Shak

It wasn't even subtle, man.

Bad miss.

It's more the lack of ability to play possession football, we don't have to play attacking football, but we will struggle to keep the ball against the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Spain or Holland. The plan against those teams will be to defend like fuck and play on the counter attack though, surely? If you get behind against a team like Spain then things could get ugly, I'd agree, but I think you'll be very hard to beat for anyone. You would think so, although we have looked shaky at the back recently. I don't even think we're the greatest at counter attacking either, we're not blessed with bags of pace barring Lennon and Rooney. We do have midfielders who have the knack of being popping up when you need them though. Aye, you're pretty much a typical Italian team really.

It's more the lack of ability to play possession football, we don't have to play attacking football, but we will struggle to keep the ball against the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Spain or Holland. The plan against those teams will be to defend like fuck and play on the counter attack though, surely? If you get behind against a team like Spain then things could get ugly, I'd agree, but I think you'll be very hard to beat for anyone.

I'm not sure why people are so down about England's chances. Is it because they don't play attractive football? They're basically set up like a good Italian side, and have one of the great managers of his time leading them. They'll be hard beaten, quite frankly.

Yeah, because if they played during the day they would possibly die due to the heat. In the winter. Their winter is nowt like our winter. Aye temperatures are soaring into the high teens during the day out there at the moment. Like playing in an oven, that.

To be fair to Stifler, he spelled all the words in his post correctly.

Just need the frog gobblers to nick it this evening now and I'm off to a nice start.

English World Cup commentary, always finding the most obtuse ways to bring out 1966 Shak is a French Thierry Henry fan IIRC. Yeah, never seen a happier man when France qualified. He was over the moon in joy, and he's not even French! Hardly gonna be jumping with joy about it am I? Seeing some 'Anyone but France' t-shirts knocking about, had to really struggle to not punch some guy in the face yesterday. Cringeworthy stuff tbh.

English World Cup commentary, always finding the most obtuse ways to bring out 1966 Was Irish commentary, to be fair. Eamon Dunphy currently having a bit of a rant about the ball they're using.

That said, hell of a stat they just pulled out. In 1966 England drew their opening game. Other teams in their group were Mexico, Uruguay and France. An omen?

"Worth noting that a draw isn't the worst result you could have for your opening game." Good old Irish commentary.

Good defending there.

Shut up man, let's just take 1-1 and both be happy. That makes no happiness for me. Well fuck your happiness then.

Shut up man, let's just take 1-1 and both be happy.

Horns are back.

No more goals please.

Just ordered a vuvuzela from Amazon. Gonna take it with me to the pub for the final and let people take turns smashing it. Should be a bit of craic.

What a goal.

Did my tournament bets today. England, Holland, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain all to win their groups - £20 returns £198. Tenner on each of Higuain (18/1), Fabiano (12/1) and Torres (12/1) to be tournament top scorer. And £20 to win outright on... England. I actually think the US could give them some grief tomorrow, but all in all I'm finding it very difficult to see how they don't make the semis. And it'll be a 50/50 against whatever teams they face at that stage. Not sure why anybody would be downbeat about their chances to be honest. They're not playing football that's wonderful to behold or anything, but did anybody expect a Capello side to ever do that? They're basically a good Italian side. Disciplined, solid and hard working with a few players who are well capable of pulling a goal out of their arses at some point. I have them as second favourites, behind the Spanish. Aside from that, I'm just gonna try an accumulator on every game in any given day. Got £5 on a draw and a France win for today.

Cheers LLLO, very nice of you.

It's their country. They can do what they like. They can. Doesn't change much in regards to what I said though. Might invest in some Solpadeine shares over the next few weeks.

Watching some friendlies there during the week. I'd forgotten all about the stupid horns that the locals insist on blowing from start to finish of every match. Has the potential to really ruin this World Cup, like.

Really wish I still had the texts Wullie sent me while I was at work, breaking the news to me. 99% sure he used the exact words "jigging around the room with delight" to describe his emotions about it. Those of you who have met Wullie will be aware of what a startling image that is.

Carroll is good enough to be our starting CF next year. A real force in the air, and not awful on the deck either. I think he'll lead the line quite well for us and maybe get in the neighborhood of 10 goals in the league over the course of next season. He's good enough for where we'll be next year, and he's still only 21 so there's a chance he can develop into a very good player in time. Shola I think can be a capable back-up for Carroll, and maybe push him for the starting spot if he hits some form or Carroll has a bit of a struggle. Lovenkrands is a good player to have in the squad, but I wouldn't want him starting every week. Ranger has loads of talent but appears to be too much of a tosser to ever realise it. And Best is terrible and anyone expecting him to ever be any good is a wanker. Essentially we need a better version of Lovenkrands to start alongside Carroll or we're fucked.