[tuamigos]

stunning 

[LiamTheBaggie]

Lets get back to the moaning then 

[Jack Russell]

more encouraging in the second half thats for sure

[Legend]

England to win the World Cup, might have a bet on it.

[east-stand-nick]

England to win the World Cup, might have a bet on it.

Might be easier to place a tenner in your toilet bowl and flush.

[kris_boing]

Good result, better 2nd half performance, Hart fantastic, Johnson and Walcott appalling.
 
This looks like a poor Brazil side to me but no doubt come the tournament they will raise their game and we (if we get there) will go into our shell as always.

[beechyboy90]

Good result, better 2nd half performance, Hart fantastic, Johnson and Walcott appalling.
 
This looks like a poor Brazil side to me but no doubt come the tournament they will raise their game and we (if we get there) will go into our shell as always.

dont know how walcott gets a game might as well start an empty plastic bag sometimes. the bloke is quick and is a good prem player but nothing on world stage. should play the ox over him everyday of the week. Fat Frank is still our key man.

looked good on the counter in general we have speed throughout the team

[kris_boing]

Walcott is an impact player at best.  Good to shove on when defenders are tired.

[Jack Russell]

Roy will never make an England manager.He is not a cup tournament type manager.He likes his draws and draws don't get us anywhere because we cant take penalties.
Come back to us Roy and keep us mid table forevermore

[Dexy]

While i don't think we will win anything i do think some of the moaning is over the top , this side is one or two good strikers away from being decent imo.

[Legend]

Roy will never make an England manager.He is not a cup tournament type manager.He likes his draws and draws don't get us anywhere because we cant take penalties.
Come back to us Roy and keep us mid table forevermore

He got Fulham to the Europa League final beating teams such as Juventus on their way. England fans always blame the manager but the quality is just not their anymore. Best chance we had of winning a tournament was between 2002-2006. Even then we got knocked out on penalties twice and got beat by a freak goal from Ronaldinho. We have generally had rotten luck in tournaments.

[kris_boing]

The simple fact is we don't have enough world class players to win a tournament. 
 
We wasted our chance to win a major tournament from 2002 to 2006 under Sven.  We had truly world class players to pick from who were in their prime in Scholes, Gerrard, Beckham, Lampard, A Cole, Owen and Rooney in a team with the likes of Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, G Neville who were all winners playing for top sides.
 
Under Sven he couldn't decide on his best side and kept shunting Scholes first and latterly Gerrard out wide to accommodate Lampard in midfield resulting in none of them recreating their club form.
 
We had the team and the players back then and between those players and the management of the time they royally screwed it up.
 
This current batch has absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning a major tournament.
 

[hardtobeat]

Pretty awful first half pretty good second half.Walcott was Brazils best defender and Johnson at times their best attacker,he really cannot defend!Hart kept us in it and Rooney did a lot of good work,substitutions made a vital difference.

[Greenock Baggie]

While i don't think we will win anything i do think some of the moaning is over the top , this side is one or two good strikers away from being decent imo.

I agree mate.....we have a decent proven striker ( when he's fit) in Jermain Defoe but for some reason he hardly gets a look in, probably due to his fitness but I'd play him above Rooney as a striker. Rooney did F/A apart from score adeflected goal. Yes I know that's what he's there for but he's not right for an out and out striker role.

[zippyandbungle]

Rooney can do it...but often doesn't , world class players are Consistent, which is why Cole, Lampard, Gerrard are the closest we have, Roy takes unfair abuse for 2 reasons 1) the players are just not good enough, 2) he's not Redknapp.

The next World Cup winners will begin with B , Brazil at home always strong and Belgium, Lukaku  , benteke, Vermalen , vertonghen, miralas, hazard, de bryune , mingolet, courtouis,kompany etc etc.

[Hunnington Baggie]

Rooney can do it...but often doesn't , world class players are Consistent, which is why Cole, Lampard, Gerrard are the closest we have, Roy takes unfair abuse for 2 reasons 1) the players are just not good enough, 2) he's not Redknapp.

The next World Cup winners will begin with B , Brazil at home always strong and Belgium, Lukaku  , benteke, Vermalen , vertonghen, miralas, hazard, de bryune , mingolet, courtouis,kompany etc etc.

Call it controversial, but i have a feeling they are going to turn into the old Spain. Rivalling Holland as the best team not to win. Naturally I have no evidence, but I think they'll flop at the World Cup....

[WBAinDEVON]

Do you think England will qualify for Brazil? I think we will get there via the playoffs

[dont ask me to choose luv]

Call it controversial, but i have a feeling they are going to turn into the old Spain. Rivalling Holland as the best team not to win. Naturally I have no evidence, but I think they'll flop at the World Cup....

Agreed, I'm of a similar opinion.

On the subject of England, just wondering if uncle Roy may be going down the old Italian way, not convincing in the qualifiers but doing enough & then scraping through the finals by being hard to beat, not saying it will happen but if England won the world cup playing rubbish football, there wouldn't be many moaning, I doubt.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Do you think England will qualify for Brazil? I think we will get there via the playoffs

Our performances so far in qualifying have left a lot to be desired. The important game will be Poland at Wembley. As it stands, I really don't see us qualifying unless we can pull something out the bag. As much as I'd like England to qualify to be at the World parties and to compete on the grandest stage of them all, we'll only be set up for disappointment when we get there so it might be a blessing in disguise if we don't qualify afterall. Jokes aside, if we don't qualify it will be an absolute embarrassment and would be typical of how England as a nation has been let down by it's players and footballing authorities over the last ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years. I don't think the national game has been considered so poorly as it now, that's partly due to a lack of success but the way the current players, and some who have previously retired have viewed it as a burden - the pulling out of squads for ridiculous injuries but managing to play for their clubs on the saturday - unless that mentality changes then the glamour of the national game will continue to decline.

There is always expectation following England but for a country our size to not be competing or at least winning tournaments is frankly abysmal. The wait has gone on far too long and the FA can hold themselves accountable due to the growth of English footballers being quite frankly poor - still, least the Premier League makes some money, eh?

[Hunnington Baggie]

Do you think England will qualify for Brazil? I think we will get there via the playoffs

sounds about right.

But I don't think England are a bad team, I relate them (rather fittingly) to Liverpool. The players are there and of the quality but are inconsistent as a whole, while the hype around them (built mostly from the media) makes them out to be MUCH better than they actually are , and conversely much worse at the same time, but it's still a good enough team on their day. I predict we'll get in, and I'm going to predict an Italian-styled improvement over the tournament that'll get us up to the semi finals. Which isn't bad at all on the face of things.

[Hunnington Baggie]

Our performances so far in qualifying have left a lot to be desired. The important game will be Poland at Wembley. As it stands, I really don't see us qualifying unless we can pull something out the bag. As much as I'd like England to qualify to be at the World parties and to compete on the grandest stage of them all, we'll only be set up for disappointment when we get there so it might be a blessing in disguise if we don't qualify afterall. Jokes aside, if we don't qualify it will be an absolute embarrassment and would be typical of how England as a nation has been let down by it's players and footballing authorities over the last ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years. I don't think the national game has been considered so poorly as it now, that's partly due to a lack of success but the way the current players, and some who have previously retired have viewed it as a burden - the pulling out of squads for ridiculous injuries but managing to play for their clubs on the saturday - unless that mentality changes then the glamour of the national game will continue to decline.

There is always expectation following England but for a country our size to not be competing or at least winning tournaments is frankly abysmal. The wait has gone on far too long and the FA can hold themselves accountable due to the growth of English footballers being quite frankly poor - still, least the Premier League makes some money, eh?

What does that say about the Dutch? At least we've won a major tournament (which i don't think Holland has)and arguably the Dutch national side have a consistently better team with some very big names in there.

[LiamTheBaggie]

What does that say about the Dutch? At least we've won a major tournament (which i don't think Holland has)and arguably the Dutch national side have a consistently better team with some very big names in there.

Without wishing to sound rude, Hunnington. I don't really give a rubbish about the Dutch and what they do. I'm interested to see what England do and ever since 1966, it hasn't really been good enough.

The Dutch have failed in tournaments but have no doubt brought through some very entertaining, technically gifted footballers which we haven't been able to produce with the exception of a few.

[Hunnington Baggie]

Without wishing to sound rude, Hunnington. I don't really give a rubbish about the Dutch and what they do. I'm interested to see what England do and ever since 1966, it hasn't really been good enough.

The Dutch have failed in tournaments but have no doubt brought through some very entertaining, technically gifted footballers which we haven't been able to produce with the exception of a few.

It was just an example, there are plenty of teams with high stature that haven't won in many years and perhaps never won. We aren't a unique case, not by a long shot. But because of this habit to beat the current players with the team's history then it make us look much much worse (reminds me of another link with Liverpool, living off past glory)

[LiamTheBaggie]

It was just an example, there are plenty of teams with high stature that haven't won in many years and perhaps never won. We aren't a unique case, not by a long shot. But because of this habit to beat the current players with the team's history then it make us look much much worse (reminds me of another link with Liverpool, living off past glory)

Indeed and that's a problem for Dutch football and one they'll look to eradicate.

My problem isn't winning competitions, it's the lack of challenge we provide in winning them. In general, English players aren't good enough and questions have to be asked why - especially when we're a country which in football terms produces a hell of a lot of money yet the national team doesn't reflect that. I don't tend to beat anybody with a history stick but the current crop, the golden generation if you like have proved themselves to be incredibly average in competitions and not good enough - the quarter finals was their peak. However, there's no denying that their antics over the years has frustrated the nations supporters who would have given anything to represent their country whereas many nowadays seem to view it as a burden.

[boing_boing68]

of course we will qualify as group winners, if we can't qualify from that group then it's pointless going to the world cup anyway.
the problem we have as a nation is we don't have a good enough strikeforce, was talking about this today at work and we couldn't name 5 strikers we would take.