CaliMag

My predicition is that the Ghana US game will be pretty even but there ends the story for them. Either of those teams will be beaten (easily) by Uruguay.

EASY group man, EASY group. You have no idea the mileage I am getting out of this with my family back in Newcastle. Its quality

Yes. They've already scored more goals than Ghana so they just need to level up goal difference (2 goals from Australia and/or Germany) - very possible.

What's it like whenever you play Japan btw? What Mike said. It's not the same at all man. Japan never bombed our major cities, there was no threat of invasion (despite conspiracy theories to the contrary) and their just wasn't the same level of fear. Ask the Koreans and teh Chinese how they feel about playing them however...

Yup. I hope England remembers to practice PKs.

Ghana are really going for it. They don't seem to be intimidated by the Germans at all despite their reputation... and the fact that they are wearing their lucky SS Black away kits.

I've been sussed.

FOUR WORDS: THE TABLE NEVER LIES.

Oh and well done on second place England, I knew you could do it.

The right results ocurred today. Slovenia did not deserve to go though - they were lucky against Algeria and US . In both games they had the ref essentially give them four points when they only deserved one. Aside from the turgid opener the US also deserved to win this group. So justice is served and I am happy and don't care who the US gets in the next round. Although I think its pretty clear that we need to score at least two more goals than the opposition if we want to win since we've been getting done pretty consistantly by the refs since 2002. The US are the Millwall of world football as far as popularity goes. Whichever of us gets the Germans - we had better win, for Parky's sake.

Klinnsman would be an awesome choice. The red tops would explode with xenophobic fury and jump on the slightest misstep like a dog and a bone.

For what? To beat f***ing Algeria and Slovenia? Rubbish. Both those teams are better on the ball than us. Nonsense, tbh. Have you seen any of these players play for their clubs? The players in the England team lack the technical and tactical diversity to fit into a system together. Their deficiencies in terms of trapping the ball, maintaining possession and controlling the ball are cancelled out when playing for their clubs as they are surrounded by players who have the skillsets do this. When you try to mould all of them into a team they look useless because they can't do any of the simple basics that should be learned from a youngster. Lampard, Gerrard, Barry can't do the basics? Howay man. Lampard and Gerrard can't. been saying that for years. there's a reason their club managers surround them with the likes of Alonso, Mascherano, Lucas, Hamann, Sissoko, McAllister, Essien, Makelele, Tiago, Mikel, Ballack etc etc. Let Steve and Frank take care of running forward, taking shots and spraying long range, risky passes. leave the real midfield work of postional discipline, negotiating congested areas of the pitch with good first touch and intelligent short passing and tracking back for tackles and interceptions to others. i don't really think this issue was the major problem tonight though, as we had barry in there, poor as he was, and gerrard was shunted out wide. we had our fair share of possession and pushed algeria back most the time, especially in the 2nd half, but the cohesion to work up fluid attacks just wasn't there, not in the slightest. Absolute nonsense. Completely disregarding the stats which had Lamapard and Gerrard respectively as the top 2 creative players in the league in 08-09 and Lampard once again leading the way last season. Players need to be used corrently, you only need to look at Messi for Argentina to see that. Exactly, both of those players performed well because they had the set-up and players around them in order to get the very best out of them. Neither Gerrard or Lampard are complete enough midfielders, and the set up needs to be right to get the best out of them. England however don't have the players to put behind them in order to get the best out of them - hence why they're both shoehorned repeatedly into the same line-up and it repeatedly fails to work. Yet Rafa bust his balls trying to sign Barry specifically for that role? Steady on... Parky will read this and it will turn into a Rafa transfer failure thread quickish.

Harsh on Joe Cole to refer to him as a fan.

Confronted David Beckham? Hardly his fault is it? He had to go and get injured didn't he...

Although I agree that many of the players have looked like they couldn't give a s***, if we had played 4-5-1 in both games, I think we would have 6 points. Rubbish man - it's exactly the same players! They don't give a f*** - therein lies the problem. Nonsense that they don't give a f***, tbh. Rooney clearly cares: there's some other problem here. Does he? He's clearly hiding it well. Nope Rooney is usually on-field passion personified - I am going to vote on something else being amiss. Despite his bad perfomances he can;t be dropped against Slovenia - he is exactly the type of player you need against them.

So I assume all of you will be support the Yanks if you go out and the US advances right?

There's England's answer right there. Play big and ugly. Slovenia play it rough, but when the US started giving it back they fell apart. BTW I hope England batters the f*ck out of Slovenia - irregardless of the US game. The US needs to win against Algeria or doesn't deserve to go through anyway. Slovenia needs to go out.

Not a criticism or judgement... merely an observation.

Regarding the fariness of the EPL not having the new ball: There is also the other option of having your team be made up of fewer provincial naval gazers and actually play in a variety of other countries. England and Italy man...

Viva La Mexico

He gave up on NUFC and I gave up on him. Not worth the effort of hating him. Feel the same about Jenas.

I am pretty sure its whale blubbler with freshly clubbed baby seal ganish and a side of gill-net drowned dolphin.

It should be pointed out that the US has only four player in the entire 23 squad that actually play in the MLS... Hannaman even plays in England and he was the one to suggest taking shots from distance.

I agree I play with that ball every Sunday.

I question his sanity... or the bribes/death threats are in full effect.