England - The best in the world already!

[Guess]

After today all teams will have played once.

So far I have only seen five teams that heve performed like world cup winners. They are Germany, Holland, Italy, Czech Repiblic and Argentina.

Even France although showing superbs skills still cannot get over their inabilty to score the winner.

As for Brazil, I believe if they want to progress further thery will have to step up a gear. Croatia made them look like just another hopeful. Two of the best players on the pitch were Croatian with only Kaka looking like a champion for Brazil.

Good Luck to Spain tonight who have the hardest draw of all the Western European clubs.

[Jockey]

After today all teams will have played once.

Good Luck to Spain tonight who have the hardest draw of all the Western European clubs.

Aye, that wiz hard right enuff'!

[Big Boy]

Guess wrote:

So far I have only seen five teams that heve performed like world cup winners. They are Germany, Holland, Italy, Czech Repiblic and Argentina.

From the above statement, I have to assume either that you never watched the last England game, or you are to football what I am to the world of Figure Skating - not a very good judge.

[Perente]

So far I have only seen five teams that heve performed like world cup winners. They are Germany, Holland, Italy, Czech Repiblic and Argentina.

Guess that like the rest of us you didn't get to see Australia play, hence the glaring ommission.......

[Toni]

Australia are probably one of the freshest teams at WC 06 due to their easy qualifying route. They topped their group ahead of footballing powerhouses the Solomon Islands, NZ, Fiji, Tahiti and Vanuatu, scoring 21 goals in 5 games. They then played Solomon Islands in the Oceania final (2 legs) and won 7-0 and 2-1. So effectively they had 7 warm up games prior to playing the 5th placed team in the south american group. They drew 1-1 over 2 legs with Uruguay and won the resulting penalty shoot out.

It will be interesting to see how Oz fare in qualifying for the next world cup now they have been accepted into the Asian section.

[Big Boy]

Another unstoppable, pinpoint accurate cross from that man Beckham, produces an equally accurate strike from England's own robot - Peter Crouch.

Then a sweet one from Stevie Gerrard

The boys have done it again - 6 points from 6. No goals conceded - 100%

Big Boy keeps on crowing - BRING IT ON

[caller]

Australia are probably one of the freshest teams at WC 06 due to their easy qualifying route. They topped their group ahead of footballing powerhouses the Solomon Islands, NZ, Fiji, Tahiti and Vanuatu, scoring 21 goals in 5 games. They then played Solomon Islands in the Oceania final (2 legs) and won 7-0 and 2-1. So effectively they had 7 warm up games prior to playing the 5th placed team in the south american group. They drew 1-1 over 2 legs with Uruguay and won the resulting penalty shoot out.

It will be interesting to see how Oz fare in qualifying for the next world cup now they have been accepted into the Asian section.

Toni, don't forget most of the team play in europe and have had the same gruelling season as most of the others! Hence the knocks still to be shaken off etc - still a great 1st game!

Big Boy - the most important thing about England for me was that the Swede made some positive, attacking changes for once! Still needs to work out the Gerrard / Lamps thing, but thats not a problem in the next game!

Still on a slow fuse but thats the best way - save the best till when its needed.

Terry was awesome and someone needs to tell Rio to keep his passes short!

Is it true that he's been subject to 5 drugs tests already???

[Guess]

Big Boy,

At the time of your post England had only played once and ther were far from looking like a world cup winning side. I think about 90% of posters said the same. Since the posting England played lowly but spirited T & T and could have lost. Fortunately for ten minutes at the end they played as I would expect them to play for most of the game.

Excellent trade mark golas from Gerrard and Crouch.

Anyway I believe that England now are through to the last sixteeen but we are one week from finding out who the opposition is. As Poland are out it could be a tough draw.

Lets hope for more wins. If England can defeat Sweden then I will be more positive about the future, but with the superb skills of the Czechs and the nuclear bomb proof Italian defense, Holland's overall skills, Spain's flare plus the South Americans, there is still much work to do.

Mein Host will have ideas of their own as well, and have the historically proven home advantage.

[Big Boy]

Guess wrote:

If England can defeat Sweden then I will be more positive about the future

That may be easier said than done - if the main Swede does the right thing, he will rest most of the England first team, and give a few squad players the chance of keeping their eye in - basically, I expect Sweden to be playing England B. However, there are very few Swedes that would make it in to the England B side, so who knows.

The biggest shame is that it will put Trinidad & Tobago at a disadvantage for the last game - they have played their hearts out, and deserve their chance to get the Runners-up place.

I fear Sven's nationality will see him favour Sweden taking the runners up place.

[Wanderlust]

A generally good summing up from Guess, and several players were largely anonymous (including Beckham, Gerrard and Owen) during the game. Agree that the substitutions were a bit better but it must have been a huge gamble bringing Rooney on; fortunately he appears to have got through without aggravating his injury. Downing once again proved that he shouldn't be anywhere near the squad. Lennon added a bit of spark and it was nice to see someone taking their man on - it was just a shame his crosses were so poor. Carragher 'did a job' out of his normal position, at right back but it is an area that England is lacking in. Ashley Cole was exposed for pace, quite surprisingly, on a couple of occasions, which is a bit worrying. Ferdinand was guilty of too many long balls but I didn't see the midfield offering him a short option very often. John Terry was magnificent, not just because of his goal line clearance, and I hope he won Man Of the Match as none of his team mates, except maybe Joe Cole, were even close to his level of performance and commitment. The biggest worry is Owen - he seems to have lost something, maybe a yard or two of pace, and is not playing with much confidence. Unfortunately I am not sure if Crouch and Rooney work as a pair - we will have to see. A much needed win as I wouldn't have fancied us having to win against Sweden, and now it doesn't really matter if we finish 1st or 2nd as whoever we face out of Ecuador or Germany will be a much sterner test than we have already faced. It would be nice to beat Sweden though and for Trinidad to beat Paraguay by enough to qualify in 2nd place. Sweden played some nice football last night but I was not at all impressed with Ibrahimovich (obviously neither was his coach unless he was subbed for injury), or Wilhelmson (who I think has been lucky not to pick up a red card in the 2 matches he has played). They haven't created many clear cut chances hence only 1 goal so far despite Larsson's best efforts. It will probably end up being 0 - 0.

[Guess]

Looking at the situation again and only considering teams that have appeared int the finals already.

Brazil looking OK but not at their best. The only team to win in Europe and that was back in 1958.

West Germany/Germany are not looking their best but doing enough and have the home advantage and have won 3 times already. Not guranteed first place yet. It is 50-50 that they will meet England in the next round.

Italy. Still unbeaten and looking good but have dropped points. They have to get a positive result against the Czech Republic to ensure survival but can stilll go through if they lose depending on the USA and Ghana result.

Arentina looking very good and the highest scoring side so far. The run in for them may be more difficult that Brasil's and also they have never won in Europe.

Uraguay twice winners did not make it to the finals.

England. If they can start playing as a team they may progress well but have a difficult journey to the final whatever happens. They need to beat Sweden to boost confidence and secure top spot.

France have a reallistic chance of not making it to the next round but I think not. Their scorelines do not reflect the quality of their play.

Hungary like Uraguay failed to make it.

Czech Republic have appeared twice in the fiinal but lost on both occasions. This time I think they have shown that they are not consistent enough to get past the next round if they make it that far.

Holland. Twice finalists but never have won. They are playing well and look like finalists. This could well be Holland's year.

Sweden. The only European team to have been beaten on home soil by a South American side. Have not shown their full potential yet and may not get past this round.

As for teams that have never appeared I have not seen any that look like making the final with one notable exception, Spain.

If they can keep up the type of performance that stunned the Ukraine they are capable of anything.

If I would be forced to put those teams in order it would be Germany, Argentina, Holland, Italy, Brasil, Spain, England, France, Czech Republic, Sweden.

[Jockey]

A good summing up by Guess and hard to argue with. I have also been impressed with Ecuador, it has been hard to fault them in both their matches. Australia too could get far due to Guus Hiddink's coaching qualities.

Brazil would do a LOT better if they dropped fatty up front and brought in the "new Pele" Robinho and they still have Ribena on the bench!

England are missing flair. Pity for them Shaun Wright Phillips never got up to the mark this season. So far, Joe Cole is the only player for them who has shone.

Talking of players "shining", I would say there have not been too many so far. Klose (Germany), The Argentine midfielder (Relquime or something), Vila (Spain), Robinho (Brazil when he came on) and Kaka.

My girlfriend thinks Kaka is better looking than Beckham and Ronaldo (portugal) look like a buddah god (Agga)?

[caller]

In an article for the Observer yesterday, Pires (who has now left Arsenal) compared Walcott to Henry, saying he can play wide or central and was even faster than the man himself! Should be interesting for Aresenal next season.

The guy should be given a chance here. No fear at that age and the pace would frigthen many!

In the few games I saw on TV when he played for Southampton, he was sensational and scored some great goals.

A big step up in class, but if you've got it, flaunt it!!!

[Imm]

Tonight game Sweden vs England.

Score: 0-2

Rooney scores both England goals(if he plays)! ;

[Big Boy]

Big Boy keeps on crowing

England cruise through, unbeaten to win their group

Another comfortable result, England B get the result they needed against a full strength Swedish team. Oh how nice it was to play against a team that actually wanted to win the game rather than put 11 players in front of the goal.

Next victims - Equador.

Randy, will your bar snack be raw, or will it be prepared and served with something to disguise it?