Grand Prix Rejects

East Londoner wrote:I thought Spain was supposed to be good at this footballing lark. This is an utter demolition job.

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Being reigning champions isn't a good omen is recent years

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Really, if anyone's expecting the socceroos to be anything other than whipping boys, you're going to have a tough time. Nice to see Guillermo Ochoa and Jorge Valdivia, who served me so well on Fifa 08, playing well as well

Biscione wrote:Del Bosque has a suite of top keepers at his disposal (De Gea, Reina, Diego Lopez), but elects instead to not only bring Casillas, but make him the first choice, despite hardly playing for Real all of last season? What did he really expect to happen? The best players get rusty if they are left on the sidelines for too long. That performance showed he's not been playing regularly enough to deserve first team football with the national side. He needs more match practise. Del Bosque would be crazy not to throw on De Gea from here on in.

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Really, if anyone's expecting the socceroos to be anything other than whipping boys, you're going to have a tough time.

eytl wrote: As I said on Twitter, the Socceroos are like Caterham: very green, looks bad up front, and unstable at the back.

This wrote:A funny thing: before the world cup, the Dutch were saying 'we're not going to win' for the first time since... well since humanity can remember. (they're always champion before the tournaments starts, leading to their record of most second places without winning). However, this year, a lot of Dutch people were like 'we're not going to get very far' and then... this. But maybe Spain is just really, really afwful. Shame i was unable to watch the game (i've watched all other 3, though), but sometimes one has more important things to do, of course.
The Dutch being the underdog... we all knew that couldn't last very long But i know exactly what they're doing, they're trying to make the Belgians overconfident, so when facing us in an inevitable final (because we're like obviously the best team in the world ), they'll be mentally stronger and will humiliate us as if we were San Marino.

This wrote:A funny thing: before the world cup, the Dutch were saying 'we're not going to win' for the first time since... well since humanity can remember. (they're always champion before the tournaments starts, leading to their record of most second places without winning). However, this year, a lot of Dutch people were like 'we're not going to get very far' and then... this. But maybe Spain is just really, really afwful. Shame i was unable to watch the game (i've watched all other 3, though), but sometimes one has more important things to do, of course.
The Dutch being the underdog... we all knew that couldn't last very long But i know exactly what they're doing, they're trying to make the Belgians overconfident, so when facing us in an inevitable final (because we're like obviously the best team in the world ), they'll be mentally stronger and will humiliate us as if we were San Marino.

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Will England sink or swim? I reckon a bit of both

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Well, either Costa Rica are a hell of a lot better than we all initially thought, or Uruguay aren't as good as all that. Having missed the match, I'd be more inclined to go for the latter. For the England match, Italy will win 1-0 in an unbelievably dull game. Called it first.

AndreaModa wrote:The important thing to remember for England fans is that we didn't play badly. Compare what we did today to the game against Italy in Euro 2012 - fundamentally we have a good side that is willing and capable of getting forward. I have every confidence that we'll beat both Uruguay and Costa Rica with the players available. Problem areas to work on definitely include set pieces, both defending them and taking them. In terms of the players themselves you'd have to say that aside from the assist Rooney had another poor game - how many chances is he going to get? I think with the young talent in our side, he's hogging a place that should be taken by Lallana or Wilshire. Defensively we're not great, worse than in recent times, but Cahill and Jagielka were good, I just have no faith at all in Glen Johnson - I think he's awful, but we don't really have anyone else to play there unfortunately. Aside from those two I think the rest of the team had a good game overall, and that's the main point - we might have lost, but the performance was very positive - loads of chances, high tempo, some good movement, so I'm staying positive, or at least trying to!!

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:The important thing to remember for England fans is that we didn't play badly. Compare what we did today to the game against Italy in Euro 2012 - fundamentally we have a good side that is willing and capable of getting forward. I have every confidence that we'll beat both Uruguay and Costa Rica with the players available. Problem areas to work on definitely include set pieces, both defending them and taking them. In terms of the players themselves you'd have to say that aside from the assist Rooney had another poor game - how many chances is he going to get? I think with the young talent in our side, he's hogging a place that should be taken by Lallana or Wilshire. Defensively we're not great, worse than in recent times, but Cahill and Jagielka were good, I just have no faith at all in Glen Johnson - I think he's awful, but we don't really have anyone else to play there unfortunately. Aside from those two I think the rest of the team had a good game overall, and that's the main point - we might have lost, but the performance was very positive - loads of chances, high tempo, some good movement, so I'm staying positive, or at least trying to!!

Hit the nail on the head there. Rooney's corner has to be the worst corner I've ever seen

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Costa Rica: better than Italy, England, and Uruguay.

AndreaModa wrote:I think with the young talent in our side, he's hogging a place that should be taken by Lallana or Wilshire.