2014 World Cup Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy

[StinkyBoHoon]

right, not to kick you all when you were down but why on earth do english commentators, papers, fans etc get all preachy about diving? sturridge and sterling in particular spent most of the second half hitting the deck looking for fouls without comment from the commentators.

any other country in any other game and they wouldn't have hesitated in pointing out they were cheats.

 

[shravi]

Stinky, did you see the guy in the crowd wearing the Scottish away jersey celebrating like he'd won the World Cup after the game?

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Still don't really know what england were trying to do to get a goal.

looked like hodgson just picked the front four and figured they'd get on with it.

 

[shravi]

I'm not even going to worry about England qualifying right now, to much favours needed even if they win vs Costa Rica.

They don't deserve it, but it honestly wouldn't be the craziest thing. Italy beating Costa Rica and Uruguay, with England beating Costa Rica. It might be unlikely, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

 

[War]

Doesn't matter since ENG defender shambolic anyway, but i see some non english journalist on twitter mentioning some recent FIFA amendment to the off-side rule, suggested Suarez was off-side for the 2nd goal:

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/02/10/67/39/circularno.1362-amendmentstothelawsofthegame-2013-2014_neutral.pdf


?Gaining an advantage by being in that position? means playing a ball?

That rebounds or is deflected to him off the goal post, crossbar or an opponent having been in an offside position.

That rebounds, is deflected or is played to him from a deliberate save by an opponent having been in an offside position.

A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save), is not considered to have gained an advantage."

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

they're not out by a long shot, although it depends on how the matches develop on the last day.

they'd do well almost to hold off attacking the costa ricans from the start, as if they are 2 or 3 up by half time and the italians and uruguayans are still 0-0 then neither team is going to put much effort into attack as they'd both be through. better make uruguay come at the italians for a bit and see if italy hits them on the break.

 

[War]

They don't deserve it, but it honestly wouldn't be the craziest thing. Italy beating Costa Rica and Uruguay, with England beating Costa Rica. It might be unlikely, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

Ye those results might very well and happen, but like many ENG fans you won't find too much eagerly awaiting or looking forward to those games for them potential results.

And even if they go through, the next lethal attacking team will expose the defense. So for me taking the first round exit like Spain or Holland in EURO 2012, finally move out the last remnants of the failed, but talented era & let see what the new generation can do is preferable route.

 

[War]

Deep down Suarez & Balotelli must have a great sense off schadenfreude ATM. Two players who were constantly vilified by British press, sometimes stupidly have basically contrived to knock England out.

#Have some respect

 

[War]

Defensive shambles hurts Three Lions - ESPN FC


From the first whistle against Italy in Manaus on Saturday, they seemed to conclude attack was the best form of defence. It transpired it was the only form of it. England have gone from a rigid, utterly unambitious 4-4-2 in Euro 2012 to a reckless, pseudo 4-2-4 in the 2014 World Cup.

Essentially the problem. Was never comfortable with just Gerrard/Henderson alone together or has it was Gerrard/Lampard or Carrick in the last two qualifiers.

Been advocating the Liverpool 4-4-2 diamond since last November, why did Hodgson never try this?

 

[Lee1981]

Uruguay did not allow us to play the quick counter like we did so well against Italy

They were on us the moment we got the ball, we struggle to retain the ball when teams sit deep let alone when every Uruguay player is pressuring straight away

We did not know what to do, once that plan went out of the window we had no idea, and the only way we looked like scoring was through a scrappy mistake or a set piece.

Not exactly the way you want your team to get goals is it, but with England it's what we have to rely on

Yes we had a lot of possession, but we never looked like doing anything with the ball.

I don't like picking individuals out but after 2 games Gerrard has been awful, no leadership, he used to rely on his ability to spur the team on, but now he has nothing but experience and that is not enough to justify his selection.

Rooney has been unfairly used as a scapegoat, yes he has been crap but he was not alone was he?

All the WC has done for Rooney is prove to the world he is not as good player as he is made out to be, now we all realise this maybe he can be left alone and play as the "good" player he is, notice that "good, that's all he ever will be.

Hart,looked suspect
Johnson, was crap just as I thought he would be, liability
Baines, not fit lace to Ashley Coles boots
Cahill, probably our best player
Jags, doesn't really need comment does it, should never play for England again
Henderson, poor, cannot break up or dictate the game
Gerrad, retire please, that is all
Welbeck, back to the crap he normally plays week in week out
Sterling, one good match, couldn't live up to the hype second time round
Sturridge, played like he still had chelsea shirt on
Rooney, did his best, just not good enough

Already have that feeling even the next batch of young players will never be able to cope with the pressure

years of pain are booked in for a long time yet

 

[SpitfiresKent]

We deserved to lose last night. What made me so angry was when we got the ball out wide hardly anyone was in the box and on the one occasion when we did have bodies in the box...we scored!

Godin should've been sent off but the referee bottled it, could've been a different game.

So now we need a miracle to qualify and I have a sneaky feeling that we might just pull if off. All this talk of Italy taking it easy is rubbish, they'll want to top the group so that they avoid Colombia in the next round.

Hart - Could do nothing to prevent the 2 goals.
Johnson - Apart from the cross for the goal he was poor going forward.
Cahill - I 100% agree with Lee, by far our best player. Shows passion.
Jagielka - Hopefully that was his last England game.
Baines - Had a poor game both defensively and going forward.
Henderson - I liked his energy but his passing was off tonight.
Gerrard - Didn't see enough of the ball to make an impact on the game, provided a quality assist for Suarez though
Sterling - Lost the ball too many times and never threatened like he did against Italy.
Welbeck - Why is he even in the team?
Rooney - Apart from his goal not much else to shout about, his first touch was really poor.
Sturridge - A couple of shots on goal, looked a threat but of course didn't score.

I want Barkley starting against Cost Rica in place of Welbeck and like War says, England should adopt the 4-4-2 diamond formation...but of course this wont happen and Roy will start the same players.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

dunno why rooney is getting it in the neck, I count about 5 goals england could have had, the 2 they scored, rooney's miss in the 18 yard box against italy, rooney's header off the bar, the great save from muselera off... rooney.

of the two you did score one was rooney and the other was off an assist by rooney.

sturridge was meant to be leading the line, so how come the "over-rated" man in behind him was the one to get himself on the end of every decent chance that came england's way?

 

[barmyarmy]

Doesn't seem to be enough recognition of the fact that England have played two better sides in ranking terms and recent tournament performance. A draw would have been a good result in either game.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

After a promising performance against Italy, normal service was resumed last night for England: nervous, sloppy, short of ideas and really terrible defending - the second goal reminded me of Germany's fourth in 2010. So we're all but out and probably a good thing as a team like Germany would've humiliated us. Of course there's still a slim chance we could qualify but realistically speaking...

FORZA ITALIA!

(That'll please my new Italian girlfriend... ha ha).

Edit: Of course, Uruguay should've gone down to ten men if the referee didn't bottle it, but that's no excuse for some of our shocking defending. Still, there's no getting away from the fact that playing ten men could have made all the difference. Shame we didn't get a (deserved) result against Italy - where we were the better team for large portions of the match.

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Steven Gerrard is awesome

Well you can still go through but for that to happen Italy need to win both of their remaining matches and you need to win against Costa Rica

I believe we'll have to whack Costa Rica, not just beat them. I'm very confident of Italy (my second team by blood) winning both their games though.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

People thought the italy performance was a lot better than it actually was. People thought Uruguay would be worse than they were due to the costa rica performance. so a couple of years of somewhat realistic expectations were undone in about 4 days. Pretty funny to see all the england fans fuming now after expecting to win.

Against italy it may have been a far better performance than the one two years ago, but it still wasn't really all that good. It was as if people saw sterling's run and shot in the third minute and decided there and then that it was a positive, enterprising performance.

I think the Uruguay manager just completely ballsed it up against costa rica. Lugano is past it. Forlan was way off the pace. Gameplan built around an absent suarez and non-existent without him.

I think Shearer summed it up. he said "this is the same Uruguay that last 3-1 to costa rica"

Linekar "plus a certain mister suarez"

shearer "yes, same back 4. minus the captain"

A) there were 5 changes for Uruguay between the two matches. 5/11 players is not the same Uruguay.

b) the RB was suspended, so it's half the back four different, not just missing the captain

The whole country deluded themselves from "as long as we play positively i'll be happy" to "we'll have these. these are crap" "they lost to costa rica. Who are they? Scotland?"

and it was completely ludicrous.

oh and slag rooney all you want (he was nowhere near his best), but bar the sturridge goal (excellent rooney cross) and a few long shots, who else had chances for england over the two games?