No Cup Glory for England yet Ireland

Flemmish Flame

In a few months the entire world will not be focused on Israel or Afghanistan, no it will be focused on Japan and South Korea for all the wright reasons !
THE WORLD CUP!
The funny thing is that England only sees Argentina as a potential threat ( 2 years ago Portugal was according to the English media a dwarf and could be eliminated easily )
Well and now the finally do have a manager who is realistic and knows the limited capabilities of his squad ( Neville, Keown, Heskey, Gerrard all excellent players at club level but they just lack the absolute top quality) and the matter of the fact is that England has played one descent game since Euro'96 against Germany where the had the perfect match, however this does not cover up the fact that against Albania, Finland and Greece they were less then impressive, actually with a bit luck Greece and Finland would have taken some points home:eek: And still the English media see their Albion becoming World Champions! no way, the Argentinians will exploit the weaknesses and Nigeria will remain as unpredictable as ever. Sweden is always difficult to play. England will not survive the first round
And Ireland..... Ireland will surprise everybody. Having played an excellent campain not losing away to Portugal and Holland and beating Holland and drawing against Portugal at home, playing a style from the heart Mick McCarthy has done more then qualify for the WC he has made a team of mediocre premiership players ( exception R.Keane of course) and even first division players into an well oiled engine which will hunt you down until the last minute of every game. One big thing Ireland has is the fact that is does not need a full chance to score a goal unlike their English collegues.
Ireland will face the toughest match in their group at the start namelingly Cameroon:( if they get a draw after that the Saudi's and even the old german team will find it very difficult to beat this Ireland side. Well and Ireland will probably reach the quaters maybe even the semi's and that is more praise then England will ever receive.
Come on Mick give it a shot

bucks73

I totally agree with you. Ireland will go further than England in the competition. England have two very hard games in rgentina and Sweden and while they should beat Nigeria it will be a sticky one.

Ireland are well capable of beating the Saudis and should take at least a point from the other two games, winning one of them. A refreshed Keano will be another advatage.

WhiteWashMan

i think youre both on drugs....

woosaysdan

Englands players are all great individual players but lack that team spirit that teams like Ireland have. The English team wont go far in the w/c because of this!!! They are also lacking a strong leader to motivate the team!!!

Flemmish Flame

that is just the problem with all english football fans. you lot overestimate yourself euro2000 was the proof of it remeber Portugal and Romania and the worldcup qualifiers just proved that England may have some fantastic players: Owen(If fit), Dyer( if fit), Scholer( most consitent player in the English Squad) and Beckham( a slight bit gay, but as a captain ok) the rest is a bunch of overestimated players( Heskey, Nevilles, Keown, the Coles, ect) and the good thing is that Erikson knows this and you obviously as well otherwise you would have given bit more arguments then : Are you on drugs

So when are yea gonna buy the beaufull Green ! :eek: :rolleyes:

Makaveli

If Nigeria can beat Spain then they can beat England. Although it is unlikley, England could finish their group with 0 points.

that is just the problem with all english football fans. you lot overestimate yourself euro2000 was the proof of it

What are you talking about? This point has no relation to any other posts made in this thread.

Vokes

that is just the problem with all english football fans. you lot overestimate yourself euro2000 was the proof of it

I think that proves hes on drugs..

But seriously, i think England will progress because as 'Flemish Flame' said himself England "finally do have a manager who is realistic and knows the limited capabilities of his squad" which means he knows their strengths and the team will focus on those. With Beckham's/Gerrards/Scholes passing and Owens goals, i can see England clocking up a few goals against a very shoddy Nigeria defense(they're very poor at defending set pieces as Scotland proved last night).

3 points against the Eagles and 1 apiece against the other 2, and England definetly have a realistic chance of progressing

bucks73

England are capable of beating Nigeria but they are also capable of losing one or both of the other games.

As for Makaveli, he is either on drugs or he must be looking at the 1982 fixtures. Spain?

Bateman

IF, and in my opnion its a very big if, we get past our group, we will get the Spanish, as I would be very surprised if they didnt top their group.
Spain pissed all over the hun last night, and it would be very unlikely that they didnt top their group. The German team of 1990 was written off as a no hope by everyone, the actually struggled to qualify, as this time, but went on to win it.
If, however, we can beat Germany, then we might just be capable of beating the Spanish.
But I wouldnt but any money on us getting out of the group.

incubus

yes but every w/c ive been around for spain have not lived up to there potential and i dont see this campaign been any different

Pigman

The thing I find exciting about this tournement is that we really don't know how well we will perform. Plus, we know little about our opponents too. Saudi Arabia could be a surprise package (along the lines of their 94 team), everyone writing Germany off because of the 5-1 drubbing. I actually think they are a better team than England and should have won their qualifying group. Cameroon hves us worrying but if you look at the facts they haven't got past the group stages in their past two world cups! I think the form guide will go out the window in this group and honestly I believe that any of the four teams could qualify for the last 16.

But on the bright side I keep having this thought that we'll be like the u20s were out in Malaysia in 1997 and blow everyone away with solid yet skillful football and maybe even get to the semi's if things go right for us. Fingers crossed!