Scoring in Brothels - Half Time

[larwood]

In years to come no ones going to remember these games at all IF we win the World Cup.Its all about qualifying,hopefully now the pressure is off we'll go and finally beat Sweden :-))(

[RobertT]

Thank god for the last few posts, I was beginning to think I was on my own on this island in thinking positive thoughts!

I'm looking at it this way, we've played two games against teams whose main game plan has been to try and not get beat.  T&T practically played a 4-6-0.  Maybe we could have upped the tempo a bit, but we had 25 shots in a match, which is pretty much unheard of (even in games that teams have won by 4 or more) at international level.  Thats 1 shot every 3 mins almost, and on another day we'd have already had the game sewn up by half time even without being fully at the races.  If we had scored early then a bigger scoreline was likely as the T&T gameplan would have gone out of the window.  In the knock out stage we won't meet many teams trying to go for a 0-0, at least not as their sole approach to the game.

We've produced much more abject group stage performances (1990 anyone?), went on to the semi's and only got knocked out on penalties.

My inspiration is the Rugby WC in 2003.  England didn't produce a performance worthy of being in the top 5 games probably, but won the fucking thing.  That's all I need!!

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Yes indeed. People have short memories. They remember us going out heroically to the Nazis in Italia '90 and talk about how great we were but forget how crap we were against Ireland in the first game. Similarly in Euro 96, everyone remembers the Dutch game (rightly so) but forget that we scraped a draw against the Swiss in the first game and were fairly fortunate to get through against Spain in the Quarter Finals.

I am sure England will get better and one decent performance will make people forget the first two games completely (whether we can win the whole thing or not is a different matter)  I never expected the T+T game to be easy, I don't know why anyone did. Beenhaker (sp?) got them superbly well organized but we kept going and got the job done.

[strooood]

precisely OST...

Sweden couldnt break them down and im sure we all agree sweden are a very good side (note sweden only managed to beat paraguay with a last minute winner).

it's completely the same as an FA cup tie. man utd couldnt beat burton albion last season but does that make them a shit team?

paraguay and T&T are smaller clubs and they've just come to stifle us. beenhakker had a game plan against us and so did paraguay. pure organized defending. the trouble is, none of the players in the world cup are shit, if they are organized properly they are extremely frustrating... im just happy we managed to bag a couple, sweden didnt.

for example take a look at the other side of the coin. it has been universally agreed the best performers so far are czechs, argies and espana. take a look at their opposition, USA, ivory coast and ukraine respectively. any one who knows a jot about football can see they are all quality opposition with very talented players.

so the best performances have come against better sides? its not a coincedence really is it.
but even after these performances i honestly recon we could beat every team in this competition on the day, whether we do or not we'll have to wait and see

[strooood]

oh yeah rooney and owen to start.

[RobertT]

on checking, only Germany (with 26 shots against 10 man Poland, with many coming late on I expect given my memory of the game) have managed more shots in a game than the 25 we managed.  Poland were well organised but did push on times in the game, making it slightly more open than ours and were down to 10 men towards the end with Germany really pushing them back.

We've also dominated possession in both games (yes, even against Paraguay) and nobody has managed more possession than we had against T&T.  So even the bollocks about us giving away possession doesn't really stack up compared to other teams.  i think the only real issue has been our use of that possession and dominance of chances.  We haven't been as clinical as we could have been (Lamps last night and Crouch earlier on in the game).  Stick some of those away and we'd have been looking at having the higest goal tally as well.

[Ben Wah Balls]

precisely OST...
it's completely the same as an FA cup tie. man utd couldnt beat burton albion last season but does that make them a shit team?

Definitely that's a very good point, you often get premiership teams struggling to beat team 3 or 4 leagues below them in the early rounds and then sometimes they even go on to win the cup.

[Nomoreheroes]

Here are my thoughts:
- We have 6 points from two games and have qualified
- We have played 2 minnows who have been more content on defence than attack
- Crouch has broken his duck, but his chance to goal ratio is very troubling as in international football against a good team you only get 1 or 2 chances in a game. Can't see him finding himself on the penalty spot with noone within 6 yards of him again !
- Owen has looked poor and has not justified his inclusion in the squad. The two English Premiership top scorers, who are sitting at home must be furious !
- Our midfield has looked devoid of ideas. Are they not able to run ?
- Our tactics are abysmal
- Lennon looked to bring an added dimension to our game yesterday
- The Lampard/Gerrard combination doesn't appear to work
- Beckham is a shadow of his former self
- Thought we missed Neville's overlapping yesterday
- Carragher's distribution was awful
- I don't fancy Ecuador next as they have looked bloody good ! Not just in the Finals, but in qualifying too. Very solid at the back and very quick to break with a good set of strikers. A flair side that could run rings around us if we are not careful
- I don't fancy playing the host nation next either ! The Germans, even when poor, always seem to find a way of winning in the Finals.

I'm excited and think that on paper we have the best chance in years of going all the way. However, our 'stars' don't work well as a team at the moment. I hope that this changes as the competition progresses.

NMH

[pumbaa]

Here are my thoughts:
- We have 6 points from two games and have qualified
- We have played 2 minnows who have been more content on defence than attack
- Crouch has broken his duck, but his chance to goal ratio is very troubling as in international football against a good team you only get 1 or 2 chances in a game. Can't see him finding himself on the penalty spot with noone within 6 yards of him again !
- Owen has looked poor and has not justified his inclusion in the squad. The two English Premiership top scorers, who are sitting at home must be furious !
- Our midfield has looked devoid of ideas. Are they not able to run ?
- Our tactics are abysmal
- Lennon looked to bring an added dimension to our game yesterday
- The Lampard/Gerrard combination doesn't appear to work
- Beckham is a shadow of his former self
- Thought we missed Neville's overlapping yesterday
- Carragher's distribution was awful
- I don't fancy Ecuador next as they have looked bloody good ! Not just in the Finals, but in qualifying too. Very solid at the back and very quick to break with a good set of strikers. A flair side that could run rings around us if we are not careful
- I don't fancy playing the host nation next either ! The Germans, even when poor, always seem to find a way of winning in the Finals.

I'm excited and think that on paper we have the best chance in years of going all the way. However, our 'stars' don't work well as a team at the moment. I hope that this changes as the competition progresses.

NMH

1. I wouldn't class Paraguay as minnows! They're a good side who came through a very tough South American qualifying system ahead of Uraguay, Columbia & Chile to name but three.
2. Beckham can't dribble with a ball to save his life - but I'll wager his kids can dribble   Two of our three goals were created by Beckham, and we looked better yesterday with Lennon running at the full back and Beckham sitting deeper.
3. Carragher's distribution IS awful. He's a CB not a full back. Hate to agree, but we missed Neville yesterday.

Now I'm really pissed off. At very short notice I have a business meeting next Tuesday, which fucks up my plan of a afternoon in a bar! Grrrrr  :twisted:

[sonic youth]

neville is a perfect example of the sort of player you don't appreciate properly until he's not there. he's solid defensively, reliable and has an understanding with beckham.

he is a cunt though.

[Simon Pieman]

neville is a perfect example of the sort of player you don't appreciate properly until he's not there. he's solid defensively, reliable and has an understanding with beckham.

he is a cunt though.

Agreed. We missed him going forward as well

[Ben Wah Balls]

Neville was one of our worst players against Paraguay though but Carragher was just as bad yesterday.

[bigbobjoylove]

he is a cunt though.

Indeed.

http://blogfc.com/neville.mp3

[land_of_bo]

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b100/landofbo/crouchbreakdancer.jpg

Oh dear

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b100/landofbo/crouchbreakdancer.jpg

Oh dear

A very passable impression of the flag of The Isle of Man :shock:

http://www.plcmc.org/forkids/mow/images/isle_of_man-largeflag.gif