Bombadil

Germany 3-0 up. England really must win tonight, Ecuador are poor.

I just think it looks shit.

No way would I want the Germans in the next round. As someone stated, it's like having the choice between facing an average-looking Man Utd or an in-form second division team. Ecuador will suit England's style of play, they play an attacking game with two out-and-out forwards and I'm sure England would have no problems at all against them.

So do I. One of the Koreans is called Gook. Oh dear. 150909[/snapback] Shouldn't laugh, but

The sound of a nail being hit squarely on its head. 150882[/snapback] And people will fall for it.

You're right. Thursday at 10 am.

I'd give my right arm to be able to watch the World Cup on either the Beeb or ITV, and so would you if you were forced to stick to this: http://www.sf.tv/var/videoplayer.php?video...60619_200208.rm

Aye, I'm sure this American group will be for the best 150865[/snapback] Jesus wept, never mind if the takeover bid was genuine or not - it's worked and the Geordie Nation™ is rallying around its glorious leader.

From the Guardian: Sven-Goran Eriksson has confirmed Wayne Rooney will start England's match against Sweden tomorrow but the coach is considering a more radical alteration that would see an angry Steven Gerrard sit out the final group game. Rooney was asked to partner Michael Owen in attack yesterday during England's final training session in the Black Forest before heading to Cologne, while Owen Hargreaves took the place of Gerrard in midfield. Eriksson also considered playing Tottenham's Jermaine Jenas in place of Frank Lampard, but in the end stuck to his assertion of Saturday that he would change no more than two of his starting line-up for a game England do not need to win.

Magpies confirm buy-out approach Newcastle have confirmed to the Stock Exchange that majority shareholder Sir John Hall has been approached to sell his stake in the club. Hall, who paid an estimated £3m to take charge of the club in 1991, stepped down as chairman in 1997. Weekend newspaper reports suggested an American backed consortium had been working on a buy-out proposal. A club statment said an approach had been received "which may or may not lead to the disposal of the stake." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ted/5093752.stm

Get in! The French are up shit creek now. They must have a fantastic team spirit.

To be fair to the Aussies, they didn't really deserve to lose 2-0. Moore had a good game. I still find it hard to believe that Sterjovski is actually starting for them though. He looks poor in the Swiss league FFS.

He's had Adriano in his back pocket. Seriously. 150269[/snapback]

I'd say because in general they always spoil the skilfull football they are capable of with alot of diving, feigning injury, trying to get players booked and cynical/dirty play as well as a negative and dull approach to football (as shown in them failing to go after a team with 9 men!!!) They've produced some players i've been a massive fan of but collectively i can't stand them on the whole. I agree with you though that all 3 reds were deserved and thought the ref showed alot of courage to make big decisions like he did. He got the disallowed goal right as well even if i wish he hadnt! 150230[/snapback] I agree that they've been awful to watch for quite some time now and that catennacio football spoils the game. But to be fair to them, Lippi has addressed that and tried to change it and they looked good going forward in the Ghana match. The bit about Italian teams not scoring enough goals has become a bit of a cliché - not only the national team seems to have changed a bit, but Serie A as well.

Why is it so fashionable to 'hate' the Italians anyway? Like in the first game, there wasn't more cheating and diving from the Italians than there was from their opponents. De Rossi is an absolute thug and always has been, but generally, the US players were every bit as 'dirty' as the Italians.

All three red cards were deserved. Mastroeni's tackle was horrible and he clearly went for the player instead of the ball. And Pope's second yellow card was a blatant foul from behind.

Will Moore be rested? I'd love to see him come up against Ronaldinho and Kaka.

Interesting.

I'll be gutted if he joins Liverpool. Bellamy deserves the move though, he's kept quiet and kept his head down and proven Souness and all the other idiots wrong who said that he was never really any good as a striker anyway because he didn't score enough goals.

The season finished a month ago. Why didn't he visit his consultant then?

Exactly. I hope Eriksson feels the same about his first-choice striking partnership. It will be a travesty if he starts with Rooney and Crouch and leaves Owen on the bench. Crouch may have scored yesterday, but I still think he's some way from being good enough at this level.

It was looking dodgy at one stage for England against Trinidad and Tobago. But I was always confident we would score even though it looked as though it might be one of those days, with the chances that were going begging. England can pass it better. There was a lot of long balls that didn't go anywhere, a lot of play where we didn't have any width or penetration. We got there in the end, patience prevailed and we got a bit of width when Aaron Lennon came on. He was the one who added a bit of pace and injected some life into the forward line, because he was the only one who went past anyone all day. But they won again and that's six points, three goals scored and no goals conceded. Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson may take some criticism, but the fact of the matter is they've won both games. England have to improve a lot, and I think they will improve. I haven't seen anything from any of the other teams that suggests England can't win the World Cup. No team has jumped out at me as being absolutely brilliant, but you very rarely get that in the early stages of competitions anyway. I was surprised that he took Michael Owen off again because when you are looking for a goal and looking to win, I would have left him on. To be fair to Sven, he made the decision and the decision's paid off. He left Peter Crouch on, and although Peter missed a couple of good chances, he got the header from a tremendous ball in from David Beckham and that set us on our way. So, keeping Crouch on was a decision that was justified, but I would start Owen and Rooney against Sweden. Michael just needs a goal for confidence. They're hard enough to get but as a centre-forward, you need to get off the mark as quick as possible - the longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes. He's been in this position before, so no-one will tell him anything he doesn't already know. It won't faze him, I wouldn't worry about him at all. Obviously he will wish he had scored - he had a good chance with a header. Rooney eased himself into the game, but it was Lennon who made the biggest impact in coming on. Rooney will get better, that's a not problem. The good thing is he's been on, got through the game, and he's fine. I don't know what the situation is with Theo Walcott. He hasn't used him, and it doesn't look like he will be using him, but they might not need him now that Rooney's fit.

3-0 to England. Owen to score twice.

Switzerland will knock them out in the next round. I've got money on it.

That was dull. Senderos was my man of the match. Great defender and he's still only 20.