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2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

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^^
That's actually not a completely outlandish scenario though. England might luck their way to the play-offs after all; with a single victory against Costa Rica... :lol:
 
Roger Wilco said:
^^
That's actually not a completely outlandish scenario though. England might luck their way to the play-offs after all; with a single victory against Costa Rica... :lol:
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Yeah, I actually don't think it's completely unreasonable. Especially considering Italy's usual slack performances during group stages. We might just lose the next 2 games. :alienblush:
 
Well, England needs Italy to win twice now.

If Costa Rica beats Italy it's game over for England, because then either Italy or Uruguay would get to at least 4 points in the last game, which England can't achieve anymore.

If Costa Rica draws against Italy it's also game over, because again, they would both have 4 points.
 
Too bad for England. As a neutral observer, seeing a grub like Suarez carrying on as though he'd just won the entire event was pretty galling, but he did give Uruguay the sort of cutting edge England just don't have.

Oh, well. The English papers should be pretty entertaining for a while after this. :D And Rooney finally has a World Cup goal. He only needs four more to equal Tim Cahill now. :p
 
{ Emilia } said:
I actually didn't think England played particularly well versus Italy. It's just that England's play style makes it easy for the casual observer to confuse effort with quality.

The English players ran a lot, seemed dynamic, very motivated. Yet Italy seemed perfectly in control of the game. Why? Because England just lacks quality, precision and tactical finesse.
They've got the effort down but they hardly produced anything of note. Italy's passing game was more precise, and Italy was way better when they didn't have the ball.
That's what a casual observer usually doesn't notice. The way the team moves when the opponent has got the ball. You know, Arrigo Sacchi made Milan's players train without a ball in the early 90s. Just moving on the field as a team, changing shapes to cover the spaces, from wide to narrow, all that.
England's game without the ball is still so... naive? It's like they didn't learn much from all the continental managers in the PL (Wenger et al.) or from their continental team mates. In a team full of Englishmen they seem to revert to their old style of... running... a lot.

Italy on the other hand almost seemed to take pre-planned pauses during the game, most likely because of the climate. That meant they had enough energy left to never lose focus when playing "against the ball". They never lost their shape or tactical plan there. But they took breaks in offense to not waste energy under these harsh conditions.
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A pretty astute analysis, not just in light of England's defeat yesterday. Italy definitely varied their pace and attacked in a very controlled manner, not unlike Germany and, to some extent, Brazil in this tournament.
 
Relayer1 said:
I think Roy's one of the less worrying managers we've had.

Oh well, now I can get on with the serious business of supporting Holland...
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Yup typical knee jerk reaction, sack the manager! I wonder who people would like to bring in? Roy was still the better choice when he was signed and he remains so, at least for the moment.

It was an odd kinda game, and really Suarez was the only difference, if anything if he hadn't played I think we'd have won it, maybe not easily but we'd have won. Two chances, two goals, that's the difference, England just don't have that kind of finisher.

That said, Rooney was damn unlucky with that header.

For all that we need to move some players on now (Gerrard for sure, he has always underperformed in an England shirt for me) in many ways I think Roy should have taken Ashley Cole.

We despertatly need to unearth some new central defenders, Cahill and Jagielka aren't terrible, but at international level they are a little ordinary. Gerrard needs to retire from international football, but I think we have to keep Rooney involved, for the moment at least.

And yeah it is sour grapes but the ref did us no favours, Sturridge bundled over is nothing, but the same thing happens to Suarez a minute later and it's a free kick?

Oh well, on the plus side we still have a chance, and at least the way the group has evolved means that Italy and Urugauy have to win the last game to be sure of going through...always assuming Italy win today of course!

Orac Zen said:
Too bad for England. As a neutral observer, seeing a grub like Suarez carrying on as though he'd just won the entire event was pretty galling, but he did give Uruguay the sort of cutting edge England just don't have.

Oh, well. The English papers should be pretty entertaining for a while after this. :D And Rooney finally has a World Cup goal. He only needs four more to equal Tim Cahill now. :p
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Maybe he can get them against Costa Rica? :)

Yeah I woudn't begrudge Suarez if he wasn't such an nasty racist self pitying little snot :guffaw: He is class though.

On the subject of class just a comment about the Ivory Coast/Columbia game, I thought Gervinho's goal was great, and its always nice to see a player stay on his feet rather than diving.
 
Well, emilia being right as usual. Pretty lackluster game from italy and deserved lead for costa rica from what i saw (missed the first 25 minutes). I thought the penalty should have been given too.
 
{ Emilia } said:
Yeah, I actually don't think it's completely unreasonable. Especially considering Italy's usual slack performances during group stages. We might just lose the next 2 games. :alienblush:
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See? Told ya.

Typical Italian performance in the group stages. I already expected the Costa Rica match to be tougher than the one against England.
Sometimes I wish Italy would cruise through the group stages like Germany usually does. But then again Germany seems to peak too early during tournaments whereas Italy slowly gets better.

It's just that sometimes it's too slowly. :p
 
I didn't really follow but the Italians are making a lot of noise in the corridors of the stadium. Did I miss something ?
 
England is officially out.


I'm somewhat happy that France plays against a European team (I know, it means nothing argh :( ) today and not a South American one :lol:
 
{ Emilia } said:
Sometimes I wish Italy would cruise through the group stages like Germany usually does. But then again Germany seems to peak too early during tournaments whereas Italy slowly gets better.
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Actually, they often have problems in the second game. Last time, there was this maddening 0-1 against Serbia - though at least Jogi Löw's fits of anger were somewhat entertaining to watch.

I missed the Italy game. Did they just slack off or is Costa Rica such a good team? I can't believe Balotelli missed his chance to get a peck on the cheek by the Queen. ;)
 
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