Thought I'd start a football blog, we might keep this going until 2010.....England doing well....did not see the match or even the goals....I'd like Michael owen back in the squad though....and I think Peter Crouch would make a very good substitute...remember against Argentina in Geneva a few years ago....with Michael Owen and some very good movements on and off the ball...they caused havoc.....did see Scotland's missed chance....that could be very costly losing those 2 points !.

Missed the game so can't comment...I remember Michael Owen (pre 2006 world cup) as a tremendous player, unstoppable at times....very bad injury though...

tabby i think owen's winning goal against City will in Sir Alex's mind have paid back his whole investment in Owen.

but then again....you must know better than Sir Alex.....

TrigI would say you know quite a bit about footballnow tell me with hand on heartwas the motive for signing that useless pratt anything more than an ego trip by Sir Alexto prove he could turn the spasmo back into a European forcenot a chancehe wont last one season
Keep teaching young Mr. Foetze to kick with both feet

now personally i do not rate Owen....you english get all excited and over hype your won players...he has been a waste of money for years.

however sir alex needed a finisher for the squad this season ......owen when he is fit is a finisher...the probelm is he gets injured too much and is a bit of a girl....ah i cut myself shaving...need to not play for 4 weeks

however what my point above was getting at was on a free and not on a huge wedge and him hitting the winner against City...if he does not play another minute all year I am sure Sir Alex will still be smiling about his signing.

young mr treblewide is already quite capable with both feet....gonna be a mazy left winger i think :-)

My vision for M.Owen is to come on as a supersub for the England side....Defoe or Rooney or one of the others gets injured and we throw on Michael...you never know..last 15mn quarter final (world cup) and bang : he gets a priceless goal....(dream on required field).....

Anyone seen Gerard win the league ?

What the Champions league? Yes.

Arsenal are looking pretty impressive ...what I saw was like shooting pool : the shots on goal were superb, only downside is the defense is not fab and no English players though I have to admit they are going to have be very good to get into that side, the Gunners have improved tremendously as of late !.

Own goal from Rio ferdinand's brother : well they say keep it in the family....I bet there will be a lot of mentioning that when they get round a table...anyway from one rio to another ; I must congratulate Rio de Janeiro on getting the olympics : 2 years after hosting the world cup, they are going to be pretty busy in that part of the world, let's hope we get either 2018 or 2022...nothing is sure....it will be a football..political..corporate fight for that...which brings me to a sore point : the African nations including South Africa have 6 places (if I'm not mistaken) in the next world cup and a pretty poor record to go with it...apart from Cameroon's quarter final place in 1990 and Senegal's second round spot in 2002 (that's all I can remember) that's all they have achieved, now unless they put one or two countries in the quarter finals again very soon in the next world cup or in the following one there could be an outcry for a reduction in the number of entries....I know we have to encourage the third world into sport and such but six entries this time is a lot with such poor results. In Europe it is a huge battle to qualify and the same in South America so to me Africa is on a yellow card as far as number of participants is concerned, the same principle must apply to the North American zone where they seem to have far too many spots as well....anyway we shall see...it probably would not be the most popular decision to reduce these entries but after the destinations for the next world cups have been decided, I bet this comes up on the Fifa agenda a bit later.

rf, could you space the wording out a bit next time.. would make it easier to read, thanks.

Congratulations England, and the England staff...Capello and co...well done..!, now for the difficult bit...that cup we want to win it !...(let's win our group first of course..then we shall see)....The Ukraine match might be a blessing in disguise because in the last 2 games we have not played well so perhaps now the qualifying campaign has come to an end : we can play without reservation because you could sense that when the ball was played down the flanks the wingers or whoever was on that side were looking up to see where to play the ball...there should be no hesitation in an international...you have to go for it...anyway good luck to the Rebublic of Ireland in the draw on monday....no Sweden in the next world cup..surprising that...that's one country that England struggle to beat....we must not forget that the next world cup in South Africa will be played in cool conditions as it is their winter down there...come on England !.

rf.....i think you have a real chance...will be gutted if you do win it so am not going to wish you luck!

i think my faith in football is slowly being eroded away....i see the play offs are going to be seeded...absoultely ridiculous.....set up so the big audinces and tv rights in italy/france etc are won.

the game is now becoming secondary to money.....its yet another sad episode for me

Congratulations on England qualifying .... narrows it down to 23 teams to support in SA.

Last European Championships weren't the same here in Wales not seeing an over hyped over rated England team get knocked out on penalties.

:-)

Dilspoken like a true BritI guess you dont rate England on a World Cup basisand draw comparisons with home teams such as Wales.

England's World Cup Final Tournament Record
Type P W D L F A
Home 6 5 1 0 11 3
Away 3 1 1 1 3 2
Neutral 46 19 15 12 60
All 55 25 17 13 74 47

Wales World Cup record. ..
1930 Did not enter
1934 Did not enter
1938 Did not enter
1950 Did not qualify
1954 Did not qualify
1958 Quarter-finals 7/16
1962 Did not qualify
1966 Did not qualify
1970 Did not qualify
1974 Did not qualify
1978 Did not qualify
1982 Did not qualify
1986 Did not qualify
1990 Did not qualify
1994 Did not qualify
1998 Did not qualify
2002 Did not qualify
2006 Did not qualify
2010 Did not qualify

Total qualified once.did you spot the difference?

Yeah but the difference is tabby we know we are sh*te and don't delude ourselves.

:-)

Cant argue with that.

Dil : there are 32 teams in SA...8 groups of four....23 teams ?....anyway, I think the Republic of Ireland stand a good chance against anybody....first game away might be good for them...

Bloody marvellous , an extra 8 to cheer on :-)

That makes 31...so you're dead against the irish lot then ?

Vote SNP, and Plaid Cwymru (however its spelt) and then you lot can go and **** off to your little corners of GB, and we can continue as one of the worlds leading nations.

The power of envy eh ?