England

[eleventh earl of mar]

England are playing but it's still not exciting. I say ban qualifying and just put the best teams straight into the world cup.

Tell me the "best team" that you would take from N. Ireland's group? I would suggest that you would not pick either Slovakia or Slovenia. It is because of a situation like this that would make it impossible to pick the "best teams".

[Archie's penalty]

England are playing but it's still not exciting. I say ban qualifying and just put the best teams straight into the world cup.

Tell me the "best team" that you would take from N. Ireland's group? I would suggest that you would not pick either Slovakia or Slovenia. It is because of a situation like this that would make it impossible to pick the "best teams".

That's why they should have put Poland and the Czech Republic straight through

[Friday's Child]

Its a hard balance. 5-1 against Croatia - albeit under their prime, is no mean feat. We are seriously strong and with Capello we have a strategy to die for. You've got to feel competitive under the strategy that we deliver on. We are not beautiful, but if you can beat teams by such a margin then you are definitely ruthless, to say the least. Bar Brasil 1958/70, I can't think of a team that was successful through beauty rather than ruthlessness.

I must be honest. While I don't think that with our current crop of England first-team players we have a team of out-passing Brazil or killing-off a very strong Germany a la 1966, we certainly seem to have grown in both stature and maturity in bringing in results when results matter. Capello will nail the necessary evils required to do what is necessary. Watch England fly.... My bet is that we will make the next WC Final. Even with a suboptimal squad. That is the quality of an effective if not charasmatic or public manager.

[Jerry St Clair]

Does anyone know where I can get a little plastic flag to stick on my car?

[Royal Rother]

Capello commands - that's what I love about the bloke.

Right from the start he prowls around his zone and barks instructions at any player who hasn't followed the game plan, or has given the ball away sloppily. The mindless football we got used to with English teams in the past rarely shows itself for long period now like it used to.

After the 'keeper cock up last night he had a little chuckle to himself, turned around, looked at the bench who were pissing themselves and immediately put his hands to his lips telling them to shut it.

After the game he went to the players and shook their hands - only a couple of them made any other kind of physical contact, and half of them didn't even make eye-contact - I am sure they are in awe of him and more than a little bit scared. Fortunately it is not the type of fear that inhibits their football.

[Row Z Royal]

Does anyone know where I can get a little plastic flag to stick on my car?

Take mine.

Please.

[soggy biscuit]

England will definately win the world cup next year

We are confident that we will win the world cup next summer

[TheMaraudingDog]

but at least the fans have an affinity with a lot of the players.

11,589

LOL

[Thaumagurist*]

When the croatian goalkeeper mis-kicked the ball into Rooney's path, how many of you made a comparison between that and Robinson's fvck up in the Euros (was it in Russia?). I think the Croat's mistake was worse. He doesn't have the excuse of the ball bobbling up off the pitch and over his foot like Robinson did.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

When the croatian goalkeeper mis-kicked the ball into Rooney's path, how many of you made a comparison between that and Robinson's fvck up in the Euros (was it in Russia?). I think the Croat's mistake was worse. He doesn't have the excuse of the ball bobbling up off the pitch and over his foot like Robinson did.

Funnily enough, Spacey, Robinson's mistake was also against Croatia and put the hosts 2-0 up, and the game effectively out of reach.

The Croat's mistake yesterday was pretty meaningless as it was for our fifth goal in a 5-1 drubbing. So, in that sense, Robbo's was worse.

[papereyes]

I didn't make that comparison at all.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Capello commands - that's what I love about the bloke.

Right from the start he prowls around his zone and barks instructions at any player who hasn't followed the game plan, or has given the ball away sloppily. The mindless football we got used to with English teams in the past rarely shows itself for long period now like it used to.

After the 'keeper cock up last night he had a little chuckle to himself, turned around, looked at the bench who were pissing themselves and immediately put his hands to his lips telling them to shut it.

After the game he went to the players and shook their hands - only a couple of them made any other kind of physical contact, and half of them didn't even make eye-contact - I am sure they are in awe of him and more than a little bit scared. Fortunately it is not the type of fear that inhibits their football.

I think it was Saturday's game, ref made a poor call, Beckham and JD got up to shout at ref, Capello just turned and looked at them. The sat the fcuk back down, pretty sharpish...

[readingbedding]

I await 02/07/10 - 03/07/10 with interest.

[Ian Royal]

Anyone who can make a midfield with Gerrard AND Lampard in look effective is a genius in my book.

With those two playing you can afford a player like Heskey upfront who doesn't score much, but provides a lot of threat in otherways and helps everyone else be more dangerous.

Too much sloppy defending still, but I wonder how much of that is switching off because they're 2 or more goals in front and how much is there regardless of the score.

We certainly won't have games we control that much against the really good teams like Spain & Brazil. But I think we have the beating of most of the rest of the best in us. A good draw will see us to the final. Otherwise I think we're looking at semis bar injuries.

Given our ranking, that's pretty fair IMO.

[Barry the bird boggler]

All done and dusted and now 2 games to use fringe players and experiment in....

Even better as they're irrelvant games, I won't have to watch ITV's coverage of them.

[BobKnows]

All done and dusted and now 2 games to use fringe players and experiment in....

Even better as they're irrelvant games, I won't have to watch ITV's coverage of them.

Could they get a shitter panel of pundits if they tried? Teddy Sheringham may have been a "character" during his playing career, but he's clearly thick as a brick, and about as interesting as a toenail clipping. As for Steve McMananananaman, he may have one or two more brains cells than Teddy, but his oxf*rd awful hair and wedding outfit distract from anything interesting he may or may not have to say in his tedious scouse accent. UTTER SHIT.

[papereyes]

Teddy Sheringham may have been a "character" during his playing career ...

He was?

[Thaumagurist*]

All done and dusted and now 2 games to use fringe players and experiment in....

Even better as they're irrelvant games, I won't have to watch ITV's coverage of them.

I don't think we should experiment. We need to aim for winning them to improve our rankings so we can get a decent draw. Would I be wrong to think this?

[Royal Rother]

I like Andy Townsend.

[Stranded]

All done and dusted and now 2 games to use fringe players and experiment in....

Even better as they're irrelvant games, I won't have to watch ITV's coverage of them.

I don't think any station has live coverage of the Ukraine game - think the Ukranian FA have sold exclusive rights to an internet based company following Setanta's demise.