The Football Thread

[mike siegel]

poor Green. I can't remember feeling more sorry for a player in years. At least it was during the first game
and not one of the later (hopefully) and more important ones.

So far a nice start into the tournament.
'Over here, the real excitement starts tomorrow. Anyone from Australia here at the forum ?

[Banjo]

Hey Banjo, how old is Gordon Banks?

Result: Argentina 1 Nigeria 0
           
            England 1 USA 1

My thoughts exactly! I did kinda prophesize this in an earlier post.   Very disappointed overall though i think it's fair to say that the USA were negative with their  only intention to draw with us. Looks very much like David "Calamity" James wil get the recall against Algeria.God help us!

[Banjo]

poor Green. I can't remember feeling more sorry for a player in years. At least it was during the first game
and not one of the later (hopefully) and more important ones.

So far a nice start into the tournament.
'Over here, the real excitement starts tomorrow. Anyone from Australia here at the forum ?

It was poor goalkeeping but i guess he was under an enormous amount of pressure.Yeah perhaps this is the ideal time if one's gonna slip up!

Anyway i await the Germany v Australia game with interest  considering England might meet either of these two if we can manage to get our act together.

[titoli]

It was poor goalkeeping but i guess he was under an enormous amount of pressure.Yeah perhaps this is the ideal time if one's gonna slip up!

Still I'm fazed by his mistake. That was a matter of fundamentals and Capello's gk trainer (Franco Tancredi) is one of the best around (he was gk for AS Roma in the '80's, one of the best gks of the era) for teaching those (assuming that needs teaching). I don't believe he was under pressure, as the game was proceeding grandly for England until that moment. That could turn into an advantage if Green will play next match, though. Or, hopefully not, killing him definitely. Anyway I think this is a good start for England: it will help keep the team concentrated. 

[titoli]

So far a nice start into the tournament.

To whom are you referring?

[titoli]

Algeria - Slovenia 0-1

Serbia - Ghana 2-0

Teutschland - Australia 1-1

[stanton]

Teutschland

Deutschland

[titoli]

Deutschland

Teutschland

[Banjo]

Still I'm fazed by his mistake. That was a matter of fundamentals and Capello's gk trainer (Franco Tancredi) is one of the best around (he was gk for AS Roma in the '80's, one of the best gks of the era) for teaching those (assuming that needs teaching). I don't believe he was under pressure, as the game was proceeding grandly for England until that moment. That could turn into an advantage if Green will play next match, though. Or, hopefully not, killing him definitely. Anyway I think this is a good start for England: it will help keep the team concentrated.  

Apparently Greens blunder is down to the weird aerodynamics of the new ball which has grooves etched into it to make it fly faster!

England did start  promisingly but on taking the lead we wasted a few chances and increasingly allowed the USA back into the game and could've easily lost it if Green hadn't have saved the USA's only real chance in the second half.Overall we were very unconvincing but as you say this isn't  necessarily a bad thing at the beginning of a tournament.Didn't Italy draw all their group games before going on to win the trophy in 1982?

[Banjo]

Algeria 1 Slovenia 1
Serbia  0 Ghana 1
Australia 0 Germany 2

[mike siegel]

Australia 0 Germany 2

Sounds good to me

[titoli]

England did start  promisingly but on taking the lead we wasted a few chances and increasingly allowed the USA back into the game and could've easily lost it if Green hadn't have saved the USA's only real chance in the second half.Overall we were very unconvincing but as you say this isn't  necessarily a bad thing at the beginning of a tournament.Didn't Italy draw all their group games before going on to win the trophy in 1982?

After a blunder like that teams could even go to lose matches. And USA was the strongest opponent in your group anyway so I think that draw will help maintaining concentration.

Allow me to repeat that the 1982 team was something unique. People seem not to value correctly that team because of Brazil having 4 or 5 superchamps and forgetting how limited was all the rest. The simple fact is that everybody, at that tournament, was waiting for Paolo Rossi to wake up knowing that when that would have happened, with the defense Italy had and with the rest of champs (Antognoni and Conti) it was the best team around. The manager knew it: only the newspapermen apparently hadn't realized it: but that was only to be expected. I don't think, of course, that England is that good: as we know since last WC the gk is too a vital role for a team who wants to win to put it in the hands of a green person. Still, I think the team played not so bad for a first match against not a secondary opponent. So I think you have to be sanguine about the future. Wish I could say the same about our team. 

[Banjo]

I don't England are even near as good as the team we had in Italia 90 when we had the calibre of Gascoigne,Barnes,Waddle,Lineker etc.Probably our last truly great team but they too started mediocre as i remember.We also had a world class keeper in Peter Shilton then, his only shortcoming being his height.He dived the right way for each of the German penaltys but couldn't quite reach the ball. Looking at the Algeria v Slovenia game at the moment i see no reason why we shouldn't progress from our group,but if we don't win the group we could end up facing the daunting  likes of Argentina prematurely.

Just like with Germany you can never write off Italy in these competitions so i'll reserve judgement at least until i see them in their first game.

[Banjo]

Result:Algeria 0 Slovenia 1

Another correct prediction. You must have a 50% success rate so far!

Titoli 3
Banjo 0

[Banjo]

Result:Serbia 0 Ghana 1

One right at last!

Titoli 3
Banjo 1