given us a little success.

With regard to try playing Joe Cole in an advanced position, everyone knows Joe Cole isn't a striker he is a midfielder, a like for like swap with Owen was called for but unfortunately that man is sat at home, and I think Shearer hits the nail on the head with the Walcott situation.



Sven brought Theo Walcott as a centre forward but when he took Michael Owen off and put Joe Cole in Michael's place, Walcott must have been on the bench thinking "there's a midfielder in my position". Eriksson probably doesn't think he's ready at this moment in time, but if that's the case, why take him in the first place?

The sign of a good manager is to get results, if England win every game in this manner and win the world cup then there will be no argument from me, but things need changing if we are to compete with the big boys at this tournament as many teams will make mince meat out of us if we play in that manner again.

Also well done T&T, drawing with Sweden has made our job all the more easier, maybe even allowing us to rest some players come the Sweden game if all goes well in the next set of group games.

[B_i_N]

Well I'm glad we didn't have to play Ivory Coast or Argentine as our first game, they would have made mincemeat of us yesterday.
People keep mentioning bringing Owen off. Remember he is not quite match fit, it was very hot and he probably needed to come off. It was who came on that baffled me and the next sub.
Our passing of the ball in the 2nd half was atrocious and the amount of times we gave it away was a disgrace, definately not a last 8 performance there, never mind winnng the damn thing.
As has been posted, this was a start, we won the game and hopefully things can only get better. There were a few signs of potential, Beckham is good with those kicks. Owen's short performance was gutsy, Crouch at times looked good, at others awful. There were a few glimpses of other players. After the first game, I really have to say I don't know how we are going to do. We should beat T&T or Sweden at least to qualify for the next stage. If we don't everyone connected to the English setup should be shot.
It will be in the next stage we will see if your players are men or boys.

[Parrot]

Only two things can stop us winning the WC IMO, ones Brazil the other ones Sventdwn: ...I've said for years he's fecking inept but few could see & spew forth their "we've qualified for this & that mantra", truth is, he's got the best England players since the 1970 WC & im sure Rlass would have had similar results managing the England team!:eek:
Im not moaning about yesterdays result or performance, all that mattered was getting three points, but yet again Sven showed he's learned NOTHING by taking off one of our best attacking players & putting Hargreaves on to sit on a precarious lead:( ...Svens a cnut you all knoww it now!

[tony d]

I thought we were dogshit..

Only thing that saved us was the fact they were even more dogshit...

Lamps carved out the most chances imho...You know the ones that left his boot and hit the area between the posts instead of the Henry Paul scenarios..

Thankfully three points are in the bag and this the Svenden and Argentina games should have the wake up all the players needed...

Svens substitutions were baffling in the extreme....He looked lost and trying to go all out in defence against a piss poor team by adding those players was shocking..

I'm not convinced yet about the 1/4's but it was only the fist game and we are normaly slow starters...This at least saw three points in the win column..

[Jantje]

I thought it was diabolical that some England fans booed Hargreaves when he came on. This is a result of the english presses negative comments in recent months. Whether you like him or not, booing him at the WC is out of order. You don't stay at a club like Bayern for over six years if you are a mug. Even the great Franz Beckenbauer says he is a good player. I'd rather believe some one like him than some hack from Fleet St. Give the lad a chance then we can say if he is good enough. He seems like an honest enough lad who just gets on with his job without wanting headlines

[tony d]

I thought it was diabolical that some England fans booed Hargreaves when he came on. This is a result of the english presses negative comments in recent months. Whether you like him or not, booing him at the WC is out of order. You don't stay at a club like Bayern for over six years if you are a mug. Even the great Franz Beckenbauer says he is a good player. I'd rather believe some one like him than some hack from Fleet St. Give the lad a chance then we can say if he is good enough. He seems like an honest enough lad who just gets on with his job without wanting headlines

I agree about the booing, but in regards to OH you can be a great club player without performing at International level...