Thetownend.com

i don't really care about this tonight  :?

Me too :oops: I was thinking about watching my new Billy Liar dvd instead,but i guess i'd better watch us,it HAS to be better than the last couple of games,doesn't it??????

 :wanker:

I care enough to watch it, but not enough to go to the pub...

Owens injury is a bit of a worry.

in this world cup lampard has had about 20 chances NO GOALS..gerrard 2 chances 2 GOALS.i have said all along drop lampard or play 4-5-1 .owens injury maybe a blessing rooney up top hargreaves holding and 2 of the best attacking midfeilders in the world attacking players without worrying about who will sit in behind..

i would be a ace manager

Fucking spastics.

Does sound quite tasty.

Phew thank fuck thats over!
At least we top the group :-))(
Anyone see the Swindon flag?It looked like the same one from the Brazil-convicts game 8)

we have a new injury worry. sol campbell seems to have caught the highly contagious shrinking disease, and will have to be sent back home to england for the remainder of the tournament

what an utter waste of 90 minutes of my life that was

The defence looked okay until they put the ball into the box. What was the problem? I don't get it!

As for the overall performance it was a great improvement. Beckham was quiet but that was because a lot went down the left through Cole, and when Beckham did get the ball he put some decent passes and crosses in.
I also thought Hargreaves had a much better game. People probably didn't notice but every time the ball was cleared by Sweden he was winning tackles or holding up the play which then makes everybody else's job a bit easier.

Just a shame the defence decided to watch them score that equaliser but overall I'm happy as we won the group and I don't have to miss the next game through work!

I though that performance was a shambles !

In the first half England looked very good. Sweden sat back and Cole had so much room. Rooney seemed to play well off the ball and was dangerous around the box. Ashley Cole spend the half attacking and linking with Joe Cole. Crouch came back into midfield and linked well.

In the second half Robinson looked very dodgy. The team could not defend corners, a bit like they haven't been able to do in the whole time that Sven has been in charge. Joe Cole looked knackered and couldn't be bothered to run. Lampard was ineffective.  Terry made one mistake that Campbell and Robinson both completely f*cked up to concede the second. As for Beckham, when is the last time that he put in a performance that warranted him starting ?

Unbelievable substitutions ! When Owen went off I was looking forward to seeing Walcott. Then, when Crouch came on, I assumed that Sven was going to save Walcott for the second half Rooney substitution. Couldn't believe it when Gerrard came on. If you've taken Walcott to the world cup ahead of the Premierships top strikers, surely you should be prepared to play him ? Can't think of a better time to blood him than in a game where the result didnt really matter !

Question I would want answered is what happened in the second half ? Did England stop trying, are they not fit enough, do the eat fish and chips or something at half time ? Its frightening that we don't seem to be able to up our game when we want to/need to. Not the signs of a very good team methinks ?

Now, for my England man of the match ? I think that Hargreaves had an outstanding game. He seemed to put in 110% and did his job of closing down and breaking up play. Think he looked to get tired at the end, but at least he had reason to be tired.

NMH

Watching England defend corners, was reminiscent of us at Forest...Sverige could have had 3 more, easily, and the 2nd Swedish goal was a joke.

   Not sure we're good enough to get past Ecuador.....

 :shock:
I'm all for looking on the brightside but i can't agree with that.Our defence looked lost,we couldn't seem to keep hold of the ball,it was as NMH has said a shambles.

in answer to your question about what happened second half.i would say sweden thought fuck if we lose this game we are out the world cup so gave it a good go and rightly so..as for why did gerrard come on i think his goal showed why and it tightened things up.no matter what you say the players must have been thinking if we dont lose we will play equador and on todays performance against germany thats wise thinking..over the years of watching england i have become pissed off after tournament saying we played well but were unlucky i would rather play shit and get results tbh

Why the hell are people so bloody pessimistic? Everybody at the start said we would lose to Sweden. Did we? No.

We have conceded the same amount of goals as one person has scored after starting just 2 games.

We won the group.

The fucking Germans thrashed Ecuador and their defence is shakier than ours was at the worst of times tonight!

Rooney looked incredible for the first half but then tired, as you would expect after not playing for God knows how long.

GIVE THE TEAM A CHANCE! Today was the first time we have seen them play against a team willing to attack us. In the first half we defended well, used the wings and mixed up the range of passing well, and were able to create a lot of chances (Lampard wasted 5!)

Okay thes econd half was not so good but if we can build on the way we started we will be into the QFs easily.

To get one over on the Swedes would have been quite important for us, we didn't, and there you go.  Looked reasonably impressive first-half, all things considered.  Anyone really decent would have punished us more after that.

 I think most people said we'd draw with Sweden, did we? Yes...Why? Its not really coincidence, that we can't see off the Swedes, most of them play or have played in England, are big and strong and  can cope with a long ball game.

Fuck off paddy cunt

Lets face it, England are an average side.  They have awesome individual players who are amongst the best in the world, but collectively as a team they havent got that x factor.

They will probably beat Ecuador, but as soon as they play a team who have a decent all round team (eg Portugal/Holland, Argentina/Spain), England will lose.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Feb-13-Fri-2004/photos/cowell.jpg

yes because spain were amazing against tunisia :roll:  :roll: for once england have started a competition how they should tight at the back and just getting the job done.imo we have more to come from beckham,cole,lampard and rooney obviously..also i think its fair to say that the most underated  right back in the world (neville)has been sorely missed no coincidence that beckhams poorest performances happen when neville is out of the team and im suprised no one has mentioned it before tbh

taffy wanker

I thought that we played alright apart from our defending against set pieces. We should really have won. Joe Cole's goal was sublime, one of the best of the world cup.

I definitely think it was our best performance so far. Why was Ferdinand replaced though? Was he injured?

i'm going to agreewith most of that - this is the first game hargeaves has started, usually he comes on when we are already in the shit.   in fact thought he let lampard get forward more - but lampard was still shit - how many chances has he had all tournament ?!

agree with the walcott thing, if owen is knacked seems a decent time to try him - or not bring him in the first place and take defoe or even andy johnson instead.   otherwise we have bought a squad of 22 to the wc - 21 now owens fecked, and only 2 strikers that have ever played in the prem - one of whom is injured.

reckon the biggest obstacle to us going any further is sven - used ti think he was ok, but in fact he is a cunt, to use the tef vernacular, and the sooner he pisses off to shag whatever ropey sun exclusive hoping tart the better.

That has to go down as one of the worst games I have ever seen.  

Not the performance the draw was always on the cards but fuck me the atmosphere made me want to pull my eyes out with a cheese grater.  

Special offer via work, free beer and food sounded ok but lord I’d have enjoyed eating piles more than that.

"And i'm a man who loves his taffy...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

http://www.tucoo.com/icon/family_guy/s/mayor_adam_west.png

I thought i'd never see Sol Campbell in an England shirt again. I was wrong, sadly.

I'm also so glad Ericksson took only 4 strikers... parp.

I agree. ANd if he was Brazillian, the commentators and pundits would be creaming themselves. Instead, the cunt commentating adds "The goalie probably could have done better". I for one am wishing AIDs upon him, Bareback Exchange stylee...

Yeah, it really bugs me the way all commentators all over the world start wanking off every time Brazil play...   :evil:
And if we play like that against Ecuador we'll probably lose.

I had texts from two friends at the same time asking if King was in the dressing room at half time, inspiring team talk indeed.

I thought we were good in the first half and absolutely gash in the second and can't believe how bad the second goal was, you just can't let goals in from a long throw, why are the teams I support so fucking rubbish at defending set pieces?

Joe cole was amazing, that goal was B E A yooootiful.

I've decided I hate henrik larsson but I still fancy freddy.

He's gay AND bald!....and wears bad pants

I liked him in the calvin klein adverts  :D  

I have no idea why he's named 'freddy lunchbox' honest  :-))(

second goal was somewhat reminicent of a rather emabrrassing televised cup tie involving us and a now non-league bunch of shite that I had the misfortune of viewing some years ago

OK I was pissed off with the 2nd half performance but the 1st half was good (just a shame we didn't get any more goals in that half).

Hargreaves did the exact job he was meant to do, and I also noticed his interpretation of the holding role was really good. The trouble came in the second half when we seemed to run out of steam (again). Lampard stopped going forward, Joe Cole couldn't get into the game because both central midfielders were too deep, and Becks was always too deep or too central.

I think based on that performance we need to start Rooney up on his own, definitely play Lennon (teams don't like it when we run at them) and I'd drop Becks, maybe sub him on for Lampard in the 2nd half if he still couldn't hit a barn door.

we were shit....out in the next round I reckon....to the mighty ecudor