England v Germany

[Park Life 70]

Really don't think we can do it. The Germans are fitter, have more pitch intelligence - get stronger as they go and are miles better organised. Klose will be back and they really have no fear of us. Can't see where the win is coming from unless Rooney or someone has a blinder.

[Holden McGroin 5034]

It'll be a tight game. Im putting money on Germany though.

 

If all the 11 play really well then we have a chance. Player for player we are the better, but we have to prove we are a better team. I hope i'm wrong.

[Tooj 17]

 

Emile Heskey says suck on my frankfurter you sausage munching bosh!

[Bizza 105]

Serbia beat them, if they can do it I'm pretty sure we can.

[brummiemag1 0]

Its winnable because Germany are nothing special, but neither are we. Could go either way this one

[Besty 4]

Can't wait lads, goose bumps already!

[Park Life 70]

Need a gold stamped Stevie style post to get us going.

[Tom 13905]

Aye waiting for Three Lions to help us with this one.

[Guest]

They're fucking wank, player for player we're better than them in every department. Interesting that every single one of them plays in the German league as well, because they're all too fucking shit to play in England or Spain

[Kevin 1]

Can't wait. Should be a close game with ze German's edging it out, 2-1 Rooney to get his first goal in the WC.

[Guest]

FoK

[Tom 13905]

11 of the 23 aren't even from Germany!

[Guest alex]

Need a gold stamped Stevie style post to get us going.

Hope he echoes your sentiments in the OP. Purely because of how both your predictions have been going so far

[Andrew 4263]

11 of the 23 aren't even from Germany!

which 11?

[Meenzer 14135]

Happy to place a large bet on Germany to get through to the next round (specifically not only to win in 90 minutes) - there's no money I'd be happier to lose.

[Dr Gloom 20106]

if we get past the krauts, when's our quarter final fixture due to be played?

[Dr Gloom 20106]

nice read from simon kuper in the ft

 

England’s elimination ritual

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3ccc82d0-7e12-11...144feabdc0.html

 

“It was disbelief,” England’s midfielder Alan Ball summed up the mood in the team’s dressing room after West Germany knocked them out of the World Cup in 1970. England’s quadrennial elimination is one of the country’s few surviving national rituals.

 

It may happen in Port Elizabeth today: England need to beat Slovenia to be certain of reaching the second round. It is time to establish whether, on this occasion, each phase of the ritual has been respected.

 

Phase one: England enter the World Cup certain they will win it.

 

Alf Ramsey, the only English manager to win the trophy, forecast the victory of 1966. But his prescience becomes less impressive when you realise that almost every England manager forecast victory in the World Cup, including Ramsey both times he didn’t win.

 

Fabio Capello, England’s manager at least until this afternoon, observed this ritual. “My team, the England team, we can beat all the teams,” he said last month. Like all his predecessors, Capello spoke for a confident nation.

Phase two: the campaign is upended by a freakish piece of bad luck that the English conclude could only happen to them.

 

Here the current campaign breaks with ritual. Normally, the freakish bad luck happens in a later round: the tummy bug that felled keeper Gordon Banks in 1970, Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” in 1986, or David Beckham’s red card in 1998. This time, it came only 40 minutes into England’s tournament: the soft US shot that trickled through Robert Green’s hands into the net.

 

Phase three: England lose to a former wartime enemy.

 

In five of their last seven World Cups, they went out against either Germany or Argentina. The matches fit seamlessly into the British tabloid view of history, except for the outcome. England’s defeats to Germany, because of their grandiose yet repetitious character, are tragicomic. By contrast, elimination against a ski-mad country of 2m people would be merely comic (if you aren’t English). To honour ritual, England need to revive national hubris by triumphing against Slovenia, before losing to Germany in the second round this weekend, ideally on penalties.

 

Phase four: the nation decides the team is spoiled, overpaid and unpatriotic.

 

For some players “the triple lion badge of England could be three old tabby cats”, lamented the Daily Express in 1966, and possibly again tomorrow. The fan who wandered into the English changing-room and castigated the players for drawing against Algeria on Friday night felt the same way. “Most of them didn’t even try,” Pavlos Joseph said afterwards.

 

However, these ritual denunciations are coming too early. By tradition, English hubris swells to unfathomable levels before being punctured.

 

Phase five: a scapegoat is found.

 

Usually this only happens post-elimination, but the current squabble between Capello and his ousted captain John Terry is best understood as early jockeying to assign the role. Capello runs the greater risk. Ritually, England’s scapegoat is never an outfield player who has “battled” all match. Even if the player directly caused the elimination by missing a penalty, he is a “hero”. The ideal scapegoat is either a perfidious foreigner – Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in 2006 – or an English management figure, such as chief selector Joe Mears in 1958. Capello’s bad luck is to be both foreigner and management figure.

 

Phase six: England enter the next World Cup certain they will win it.

 

It’s widely believed that England’s eliminations cause misery. In fact, the ritual provides comfort, by drawing the nation together, and connecting English past with present. That’s why it’s essential that the ritual sequence be respected. Here’s to England-Germany this weekend.

 

Simon Kuper is co-author of Why England Lose: & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained (HarperSport, £7.99)

[Asprilla 96]

Germany will win IMO.

 

 

Anyone who mentions the war is a total knob.

[Rob W 0]

I think we stand a chance - if it had been the likes of Brazil or Argentina it would have been worry, worry , worry

 

This is just the Jormans - we know them , they play in a similar fashion to England, and we have beaten them a few times

 

And of course no-one else would unite the fans at home as much as this opposition......................

[Craig 6321]

if we get past the krauts, when's our quarter final fixture due to be played?

 

3pm on Saturday 3rd July

 

...and if we get through that the SF will be 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July.

[Craig 6321]

Only a matter of two weeks ago we were all going on about how we shouldn't fear the Germans, Argentines, French, Italians, etc and that our only fear was the Spanish and Brazilans. 13 days later, now look at us!

 

Sure, our form has been wayward but the Germans hasn't been the best. Until they scored last night they looked shaky as fuck and I've no doubt that if Ghana had scored first, the Krauts would have been as supressed as their African opponents were.

 

I have no fear of the Germans - on the contrary, I'm looking forward to it! And yes, I reckon we can get to the QF. It'll be a tight game but I think we'll edge it.

[Gemmill 35332]

if we get past the krauts, when's our quarter final fixture due to be played?

 

3pm on Sunday 3rd July

 

...and if we get through that the SF will be 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July.

I thought it was saturday?

[Gemmill 35332]

Germany will win IMO.

 

 

Anyone who mentions the war is a total knob.

What if it's only the once and you think you've got away with it?

[Craig 6321]

if we get past the krauts, when's our quarter final fixture due to be played?

 

3pm on Sunday 3rd July

 

...and if we get through that the SF will be 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July.

I thought it was saturday?

 

Aye it is - shortage of sleep meaning I've lost the ability to read a fucking calendar properly.

[Craig 6321]

Germany will win IMO.

 

 

Anyone who mentions the war is a total knob.