Olympic football

[ZacNaloen]

Ramsey has been our stand out player in the last two games in my opinion. Hopefully rumours of him being loaned out are bollox, think he'll be back to his best this season.

Or something closer to it, I agree, he's looked skillz.

[pea]

Lets all laugh at the Spanish who didn't score or win a game

[Pepe the Horseman]

So, who are the nobbers going to wembley on Saturday gonna be supporting?

[sandman]

Lets all laugh at the Spanish who didn't score or win a game

Guess they'll have to console themselves with being European and World Champions.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Ramsey has been our stand out player in the last two games in my opinion. Hopefully rumours of him being loaned out are bollox, think he'll be back to his best this season.

Or something closer to it, I agree, he's looked skillz.

Really? I thought he was utter turd in the UAE match, in the second half at least. He bodged about every single thing he tried.

[ZacNaloen]

The whole team has a habit of falling apart during the tail end of matches, which I can only assume is fitness as a result of poor preperation from Pearce prior to going to everyone meeting up. I find it hard to pin that sort of lack of sharpness on just Ramsey, Joe Allen was utter cack for the last twenty minutes of the uruguay game for example.

When he's been fresh he's been quality, which suggests when he gets match sharpness back he'll be quality.

[Ian Royal]

Definitely zac the entire midfield and in fact most of the team falls apart somewhere between 60 and 75 minutes.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Richards has only played one of the three games at right back though. The others he's played at centre back.

Who's played right back in the other 2 of those games, a right back? Nope, two quite left footed fullbacks in Bertrand and Taylor.

If Richards was there as the right back then play him there. If he's there as a centre back, then take a right back. If Richards is there as a versatile rb/cb then why take all of Caulker, Tomkins and Dawson as well in an 18 man squad without another right back?

Yeah, I see your point. Richards was CB again against Uruguay so I guess taking another RB would have made more sense – although perhaps he thought Taylor/Bertrand would do a better job there than those available. Who knows; can’t find any explanations online.

That mystery aside, we seem to be doing rather well and have improved as we gelled. Team GB are showing England what having a decent central midfield can do for your possession and passing.

It’s been an interesting experiment, if not only to see how a ‘passion’ manager compares to the tacticians at senior level.

[SCIAG]

Good day for ex-Royals. Gemeli in the 100m semi-finals and Ji scoring against GB. I thought Nam had a good game too.

[Royal With Cheese]

Good day for ex-Royals. Gemeli in the 100m semi-finals and Ji scoring against GB. I thought Nam had a good game too.

Coupled with Dave Kitson winnig the Long Jump it's been a good day all round.

[Kitsondinho]

Been to several games in both the Men's and Women's tournaments now....best one being Brazil 3-2 Honduras at St James Park yesterday......Several things I learnt from that were...

1) Chelsea have got themselves a quality player in Oscar....
2) Neymar really is that good....but he is also a cheating little git!
3) The two worst Brazilians were Rafael and Sandro.....clearly playing in the Premier League has improved their hoofing skills....
4) Hulk and Figueroa think they can score free kicks from up to 50 yards out....they can't.
5) The refs seem to be using different rules for the Olympics.
6) 42,000 in for a under 23 neutral game is pretty impressive...
7) It is still impossible to understand Geordies.....

[Barry the bird boggler]

Lost on penalties again in the QFs Well at least we know that a combination of English and Welsh players are consistent with England...

[ZacNaloen]

Ramsey has been our stand out player in the last two games in my opinion. Hopefully rumours of him being loaned out are bollox, think he'll be back to his best this season.

Or something closer to it, I agree, he's looked skillz.

Okay in the interest of balance, I thought over all he had a poor game last night.

[Ian Royal]

Midfield wasn't at the races.

Seriously not very impressed with Sturridge - just don't like him. And it's not a lot to do with missing that penalty.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Midfield wasn't at the races.

Seriously not very impressed with Sturridge - just don't like him. And it's not a lot to do with missing that penalty.

Massively unimpressed with his childish reaction to missing it. At a time when Olympic competitors are losing with dignity and good grace, the behaviour of footballers isn't doing them many favours.

[Hoop Blah]

Agreed Dirk.

I don't think they're as bad (in the main) as many will make out but Sturridge does typify the spoilt brat image of the modern millionaire footballer. It's a shame as he has all the ability to be a very good player but his mentality may well prevent him fulfilling his potential.

[leon]

Was at the Millennium stadium for the game last night. We were just appalling. No one came out of that with any credit. S Koreans were pretty good.

[3 veesinarow]

Was at the Coventry stadium for the game on Friday night. We were just appalling. No one came out of that with any credit. Canadians were pretty good.

[UpThePrem]

Will be at Wembley tomorrow. Hopefully Brazil/Korea will be better than Team GB were.

[3 veesinarow]

Will you be staying on to watch it coming from Old Trafford on the big screen after seeing the Mexico-Japan game at Wembley?