Archive for June, 2010

A few days have passed now, we are coming towards the end of the first round of games. Its time to get back behind the lads like we did before the first game, We haven’t lost anything yet and don’t forget, We didn’t win our first game in 66!! Its time for a bit of Cabanga!

So we have seen the real highlights, were still a little sore about the result and what happened, but were English, it never to soon to take the piss!!

Source: Guardian

England drew 1 – 1 last night with USA, not the result we were all looking for but the next two games should produce two wins. Here are the highlights from the BBC

Source: BBC

I’m late today with this post, ive been busy making fire ribs for the BBQ!!

South Korea won their match this morning 2 – 0 this morning against Greece. The game was quite good, specially compared to what i watched yesterday!! Greece never really looked like they would get into the game and score, it was a deserved win for South Korea.

I’m currently watching the Argentina V Nigeria game, Argentina 1 – 0 up and they look comfortable so far, Nigeria will have to step up their game if they want to knock two past and win.

Then its England, i don’t even know what to say!! Capello hasn’t revealed his team yet, that’s coming later. There has been a lot of media speculation surrounding USA and how they should not be underestimated. I’m not sure if something has changed but i don’t see them as a dominating force, on their day, England can and will beat anyone, if England do not win today then it will be their own fault and not because USA are better than us.

All i can say is im glad there are another 62 games to go because day 1 was disappointing.

The first game was to be expected, neither team wanted to let a goal in and as a result we had a 1-1 draw just as i predicted. First half belonged to Mexico but the second half was South Africa’s, they were unlucky in the end not to score a winner at the end.

The second game of the day i expected to be a bit more lively, France have some real quality players and i was almost asleep with boredom by the time the game finished, France tried to turn the screw a little towards the end but it wasnt enough, a really disappointing 2 – 2

The time has come, Its day one of the world cup and there are two games to be played. Im hoping to write a prediction and a review of each game, however, if i don’t get to watch / listen to a game then im not going to review it, obviously!

Game 1

South Africa V Mexico – 15:00

A tough call. The build up for this world cup ends today. Everyone gets so excited they expect the game to be enthralling. In reality, nobody wants to loose the opening game of the world cup. Because of this, i think its going to be a 1-1 draw.

Game 2

Uruguay V France – 19:30

Second game of the tournament and the game with the most viewers today. Few Friday night drinks watching the football and i wont care who has won! As a prediction France will take this, they will give away a hand ball but they will win the game! Uruguay do have Forlan however which i think will have a great game, i even tip him to be the top scorer of the group stages, i think France have more goal scorers though and they will take it towards the end of the game.

Capello seems to be a guy that is really easy going until you step out of line, he has the aurora of a person everybody respects and if he says something then you listen and take it on board. He also seems like the type of guy that would be open to suggestion and take other peoples thoughts into consideration.

He stamped out the WAG’s which was the most sensible thing anyone to do with England has done. He has also installed respect and discipline into the dressing room. Now he is attempting to bring into line the media, and more importantly the paparazzi. I feel a little old school when it comes to how a manager conducts his business. The manager should have the final word and most importantly everything should be done behind closed doors.

In keeping with my expectations Capello has blasted a group of photographers who were trying to take pictures inside a treatment room. After gathering them round he asked them why they were taking pictures inside the room, they didn’t have an answer!

The papas were obviously trying to get a picture of an injury but the media add remarkable hype to the slightest thing. If there is something to know then Capello will tell us. Good on him i say Read the rest of this entry »

We all know America is a massive place, it seriously is, the state of Florida alone is the size of the UK. Maybe this story shouldn’t be a surprise but it is to be.

Football.co.uk have today ran with a story saying how their will be double the amount of USA fans compared to England fans in Rustenburg on Saturday.

Apparently the USA have sold almost twice the amount of tickets England have for our opening game of the World Cup. England sold 71,000 tickets for the opening game and USA 130,000. When i first read this it urged me to write this blog post but as i was writing it i realised, how do you get 201,000 people into a 40,000 seater stadium? Is Darren Brown attending?

***UPDATE***

I read the news article like a moron, the story says the total number of tickets for the whole tournament not for that specific game.

Confusion Causing A Random Post Started Here: Football.co.uk

Please Please Please find something else to bang on about on the news. Im not sure if its just radio 1 but their news is pathetic. Two days after England played in a friendly that wasnt even televised and the news is still talking about Rooney swearing at the Ref, Maybe the ref was a cock!

Do the English media have nothing better to do than predict impending doom before a major tournament? I’m surprised they haven’t pulled up some scandal from Capello’s childhood and tried to string him up yet.

How about the media and Radio 1 get over something that happened two days ago and start championing something positive.

England have won their final friendly before the world cup starts on Saturday for England against the USA.

Todays game was against Platinum Stars who are a domestic team in the South African team, The game was won 3-0 to England with Defoe, Cole and Rooney getting on the score card. The game was not broadcast on TV but there was lots of online commentary, from all accounts it sounded like a boring game, BBC report that the best thing to come out of the game was no injuries for England.

Rooney scored in the game but also picked up a yellow card after a few run ins with a couple of defenders. It’s good to see Rooney fired up but as the commentary said, its only a friendly!

I think England really need to step up their game against the USA. Its been a long time since ive seen England play with conviction and really take hold of a game. The time for boring ‘job done’ games is over, next time i see England play i want to see them control from start to finish like our top domestic teams do. USA should be a walk in the park, if they are not convincing in their first game then they will struggle.