World on alert Germans marching again!

[Minhosa]

The vast amounts here, and all the coverage I've seen.  You really trying to say most people reckon we're the underdogs and will probably be put out? 

 

FWIW we're the bookies favourites - very marginally like, but still.

more a financial position than a judgement one i guess. i wonder if german domestic bookies have us as favourites (if there are german domestic bookies) ?

 

You're right. Oddset (the only german bookmaker) has Germany as favourites to win this.

 

What are the odds out of interest David?

[David28]

The vast amounts here, and all the coverage I've seen.  You really trying to say most people reckon we're the underdogs and will probably be put out? 

 

FWIW we're the bookies favourites - very marginally like, but still.

more a financial position than a judgement one i guess. i wonder if german domestic bookies have us as favourites (if there are german domestic bookies) ?

 

You're right. Oddset (the only german bookmaker) has Germany as favourites to win this.

 

What are the odds out of interest David?

 

Win Germany: 2,25

Win England:  2,60

Draw:            2,70

 

Poor odds as usuall - that's why not many are betting at oddset and are instead betting (like me) at some online bookie.

[Minhosa]

The vast amounts here, and all the coverage I've seen.  You really trying to say most people reckon we're the underdogs and will probably be put out? 

 

FWIW we're the bookies favourites - very marginally like, but still.

more a financial position than a judgement one i guess. i wonder if german domestic bookies have us as favourites (if there are german domestic bookies) ?

 

You're right. Oddset (the only german bookmaker) has Germany as favourites to win this.

 

What are the odds out of interest David?

 

Win Germany: 2,25

Win England:  2,60

Draw:             2,70

 

Poor odds as usuall - that's why not many are betting at oddset and are instead betting (like me) at some online bookie.

 

Thanks Mate.

[womblemaster]

is uzil injured or playing tommorrow?

 

he could make or break germanys chances. IS klose back form suspension?

[David28]

is uzil injured or playing tommorrow?

 

he could make or break germanys chances. IS klose back form suspension?

 

Well, I really don't know if Uzil will make it.

 

But if you're thinking of Özil, yes, he'll play. He seems to not have any injury problems.

And yes, Klose IS back from suspension.

[OzzieMandias]

I bet Schweinsteiger will play too.

[Minhosa]

Is Cacau much of a loss for them?

[David28]

Is Cacau much of a loss for them?

 

No. I guess Klose would have played anyway. But Cacau is a good impact striker - and without him they would have to bring on Gomez in case they need another striker. And Gomez is shit.

[Minhosa]

Is Cacau much of a loss for them?

 

No. I guess Klose would have played anyway. But Cacau is a good impact striker - and without him they would have to bring on Gomez in case they need another striker. And Gomez is shit.

 

Cool - thought he wasn't a big loss but wasn't 100% sure.

 

Good news then, albeit indirectly.

[The Prophet]

Bloody Sky. Well they've roled Le Tissier out to tell us Germany have weaknesses and we'll win in ninety minutes. Merson thinks we'll beat them too, Oh wow and so does Cech, I'm more convinced than ever. Who are they trying to convince?

[JH]

Bloody Sky. Well they've roled Le Tissier out to tell us Germany have weaknesses and we'll win in ninety minutes. Merson thinks we'll beat them too, Oh wow and so does Cech, I'm more convinced than ever. Who are they trying to convince?

 

People who believe what they see on Sky. And there will be alot.

[David28]

Both Schweinsteiger and Boateng will take part in the final training session and will do a late fitness test. Seems like at least Schweinsteiger will be playing.

[Dave]

I hope we don't fuck about thinking about playing Ledley King.

[FrenchWilliam]

Cracking article from Caulkin:

 

I first met Sir Bobby Robson on at least four separate occasions, which is the kind of thing that could only happen if you met Sir Bobby Robson.

 

 

I met him on the day he was appointed manager of the club he supported as a boy, squaring the circle of a footballing life which began with Saturday bus rides with his father from Langley Park to Newcastle United. Reporters from daily newspapers clustered around him in a small room at St James’ Park, switched on our tape recorders and let one of the game’s great talkers do our work for us.

 

I met him for the second first time at a dinner on Tyneside a few weeks later, a lounge-suit affair held to benefit local non-league clubs and at which Sir Bobby was guest speaker. During a break in proceedings, when he was signing a few autographs, I found the courage to stride towards the top table, hold out my hand and say “Hi. George from The Times.” The response: a look of sympathetic blankness.

 

In the meantime, Sir Bobby had set about the task of unravelling the mess he had inherited at Newcastle. He did so in his usual fashion; first to arrive at the training ground (which, at that time, did not even belong to the club), last to leave, immersed in work, still the pitman and the pitman’s son. Along with everyone else, I would attend his press conferences, ask questions, sit there spellbound.

 

But Sir Bobby, in those days, wrote a column for this newspaper and, after he joined Newcastle, the man who was charged with putting his thoughts into words generously conceded the role. It made more sense, he said, for the man on the patch to take it over. For that, and other reasons, Oliver Holt, who is now Chief Sports Writer of the Daily Mirror, will always have my profound gratitude and affection.

 

Most often, the column was about England, one of Sir Bobby’s great lifelong passions and after I’d compiled the first of them over the telephone – during the course of the conversation, I’d introduced myself again – he asked where I lived. Newcastle, I said. Really, he replied? Why had we never met? Well, we have, I said, but perhaps he didn’t remember. He sounded dubious.

 

So he looked at his diary and checked Newcastle’s fixture list. “Look, our next game is Middlesbrough away,” he said. “Let’s do this properly. Why don’t you wait for me outside the pressroom and introduce yourself before the press conference starts?” I was thrilled and relieved, because if this column was ever going to work, I had to get to know him, to sound like him.

 

A week or so later, I was hanging around the main concourse at the Riverside Stadium, shifting from foot to foot, looking far smarter than normal for a match, ready for my meeting. I’d made the tactical blunder of telling a few colleagues about what I was planning to do and a couple of them were ‘kindly’ loitering nearby. I had an audience, which was deeply unwelcome.

 

Eventually, Sir Bobby appeared through a set of double doors, resplendent in club suit and tie. I blocked his path and extended my hand. Attempt number four. “Hi, Sir Bobby,” I said. “George from The Times.” He looked me up and down and paused. “You’re a stranger to me, son,” he said. And with that, he walked into the pressroom. From stage left came the sound of cackling. It took a while to live that down.

 

Over the months and years that followed, we forged a firm relationship. The columns were a joy; he had such a memorable turn of phrase and such a passion for his country. Personal highlights included when he wrote about the last match at the old Wembley before it closed for demolition (“Today, I’m bidding farewell to an old friend),", and his untrammelled joy when England thrashed Germany 5-1.

 

Ah, Germany. Sir Bobby and Germany, or West Germany as it was in 1990, when his England team played with such freedom and gallantry, but lost on penalties and, as the great man often put it, Gazza’s tears watered the pitch in Turin. When for supporters of my generation, a love of football stopped being such a guilty secret. We owed him so much and we still do.

 

Twenty years on and Germany beckon again. Sir Bobby would have loved it. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about it,” he would say. “We nearly did it, you know. Nearly did it. So close.” He would have loved being asked about it, too. He was a modest man, with an enquiring mind and a generous spirit, but – let’s be honest here - he would have loved a bit of fuss.

 

Having kept in touch with him following his shabby dismissal by Newcastle – by then, he was employed as columnist with the Mail on Sunday, where his offerings were reliably brilliant and vivid – he asked me to work with him on a book about the club and the city. I was overwhelmed. At the worst of times, this is a fantastic, ludicrous job, but that was the best. Absolutely, the best.

 

His health was failing, he was throwing his energy into raising money for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, but to sit with him in his home in County Durham, to talk and listen, was the greatest privilege of my life. Newcastle and the North East was the subject we’d been given, but he’d often return to England, to Gazza and Gary Lineker and David Platt and Chris Waddle. To Turin. He was a hero and a friend. 

 

Sir Bobby has gone, but I’m thinking about him a lot this weekend. I’m thinking about England and Germany, about what he would have thought, the strengths and the weaknesses, the tactical battles and who, if anybody, could become Fabio Capello’s Gazza. I’m also thinking about a fine woman who works herself to the bone for the Foundation’s benefit and who recently lost somebody close to her.

 

The second greatest privilege of my career is to have an involvement with the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. I don’t have to do much and it takes up little time, but here’s something I can suggest: please have a look at their website, see how much money it has raised to fight cancer under the banner of the National Health Service and, if you can afford it, please give a little. So many people already have, but it is not a challenge which dissipates. And, in one way or another, cancer touches all of us.

 

I feel sad this morning, but also happy and very proud. To England and to Germany (West and East), to World Cups on foreign soil, to little jigs down the touchline and dignity in defeat. To a man resplendent in suit and tie, to a wistful look, to a Turin moment, to Gazza’s bawling and a nation renewed. To Sir Bobby Robson. Not forgotten. Not this weekend. Not ever.

 

For more details about the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, please click here - http://www.sirbobbyrobsonfoundation.org.uk/

 

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/06/in-memory-of-sir-bobby.html

[Parky]

I bet Schweinsteiger will play too.

 

Yup.

[Parky]

Bloody Sky. Well they've roled Le Tissier out to tell us Germany have weaknesses and we'll win in ninety minutes. Merson thinks we'll beat them too, Oh wow and so does Cech, I'm more convinced than ever. Who are they trying to convince?

 

People who believe what they see on Sky. And there will be alot.

 

This german team hasn't matured yet, as good a chance as any to beat them. Don't know why, but feel a bit more upbeat today.

[TaylorJ_01]

Let's fucking smash them. CAMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!

[BlufPurdi]

Bloody Sky. Well they've roled Le Tissier out to tell us Germany have weaknesses and we'll win in ninety minutes. Merson thinks we'll beat them too, Oh wow and so does Cech, I'm more convinced than ever. Who are they trying to convince?

 

People who believe what they see on Sky. And there will be alot.

 

This german team hasn't matured yet, as good a chance as any to beat them. Don't know why, but feel a bit more upbeat today.

 

Same, we have to make our experience count in this game, cause in the past it's always what's counted for them.

[Parky]

The omens have changed, I've found me Ajax away top.

 

Quite and indepeth interview with the German management team this morning, noticed Lowe was heavy on the platitudes and that team manager (former striker) had distinctly iffy body language, kept rubbing his neck as he spoke. They all laughed when they talked about the "elve meter" as Germans refer to penalties in their frenzied search for order.

[TaylorJ_01]

They won't be talking about penalties when we go 2-0 up before half time. C***s.

[ponsaelius]

I hope we win and all our goals are Allardyce style route one kick and rush.

[Parky]

I have a strange feeling Rooney, moody and out of touch as he has been, has something big in his locker for this one. 

[Skeletor]

Plus if you want an omen to cling on to, we'll be in our lucky red kit tomorrow

[macca888]

Loved the caption in the Sun today with the bermans on safari, gaged up in front of three lions..............class.

 

I think England will win and avenge the defeat of Australia. Germany was not particularly impressive against either Ghana and Serbia and certainly looked suspect at the back.

 

It was interesting to see how worried they were by the height of Zigic, who created the only goal of the game. Makes me feel that Crouch/Defoe partnership up front will be useful as Germany appeared worried about Zigic's height all day.

 

I think England's confidence will be up for this one and as someone else said on here, Beckenbauer has already done Capello's motivation talk. Now, it is a question of tactics and we should attack them from the start in numbers.

[TheGuv]

Fantastic article