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World Cup 2010 Pre-Tournament Thread


James

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Carrick should start.

 

On what basis?

 

He's our best midfielder after Lamps and Gerrard and a very effective player in a deeper role

 

When has he demonstrated that?

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Over the last 5 years for Spurs and the scum.

 

This season? And for England?

 

He's had a decent season for the scum. He's unproven at international level, much like Barry.

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Carrick has been dogshit all season - visibly so. Suprised at how poor he's looked on a consistent basis this year. Must be a confidence issue, because his passing has gone to pot this year, and that's pretty much all he's about.

 

Wonder if Hargreaves is fit again and whether he's still any good. He's the only English central midfielder who's actually looked good at international level in a major tournament this decade.

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Just been looking through the group schedules for particularly tasty don't-miss matches to mark in my calendar, and actually there aren't very many at all. In fact, apart from the England games, the only one I ended up marking was Portugal-Brazil.

 

This is the problem with seeding, I guess.

 

Anyone spot any other potentially great games or interesting sub-plots?

 

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html

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C'man, the Ivory Coast are in their group too. That another 2 games already.

 

Yeah, they could be good games. There'll be loads of good games. But somehow Ivory Coast v Portugal doesn't merit me clearing space for it weeks in advance. Likewise, say, France-Mexico or Argentina-Nigeria.

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Guest neesy111

got to love watching the african teams in the world cup, as literally anything could happen tbh (senegal beatin france in 2002)

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All of Argentina games. Maradona is worth the watch alone.

 

Group D's games could all be close encounters.

 

Netherlands v Cameroon

 

Spain v Chile

 

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Come on.

 

Lampard in Euro 2004?

 

IMO Lampard was a culpable part of a midfield that simply lacked the ability to hold onto the ball against Portugal/France, something which Svenn got the stick for (i.e. tactics being blamed) when really it was the selection that was the problem (i.e. Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham being in the same team resulted in there being too many midfielders who specialised in end product and long balls but who weren't suited to maintaining possession, relieving pressure by carrying the ball, etc). That lack of ability to hold onto the ball was the difference between beating the likes of France and Portugal, who were there for the taking, and losing to them in somewhat embarassing fashions in terms of overall performance (and not scoreline). Although Lampard popped up with a few goals, I still think he went missing big time the rest of the time, and failed to do his primary job as a central midfield (bit similar to the debates surrounded Nolan - only useful when he's scoring, useless when not).

 

Hargreaves in 2006 managed to keep the ball under pressure, which in turn provided some relief for the team. He essentially stood up and made himself count when it mattered. Made a big difference having someone like that in midfield, because instead of having a long ball donkey kicking it away to an opposition player (or playing it immediately to a teammate who didn't want the ball), or someone going completely missing and hiding, we had a player who took on some of the responsibility of relieving some of the pressure, carrying the ball forward, creating some space for others, challenging affectively and winning tackles, etc. First midfielder in ages to do a good job against a good side at a vital stage of a major competition.

 

Butt was, as Pele says, our best player in 2002, but that's not saying much given how poor everyone else was (it was more a case of he didn't play badly, as opposed to actually playing well imo), and more importantly he was pretty poor (as was everyone else) against 10 man Brazil. Therefore I still say that Hargreaves is the only midfielder we've had this decade who didn't go missing in general play when it mattered.

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Barry would be a big miss like. Don't rate him massively myself but it's clear that Capello does. He's been an integral part of the recent successes. I do like Carrick though, so hopefully he can find some form and step in.

 

Definitely not "good news" that the former is potentially out like, that's for sure.

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