Segun Oluwaniyi

The guy should rest before the knockouts. He deserves as much.

Italy look tired, old, and overheated. They've been extremely flat.

None. I don't think it is an issue to being with, frankly. It is not as if the referee actually takes out his utensils or his laser and measures out exactly ten yards. It has always been the referee just arbitrarily lining the players up and watching that they don't move too much. What will happen if the players are only 9.3 yards away from the ball? Will people die? No. Just line the players up and book them if they move too much. You don't need to leave your rubbish all about the pitch.

Well I think Vidal in midfield would be a big help to England at both sides of the field Vidal might be the best CM in the entire world.

I don't believe it a talent issue. Man for man, England is the best side in that group, imo.

If Yakubu scores from a yard out, Nigeria do it last time. It won't require a miracle, or even just anything special if you consider the fixtures as events that have taken place in isolation. The main factor is Italy beating up on Uruguay and Costa Rica as you only lost by the odd goal. England are still in a very decent position to go through.

I don't like England's midfield setup at all. For 4-2-3-1, you need a #10 that is willing to spend some time working defensively and pressing. Rooney will not do this. You need two midfielders who work tireless or one who is willing to sacrifice himself to just play defensively and break up play. England has neither of these. Coupled with two very average defensive fullbacks and they are very easy to attack against.

That spray bottle nonsense is an eyesore and not worth the ten seconds it saves per match.

I hate how this sort of behaviour is encouraged by the way. Some guy lies on the floor with a fake injury. The ref actually intervenes and stops an attack from a team throwing everything forward. Spends nearly two minutes sorting out the mess of his own making, and then gives the attacking team only half of their allotted time. People will always cheat when the incentive is that high. Good match, though. I think Aurier really takes CIV attacking play to another level. Greece will struggle to park the bus against them, imo, and they should advance. Colombia look fantastic, but as with Chile, their defense will make a fatal error at some point in the knockouts, I am quite sure.

Colombia waste a full 90 seconds with their fake injury rubbish and Webb doesn't add a second to his added time. Incompetent idiot.

Whoa there! Lumping the Danes in with that group is a bit unfair--more than a bit unfair. They were very poor in the last qualifying campaign, but you're way off base to include the onetime European Champions and World Cup regulars in that group. Still smarting from 98 are we? I just looked at the team that finished 2nd or 3rd in their qualifying groups for UEFA I don't have any quarrel with Denmark. Bringing up the disaster in 1998 is cold, too, especially since we haven't managed a win on this stage since.

African football will always be held back by weak domestic leagues and non-existent development programs. How many of these countries actually develop their own players? Far too much reliance on dual nationals and foreign-born players. Almost entirely the result of structural inequalities and history, mind. And entirely unreasonable to expect these otherwise impoverished countries to pour resources into developing domestic football programs too. Please don't patronise. Africa is held back by sheer incompetence at all levels, in both football, politics, and economics. It isn't that difficult to put a football team together. We don't even work to refine or grow our players, yet they carve careers out for themselves all over Europe. The players are there by birthright. All that is needed is to provide the team with adequate care , technical advice, and payment. Even this is too difficult. Of course colonial mentality reigns supreme as well. Notice Cameroon had some German on a retirement tour stealing their money, because everything white is automatically better. I wasn't trying to be patronizing, and I think we're making roughly the same arguments. I'm not trying to paint a picture of African dependency, "blame the colonizers for everything and ignore African agency," but I don't think it's incorrect to suggest that deficiencies in African domestic leagues and development programs have a lot to do with structural inequalities, the same disadvantages that plague African states as a whole. That's not the singular cause of the problem but I think it contributes. I'm not saying African footballers aren't talented. They quite clearly are, or else they wouldn't be carving out careers for themselves in Europe. There's just little in the way of harnessing that talent into a coherent national playing structure. It's not hard to put together a team of highly-talented players, but it is difficult to get them to play as a collective unit. That's not an African-exclusive problem either. Look at any of the top international sides. Almost all of their players have passed through their countries' respective domestic development programs and had a national footballing ethos instilled in them from a very young age. It's why Spain won 3 major tournaments in a row, Germany is a perennial powerhouse, the Dutch have an endless supply of players, and the Brazilians are the best ever. Everyone else, African or otherwise, is playing catch-up. You weren't patronising, I was seeing red mist last night because of the match and some events in my own life. Sorry, man. I don't even know why. I knew Cameroon would embarrass themselves and picked them to finish last in their group. Anyone who actually watches African football knows they are the worst of the five in this tournament by a distance. The remaining four still have good chances to put a mark on this tournament. Your point about leagues and development is well-taken, but we don't need to be competing with Spain and Germany here. Being the equal on the world stage on the the strong teams in CONCACAF and AFC along with the second tier of sides of Europe and South America is something that should be attainable for the African powers with relative ease. Yet they have failed. There are vastly diminishing returns with the quality in Europe and South America. You seem to think we are getting ten more teams with Ibrahimovic on leading the line, but really you are just adding the likes of Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, who may be decent teams but would all struggle to get out of any group and are not markedly better than teams from other confederations.

African football will always be held back by weak domestic leagues and non-existent development programs. How many of these countries actually develop their own players? Far too much reliance on dual nationals and foreign-born players. Almost entirely the result of structural inequalities and history, mind. And entirely unreasonable to expect these otherwise impoverished countries to pour resources into developing domestic football programs too. Please don't patronise. Africa is held back by sheer incompetence at all levels, in both football, politics, and economics. It isn't that difficult to put a football team together. We don't even work to refine or grow our players, yet they carve careers out for themselves all over Europe. The players are there by birthright. All that is needed is to provide the team with adequate care , technical advice, and payment. Even this is too difficult. Of course colonial mentality reigns supreme as well. Notice Cameroon had some German on a retirement tour stealing their money, because everything white is automatically better.

What a disgrace. Just disgusting. Tbf, Cameroon are terrible and I never had any hope for them. I picked them to finish last in their group. Their football is falling apart and they've failed to qualify for the last two ACNs. The last one they were vanquished by a Cape Verde team that simply outclassed them. Easily the worst team that qualified. Of course, in typical African style they've managed to go out in the most juvenile and amateur way possible. The whole world is laughing at us once again. Song and BAE are meant to be two of their most experienced and top level-seasoned players as well. Still, we have four teams left with the opportunity to do something. CIV should really qualify. Ghana's group will be wide open until the last day if Portugal beat the Us. Nigeria were very poor in the first match, but nothing has changed, it was always operation "Defeat Bosnia". Everyone in Algeria's group is underwhelming. I'll wait for my eulogy speech.

Not his fault, tbh.

He was invited back one time, had an indfferent game and was forgotten about. I think it was the same game Keshi brought Shola for the first time. Why is every Korean player's hair died an this brown colour?

Azeez is an inexperienced 21 year old defensive minded midfielder just coming into his own at his club, who was thrust into a role as some sort of trequarista on the world's biggest sporting stage. Ask Keshi why this was the case, and why people like Lukman and Nosa are watching on tele.

The entire coverage has been five minutes behind schedule since your boys managed to play 90 minutes of highlight free football. Americans yabbing us about football, and they have every right to. My country is a shambles. We need to beat Bosnia to save face if anything. I f***ing love the World Cup. Sharrap, and go comb your greys. The entire coverage has been five minutes behind schedule since your boys managed to play 90 minutes of highlight free football. Americans yabbing us about football, and they have every right to. It is the ultimate insult. My country is a shambles. We need to beat Bosnia to save face if anything. I was pulling for Iran by the end of the game. Those guys deserved the ultimate humiliation of losing to them. They need to send them home quickly, before they sour the event any further. They beat Bosnia they are through. This may seem impossible after the display on Monday, but it is the task. I've moved on.

I am a fan of Sammy and his lanky, awkward style of play. He'll have a decent career floating around the 15th-29th placed clubs in the English structure. Maybe even earn a few depressing caps for his adopted homeland.

The entire coverage has been five minutes behind schedule since your boys managed to play 90 minutes of highlight free football. Americans yabbing us about football, and they have every right to. It is the ultimate insult. My country is a shambles. We need to beat Bosnia to save face if anything.

Neymar clearly tired of passing to these idiots.

Marcelo talkling to the ref mid-dive.

He did a Felton? A Sweetney.