Argies out !!

westwinds31 · Post by **westwinds31** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:32 pm

You have to admire the Germans....they do not know the meaning of the word - lose or give up !!! I think that whoever they play now, they will be very hard to beat...not bad for a poor side that the "experts" picked holes in before the World Cup started !! Argentina may have been the best team in the tournament, they''re going home and I for one am glad, especially after seeing their disgraceful behaviour at the final whistle.......like a bunch of kids and I hope that they get heavily fined or banned even....disgusting !!

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:48 pm

I'll tell you what, you wouldn't fancy beating the Germans in a penalty shoot out ! Cool customers.

Doesn't Michael Ballack make the game look ridiculously easy (at least when he can put one foot in front of the other) ?

tigerman · Post by **tigerman** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:56 pm

i still fancy England at the minute, nobody gives us a chance, but we are still winning

Sim · Post by **Sim** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:22 pm

COME ON ENGLAND

thats all i have to say, i still think we can do it.

orla - mumha abú! · Post by **orla - mumha abú!** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:26 pm

come on portugal!!! there is a pub in cork giving out a free round of drinks for every goal scored AGAINST england!!!!!! sounds good to me!

IsraeliTiger · Post by **IsraeliTiger** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:29 pm

England are nowhere near good enough, sorry to disappoint and all. They have a great midfield, except for Terry, a pretty average defence, Robinson is not to international standard, and no cover whatsoever in the attack. Should Rooney get injured, they have either Crouch (who's played better than Rooney so far in my opinion) or Walcott, who's never even played for Arsenal for chrissakes!

orla - mumha abú! · Post by **orla - mumha abú!** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:29 pm

finally, someone who is sensible about the whole thing!!

simon redshaw · Post by **simon redshaw** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:35 pm

I wanted Argentina to win. Don't know why!! Although once Germany equalised, I thought Germany might sneak it. And they always seem to come up trumps in the penalty shoot-outs.

Well said Israeli Tiger. That's a pretty reasonable summing up of England. Or at least with regard to the attack. But I will still hope that England can beat Portugal and progress further. I still Believe!!

orla - mumha abú! · Post by **orla - mumha abú!** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:42 pm

i was hoping for penalties, so i was happy! really didnt bother me who won and penalties are so dramatic (except when its the ukraine and switzerland :roll: )
it is very accurate. owen is out, rooney isnt fully back from injury and crouch is a lanky fool who is quite similar to niall quinn, in that he sometimes scores goals but always with random parts of his anatomy. terry is the best defender in the world right now, but when he has idiots like rio ferdinand to work with, there isnt a lot he can do. the goalkeeper robinson and the defence have absolutely no communication going on which often leads to silly mistakes which a team like portugal will capitalise on. the midfield cant work with both lampard and gerrard as they are too similar yet they cant afford to leave one on the bench as the possible replacements are rubbish. catch 22. basically, all that will eventually catch up to england and they will lose.

IsraeliTiger · Post by **IsraeliTiger** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:12 am

England just may scrape through against a weakened Portugal, but even that'd be too far on their form in this World Cup, them and France, reaching the quarters is too stages further than they should have got. They've been boring to watch, utterly uninspiring, have gotten through on one good play or move, as opposed to 90 minutes of solid good play. The potential in English football is definitely there (excepting goalkeeper), in young players, not yet good enough, but who will be for the next world cup, such as Jenas, Downing and Lennon. But there's no point bringing players you're not planning on playing.

England just doesn't have the kind of basis in its football like Brazil has, where people in the street are brought up on it, and ultimately, that leads to a team that can afford to have Robinho on the bench because he's not in the top 11. England simply will not get to that kind of level, neither will any European team. The only teams that might get there in future are the African teams. There's an entire generation being brought up on football, and one day that'll show, while in England, that simply won't happen. I honestly believe that in twelve, sixteen years, you'll see teams like Ghana reaching the semi's. We've already seen the beginnings of that in Ivory Coast this time, in any other group, the way they played would have gotten them through. It was their bad luck to be drawn with Argentina and Holland. But they have three or four players on a world standard level.

[/lecture off] :P So, how was my attempt to pretend I know more about football than I actually do?

westwinds31 · Post by **westwinds31** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:50 am

Israeli Tiger, you make some "interesting" points !! Crouch has played better than Rooney.?...you seem to have forgotten that Rooney has just come back from a broken bone in his foot and has played 2.5 games !! Rooney is as good as any striker in the tournament...he is the one class player that we have ! Robinson not world class ? You are joking !! He is a very good keeper who had a couple of dodgy moments against Ecuador, apart from that, he is solid - 4 games 3 clean sheets...what more does he have to do ??!! As for the defence, Terry is a good player like you say, for me Ashley Cole is improving every game, bearing in mind that he has also just returned from injury having not played all season !! Again, from a defensive point of view...4 games played 2 goals conceded...if I were a defender, I would be happy with that !! All of this rubbish about the performance being bad and not playing to our potential may be true, but I agree with Sven, will Mexico etc be playing this afternoon ? No, they'll be at home watching on TV.

Apart from the above, I agree with you !!!!

IsraeliTiger · Post by **IsraeliTiger** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:23 pm

Ok, but if he's still feeling the effects of the injury and isn't playing at 100%, while Crouch is, Crouch should play..... regardless of the reasons, the player who's playing the best needs to play. Rooney should play because usually he's a better player, he's just injured at the moment? That makes no sense.

And I'm sorry, but Robinson just doesn't match up to keepers like Lehmann, Cech, or Van Der Sar. Don't forget that with the exception of Sweden, England have had a really easy run of it so far. We'll see how Robinson performs against Portugal, based on that we'll know if he's a world class keeper. I'm sure England have three or four keepers who could keep Trinidad & Tobago out for a whole match, that doesn't make them world class.