World Cup review

England's First Game




(Against Tunisia)


Fantastic. Anybody who watched the game could not fail to be impressed by this match. England played well after the opening first 20 minutes, in which they were admittedly shit. But, apart from Shearer who did not have the best game he's ever played, and Sheringham who looked a bit slow, everybody else had a solid opening game. I was particularly impressed with the cool, calm and collected way in which David Batty bicycle-kicked that bloke in the head. (poor lad). Paul Scholes had a good good game overall and thoroughly deserved his goal at the end. I reckon he might be a star of the tournament. Sol Campbell had one of the best games I've seen him play, in fact, I'd rate him as Bobby Mooresq in the way he controlled the defence. Paul Ince had an absolute stormer of a game as he often does. For all the shit Glenn's got for picking Anderton over Beckham, the Spurs man did pretty well apart from the odd cross went astray. Beckham's a right twat anyway. Anyone who gets to pork a spice girl

every night

cannot surely be lucky enough to play in the world cup. Although Shearer had a quiet game, he is quality enough to get his name on the scoresheet anyway and he was getting a lot of crap from the Tunisian's (who are by the way a bunch of dirty fouling shits). Adams, Seaman, Southgate and Le Saux all looked at home, and Owen looked sharp when he came on.In the end it could of (and probably should of) been 3, 4 or 5-0. Next match is versus Romania in Toulose Monday the 22nd at 8pm.



Come on England !!!





England's Second Game




(Against Romania)


Well, what a let down. After the euphoria of the first result, English fans were shown up with what was quite frankly a shit performance. There was NO flair, no incision and worryingly, very little passion. There are a few good points to take out of this knacker performance however:-


• The English defence was again 'quite' solid (apart from the two diabolical goals that were given away)
  
  
• Sol Campbell had another towering performance and was for quite some time our main attacking force.
  
  
• Michel Owen and David Beckham should hopefully both be in the starting lineup for the Columbia game.
  
  
• David Seaman has got his one bad game out of the way and will now not let in another goal.
  
  Unfortunately, these good points get swamped by the number of bad points, ie.
  
  
• Shearer was on his own for the first 72 minutes.
  
  
• Scholes was non-existant.
  
  
• Seaman had a mare.
  
  
• Gary Neville didn't look at all comfortable at this level.
  
  
• Batty Couldn't play an attacking ball to save his life.
  
  
• Sheringham looked slow and was generally shit.
  
  
• The quality of crosses from the two wingbacks was just not good enough.
  
  
Beckham did look sharp however and seemed to relish the opportunity given, he was tough in the tackle, added to the game with his long balls (no pun intended) and he had a devilish free-kick which was narrowly over. Anderton was OK I suppose and he did have one excellent skill that I saw. Romania were pretty shit and we really should have beaten them though. They won't win it. HA. Next game is this Friday against Columbia at 8pm in Lens. A win 'could' see us top the group but a draw will be enough to see us through.





England's Third Game




(Against Columbia)


Well, we're through into the knockout stages, and thanks to the spawny Romanian's we get to have an early pop at the Argies. Hurray. The referee was shit, how dare he give scholes a yellow card for not retreating the full ten yards, give Shearer a yellow card for taking a free-kick early then only give a free kick when some drugged up Columbian scythes down Ince with a double footed challenge from behind. David Beckham was instrumental in utilsing Owen's pace because he seems to be the only one in the England side wanting to hit it over the top. Paul Ince had a top game, he is a bit of a nutter, but he says what needs to be said. In my opinion he should be captain purely because of the passion he shows and the inspiration he gives to the rest of the team. The wing-back system is growing on me all the time but you do need the right two players, ie. Anderton is a winger and Je Saux is a left back, consequently, it was very evident last night that the England team is very unbalanced, with almost all our attacks coming from the right. Maybe this was a consequence of Le Saux's mistake against Romania because he did seem to be lacking in confidence. Beckham, Owen and Anderton did combine well down the right flank though. Owen did well in that he wasn't afraid to take players on and he is obviously brimming with confidence. His pace last night was truly astounding and it was reasuring that he kept going throughout the game and didn't seem to tire. Shearer still hasn't hit top form and I think his best is still to come. McManaman looked as if he could be a good choice as substitute as he likes to run at defenders as well. Adams was superb in the heart of defence, never put a foot wrong and was my choice for man of the match. Campbell also had a very solid game at the back and his run was as fannytastic as they come. Neville was again quiet but I really don't think he's got the control or confidence yet at this level because as soon as he is pressured he just kicks it as far as he can. Seaman was sound (apart from his near fatal goal kick) but I think that was just nerves. Scholes needs to drop a bit deeper and be the link between defence and attack which at the moment is just not happening. Overall it was a good performance by England but we will need to put a higher percentage of chances in than we did last night or we're gonna get stuffed. The defence also needs to tighten up down the flanks and every player needs to follow Ince's example and close people down and actually tackle rather than just stand off them. We have only played Argentina three times in World Cup finals and the current score is 2-1 to us (and they cheated for their only victory) so it's not all doom and gloom.



The Falklands is still British isn't it ?


The game is in St Etienne on Tuesday 30th at 8pm in a stadium which holds 36,000 (the English have been allocated just over two thousand)



Bring on the Argies !!!!!!





England's Fourth (and last) Game




(Against Argentina)




BUGGER !

England played well but lost and are therefore out of this world cup, bag of shite that it is. It was a valient effort in the end by England who had Beckham sent off for stupidity early in the second half. Glenn however, has no right to say that we "definately would have won that game if we'd had eleven men" because the tactics and hence the game would have been very much different. Argentina's free kick was pure sex, Owen's goal was not the best goal of the world cup although it was superb. He's not worth £40 million of anybodies money. You've got to look on the bright side though and I have had the best part of a week to get over it. If we had got through we would have had to play Holland then Brazil, then either France or Croatia and I can't see us beating all three. Ince played with a broken ankle (hard bastard), Batty should never have taken that penalty but if you think we're hard done by when it comes to penalties, just look at Italy, they've been knocked out of the last three World cups on penalties. SHIT.

The boys done good, next stop Japan





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