England

Luke’s World Cup: comfort in the discomfort of giants

by

luke

Time to concentrate anew on England v Slovenia. OK. England have been rubbish so far. But France have made our rubbish look good (I hate to say it but the obvious reaction to today’s decisive result is frankly “good riddance”), and there have been unconvincing performances from Italy, Germany and – until last night – Spain. Patriotic to the end, Luke Harvey tries his best to keep the faith …

“I can’t believe we didn’t beat such a poor team,” came one comment from around the table. “I know,” I replied, “It almost makes you ashamed to be Algerian, doesn’t it?”

A few forced smiles were raised but the day after the night before was still a bit too early for such jocularity. The conversation was quickly diverted away from football towards something less disheartening.

Read more

England v Slovenia: a World Cup ‘Who Are You?’

by

bocanegra_pecnik

Imagine a different world, one where you haven’t the faintest idea of what footballers get up to off the field. A life lived in the beautiful city of Ljubljana, capital of a country where football isn’t even the national sport, and you’ve barely even heard of Sunderland. Jaka Katrasnik* is a keen fan of Slovenia, and his club, NK Olimpija, all the same and looks forward to a result tomorrow that would keep England on our own front pages for the wrong reason … and there may be a second Slovenian fan along soon to rub it in

Salut! Sunderland: The first two games leave Slovenia in a strong position. But how bad does two unimpressive draws make England, and how lucky were you to avoid defeat against the USA?

Yes, we have good chances for advancing to the next stage. In my opinion England didn’t play as good as this team can. I believe England has very good individuals but from seeing their two games I would say they lack team spirit and motivation. The Slovenian team is the opposite. Our players are not as good as England’s. They don’t play in the best European football clubs, as England’s players do. However they are very good as a team. They have team spirit and motivation. They have played very good in qualification (eliminating Russia) and they are playing very good now in the World Cup. They did have some luck against the USA. But so did the Americans. The refereeing was horrible from the start. Dempsey should have gotten a yellow card for that ugly start on Ljubijankic in the first minute. There were more yellow card fouls committed by the Americans that the referee didn’t see. The American goal was disallowed because of Bocanegra’s (3) foul on Pecnik (7) (see the image above). True, the Slovenian players were fouling the Americans also but the referee decided the Bocanegra’s foul was more severe.

Read more

England and France: two lost causes?

by

jeremy3

Maybe the best expression of the entente cordiale is England and France agreeing to do as badly as each other out in South Africa. Jeremy Robson tries to make some sense of the goings-on in the camps of two national teams seemingly going nowhere, except home …

Within the next few days, both the English and French national sides both face expulsion rather earlier than expected from the 2010 World Cup.

Read more

England, Algeria and a city en fête

by

Clip: Matt2586

There was another night when England had an important match, and I found myself enjoying a non-football night out in France instead.

It was only a week or two before September 11. England away to Germany in a World Cup qualifier. I was tucking into a great meal in the pretty Normandy town of Honfleur, not far from the distinctly unpretty city of Le Havre. Such was the depth, then, of my eternal club-before-country feeling that I’d briefly forgotten about the game in Munich.

Read more

England Algeria: Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear!!

by

soapbox

 

Were you disappointed with last night’s performance?  Did you expect better?  Pete Sixsmith invokes the spirit of Ambridge to try to get our gallant lads back on track

As older readers would know this was Walter Gabriel’s response whenever anything went wrong in Ambridge in the 50s and 60s. Walter was not a football fan, being more interested in ploughing matches and pig breeding, but I have a feeling that:

a) he could have picked a better side than Don Capello

b) he could have played better than Wayne Rooney

c) he could have offered more insights than the lamentable Andy Townsend on ITV

What a shocking performance from a bunch of players who showed exactly why Franz Beckenbauer’s criticism was absolutely spot on. In fact, they could not even play kick and rush effectively as crosses and long balls were just ballooned into the sky.

Read more

World Cup: what have we learnt so far?

by

jeremy3

Football and opinions are inseparable, as this piece will show. Some observers will probably feel it a little early to be belting out a muscular song questioning Fabio Capello’s managership of England. But Jeremy Robson – a man of many strong opinions – is not singing from their hymn sheet, and he’s certainly not singing a Capello …

Fabio Capello is a very experienced and highly regarded football manager.

Well, he was to most observers, at least until last Saturday. Great, or even just good club managers often find it difficult to make an effective transition to international management. None of the above apply to Capello’s predecessor, Steve MacLaren, who was a moderately capable manager elevated to a position that completely transcended his abilities or judgement.

Read more

World Cup Soapbox: off we go and viva Paraguay

by

soapbox

For Pete Sixsmith, the first big one comes tonight with our boys – Paraguay (our boys, for latecomers, because they have Paula da Silva, Cristian Riveros AND red & white stripes) – expecting a comfy stroll against Italy. But the first weekend of the World Cup gave Pete plenty to enjoy, admire and deplore …

So, after a couple of weeks of looking back at previous World Cups, the 2010 tournament is up and running. First impressions are quite positive and I particularly enjoyed the sight of the huge dung beetle wandering across the stadium in Friday’s opening ceremony.

Read more