The Football.....

[swee'pea99]

The boys done good. They seriously put the wind up serious opposition, never looked anything but eager & fearless, and looked the better - which is to say, more threatening - side for most of the match, for all Italy's rinky-dink possession. If they can get past Uruguay and Costa Rica, picking up even more confidence as they go, who knows what could happen. It is, as we know, a funny old game....

 

[Andrew_P]

Rooney, Gerrard and Johnson out. In with Barkley, Wilshere and Shaw.

 

[Andrew_P]

About time Footballers had the same testing as pro Cycing

 

[Accy cyclist]

About time Footballers had the same testing as pro Cycing

Yeah but at least Rooney isn't one big posing f..k like yon Ronaldo!

 

[AndyRM]

Whilst that picture does make me laugh, it's not really a fair comparison. CR7 is posing and flexing having just finished playing a Real match. Rooney is relaxing and has just finished a pie and a pint on holiday.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Can't wait to see the big nancy boy pumping out the tears when Portugal go out!!

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQSHMbfhw-Q

 

[Smokin Joe]

Whilst that picture does make me laugh, it's not really a fair comparison. CR7 is posing and flexing having just finished playing a Real match. Rooney is relaxing and has just finished a pie and a pint on holiday.

With those jugs he could be on page 3 if he wasn't such an ugly lump.

 

[postman]

ok good display from the team,best attacking i have seen for a long time.But now comes the question,when will Rooney put in a world class performance and just maybe Gerrard has hit his sell by date.Roy leave them both out.New fresh legs needed.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Rooney shouldn't even have made the squad. He never fails to unimpress.

 

[MarkF]

I never got why people were eulogising over Spain's unadventurous keep-ball. It was the modern version of Heleno Herrera's notorious Catenaccio defence with Inter in the sixties. For all their dominance both Barca and Spain won many of their games by the odd goal, very uninspiring when you've had 75% of the possession.

Niggardly way of describing some of the most beautiful football that has ever been played. It was hardly the fault of Spain that the opposition decided not to bother to engage, no wonder they dominated possession. At their best it was an ever changing, kaleidoscope of wonder.

 

[Doseone]

ok good display from the team,best attacking i have seen for a long time.But now comes the question,when will Rooney put in a world class performance and just maybe Gerrard has hit his sell by date.Roy leave them both out.New fresh legs needed.

Would happily see Rooney on the bench. Apart from the pass for the goal he was ineffective out wide. He either needs to play up front or at No.10 - the problem he has is that we have better players in both those positions. I think Gerrard needs to play, you do need a few experienced heads in the side.

Overall I was happy to see an England side that looked comfortable in possession, keen to have a go and young hungry players prepared to take on their man. I thought they did run out of steam in the last 10 mins though.

 

[MarkF]

ok good display from the team,best attacking i have seen for a long time.

But where were the chances? I thought it was an ok performance, nothing more, but a vast improvement for a team that has stunk tournaments out for nearly 20 years. Rooney was hopeless, but what was really worrying was Balotelli's goal. Everything is wrong, from one end of the pitch to it ending up in the net at the other, a goal a pub team would be ashamed to concede.

 

[discominer]

Henderson was your best player last night. Didn't let ...Pirlo out his back pocket.

.

Pirlo was in someone's back pocket? Ha!

 

[Doseone]

But where were the chances? I thought it was an ok performance, nothing more, but a vast improvement for a team that has stunk tournaments out for nearly 20 years. Rooney was hopeless, but what was really worrying was Balotelli's goal. Everything is wrong, from one end of the pitch to it ending up in the net at the other, a goal a pub team would be ashamed to concede.

Balotelli's goal was a good example of what we lacked last night - one chance, one goal, and it came from yet another attack down our left side where we got mullered all evening.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Niggardly way of describing some of the most beautiful football that has ever been played. It was hardly the fault of Spain that the opposition decided not to bother to engage, no wonder they dominated possession. At their best it was an ever changing, kaleidoscope of wonder.

Well we all see things differently, but I thought it was some of the most boring football ever played. Fifteen ten yard passes across the field, three back and then forward a bit and then across again. They wanted to walk the ball into the net rather than shoot and the games lacked any passion. I for one am very glad it was only short lived before coaches learnt how to deal with it.