Group B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden

[luckyeddie]

40 years & haven;t beaten Sweden, poor second half performance by England what kind of defending was that jesus, Campbell looked so lost. Anyway surely we will beat Ecuador on sunday, don't think England will win it, but i'd back us to make it to the semis..

I hope to god Owen's injury is not too serious and we can see more of him in this tournament.

I'm more worried about what went on at the back.

5 in midfield allows Gerrard to get forward, so at least Sven now can have a plan 'B' that might produce the odd goal, but the defending after Ferdinand went off was farcical. Campbell having another freak out like a few months ago when he went walkabout?

 

[Scaly piscine]

to be fair to Beckham it was his first bad game in a while, give him a chance..

5 days is not a while, he delivered one good ball out of at least a dozen good positions in the last game - because England scored off it the naive forget how wasteful he was the rest of the game.

 

[Blaze]

whats even more annoying is they just lost me about 60 quid

Lost me a bit as well...

 

[Goughy]

****ing schoolboy defending. How Campbell let that ball bounce and then backtracked I will never know?

If the boys I coached defended like that then they would be running laps.

Im not happy but at the end of the day it is top of the group and a rel. easy next game so not all bad thats for sure.

 

[aussie]

5 days is not a while, he delivered one good ball out of at least a dozen good positions in the last game - because England scored off it the naive forget how wasteful he was the rest of the game.

your right to be honest, but shouldn't we give him some credit for supplying the cross that got the goal?

 

[sledger]

standard performance, bar the dodgy defending on the goals and at various times in the second half no real causes for concern, owen hargreaves put in an excellent display as did joe cole, cant understand why people moan and want walcott on in the place of rooney or owen, stupid people.

 

[Matteh]

Personally i think Campbell did pretty well...

That Sweden goal wasn't his fault, there was another England player capable of meeting the bounce too but didn't, Campbell tried to hit it and didn't. More bizarre was the backing off that Ashley Cole away from the ball to try and defend the line only to get nowhere near it when it went in.

England, top of the group. Regardless of the performances, Job Done.

 

[Scaly piscine]

your right to be honest, but shouldn't we give him some credit for supplying the cross that got the goal?

I did, I called it as a good cross, just a pity about the rest. He was the same tonight but with fewer opportunities and I wouldn't say he delivered any particularly dangerous balls into the box, especially from corners (which were all pretty dire from the right side in particular, all directed too far out for anyone to realistically head direct on goal and score from)

 

[sledger]

not one of beckhams best games by any means, but he should be persisted with, especially now that owen is out and crouch will have to play means that good service is neccesary and beckham is the most likely to provide the kind of chances that crouch will be capable of taking.

 

[aussie]

If Owen is out i hope Neville recovers his presence at the back will surely be needed in the coming weeks.

 

[sledger]

he wont be missed defensively, all that neville is needed back for is to add another dimension whilst going forward which is lacking with carragher in the side.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Desperately mediocre defensive performance against a desperately mediocre Swedish team. We cannot let Beckham mark anyone at the back: fact.

We scored two decent goals & conceded two dog-poo ones. We're just about doing enough but we'll come unstuck against the first decent team we play (prob Holland/ Portugal in quarters).

Hargreaves was quality tonight. You don't become a fixture for Bryan (sic) without having something about you.

 

[marc71178]

What was that rubbish marc kept coming up with about how England would be better against teams that don't just set out to defend?

Not exactly what I said, however the injury to Owen made a huge difference to any gameplan.

 

[marc71178]

Anyways as I've said before... dump Beckham, switch Joe Cole to the right and play Downing.

Lennon >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Downing

 

[Barney Rubble]

your right to be honest, but shouldn't we give him some credit for supplying the cross that got the goal?

He didn't supply the cross that got the goal. Joe Cole did - assuming you meant the second goal. If you meant the first, I wasn't paying attention to who gave it to Joe Cole, and no-one besides him deserves credit for it anyway.

As for the England performance, my attitude for the rest of this tournament is I couldn't care less how we play as long as the result is a good one. 2-2, top of the group, job done.

 

[aussie]

he wont be missed defensively, all that neville is needed back for is to add another dimension whilst going forward which is lacking with carragher in the side.

yea, thats what i meant actually..

 

[aussie]

Lennon >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Downing

Lennon is a better player yea, but surely the gap isn't that big.

 

[aussie]

He didn't supply the cross that got the goal. Joe Cole did - assuming you meant the second goal. If you meant the first, I wasn't paying attention to who gave it to Joe Cole, and no-one besides him deserves credit for it anyway.

No, in this case me and scaly were refering to the Trinidad game where he supplied the cross that Crouch scored from

As for the England performance, my attitude for the rest of this tournament is I couldn't care less how we play as long as the result is a good one. 2-2, top of the group, job done.

Wont argue that fact, but if you want England to win we got to be sceptical about the critical errors that the team makes.

 

[luckyeddie]

Lennon is a better player yea, but surely the gap isn't that big.

Especially given the fact that Lennon's been dead a quarter of a century.

Still, that should help him ghost into the space behind the last defender.

Even told us to be nice to Scaly.

"All we are saying, is give pi55 a chance"

 

[vic_orthdox]

Especially given the fact that Lennon's been dead a quarter of a century.

Still, that should help him ghost into the space behind the last defender.

Imagine if there were no defenders...