WC 2014 2nd round Belgium vs. USA

[Sanguine]

Hazard was all sorts of shite.

He was ok last night. Glimpses of what he can do. Nice you picked out Hazard and not Mertens who had a right mare' and was hauled off.

Well as you are aware Hazard is the more capable player, the sort of can win a game on his own. Mertens is very much a lesser player and to be honest one I know little about.

Having watched Hazard play a lot, I thought he was incredibly disappointing last night, and generally has been this World Cup.

How's your inferiority complex going?

[Hoop Blah]

England might have the better players but right now the US are the better team. But England's better players are still Premier League Global Superstars no matter what, so no worries...

I'd still back England to beat USA 7 out of 10 times if they'd played each other in Brazil, let alone any other time.

[No Fixed Abode]

Hazard was all sorts of shite.

He was ok last night. Glimpses of what he can do. Nice you picked out Hazard and not Mertens who had a right mare' and was hauled off.

How's your inferiority complex going?

Says a Liverpool fan, or a Reading fan, or whatever team suits at the time.

[Royalclapper]

England might have the better players but right now the US are the better team. But England's better players are still Premier League Global Superstars no matter what, so no worries...

I'd still back England to beat USA 7 out of 10 times if they'd played each other in Brazil, let alone any other time.

I wouldn't.

[Ian Royal]

England might have the better players but right now the US are the better team. But England's better players are still Premier League Global Superstars no matter what, so no worries...

I'd still back England to beat USA 7 out of 10 times if they'd played each other in Brazil, let alone any other time.

I wouldn't.

Are we including the possibilities of draws? If so I'd probably go:
England - 5
Draw - 3
USA - 2

If not 7 - 3 seems about right to me.

[Mr Angry]

England might have the better players but right now the US are the better team. But England's better players are still Premier League Global Superstars no matter what, so no worries...

I'd still back England to beat USA 7 out of 10 times if they'd played each other in Brazil, let alone any other time.

And therein lies the perennial problem that we, England, have; an overwhelming sense that whilst the opposition might score more goals than us, we are still better than everyone.

[Victor Meldrew]

England might have the better players but right now the US are the better team. But England's better players are still Premier League Global Superstars no matter what, so no worries...

I'd still back England to beat USA 7 out of 10 times if they'd played each other in Brazil, let alone any other time.

And therein lies the perennial problem that we, England, have; an overwhelming sense that whilst the opposition might score more goals than us, we are still better than everyone.

Spot on MrA.
Having watched the Italy game on holiday I was amazed to read in the Press and later on here that people thought we were unlucky to lose when in fact Italy had 55% possession and sat back on their lead and in my eyes were worthy winners as England huffed and puffed but never looked like winning.
Because of that misconception people had us favourites to beat Uruguay and so it goes on at every tournament, "we would/should have beaten...(whoever the opposition)" and the nonsense that our qualifying group was anything but dead easy.

[Ouroboros]

I reckon you probably can bite people while running, though.

[Victor Meldrew]

I reckon you probably can bite people while running, though.

Animals probably can.....oh.
Not sure this is the correct topic-can I suggest that you find the right one in future rather than attacking somebody when their defences are down and being a stalker by hunting down a poster wherever he might be.

[Royal Rother]

Possession stats mean bog all at the best of times but particularly in that heat.

Christ know I'm no apologist for England but we had more shots on target than Italy, their keeper had a great game whereas Hart had little to do.

We had 50% more shots, nearly double the number on target, 5 times the number of corners....

Not denying Italy probably looked a classier outfit overall (not hard when Pirlo is left to do pretty much as he likes) but I think we did a little more than huff and puff in what was probably our best tournament performance for a good number of years.

[Victor Meldrew]

Possession stats mean bog all at the best of times but particularly in that heat.

Christ know I'm no apologist for England but we had more shots on target than Italy, their keeper had a great game whereas Hart had little to do.

We had 50% more shots, nearly double the number on target, 5 times the number of corners....

Not denying Italy probably looked a classier outfit overall (not hard when Pirlo is left to do pretty much as he likes) but I think we did a little more than huff and puff in what was probably our best tournament performance for a good number of years.

Possession is an indicator of how a game has gone.
As I said, watching the game in the warm darkness of night (rather than the cold light of day) with no English commentators to be heard and no St George flags around I felt that Italy were the better side and there and then that we would not be progressing any further.
It sounds as though even you RR, the most sanguine of chaps, got a bit caught up in the euphoria of Blighty at a time of international conflict.
Although not actually screaming at the TV I couldn't believe that, with all the preparation and planning, we just let Pirlo (again) do what he wanted and for that reason alone I can't agree with you that this was "our best tournament performance for a good number of years, it was as bad as ever.

Then along came Uruguay and you would have thought that the coaching staff and players having f****d up the Pirlo marking we then do the same by letting some goofy bloke, who appears to be unknown to us, wander around unmarked to score at his leisure-if only we had known about this mystery man before the tournament.
England supposedly the best prepared squad ever turned out to be the worst prepared.

[Ian Royal]

yes, an indicator. As are number of shots and number of shots on target.

England played well, and on the night were beaten by a good team via a small margin. Similarly to the game against Uruguay. None of this changes how hard working, but ultimately utterly ordinary the US are, or that England, for all their faults, are better.

[Victor Meldrew]

yes, an indicator. As are number of shots and number of shots on target.

England played well, and on the night were beaten by a good team via a small margin. Similarly to the game against Uruguay. None of this changes how hard working, but ultimately utterly ordinary the US are, or that England, for all their faults, are better.

But hard work is surely part of it all?
I'm not standing up for USA here but I do feel that our players do not work hard enough for the team and in this World Cup became too concerned about getting a bit warm.

BTW IMHO this is the worst Italian side I have seen since 1966 so I disagree with your calling them "a good team".
None of Uruguay, Italy and England are good teams otherwise at least one of them would still be in the competition.

[Royal Rother]

Possession stats mean bog all at the best of times but particularly in that heat.

Christ know I'm no apologist for England but we had more shots on target than Italy, their keeper had a great game whereas Hart had little to do.

We had 50% more shots, nearly double the number on target, 5 times the number of corners....

Not denying Italy probably looked a classier outfit overall (not hard when Pirlo is left to do pretty much as he likes) but I think we did a little more than huff and puff in what was probably our best tournament performance for a good number of years.

Possession is an indicator of how a game has gone.
As I said, watching the game in the warm darkness of night (rather than the cold light of day) with no English commentators to be heard and no St George flags around I felt that Italy were the better side and there and then that we would not be progressing any further.
It sounds as though even you RR, the most sanguine of chaps, got a bit caught up in the euphoria of Blighty at a time of international conflict.
Although not actually screaming at the TV I couldn't believe that, with all the preparation and planning, we just let Pirlo (again) do what he wanted and for that reason alone I can't agree with you that this was "our best tournament performance for a good number of years, it was as bad as ever.

Then along came Uruguay and you would have thought that the coaching staff and players having f****d up the Pirlo marking we then do the same by letting some goofy bloke, who appears to be unknown to us, wander around unmarked to score at his leisure-if only we had known about this mystery man before the tournament.
England supposedly the best prepared squad ever turned out to be the worst prepared.

I didn't get caught up in anything - I just retain an ability to look at something through very clear glasses no matter what predictions and opinions I might have expressed before.

England are pretty rubbish and will likely remain so in my opinion - but the performance against Italy displayed better ball control, passing and movement than has been evident in recent tournaments.

There is a CHANCE that the likes of Stones, Shaw, Barkley, Wilshere, Sturridge, Sterling, Oxlade Chamberlain, Lallana, Rodriguez, Walcott et al could progress more than other generations have in recent times, but we've been here before many times before and I remain healthily sceptical. I doubt they will turn into a bunch capable of getting any further than one step out of the group stages.

[double d]

http://q.usatoday.com/2014/07/02/usa-ro ... re-yedlin/

Interesting to see the US already talking about a possible team plan for 2018, including our own American CM.

[Handsome Man]

http://q.usatoday.com/2014/07/02/usa-roster-2018-world-cup-julian-green-john-brooks-deandre-yedlin/

Interesting to see the US already talking about a possible team plan for 2018, including our own American CM.

I did think of Williams while watching the USA in the world cup, and felt he must be miles away from their team given how good their midfield looked. I suppose the manager has an influence though. They had a good one who managed to raise the game of the players and get them performing as a unit. Come next season, the team will look a little more ordinary and a bit more like our CM.

[Sutekh]

Williams would have gone had he not been still suffering with his injury.

[Libertine]

Not sure he was seriously in the frame for Brazil. But with Jones and Beckerman's int'l careers winding down he will have his opportunity. A lot of it is going to come down to how he performs for club. He has battled injuries for the last couple of years. He needs get himself healthy and have a full year like we saw glimpses of the second half of last season. That'll surely get him some call-ups. So I have two reasons to want him to have a good year in 2014-2015.