Group C - ENGLAND, United States, Algeria, Slovenia

[Dutch]

Okay guys, what are we thinking? Do England have it in them to win this one?

 

[treva]

They'll win, whether it'll be convincing, I don't know.

 

[ARay]

Okay guys, what are we thinking? Do England have it in them to win this one?

They have the talent. Its all down to their mental resolve now. Chile will be tough opponents. The central defence looks week now though. I actually thought Jamie Carragher did a pretty decent job against Algeria. Even if he was a bit slow at times. Upson and Dawson will both be faster than Carragher. I personally would prefer Upson.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Also the matter is that Rooney must play alone as a forward. I have observed that all the passes from midfield were divided by Hensky and especially long balls. Honestly Hesnky wins the ball on most of occasions but then he just wastes them all. He neither provides good enough passes to Rooney nor does he able to finish them on his on. Of course Rooney also has not played according to his potential but as I have said it before; if other striker is playing then he must have to play around Rooney. It must be tactical errors when you have Rooney on the ground for 90 minutes and he has got nil shots on target.

Agreed. Having Heskey on the pitch just seems to invite long balls towards him - mind you, the same could be said of Crouch. Gerrard just behind Rooney, with Joe Cole where Gerrard was played last time. That's if Rooney starts.

Okay guys, what are we thinking? Do England have it in them to win this one?

Without a doubt - we would've destroyed all the teams in this group last year. It's whether we can rediscover that form.

They have the talent. Its all down to their mental resolve now. Chile will be tough opponents. The central defence looks week now though. I actually thought Jamie Carragher did a pretty decent job against Algeria. Even if he was a bit slow at times. Upson and Dawson will both be faster than Carragher. I personally would prefer Upson.

Yes. We are missing Rio's experience.

 

[Highlander999]

GOT THE DAY OFF WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :happy

Hitting the pub at midday and not stopping no matter if we win, lose or draw

 

[Dutch]

GOT THE DAY OFF WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :happy

Hitting the pub at midday and not stopping no matter if we win, lose or draw

Yeah I am free tomorrow as well. I hope England refind their good form of the qualifiers. I am sure they can grow into this tournament if they get past this hurdle.

 

[treva]

Luckily my PE exam is in the morning so I'm free to watch it. Screw English revision

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yeah I am free tomorrow as well. I hope England refind their good form of the qualifiers. I am sure they can grow into this tournament if they get past this hurdle.

Agreed - I have often seen England in this sort of mess in the group stages and I'm sure we can't play that badly again anytime soon... :upray

If England can get past the group, we'll do OK. We have no reason to fear anyone; we have this habit of raising our game against the real big boys - only to go out due to awful luck - 1986, 1990, 1996 and 1998 all spring to mind. Along with 2004.

 

[Themer]

I think that them getting everything out in the open will have helped, hopefully.

Can see us winning; how well is up in the air.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

It all matters of how creative England will be. If they aren't creative, Slovenia will beat them 1-0 or 2-0 since they are the luckiest team ever to play football. If English players play 60 percent of their potentials then also they will advance to next round without any problem. It is all about getting the first goal. If England scores first then I can see England winning by 2-0 or 3-1 at least.
I hope that England will thrash the bloody Slovenia and I can see world media having a complete amazing change of their opinion about English team by Thursday morning.
Couple of bad games and one Asian bookie offers me the odds of 14 for England to win and Rooney to score (Except penalty). My 40 bucks are on. Come on England turn it to 560.

 

[Dutch]

Darn, haven't been this nervous about a football match since the 1996 semi final against Germany. I still see Gascoigne sliding in and missing the ball by the width of a gnats knicker elastic!

 

[P Squared]

I'm getting this feeling that Rooney's gonna score 2 goals...... or maybe Gerrard 1.

 

[mattfb]

Carn England. Hopefully I can get the day off tomorrow and I can all-nighter and watch England!

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I think that them getting everything out in the open will have helped, hopefully.

Can see us winning; how well is up in the air.

Agreed - shame they didn't do that before the Algeria game.

It all matters of how creative England will be. If they aren't creative, Slovenia will beat them 1-0 or 2-0 since they are the luckiest team ever to play football. If English players play 60 percent of their potentials then also they will advance to next round without any problem. It is all about getting the first goal. If England scores first then I can see England winning by 2-0 or 3-1 at least.
I hope that England will thrash the bloody Slovenia and I can see world media having a complete amazing change of their opinion about English team by Thursday morning.
Couple of bad games and one Asian bookie offers me the odds of 14 for England to win and Rooney to score (Except penalty). My 40 bucks are on. Come on England turn it to 560.

Yes - if we get an early goal, I can see us doing a number on them. Then again, we got an early goal vs the US, and then it sort of went wrong. I don't know.

Darn, haven't been this nervous about a football match since the 1996 semi final against Germany. I still see Gascoigne sliding in and missing the ball by the width of a gnats knicker elastic!

Aaaaarrrrruuughhh!! If he'd only just gone in and sod if he cleaned the keeper up, we would've won Euro 96 - no doubt about it.

I'm getting this feeling that Rooney's gonna score 2 goals...... or maybe Gerrard 1.

I hope we score a hatful - I don't like this idea of drawing lots if we finish level with the US on goals and points. What's wrong with comparing the two team's results? Surely that would be a fairer way to do it. Or have a penalty shootout to decide it - actually, scrap that. We'd probably have a better chance going through by drawing lots...

 

[MasterBlaster76]

No Joe Cole. Rooney not played up front alone (as he did all season at Utd) and Gerrard still out wide.