The official 2010 World Cup thread

[kpc]

Maybe the entire England squad should have some soon to be revealed story available to distract us from their abjectness.

[DJKillaQueen]

The England conundrum is no mystery. We are not as good as we think we are....simple as. The whole coaching system in this country needs to change. Beckhenbauer was right. We do play kick and rush football. We play in straight lines too. We coach any kind of flair out of kids and turn them into predicatable players. End result is a national team that can't play modern football together - stuck in a long outdated 4-4-2. Just look at how few players we export to other countries for example. The truth is that there are no great replacements coming through for Gerrard and co. English national football is about to hit the wilderness for 10 years.

Germany interestingly changed their approach to coaching 15 years ago. They could see that international football was changing and revamped the way they bring players through accordingly (their under 21's team thrashed us too). And in four years time that team will be awesome.

What England has been missing for a while is a creative holding midfield player. Where is our Messi, Xavi, Schweinstiger or Kaka? Gareth Barry is not even close.

More improtantly we need players with football brains. What appalled me most about that game against Germany is just how stupid our full backs were. All week everyone had warned about schweinstiger feeding Ozil who looks to get in space behind the fullbacks. We gifted it to them.

The game with Argentina will be interesting. Germany actually play in a similar formation to Brazil - staying deep and playing with the front three on the break. It works because they move so well and the finishing of both teams is top notch. But Demichellis is definitely a weak link in the Argies defense. I don't think there'll be much in it though.

[Brendan]

So in short, they just aren?t very good at soccer and this is probably because they?re English.

[jimmy two times]

KillaQueen you make some good points, but I've heard all this talk about changes at grass roots level before after every tournament failure. I actually think there are a lot of good youth coaches about, but the mentality in this country does not encourage possession football. I have coached for years at youth level and the amount of parents and spectators who will try to hurry the young players into kicking balls long up the park tells you all you need to know. Anything you may have been coaching the kids about passing and movement goes out of the window when they panic under this pressure. I think all parents should be banned from watching their kids play unless they keep their mouths firmly shut.

Having said all that Germany's first goal was route one so it does work at times.

[red devil]

Surely it would be far easier to introduce a winter break, at least that would put us on a par with the rest of Europe.

Besides, this will give our 'world class' players a chance to take a well earned break in Dubai and check out how their property portfolios are bearing up...

[????]

I am thoroughly looking forward to Argentina V Germany. I will be supporting the Krauts and think they may cause a shock...but not enough to put my hardearned near it.

[matthew123]

I was originally supporting the Germans to win tomorrow but on reflection a Spain v Argentina semi final would be ace!

[DJKillaQueen]

You are spot on Jimmy about possession football and the worst thing I find with parents is that they all think they are armchair coaches. They take their kids to the park with a goal and make the kids practise penalty after penalty (I've seen them). They all want their kids to be glory hunting strikers.

The Argentina match will be the first serious test for the German side but I expect them to do ok. The irony is that Ozil was actually born in Brazil so I'm classing him as more Brazillian than German lol. If Germany keep their shape then I can see them getting a goal but Messi is by far the most challenging player to hit their defense so far and it will be a real test to see how they cope - the German back four are not at their best yet. There won't be much in it I think.

[Brendan]

Competitive interschool leagues for sports.

Oh and schools with playing fields to play sports on.

Or continue to be beaten by everyone at everything all the time.

And perhaps an act of parliament committing to produce more sportsfolk and fewer annoying tabloid journalist and whiny pundits.

[PeckhamRose]

You are so knowledgeable about Football DJQK! if you get your women's team going and good you could go places!

[Keef]

FA announce Capelo is to keep his job.

[DaveR]

"Ozil was actually born in Brazil"

I think he was born in Germany, to Turkish parents.

[DJKillaQueen]

Now that Hodgeson has signed with Liverpool I think this will help Capello's cause.

I think he should stay. People have short memories. They forget we didn't even qualify for Euro 2008 - because we have a mediovre team. We qualified for the World Cup but not as emphatically as a world class team would against the opposition we had to play.

Cappello did make mistakes in the run up. He used the two pre-tournament friendlies to audition players when he should have used them to test out his core team (although fear of injuries when you only have 4 or 5 world class players probably played a part). He made a mistake in some of his squad selection, notably the injury prone Ledley King. He also was too cautious during the group stage with tactics and formation. But much of the rest is down to the players.

Without question Capello would have pointed out the threat of Ozil drifting into space behind full backs. So only the players can be blamed for their defensive errors in that match. Terry was in no-man's land for every goal.....when it's his job to keep the back line. Goal glory hunting I think. Glen Jonhson could not match Ozil's pace but who do we have to replace him with?

Capello is one of the best all time managers at club level and I think he'll learn from his errors (just like Bobby Robson did). A new manager however will not miraculously give us 11 world class players that don't exist, nor will he be able to put football brains between the various cloth ears that went to the world cup. Managers need time to grow at international level as much as they do at club level. Have people forgotton what a diasater Alex Fergusen was during his first couple of seasons at Man Utd?

Why spend the ?10 million required to sack Capello only to see the same failure with another manager (because that is what will happen). It's better to let Capello work it out, learn form his experince (and I think he will) and look to a better performance at Euro 2012.

[DJKillaQueen]

DaveR Wrote:

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> "Ozil was actually born in Brazil"

>

> I think he was born in Germany, to Turkish

> parents.

Sorry my mistake....it was Cacau that was born in Brazil! Ooops

And Holland just scored somehow......how did that happen...? lol

[DJKillaQueen]

Well done Holland!

[ruffers]

Now I haven't got UEFA coaching badges but it seems to me is our problem is we don't play, in each position, the best English player for that position. Instead we bodge, defence aside, the best half a dozen players into a formation to try and fit them in.

[????]

Fantastic. Easily the most exciting (although not technical!) game of the World Cup so far...absolutely gutted for Ghana.

[ratty]

Uraguay cheated. Pompey won that game!

[red devil]

Great last penalty by the Uruguyan though...he's got some bottle!

[Mick Mac]

???? Wrote:

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> Fantastic. Easily the most exciting (although not

> technical!) game of the World Cup so

> far...absolutely gutted for Ghana.

Handball on the line is cheating - the only fair decision is to award a goal, not a penalty, but FIFA are so backward on all of these issues. If it was rugby it would be a penalty try, but rugby is a bit more forward thinking than football.

[DJKillaQueen]

Ghana had their chance....they didn't take it. Gutted for them. Hate cheating and thank god they had a better linesman than the one at the England/ Germany game.

Expect Holland to make the final though.

it seems to me is our problem is we don't play, in each position, the best English player for that position. Instead we bodge, defence aside, the best half a dozen players into a formation to try and fit them in.

Yes and no. The problem is that we don't have enough English players playing first team football at the better clubs, so we are extremely limited in who we can pick to play for England in any position. Players need to play first team football to both improve and stay sharp and fit. Only 34% of starting players in the Premier League are English and most of them are not in the top flight clubs.

The truth is that the FA care more about Sky and sponsorship money for the league than they do for international football. It's is no coincidence that since the formation of the Premier League England has struggled at international football. Euro 1996 was the last time we made a European semi-final and before that the 1990 World Cup Semi Final. The Premier League was formed in 1992.

In 2009 Sep Blatter suggested we limit the starting line up at clubs to five foreign players.. The Premier league and FA rejected that with robust opposition which tells you everything you need to know about the state of football in this country.....it's a business first, sport second.

Still glad to see they had the sense to keep Capello.

[Mick Mac]

DJKillaQueen Wrote:

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> Ghana had their chance....they didn't take it.

> Gutted for them. Hate cheating and thank god they

> had a better linesman than the one at the England/

> Germany game.

>

> Expect Holland to make the final though.

Sorry mate - but they did take their chance - they scored what would have been a winning goal had it not been deliberately handled on the line. Thats a goal and if FIFA allow this type of thing to continue they allow cheats to prosper. Ghana were deserved winners and Uraguay I'm afraid have cheated their way into the semis.

[DJKillaQueen]

I totally agree they have cheated and personally think that the player (was it Suarez?) should be banned for three matches. But the rules of the game have always been the same. Deliberately handling in the box results in a penalty and a red card. So the match was played according to the rules. It may seem harsh but it's the same for everyone. You have to be able to socre penalties if you get them.

[Narnia]

I'm afraid I can't get on this Uruguay cheated bandwagon for two reasons. Firstly the free kick awarded to Ghana that led directly to that situation wasn't a free kick and secondly Uruguay should have been awarded a penalty long before it themselves.

As for allowing cheats to prosper, isn't every foul a form of cheating as you are penalised for doing it. How many times did Ghana try to get free kicks by feigning injury? Quite a few.

However, the incident itself would have resulted in a goal and I agree with Mick on that point that it should be awarded in a similar fashion to the penalty try in rugby. I disagree that Ghana would have been deserved winners overall and think people may be blinded by their support of the 'underdog'. The fact is Uruguay is a country of only 4M people. Well done to them.

[Mick Mac]

well said narnia. You make more sense than that declan fuck.