Abysmal England.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Some quite ridiculous comments here from people who clearly have no idea how World Cups are won.

USA are a well organised, competent side, 14th in the FIFA rankings. They beat Spain and gave Brazil a huge scare at the Confederation Cup. They arseholed Australia last week. Did people expect us to stick 4 past them without breaking sweat?

England were comfortably the better side last night. Play that game 10 times with those performances and England would win 7 of them. World Cups are typically won these days by sides who put together 6 or 7 performances like that. Rarely are they won by the sides who look on fire from the off.

Which is not to say England will win the tournament. But to write them off after one moderate performance against a side who themselves may well make the Quarter Finals is ridiculous.

Calm down lads. Otherwise, you'll have no bile left for when Algeria get a last minute winner on Friday.

[Jonathan]

Abysmal is not the word to describe it in my opinion, maybe disappointing but given the hype and the build up that was always likely.

The game was a potential banana skin. USA are not a traditional footballing nation but they've built up a reasonable squad of players. I think they're ranked something like 16th in the world, 9 places below England, so it was never going to be the walkover some people believed.

What we got was an improved England performance compared to the insipid (but ultimately unimportant) recent friendlies. There were flaws, but many teams start slowly in these tournaments and at least we can say we dominated the game in terms of chances and took something from it.

There are some big calls to make going forward:

Capello picked Rob Green on merit. When we had the thread recently where everybody picked their teams you will notice that many others picked him too, it was probably a fairly even split between the keepers. In club football you would not drop the keeper after one mistake, but does backing him run the risk of exposing his inevitably fragile confidence in more important games? I wonder if we will hear that David James' knee injury was not risked in the opening game, and he will be back in? It's a tough call to make. Of course Green is not as bad as that mistake suggests, but if his mentality is not right after that (I know mine wouldn't be) then it's a very unforgiving position to be in.

Gerrard was in my opinion the best player on the pitch and much more like the player that excels for Liverpool. Gareth Barry is back for the next game and will probably be straight back in at the expense of Milner (who clearly was not fit). The inclusion of Barry will mean Gerrard is pushed out to the left if we stick with the 4-4-2. Does taking him out of the heart of the battle nullify one of the greatest strengths in the team?

Continuing the debate on the system, I thought Heskey played fairly well last night, albeit carrying zero goal threat. His assist for the goal was well worked and he did his job of leading the line well. The problem is that the only real argument in favour of selecting Heskey is that he brings the best out of Rooney, last night he and we did not do that. Personally I have always preferred the option of playing a 5 man midfield with Barry holding, giving license for Lampard to push forward and with Gerrard playing just off Rooney. Rooney himself can concentrate on playing upfront and can hopefully increase his threat in the right areas. Capello seems to favour 4-4-2 though, so to change the system now would signify another very big decision to make.

We have nearly a week until the next game which is good. Capello is hugely experienced and will not react in the ridiculous way which will no doubt be all over the Sunday papers today. The tournament is not over and we should still qualify for the knock out stages.

[topnotch_Donny]

Filo wrote:

All this Heskey knocking, but no one seems to mention that it was his pass into the path of Gerrard that set up the England goal, thats the reason he`s in the team, he brings others into play, as well as being good at holding the ball up.



The only criticism i`ve got is that I think Joe Cole should have started on the left and the Premierships top keeper this season, Joe Hart should have started.......





and another thing! Why does Lennon run like a girl?  

Hesky was caught of side about 12 times which is very annoying.

[Sandy Lane]

I had to really make a choice on who I would support in the WC, as I love England, but live in the US - though I'm not particularly nationalistic.  Finally, because I realized I really like CCC football, rather than prem football and players, I decided to root for the US.  I appreciated your neutral and/or kind remarks on the US, and as always you are far too hard on yourselves and England!

I don't think England were abysmal, just disappointing.  For all their talent everyone expected more and the hype was deafening.  Of course I'm unable to analyze either side very well as I just can't watch everybody like you guys do.  But the US was just terrible in the first half and if Tim Howard hadn't been screaming at the defenders to back him up, the result would have been much worse.  Robert Green will be drawn and quartered for his error, but it was an error, and not the end of the world, imo.  I just hope he and his confidence recovers sooner rather than later.

Both teams played rather choppy, but England had smoother passes most of the time.  Rooney did pick up a bit in the second half and we had to really cover him, and Lennon was starting to annoy me, so that means he must have been doing something right (in my view).  Gerrard certainly showed us and the world his talent and well done to him. But England looked like they weren't really trying, and the US looked like they didn't know what to do at times, so they just decided to pull on England's shirts when they couldn't get to the ball fairly -- (something I would do, mind you!)  Totally embarrassing!

So never despair, it's not over 'till it's over and I have high hopes for England.  The US will learn much from this experience, but also remember most of our talent is because some of our players play for English teams!

[Thinwhiteduke]

Like I said, and the title of this thread,

Abysmal England

Plus as long as we persist with Heskey, and omit Joe Cole for whatever reason, we will continue to be so.

Anyone care to disagree?

[PDX_Rover]

No.  We were abysmal tonight.  Utterly and totally.  No redeeming qualities at all about that performance. w**k.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

I got a text from a mate who was at the game tonight. It simply read: \"Bored.\"

Says it all really. I think the England team put a few million people across the world to sleep tonight.

Utter, utter shite. Not that I'm really that bothered or surprised.

[The Red Baron]

Thinwhiteduke wrote:

Like I said, and the title of this thread,

Abysmal England

Plus as long as we persist with Heskey, and omit Joe Cole for whatever reason, we will continue to be so.

Anyone care to disagree?

I see- it was a general topic that could cover the entire duration of the tournament.  

We WERE abysmal last night- no arguments there.