World Cup Thread

[BillyStubbsTears]

How about this?

1966.

Real Madrid won the European Cup.
Man City won the league (*)
Burnley got into Europe
Chelsea finished 5th

And you know what happened that summer.


(*) Division 2 title, admittedly, but whaddya want? Perfection?

[Colemans Left Hook]

and I'm very surprised people haven't twigged today is the battle with a Belgium "team"  but the war could well end next month as they say we'll meet again !!!  for the final curtain

it happened in 1962 as we all know czecks in same group as brazil and met in the final

think czecks got a measly 3 points in the group

[PDX_Rover]

Good goal by the Belgians. Second place will do me nicely. Have not seen any team to fear so far.

[Cantley Rover]

I thought we weren't going out to try and finish second?

[RedJ]

Christ this is boring.

[PDX_Rover]

I don’t think we’re trying to finish second but it’s not a disaster if we do and arguably an easier path? It’s what it is.

[GazLaz]

Going beautifully to plan.

[Cantley Rover]

It's to be hoped nothing happens to Harry Kane as without him we are f**ked.

[drfchound]

Not too worried about losing this game but.........Delph seemed to get caught in possession too often, Rashford showed why he isn’t a first choice and Dier showed why Henderson is in front of him.

A shame for Southgate that we lost a great unbeaten run but it is the next game that matters now.

[Cantley Rover]

Dier and Jones should never get near the first 11 for me.

[Alan Southstand]

Dier, Delph and dare I say it Loftus-Cheeck are nowhere near the first team. At least, we've found that out now. Jamie Vardy also can only be played for certain situations - not good enough.

We tried but we failed. Not the end of the World as we have what we wanted really, the easier route to the final.

[roversdude]

Agree with comment about Dier and Jones, never really rated Jones but Dier has gone backwards in his England career
Excellent outcome if not an excellent result

[bobbymax]

Dier, Delph and dare I say it Loftus-Cheeck are nowhere near the first team. At least, we've found that out now. Jamie Vardy also can only be played for certain situations - not good enough.

We tried but we failed. Not the end of the World as we have what we wanted really, the easier route to the final.

Loftus-Cheek was our best player by a country mile, though Maguire looked very assured in the second half. None of the other outfield players should be playing Tuesday.

[Rovers91]

Dier, Delph and dare I say it Loftus-Cheeck are nowhere near the first team. At least, we've found that out now. Jamie Vardy also can only be played for certain situations - not good enough.

We tried but we failed. Not the end of the World as we have what we wanted really, the easier route to the final.

Loftus-Cheek would stay in for me, there's certainly areas he can improve on but I think he looks good and offers something different to the midfield.

[GazLaz]

Dier, Delph and dare I say it Loftus-Cheeck are nowhere near the first team. At least, we've found that out now. Jamie Vardy also can only be played for certain situations - not good enough.

We tried but we failed. Not the end of the World as we have what we wanted really, the easier route to the final.

Loftus-Cheek would stay in for me, there's certainly areas he can improve on but I think he looks good and offers something different to the midfield.

He’s quality RLC.

[Tarkovsky_Mikluzhkin]

Re:Rashford

100% Sterling squares it. 1-1

The reason I'm not in the England squad is because i'd run around like a headless chicken get well too excited, shoot everytime I was in their half and try and dribble around the entire team everytime I was in ours.
Not sure why Rashford isn't out of contention based on the same criteria, in fact people love him for those flaws. (Just watch Slovakia's goal after 3 mins in the qualifiers, dribbling through the team from your own 6 yard box. That'll cost you dearly in a major tournament. until he's matured a bit stick him on the bench!!)

[Alan Southstand]

There is one thing that we found out tonight - boy, did we miss Lingard!

[Colemans Left Hook]

the phrase "suckers " you won comes to mind. Seriously to stop a situation like this happening again. When it's the last match of the first round fifa ought to give the winners a choice which group they go into -- personally i thought we might have got a draw lots situation - 

just checked my facts from 1974 and we have had this situation before

http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/07/01/east-germany-v-west-germany-world-cup/

1974 World Cup
The East Germany v West Germany match was to be the last tie of the first round, which had started well for both teams: West Germany had defeated Chile and Australia, while the East Germans had defeated Australia and drew against Chile. As Australia and Chile drew 0-0 in their last match, it became clear that both German teams would qualify, no matter the result of the match in Hamburg.

Still, it was an important event, with the West Germans as huge favourites: besides being at home, the team were defending European champions, and had a core of players from the Bayern Munich team that a month earlier had lifted the European Champions Cup trophy after crushing Atlético Madrid in the final.
This goal was enough for the East Germans to win the group, and they celebrated. This was a victory that resounded across the world.

However, as the World Cup continued, things went differently for both teams. East Germany, who had won the group, now paradoxically had the tougher challenge of facing Brazil and the Netherlands in the next round, and were indeed eliminated. On the other hand, West Germany had an easier draw and won the rest of their matches, including the final against the Netherlands, to become world champions, erasing the humiliation of losing to East Germany.

I remember thinking that match was "fixed"

[grayx]

If Pickfords our best keeper then we’ve got problems.. Rose not at his best but i’d start him instead of Young. Noboby else really took their chance to impress.

[Filo]

Job done as far as I'm concerned, who would want to be in the other side of the draw?

[auckleyflyer]

Rashford and vardy!
Should put to bed slagging off of sterling! However wellbeck looked useful once on. Therefore promoted to 1st attacking sub for me??

[The Red Baron]

I've been very impressed with Southgate so far but he got that badly wrong. Yes, a few changes, fair enough. Cahill for Walker and change the wing-backs- no problem. But we ended up with a midfield which reminded me of Rovers at the end of last season when Copps and Tommy were out- no creativity at all. Plus two strikers who made the same runs all night.

On that basis you can see why Henderson, Lingard and Sterling, as well as Kane, are among the first names on the team sheet.

Before the game I thought Rose, who is naturally left-footed, might oust Young but he made such a mess on the goal that I doubt he'll be seen again barring injuries. One big concern was Pickford, who wasn't tested in the first two games but produced some alarming punches and nearly did a Rob Green in the first half. If I was either Butland or Pope, I'd be working extra hard in training tomorrow.

Ok, some will say we have an easier draw, but I'm not sure that Colombia, Sweden and Spain or Croatia isn't as difficult as Japan, Brazil and possibly France. Anyway, the most important game is the next one and personally I'd rather be playing Japan than Colombia. The only advantage I can see is that we're in Moscow rather than Rostov. Very disappointing.

[Filo]

I would n't read to much into last nights performance, we were giving fringe players a run out, that was nowhere near our starting 11. Columbia will be tough, but everyone in our side of the draw is beatable, this is our best chance for years to reach the final

[GazLaz]

The rest for the “first team” will be a big advantage.

[BillyStubbsTears]

TRB

You’ve got two halves of the draw.

One has:
Russia
Spain
Croatia
Denmark
Sweden
Switzerland
Colombia

The other has:
Uruguay
Portugal
Argentina
France
Brazil
Mexico
Japan

If you were given a choice between the two, which would you choose?

This isn’t a particularly strong England team, but fate has just chucked them a chance to become legends. We’ve got the weakest half of a draw in any WC since 2002 when an awful German side made it to the Final.

[Colemans Left Hook]

just imagine the consequences of Russia beating Spain tommorrow

seeing Moses "exodus" from being an Englishman to Nigeria (Ross Barkley could have also been playing for them if he had "chosen wisely" ) reminds me conveniently of the phrase "parting of the RED sea" ... after lasts night result more like "parting of the path to the semi finals" for England

and if those "reds under the beds" could beat Spain think we could use McMillan's phrase 'you have never had it so good'

[The Red Baron]

TRB

You’ve got two halves of the draw.

One has:
Russia
Spain
Croatia
Denmark
Sweden
Switzerland
Colombia

The other has:
Uruguay
Portugal
Argentina
France
Brazil
Mexico
Japan

If you were given a choice between the two, which would you choose?

This isn’t a particularly strong England team, but fate has just chucked them a chance to become legends. We’ve got the weakest half of a draw in any WC since 2002 when an awful German side made it to the Final.

We thought we'd dropped lucky two years ago when we got Iceland. And Columbia are potentially a more dangerous side than Iceland. (The Belgians probably thought the same about meeting Wales).

Apart from the Moscow / Rostov thing the only advantage I can see of last night is that Southgate can't have any doubts about his first XI.

[GazLaz]

We did drop lucky against Iceland. It guarantee nothing but makes winning the thing easier. If we are not good enough then we are not good enough, but we have more chance of winning the tournament today than we did yesterday. That’s a fact.

[BillyStubbsTears]

We didn’t drop lucky in 2016 actually. We f**ked up by not winning the group and ended up in a significantly harder half of the draw. Had we beaten Iceland, we’d have then faced France in the QF and Germany in the SF. We aren’t going to go very far in that half of the draw.

The fact that we got the weakest side in that half of the draw in R2 and lost to them merely showed how shite we were.


The issue now is that if this England squad wants to become legends, they want as easy a path as possible to the final. And that’s now what they have got. It’s irrelevant that we might arguably have had a slightly easier R2 match if we’d win the group. If we can’t beat Colombia, we wouldn’t have been going to be contenders anyway in the other half of the draw.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Here’s a funny thing.

We’re 3/4s of the way through the WC. But it’s really only just beginning. You tend to remember very little from the First round stage of a WC. The real memories and the outstanding moments of drama come from here on in.

Buckle up.