germany 2006 begins in a few weeks. time to get a thread going for anyone's thoughts and opinions.

all the latest world cup news




ah ......the beautiful game!! joga bonita!!

tables and results

well nothing cagey so far. two absolutely cracking games, especially the argentina v mexico match. what a superb, highly entertaining game of football. what a goal by maxi rodriguez !!!!

Couldnt agree more bos excellent game got a bit of a sore arse watching all this footy though I never watch it normally more of a snooker and boxing man myself.

Argentina were made to look ordinary by Mexico who just didn't have the finishing touches, but if they meet Germany or Brazil they will have to step up a gear,
especially now Ronaldo has woken up from his sedentary mode.

oh dear!! i thought that was england's worst performance of the tournament!! they're very fortunate it was against piss poor opposition. big plus point was rooney getting through the game and getting stronger but there's now a bit of a question mark over robinson who doesn't look confidant. england need a big improvement if they are going to get past either holland or portugal.

Although they didn't set the world on fire Bos, I actually thought that was a better performance than the Group matches. England are not playing well, but they are doing just enough. Quite a few passes that would have been defence splitting, suffered from a marginal lack of accuracy, that on another day would have resulted in a much more comfortable scoreline. Robinson is a concern, he seems to be having a confidence crisis at the worst possible time. Rooney looked much better and I will be surprsied if he doesn't score in the next match. Personally, when Becks was sick I would have taken him off straight away. Although he had a better game, he will be significantly more dehydrated now and will take longer to recover. Seems Sven just won't take him off, even when the obvious is staring him in the face. However, England are gonna thump someone soon, they have too many class players not to click sooner or later. I would be quite happy for them to limp through the next two matches and then win the final in style. I can dream.

pth

I refer the right honourable gentlemen to the team I posted some days ago.
I think the performance was only just enough, and almost any other team in the last 16 would have whipped our arses.
4-5-1 is just too easy to defend against for world class opposition, and Rooneys great strength is not his ability to hold and wait.
In truth, world class striker that he is, Rooney would play better in that formation as the man running on rather than the lone striker!!
Joe Cole was a little disappointing, as he was over cocky given the way the team was playing, but I thought Lennon showed his class again for the few minutes he was on. Carrick had a good game and even Hargreaves was a little better, though I thought he was a bit ordinary and gave up possession too easily on a couple of occassions.
Lampard seems short on confidence and Terry had a nightmare by his own high standards.
It doesn't look very good for the next round, but please Sven, play the 4-4-2 that we always look comfortable with. The players will play with more confidence and we will look a threat going forward. The 3 teams we are likely to face from here on in are not going to be cowed by a 5 man midfield, and are certainly not vunerable to a counter attack.

I fell a sleep six times I'm going of this footy stuff.

alan, i don't think the system was to blame. if individual players don't perform then it doesn't really matter what the system is. england performed poorly and should be grateful it was against ecuador. if england play like that against portugal ..........then again , do the portugese have any players left after that shambolic refereeing tonight!!! glad to see the back of the dutch, another very much over-rated team although i feel for marco van basten. now, he was a great player!!

portugal through but handicapped by a shit ref!!

Undoubtadly England have on paper a midfield among the best in the competition but you dont win world cups without a pair of mustard hot strikers/goal poachers/predators in the class of a Linakar of the 80s, or a Shearer of the 90s, or as now Michael Owen who defences were so weary about they man or double man marked them thus allowing the midfield to play deeper into the opponents half . Now OWEN is out of the tournament and Rooney who looks as if he has been on the "Gascoigne diet " since his injury is not match fit . .Even Beckham looks jaded .What threat do an England side who cant play 90 minutes in the heat pose to even the like of a very aggresive physical yet both deft and fast flowing Portugal side. ? . Where are the goals coming from . Even @ club level Rooney plays slightly off the main strikers not unlike Scholes..............Naah England will have had it relitively easy thus far. and l am shocked at their lack of depth with pure out and out goal machines - pure strikers ..Fuc**d it up there Sven . @+ J ..,,,,

Amities mes potes / Obviously since i earn my monies here i felit only right to support England after France which is much against my inclination .Believe me . .But France look totally effing clueless. Very little team spirit and a battle of egos .As strong as England look on paper France look weak and totally out of their depth . France need a manager like Van Basten who left out most of Hollands usual "names " like Klivert and Davids and Sedorf all who were way past thier sell by date .As are most the French side playing on reputations rather than performance . Only with Henry, who entertains,and dazzles, the Gunners week in and week out, and with Vierra , Zidanne and Co playing @ 101% can i see France progressing beyond the next round . ..but there again....You juste never know. Thats the beauty of it all . You juste never know . A little bit of weaving magical play by Zidanne ......et qui sait ....Amusez-vous bien -b/amicalment @+ J

France havent got a chance, they are a bunch of old historical superstars and thierry never seems to have his va va voom for fance.
Wayne Rooney is quite possibly the best player in the world around stevie G and Dinio so how can you say that we have no goalscorers? Rooney and Gerrard score plenty not to mention the additions provided by JC/JT and Becksi. With A Lennon starting we could beat nay team in the world. Oh, and send LAMPARD home sven, he is a disgrace and so is that fat tw*t in goal.

G.D.Mr rooney looks like he`s a bit fat to me having seen the pictures of him in the papers.

Agree about tubby robinson but he has lost a bit of weight,fat frank could do with a bowl of cabbage soup,i bet he could run then.

Aussies to win today

You heard it here first.

Italy were sooooooooooo lucky there! Really bad luck on the Aussies. Nice to see Italy in the quarters though.

Azzuri attacker definitely left his trailing foot there deliberately, IMHO. Pity as I would've fancied the super-fit Ozzies to give it a right go against 10-men in extra-time. It would've been very interesting to the neutral observer but now we will never know!

Looking more and more like: Argentina beating Italy in the semis to face the winners of Brazil and England in the Final.....

So, Argentina v Brazil for final then?!!

piss off!!!! if you deliberately stop an opponent advancing in the penalty area it's a penalty !!! neill lay down across grosso's path. it was a penalty. end of !! italy were shite though, but the aussies were just a little bit more shite. lucky to get through , but, through we are. totti showing a bit more movement and invention and that he has big bollocks. should be a better display from him , (and italy) in the next game. our strikers do need to start putting the chances away, they cannot keep on squandering golden opportunities like the ones they had in the first half.

ah well. once again , it gives me great pleasure to show this again :)))))

get in you beauty !!!!!

England vs Argentina Final.

what about the handball at the other end Bos?