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

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

tables and results

I agree, Bos. Good post, mate

he couldnt be any worse Bos, but Hiddink would have been a huge improvement

My posts from Traders room:

It had been proven for at least 3 yrs that gerrard and lampard couldnt play together but still we persisted. Beckham has been past it for a long while yet started every game against a youngster (lennon) who had pace and the ability to make things happen. We picked the supposed best players not the best team which resulted in a midfield of very similar players with no pace and no one to make the runs into the box (remember like scholes used to). We played Rooney up front alone but didnt change anything when Portugla kept dropping deeper and deeper leaving him more and more isolated. When Rooney got sent off we took off our only creative midfielder to enable Lampard and Gerrard to cancel each other out and leave the left hand side exposed. We took more fit goalkeepers than strikers to the world cup. We took 6 central midfielders yet only 4 strikers (2 cripples, a beanpole and a yts lad). We took off an attacking midfielder for a defender to take a penalty.

At the end of the day we got knocked out by a poor side on penalties in the qtr finals, the sad thing is of the sides left in the world cup with the right structure and organisation we could beat any of them - with the approach we used we struggled to beat an egg!

At no stage did the manager know his best side - he tried 3 different players in the holding role from the last friendly through the group games - a position he never deemed viable to consider prior top that

As you guess my criticism is squarely pointed at an incompetent manager and also at some very big egos within the side. The preparation, use of friendlies etc was hit and miss and poorly planned, we didnt practise different situations for different scenarios we went in blindly with the assumption that we had the best midfield in the world (which was conclusively proved as bollox) and ultimately we relied on an unfit temperamental 20 yr old (who is heavily overrated) as the man to win thw world cup for us



McLaren will be same old im afraid, no personality and no inspiration. Never handled the big egos at club level and cant see him being brave enough to make the needed changes.

Look at his record with Boro, hardly inspiring, often struggled to get the best out of the players hes had. At highbury this yr, 4-0 at half time he didnt change anything just sat there watching his side getting humiliated until it ended 7-0 and then explained it as one of those days. In Europe they played poorly and got lucky coming from behind a few times.

Personally hope he doesnt last a yr in the job

To think we turned down Hiddink for the job - look at his record with Korea and Australia, has won the champs league yet the FA wanted to interview him 4 times to see if he was suitable!!! Instead weve got a yes man who will do as the eejits in charge of the FA tell him to


good luck to your lot later

Hear, hear, Fundy - spot on, amigo!

The first thing a referee does for violent conduct.... without hesitation is take the red card out.....This guy did not or attempt to until Rooney pushed Ronaldo... he was just going to give a free kick...Watch the video he is just standing there with his arm outstreched, not going for a red card as violent conduct would suggest.

fundie, my personal opinion is that sven should have been sacked the moment he named his squad. his brief when he took over was to prepare a side for this tournament. the previous two tournaments were part of the preparation. this was supposed to be the coming of age of beckham, scholes, neville, butt, owen, gerrard, lampard, ferdinand, etc. .yet when he announced his squad he gave three spots to players with just one cap between them. that's failure in my eyes. as you say in your post, the friendlies were indeed worthless. sven had failed to prepare.

Chiva20, think you only see what you want to see, i agree with ref violent conduct

Watching Italy v Germany and first half the referee seems to be the star of the show.....

I fancy Italy need an early goal second half if they are to make their better quality count.... ;-)

Eccellente!

ggggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

what a game!!!!!!!!!!!! buzzin off me tits.

Bos are you italian ?

I think he's portuguese! ;o)

Only playing - I clearly stand alone supporting Rooney here - still firmly believe we are a stronger side (on paper) than any other squad this year. Will be gutted for some time to come!

Easily stronger than any other team on PAPER, but our managers have and will hold us back from reaching our potential any time soon.
Hoping France beat Italy in the Final, it would be a credit to Zidane.

i fear it is zidane's last game tonight, one way or another. hoping france will win as euro 2000 stills bothers me when the french robbed italy of victory in the 93rd minute after being played off the park. revenge, and all that .........!
chiva, gd potts, i don't know how you both can say that. england have a very good 1st eleven. outside of that 11/12 the quality drops significantly.

and so the final is decided.

france



will play

italy

Lee, you must be chuffed to bits, I didn't see the Italy game but everyone was talking about what a great game it was yesterday, can't see them losing against France.

certainly hope not, pete. should be a cracker of a final. france, an ageing team, zidane's last game, henry with a point to prove, the team finding their confidence and form, against italy, a team playing against a backdrop of scandal and corruption, totti starting to play for the team and not for totti, rock solid at the back , del piero's last chance, the team playing with style and confidence and enjoying themselves. what a game it's building up to be ......... which means the teams will cancel each other out and it will be a dull, drab game !!!! :)
poor portugal, their lack of a striker told in the end. such good approach play but no one there to finish it all off. some disgraceful theatrics by both teams, hopefully, that's the last we'll see of that!!! and probably the last we'll see of figo, what a player!!

A disappointly dull match last night, I thought. I switched on just in time to see ZZ take his penalty shot (didn't I say France would get lucky against Portugal?) but then France's playing got steadily more uninspired as the second half went on and if there had been another 10 mins' play then it could have been a very different story. I think the French had better find some motivation quickly if they are to have a hope of dispatching the Italians.

Gut feeling is telling me the Portuguese may just sneak it in the fight for third place - in spite of the Germans looking to be much better at getting the ball near the white spindly objects at the ends of the pitch. In the games I've seen, Portugal always seem to spoil it for themselves by firing their shots from about 500 yards and either sending the ball into orbit or giving the goalie all day to react. Maybe they'll manage to find a way to keep the ball within the stadium come the weekend.

Germany 3rd, Italy 2nd, and France 1st.
Italy will fail at the last hurdle just like they did last time. The lack of strikers will be the end, Luca Toni is basically a brutal donkey who had a good season, rather like Darren Bent. Del Piero is an ageing old boy who got lucky and Totti is shameful.

mr potts, i'm very happy with your predictions considering you've got fcuk all else right in this tournament !! :) could've done with france having a tougher game than the gentle workout they got last night, but, i think italy will be too srong for them. the only thing that worries me about france is the pace they have up front. bvut, then gain, the way this defence has played this tournament i think the french will be more concerned in trying to figure out a way through.