MKSC

I shall be watching the majority of the World cup from the comfot of my sofa. I'm a bit of a miserable fucker when it comes to watching football. I prefer to watch the matches in peace and quiet without all the drunken antics going on. I might venture to the pub or a friends party if we get to the latter stages. Plus I'm on a drinking ban at the minute which can only be postponed in the instance of an English appearance in the final.

You've won the lottery?

Santon is class on FM. He's first choice right back in my Italy side that won WC2010 and has qualified at a canter for Euro 2012.

Yeah, 1 start and 2 off the bench. And didn't they sign him as an 18 year old anyway, so he's hardly a product of their youth system. I don't really like Balotelli, I know he's a decent player but he just doesn't seem to have his head screwed on the right way round. I stand by my point though, Inter are hardly doing anything to help the production of the next generation of Italian players, and if they get Benitez it will only get worse.

I think Benitez would be perfect for Inter. Can you imagine all those fans who were unhappy with the style of play that Mourinho used. They could accept it because they won everything. With Benitez they'd get the same, if not worse, but without the winning. Kuyt/Milito & Lucio/Skertl swap deals??

Yeah, beacause Inter have done so much over the last couple of seasons to promote the careers, ability and performance of Italian players. You can't really moan about Juve players when your own team plays with so few. I mean come on, in the CL final you had only THREE Italian players in the squad and none in the starting eleven, and two of those were 36 and 38 years old. You are like the Arsenal of Serie A. My Dad is Italian and I will always support them second to England, but the fact is the squad just isn't of the same quality of the last 20 years. The players just aren't there to chose from, and with an old hand like Lippi in charge he is going to go for the players he knows and trusts even if they are looking a bit below par. I still fully expect them to get out of the group stage and after that who knows. It's not beyond possibilities that they could get to the Semi-Finals.

That's a totally gay av you've got there neesy.

That is class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Cup Although they do have other regional tournaments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_Football_Championship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Asian_Football_Federation_Championship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN_Football_Championship Would still only add Iraq and Japan to the list of teams to have won anything in the last six years. Makes no odds really, the point still stands that none of the big teams have won much other than Brazil.

As an international team you only get the chance to win your continental competition, the world cup or the confed cup. You can really only go back 6 years before you are talking about a completely different squad, and even in that time some squads can see massive changes. So you can't really say any teams have won a shit load collectively, with the exception of Brazil. Brazil: Confed Cup 2009, 2005, Copa America 2007, 2004 Italy: World Cup 2006 Spain: Euro 2008 Greece: Euro 2004 US: Concacaf Gold Cup 2007, 2005 Mexico: Concacaf Gold Cup 2009 Egypt: Africa Cup of Nations: 2010, 2008, 2006 Tunisia: Africa Cup of Nations: 2004 In Asia there is no real Continental Competition so to speak of as Wester Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and Southern Asia all have there own federations. If you take these results then the US are more successful than us recently so that makes us the underdogs, especially if you include their runners-up spot at the Confed Cup. All the pressure is on them if you ask me Also note that Holland, France, Germany and Argentina have also won fuck all so they have no chance in the WC.

I don't get the whole thing with naming a 30 man pre-squad anyway. Why not just name 23 with 5 or 6 on stand-by. The stand-by's can come to the training but they already know they are only in if someone gets crocked. You can't tell me aside from the Walcott issue that Capello didn't know who his 23 were going to be.

I'm confident we've got enough to get through the group and second stage. After that it comes down to luck and who gets through in your part of the draw. I have never thought we will win the world cup anyway. Yes, we can win it but I just can't see us beating the likes of Brazil or Spain in a final should we get there. I'm disappointed at Adam Johnson not getting in, but not becasue SWP is in. I'd have left out Warnock or Upson as I think we have enough defensive cover. Wright-Phillips is a good player when given the chance, he can be frustrating at times but you see a lot more end product from him than you do from Walcott. And I agree 100% that Heskey was always going and the only choice in the forwards for Fabio was between Defoe and Bent. Defoe always gets the nod for me on that one because he has shown he can score goals at International level. Regardless of what happens with England I'm just ridiculously excited about the World Cup. I'm going to watch every game, making full use of V+ to record the simultaneous ones, and more than likely watch all the highlight programmes aswell. Including the one on ESPN. The wife knows this, she has accepted it. Can't wait.

I watched nearly all of the games at 96 and 98 and it wasn't until the final in 98 that he really shone. Most of his fame at that time came from good club performances. He was ok at Euro 96, but the problem was that despite getting to the Semi-Finals of the tournament France really weren't very good. They drew with spain in the group stages and really struggled against Romania. The only team they beat comfortably was Bulgaria. Then they drew both their QF and SF games 0-0 with both going to pens. People forget aswell that they weren't great for the most part at World Cup 98. They had Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Denmark in their group and scraped through against Paraguay in the 2R, needed penners to beat Italy in the QF and Croatia were better than them for most of the SF. It was only in the final that they really sorted it out against a very out of sorts Brazil with a ruined Ronaldo.

I'll be in for this but not for the WBA game. Will need to know the date ASAP though, got to sort out the travel etc. Grazie!

He was awesome for three seasons, one with spurs and then two with united. The last two seasons he has fallen a way a bit and I'd echo the sentiment that I hope he recovers his form though as on his day he is very good. A little short of top top class but certainly very close.

There would be reprieves all the way down the pyramid if Palace went under. Sheff Weds would stay up in CCC, Gillingham in L1 and Grimsby in L2. We already have the joys of the AGM Cup in Non League where nothing is certain until the league composition is sorted at the AGM in June. There is already loads to sort out with Chester, Farsley, Salisbury and many more either gone or going. Weston Super Mare should have been relegated from Conference South three times but are still there.

My final 23 would be. Hart, James, Green (in order of preference) G.Johnson, Carragher, Terry, Ferdinand, King, A.Cole Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Milner, A.Johnson, Lennon, J.Cole, SWP, Huddlestone. Rooney, Defoe, Crouch, Heskey, Walcott. Dumped: Dawson, Upson, Baines, Warnock, Parker, Carrick, Bent. I know it looks like I'm overloading on midfielders and short on defenders but my logic is this. I've got 4 CB's in Rio, JT, Carragher and King. Huddlestone can be a fifth choice CB if required. Upson has been poor lately and Dawson, as good as he's been this season, just doesn't cut it for me. I've left out Baines and Warnock as I don't really think either are suitable as a back up to Ashley Cole, and with Carragher, Milner and Barry I can cover the full backs if needed. We look really short on game changing players going forward so I want to take all the pace and flair players along incase we, as I fully expect, look short on ideas in the final third. I want to have a good selcection of players who can come on for 30 minutes and make a difference, this could be vital if we go to ET in the knock-outs. Between Barry, Gerrard, Lampard, Milner, Huddlestone, Joe Coleand King I think I've got enough to get a decent central midfield 3/4/diamond out of it. Parker and Carrick just don't cut it. Walcott can be 5th striker and with Gerrard and CJoe Cole we have alternatives as the 2nd striker if we want. I think there is enough quality and flexibility in the squad to push on for the quarter finals. Any more than that is all about a bit of luck.

How are we doing on this?? I need to start making plans if I'm coming up so could do with knowing for sure if this is on in the next couple of weeks.

In. KevinNolansKebabTab

I can only make it up once so it has to be either the WBA game on 26th or the Reds vs Blues game. Not sure which one yet.

I googled her, clicked a link and have spent the last two hours doing system recovery as I got one of those bastard protection software things that keeps popping up blocking everything you want to do until you buy it. I'm sure they must be illegal.

It was a toss up for me between Jose against Forest and Jonas against Barnsley. I was there for both and the celebrations were mental. Jonas strike was excellent and it was the first time we saw the spiderman mask but I've plumped for Jose as it basically sealed promotion and it was a great goal, the back heel, the run, the shimmy inside, the finish and the celebration were orgasmic. The name Jose rang out around St James for 5 minutes. Immense.

Like I said, I don't think I can make the 29th but if it's sometime in June I might be able to do it. I think I have enough airmiles for a return flight at the minute. As I haven't played R vs B before I'll make my services available to the highest bidder. Let the auction commence.

Lets assume the date is fixed, for the purposes of this thread and the poll. If that is the case then I'm out. I can't make it up at the minute. Might be able to do the game vs WBA though.

He looked like he was being surrounded by a load of Hull fans trying to get some memorabilia off him, he was just trying to get off the pitch and catch his plane to Madrid, can't say I thought he did anything wrong. Anyway, what were those Hull fans doing on the pitch anyway?? It's not like they had owt to celebrate.