alpal78

I went for France, Ivory Coast and a sneaky feeling that Italy too will go out. France probably has the least chance, can't see them even beating S.Africa who will want a great final game and can see Uruguay and Mexico playing a draw (though the fear of going against Argentina in the 2nd round might motivate both teams to go for the win). I. Coast too have almost no chance, can't see such a swing in goal difference between them and Portugal. Italy I don't know, just my gut instinct. I'm backing England with their back to the walls to pull through (I hope that does not jinx them)!

For me the last group match is one of the most exciting stage...it's do or die time. Even more exciting this WC as some really big teams could end up being eliminated at the group stage though I suspect most would persevere. Vote as many teams as you think would be eliminated, with some comments if you want to explain your vote, then let's see how your vote compares to the actual result.

Wullie mate, agree that Capello got some decisions wrong...like I would have played Joe Cole (although it has to be remembered that he didn't really have a stellar season) and I would have taken Heskey off at half time. But really I think this time players like Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard can't hid behind the manager anymore. They have to accept that they are not good enough on the international stage and England have to start afresh.

Right the only way I'm gonna feel good now is if I bet against England to qualify. If they do, great...if they don't I get a profit. For some reason I can't register my card on Betfair, any suggestion of other websites where I can bet against England to qualify? (i.e. I don't want to predict who will qualify from our group...just want to bet that England won't qualify). Thanks fellas

Why do you have to make things personal when someone disagrees with you??? Judas for me...don't want him back

Crouch is an attacking midfielder???

I'm not sure of that, apparently (and I can't verify this), whilst he is a good instinctive shot stopper, he has issues with long range grounders as shown in the Mexican game, a few blinder saves but apparently also nervous when it came to long range shots. If teams sussed him out, then we might be in trouble. James whilst in no way a world class keeper, has in my view left his calamity James tag behind and had a decent season with Portsmouth plus probably has the big match experience to not bottle it. Hart would have been ideal had he been given exposure earlier, a bit too risky to try him out now.

Well, that was a bit s***, really. Don't you just love Green! I don't say it's only Green's fault tbh. England had another 45 + minutes time to score 1 (!!) goal against USA (!!). Not 5 against Brazil, Spain, Italy or Germany. Well, I'm disappointed. But, to lose is part of the game and the world cup has only just started. All the best man, I was tempted to try the bookie buster system on Betfair by laying on draw and covering my 'liability' with a correct 0-0 score, but after seeing 3 draws out of 5 games, 2 of which ended 1-1 (which would have cost massive loss)...I think I'll be staying away :-). The amount of money you need to make a win all ways by laying on draws and covering both 0-0 and 1-1 is just too huge for such a small return - not worth the time investment. Even then, there is of course the horrible scenario where teams draw 2-2 or 3-3 which would be a killer! If anyone is interested to try out this 'system', I'll give a quick run down...it can potentially work but it is not 100% loss proof. Tell us when you win something big!

Well, that was a bit s***, really. Don't you just love Green!

I'm as disappointed as any English fan and I would love to smack Green in the face, but people should chill out. Despite what people say, USA is actually a decent team and are favourites to qualify with us. Once we get Barry back, things would really improve. One player can have a knock on effect on so many others. Barry would anchor the midfield which would allow Lampard to push forward more. Lampard is an attacking midfielder, not a Centre Midfielder and even less a DM play simple sort of midfielder (which was the role he was playing yesterday). Gerrard would either play off Rooney which means more shots on target or if Heskey was to retain his place (which is understandable), then Gerrard can take the left wing/midfield position which allows him to cut inside again for more shots. Hopefully Capello would have realized that SWP cannot play on the left wing, it has to be either Joe Cole or Gerrard. Personally I would go with 4-4-1-1 against Algeria GK: James RB: Johnson CB: Terry CB: King/Dawson (never Carragher...way too slow at this level) LB: Cole CM: Barry CM (attacking): Lampard RW: Lenon/SWP LW: Cole ACM: Gerrard Striker: Rooney We are quite fortunate that we can probably still 'experiment' a little against Algeria and probably still win. We should qualify from the group, it's the second round match that will really test us so it is important that we know what works by then.

Agree with Solano, his technique from penalties and freekick was awesome. But you're allowing your prejudice to cloud your judgment (again) of Shearer's penalties. He wasn't the best but he was a dam good penalty taker especially in high pressured situations. He might have missed 9-11 but very few of them were in big games. I've never had as much confidence in an England player during penalty shootouts, he usually belts them into the top corner. The only England player who I feel has a better penalty technique and can deliver in high pressured situations is possibly Hargreaves and even then I have not seen him taking penalties consistently. Shearer was/is the best for England in the last 10-15 years or so.

England will miss Hargreaves this time, he always looked very assured when taking penalties either England or Bayern....something bout the water he used to drink in Germany!

Correction October!

Houghton as reported on Teamtalk What nonsense, wait until the good freebies and cheapos are snapped up by other clubs. If we had the money and are aiming for top players, then we can bide our time, but the pool of good players (by survival standards) on shoestring budget is quite limited. Making a quick decision does not mean being foolhardy, it's not one or the other. One can be quick and yet make the right decision.

God help you if that is the most obvious difference you can spot between the both of them!

Quick question, am I allowed to say that both Ashley and Keegan have screwed us over and acted like self centred cunts in this thread?

The number one rule of betting is that you don't bet unless you have reasonable info of the teams...so on that count I will wait for the World Cup...can't even pronounce the names of those Norwegian teams!

In all honesty, if Colo did make the final squad and did get to play in the World Cup, I'd be more worried about his stock going down after a bad game or two. He's been class for us this year, but there's still this nagging suspicion that higher calibre strikers than the ones we've been facing on a weekly basis in the Championship might not be so forgiving. Eto'o, Raúl, Real Ronaldo, Forlán, Villa, Torres, Van Nistelrooy. well to be fair ,when Colo played for Depor he played against some of those mentioned ,as well as other top class strikers week in week out and didn`t look out of place at all in that time. That's what I meant, these are the forwards he faced while at Deportivo. And it's not like they leaked goals like there was no tomorrow, Deportivo were a solid defensive side. Heck, Real Madrid never won at Riazor during the years Coloccini was there and I'm talking about a side that had more stars than probably most national teams he'd face at the WC and they shut them out often. It's a fair point (to an extent - we know that Depor fans liked him, but you have to take into account the possibility that they've ignored his failings because both he and the team overall had done alright for them, along with other factors like maybe expectation/pressure being lower?). But the last time he was up against those sorts of strikers he just looked very poor by the time the season ended, with certain flaws being established as being part of his game (too easily turned, not able to do anything to make up lost ground, etc etc - which is why so often the £10m price tag or "international centreback" tag were brought up that year) - e.g. Torres who left him for dead at will whenever we played Liverpool. I think the same could be said of many defenders, not just Colo man. Exactly man, he is a Premiership quality defender and definitely good enough for us but to say that he must be able to stop the likes of Torres, Drogba and Rooney consistently (especially given our poor midfielders) is bordering on crazy. If all premiership defenders could stop these players, then the likes of Torres, Drogba and Rooney would not considered amongst the world's best strikers would they!

Essien is not a defensive midfielder. He doesn't play there for Ghana. He didn't play there for Lyon. Mikel and Makelele have often played behind him for Chelsea, and while he can be a DM, it is not his favoured position at all. Also, he had two poor seasons in succession now. He's still better in that role than Cambiasso, even if it isn't his best postion, which is more box-to-box. How on earth has he had 2 bad seasons in a row? More ridiculous African hostility no doubt Imo, Essien isn't really that tactically disciplined, so he's not a great DM. One of the top five central midifielders though. I'm quite sure Essien has played less than 30 total matches over the last two Premiership seasons due to injuries suffered with Ghana. For what he is being paid these are bad seasons. It boils down to definition...you seem to imply that injury = bad seasons. For most of us,a bad season would mean playing poorly. Sill think Essien is one of the best, and for Chelsea to win the premiership without him is simply fantastic! Back to Colo, well chuffed that he is selected, not sure if I prefer to get into the final squad. On one hand the experience would be good for him and it will assure him that playing for Newcastle does not equate sacrificing his international career. But on the other hand, the World Cup is one big window shopping and given teh depressed transfer market, not sure we will get back our initial outlay if we sell him which would be a travesty

The part in bold is not a fair comparison of the two. All that proves is that Chelsea has a stronger first XI and therefor relies less on Drogba compared to Man Utd's reliance n Rooney. I voted for Drogba, am really surprised that Rooney is leading by such a huge margin!

He gets kicked all over the place in La Liga though, and it doesnt stop him. I dont see the difference. It's not like Messi is like Robinho. Ferdinand, and particularly Vidic can be nasty bastards, and he wasn't afraid of them. I think if he was the type to lack any kind of courage then he wouldn't be where he is now. He's always been smaller than everyone else. He scored a hat trick against Arsenal, he walked all over Man United. Whether you think they're tough or not, they're still two of the best teams in the league, which is enough. Am I missing something, when did Messi walked all over Man United??? In the EPL, Arsenal is as far as you can get in terms of being an English team. Arsenal's philosophy is to attack and play beautiful football which is exactly the type of teams that Messi loves playing against. Still don't think he will do as well as Rooney against defenders who go out to nail and bully strikers Er, only every time he's played Man United, particularly the CL Final. Arsenal IS an English team from the PL, one of the better ones. Man United are too, Messi has come off better against both. He walked all over Man Utd in last year's final?? Thanks for proving my earlier point of fans over-hyping Messi. Yes Arsenal is a good team and Messi did rape them, but my contention is that Messi will not perform as well as Rooney against defenders who go out to physically bully the strikers and in that respect, raping Arsenal impressive as that may be, proves nothing. If you're saying that scoring a hat trick against one of the best teams in England, in the Champions League means nothing, whilst saying he couldn't cut it in the PL, then I dunno how you'd be convinced. Either way, choosing 'physical bullying' as something that Rooney can do better then aye, fair enough. But the ends justify the means. And whose ends are more frequent, and whose ends are undoubtedly more effective? See that is the problem in this sort of debate, criticizing Messi or even trying to bring him down a notch from his Godly status is taken to mean that he is not good enough. I never said Messi "couldn't cut it in the PL"...in fact I listed several situations when he would be better than Rooney in the PL. Re the Arsenal game, I said that he did rape Arsenal and whilst that is laudable (great, fantatstic, excellent) but it proves nothing as far as the contention of him dealing with physical PL defenders.

He gets kicked all over the place in La Liga though, and it doesnt stop him. I dont see the difference. It's not like Messi is like Robinho. Ferdinand, and particularly Vidic can be nasty bastards, and he wasn't afraid of them. I think if he was the type to lack any kind of courage then he wouldn't be where he is now. He's always been smaller than everyone else. He scored a hat trick against Arsenal, he walked all over Man United. Whether you think they're tough or not, they're still two of the best teams in the league, which is enough. Am I missing something, when did Messi walked all over Man United??? In the EPL, Arsenal is as far as you can get in terms of being an English team. Arsenal's philosophy is to attack and play beautiful football which is exactly the type of teams that Messi loves playing against. Still don't think he will do as well as Rooney against defenders who go out to nail and bully strikers Er, only every time he's played Man United, particularly the CL Final. Arsenal IS an English team from the PL, one of the better ones. Man United are too, Messi has come off better against both. He walked all over Man Utd in last year's final?? Thanks for proving my earlier point of fans over-hyping Messi. Yes Arsenal is a good team and Messi did rape them, but my contention is that Messi will not perform as well as Rooney against defenders who go out to physically bully the strikers and in that respect, raping Arsenal impressive as that may be, proves nothing.

He gets kicked all over the place in La Liga though, and it doesnt stop him. I dont see the difference. It's not like Messi is like Robinho. Ferdinand, and particularly Vidic can be nasty bastards, and he wasn't afraid of them. I think if he was the type to lack any kind of courage then he wouldn't be where he is now. He's always been smaller than everyone else. He scored a hat trick against Arsenal, he walked all over Man United. Whether you think they're tough or not, they're still two of the best teams in the league, which is enough. Am I missing something, when did Messi walked all over Man United??? In the EPL, Arsenal is as far as you can get in terms of being an English team. Arsenal's philosophy is to attack and play beautiful football which is exactly the type of teams that Messi loves playing against. Still don't think he will do as well as Rooney against defenders who go out to nail and bully strikers

It's hard to compare Messi and Rooney coz they are different type of players although both are 'strikers/forwards'. It becomes harder when both players have fans who overhype them. Messi is clearly the entertainer, the dribbler, the unpredictable, the flair player and definitely more technically sound as well, (perhaps the faster player too). Let's not forget though that Messi is playing in front of probably the world's two best midfielders in Xavi and a Iniesta. Man Utd is a good team but the likes of Fletcher, Carrick and old Scholes is probably their weakest midfield combination in years. Rooney on the other hand is a typical English centre forward, stronger, better header, packs more power in his shots and is streets ahead of Messi in terms of determination, aggression, willingness to fight for the cause (to the point that these attribues can become a liability). It would be interesting how both players would fare in the other's league. To me, Rooney would probably get a decent amount of goals in La Liga (not as many as in the EPL though) BUT ONLY IF he is surrounded by flair players. If the defence play a waiting and defend deep game, Rooney would be ineffective without those flair players. In the EPL, the emphasis is mostly on attack, even average teams commit players to attack which leaves room for Rooney to exploit. This won't happen in La Liga. Messi in EPL would also be interesting, Messi on the counter would be even more dangerous than Rooney as he can get past the last man with ease. If the defence defend deep, this is not a problem for Messi as he has the ability to dribble and create something ut of nothing. But Ronaldo is right, if playing against Messi, most EPL teams would just try to physically bully him with strong tackes, elbows and hacks. Messi is no C. Ronaldo in the sense that he is relatively strong and is able to ride tackles, but he is not the battering ram that Rooney is. In the end, Messi in EPL would not be as good as Rooney and Rooney in La Liga would not be as good as Messi. They are both made for their leagues.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings...oh wait Nolan is the fat lady!