The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Thread

[Psychotic]

That ref has no idea what the smurf he has just unleashed. May god have mercy upon his soul!

Dodgy decisions aside, come the smurf on, England, stop with this long ball . We're playing Rooney and Defoe up front. They are not giants. Play it to feet. How smurfing hard is it? And what the smurf is going on down the left at the back? The Germans are tearing us apart. Was going to suggest Upson off as he is clearly not up to the occasion but hopefully his goal has boosted him. Keep playing like we did after the first goal and we can score, take them to penalties and lose on them! ...provided we stop letting them in at the back, smurfing hell.

[Chris]

I feel so bad for Lampard. Just not his luck today!

[Cuchulainn]

germany have completely owned england. I mean totally outclassed them.

[champagne supernova]

Damn, I really wanted Messi to destroy Johnson to prove my point. England, I dislike you.

[Psychotic]

smurf me with a rake.

I knew England would never be able to beat Germany, but I had no idea it would be such a brutal and violent rape.

No hyperbole, worst England team ever.

...at least we did better than the French.

[Loony BoB]

New Zealand
Unbeaten at the 2010 World Cup. How about you?

But seriously, I dunno. Germany were the better team for the majority of the game but England still may have done a lot better if things had gone their way. Momentum is a lovely thing and the goal-that-wasn't would have changed that. Either way, they seem incapable of defending against counterattacks and I think that's what did it. I wonder what England would be like if they switched strategy to become a running counter attacking team instead of a slow playing possession team?

Going for Mexico (I know, it won't happen) and Spain now.

[Pete for President]

I think England was doing pretty well out there for the first 60 minutes or so, but Germany was relentless. I hope it's gonna be Germany vs. Argentina next round. That would be really interesting.

[Rye]

smurf me with a rake.

I knew England would never be able to beat Germany, but I had no idea it would be such a brutal and violent rape.

No hyperbole, worst England team ever.

...at least we did better than the French.

Huxley predicted you would say exactly that.

[The Captain]

In the end, the USA and England were just not good enough.

I actually like our chances going into the next World Cup better then England's, whose players looked painfully old and slow, almost Italian-like by the end of the game.

I was very worried that we'd still be on a high from the last game and when Ghana scored early, my fears were realized. However, this cup has given a lot of the players great experience. Mike Bradley looks like he could develop into a very good holding midfielder and if Altidore could just learn to aim better, well, things might be different. Donovan had a great clutch tournament, though I think his influence will be on the downside come the next World Cup. Dempsey was dangerous as always but the man needs to bulk up if he wants to take that next step. He was easily pushed off the ball at times and while he is so clever, that extra bit of strength could go a long way. Howard remains a world class goalkeeper, but we need to find faster, stronger defensive players. We were too easily opened up. I look to this as a learning experience for the USA and expect much better things in the coming years. Winning the group was great, the come from behind victory was nirvana, and now I just hope we continue to take steps forward and not feel like we've accomplished enough.

As for England:

Everyone was so high on Capello, but I wonder if he was the right man in the end. Sports teams tend to thrive on a motivator, not a dictator, and when you have a team that is as high-strung as England, you NEED someone who can ease the pressure, lighten the mood and make the players relax. Capello, arms crossed throughout the tournament, has looked like a principal watching his students in detention and I think the players as a result were scared to make a mistake. In the end, it comes down to this, the defense was too slow, the midfield couldn't hold the ball and the forwards were just not good enough. Rooney had a miserable tournament, not all his fault but, he looked increasingly sulky. Terry really played awful all tournament long. I've never understood the appeal in him frankly. Yes he's vocal, yes he can be brave, but his instincts always seem to let him down and as a center back, you can't do that. England need new youthful blood at center. I'm a bit shocked really that Mike Dawson didn't at least get a look.

Ironically, after all the talk of how he never performs, I thought Gerrard was England's best player this tournament, but he probably won't be around in 2014. Gerrard isn't a winger, he never will be a winger. Lampard isn't a holding player, he never will be a holding player. If Gerrard is still around in 2014 and no other striker has made the leap, play him off Rooney, and play actual wingers and holding midfielders because in the end, the team was basically isolated from itself. The defense was left on its own and couldn't deal with pace. The forwards were starved of service and as has been pointed out, aren't tall, so high crosses in aren't going to work. Trying to put all the "stars" together is the problem. England need to re-embrace a team mentality and not try and just put the best names on the field. Don't worry about egos, seriously. If you want to win, put the best team on the field. If a player bitches about not playing, then they don't deserve to represent their country.

The first half of the England-Germany game was a classic and while the Lampard goal would have changed the tide, in the end, the better team won. This isn't supposed to be Germany's year yet, but you know what, an Argentina - Germany quarter would be EPIC and based on how both teams have looked, I think one of them may be our champion. I'd still enjoy seeing an outsider like Spain or Netherlands win their first Cup, but I think we may have to settle for the old guard, who are anything BUT old.

Take care all.

[Loony BoB]

I think the biggest problem with Cappello is that he found a strategy that worked for England and then he changed it back to the same old strategy for the World Cup that causes them to cock up every tournament.

[The Captain]

I agree with that.

I think the team thought they would breeze on through and as such, had no real passion to play, no focus, and let their egos (Including Capello) dictate everything.


Take care all.

[Croyles]

What a game!

Referee was a complete dumb ass and it should have been a goal, but Germany still would have won in the end because England were really poor defensively, and those long balls really killed it for England.

I was hoping for a 5-1 or 6-1 as that would have stopped the dumb ass 5-1 comments.
Its still revenge.

English media and commentators are still ridiculously stupid. All that talk about Germany being poor to average at best and them showing all the mistakes the german defense have made and showing all the successes of the english attack while leaving everything else out in the pre-match discussion.

Well, Germany still have Beckenbauer, who is like the biggest dumb-ass of them all.
It does hurt to see England play like that though, I was hoping for a much closer game.

Also, I was watching it in a bar with 5 friends of mine, 3 of which support Germany, 1 doesn't care and the other for England. We were thouroughly outnumbered in support and we were in quite a bit of danger from a few roudy people. One twat kept screaming at the english players to "break those smurfing kraut legs" and "slit their throats!"
He told us to smurf off whenever we celebrated (while we were also happily chatting to some fair open minded england supporters) and he probably would have tried to beat the crap out of me after the game if the bouncers hadnt come and kicked the idiot out.
Ugh, why does football have to be like this here?
I know there are a lot of england supporters who aren't cocks, unfortunately the cocks are always the ones who surface and it really brings me down.

It was quite sad to see all the faces of the people in town today, so I couldn't celebrate cause I felt bad. I need to let off some steam somewhere though, otherwise im gonna implode!

Neuer was the worst german player on the pitch until the last 10 minutes or so.

[Old Manus]

I was watching it in a Swansea bar, so as you can expect it was full of less-than-intelligent 'Germany' supporters. Both teams' defences were absolute horror shows, it was just that Germany had the cutting edge up front, while England didn't and stupidly relied on Matthew 'missile long ball' Upson to kick horrendous balls forward to the (very lacking in the height department) Defoe and Rooney. This never worked over the entire game.

In summary, Capello got it all wrong in this tournament. Secondly, I'm just going to throw this out there, but HARRY REDKNAPP FOR NEXT ENGLAND MANAGER.

[Cuchulainn]

Özil is one of the greatest talents I've seen. I'd love him at Old Trafford.

[charliepanayi]

England - the Newcastle United of international football?

Terrible decision aside for the Lampard goal (and to the BBC's credit after the game they didn't use it as an excuse, even juxtaposing it with England's third goal in 1966 at the end - considering the petulance of the pundits in 2004 and 2006 after England's exits this was a pleasant surprise), England were awful. I think Germany might not get past Argentina if they face them but they were great today, and made a mockery of the ' they're not all that' comments in the English press which Croyles mentioned. Aside from 60 minutes or so against Slovenia England haven't performed yet again, and you wonder if anything will ever get done about it.

I hope Capello stays anyway, the idea of Redknapp ever being England manager is hilarious (and not in a good way).