Panama - about as good as MK Dons ...

[Filo]

No complaints about that, I would have preffered to have gine for the jugular in the second half and really send a statement regarding our attacking threat, as poor as Panama was we can only beat what is in front of us

[sedwardsdrfc]

It's because we are so involved in it that we don't see it as such a good performance. 6 nil against a team that held Belgium for 45min isn't bad and we all can see we didn't really try in 2nd half

I do worry that we'll try and overplay from the back against a good opposition as so far we've only caused our own problems but thats probably normal against teams that can't actually attack you properly

honestly i'm just happy we're making light work of poor teams in a WC its a big improvement on how we have recently faired. Belgium game will tell us how seriously we should take our chances 

[turnbull for england]

If we had got the penalties against Tunisia  for the offences we got them today we would be 10-2 over two games, can't be many that would argue with that

[dickos1]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

Seems your very weird view on football isn’t just limited to rovers.
Germany have been absolutely woeful in both their games. And Sweden just put everything behind the ball and hope to hang on.
How you can say Germany have played better than us, god only knows

[Campsall rover]

Daft as it may seem after a 6-1 win I don’t think we played that well, but we didn’t need to.
Second half we didn’t even look as though we were bothered about scoring.
If we had broken sweat 2nd half we would have had 8/9/10 goals.
Anyway job done.
Let’s now see how good we actually are as Belgium will be a completely different kettle of fish.

Didn’t play well?
That first half performance was outstanding.
Understandable that we took the foot off the gas after the break.

What I mean hound is we scored 2 pens and 2 set pieces which yes were brilliantly executed.
From open play we scored 2 goals which yes again were very well worked.
But other than those two goals we were very pedestrian in our build up from open play.
We did not start as we did against Tunisia when we created 3/4 really good opportunities to score.
I know it seems mad to criticise after a 6-1 win but how many saves from open play did the Panama keeper have to make? Maybe we can win all our matches from set pieces and penalties which we look very good. Yes it doesn’t matter how you score or win as long as you score & win.
The next game will be a real test as to how good we are assuming both teams take it seriously.

[drfcdrfc]

The Panama keeper had 6 saves to make, and didn't save them????

[Campsall rover]

The Panama keeper had 6 saves to make, and didn't save them????

Correct, but you can see the point I am trying to make surely.

[drfchound]

The Panama keeper had 6 saves to make, and didn't save them????

We had a very creditable seven shots on target in our game.
The Germans yesterday only had six and yet many people are wetting their pants about them.
Super Spain managed five on target against the mighty Iran.
 

[drfcdrfc]

The Panama keeper had 6 saves to make, and didn't save them????

Correct, but you can see the point I am trying to make surely.

No, not really, the whole principle of your argument is ridiculous considering the shots/goal accuracy

[drfcdrfc]

Maybe our finishing is just that much better than what we have seen thus far?

[Chris Black come back]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

Seems your very weird view on football isn’t just limited to rovers.
Germany have been absolutely woeful in both their games. And Sweden just put everything behind the ball and hope to hang on.
How you can say Germany have played better than us, god only knows

Will you be calling for the Germany manager to be sacked if he doesn’t win the next game?

[Campsall rover]

The Panama keeper had 6 saves to make, and didn't save them????

Correct, but you can see the point I am trying to make surely.

No, not really, the whole principle of your argument is ridiculous considering the shots/goal accuracy

But I am only talking about open play not set pieces.
Look I am extatic about the result and the job was done so let’s leave it at that.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

Seems your very weird view on football isn’t just limited to rovers.
Germany have been absolutely woeful in both their games. And Sweden just put everything behind the ball and hope to hang on.
How you can say Germany have played better than us, god only knows

Strange that a side can be woeful against sides as decent as Mexico and Sweden and still manage 44 shots and over 2/3rds of the possession.

Germany have looked uncharacteristically disorganised at the back, but to say they have been woeful is something of an exaggeration. 

[Filo]

With this group of England players things can only get better, they are a young squad, the Euros on 2 years time might be a great target for them

[drfcdrfc]

With this group of England players things can only get better, they are a young squad, the Euros on 2 years time might be a great target for them

Fully agree with that, but the usual suspects will still bang on about how poor we do in tournaments yet how good the usual suspects always seem to be.

Past performance means nothing, all that matter is what you do with what is in front of you, on that particular day

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

To be honest the job is done now and pressure off. England look a team and force again.  Hopefully they go on and get more luck and strong performances.  With momentum they can best anyone.

[BillyStubbsTears]

With this group of England players things can only get better, they are a young squad, the Euros on 2 years time might be a great target for them

There is a lot of potential in this squad, no doubt. But as I say, until we see this defence cope with a strong attack, predicting success now or in the future is a bit premature. If we defend against a top side like we did in the first five minutes today, we’d be at least one down.

[Hounslowrover]

Considering the two games we've played, despite the results, I'm really worried about our defence, better sides will punish us.

[southwestexile]

Lingers - goal of the tournament so far. And Selby wouldn’t have picked him!

Firs Nigeria goal and Mrs Merton of Belgium have it for me

[dickos1]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

Seems your very weird view on football isn’t just limited to rovers.
Germany have been absolutely woeful in both their games. And Sweden just put everything behind the ball and hope to hang on.
How you can say Germany have played better than us, god only knows

Will you be calling for the Germany manager to be sacked if he doesn’t win the next game?

Least you’re consistent with your negativity

[dickos1]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

Seems your very weird view on football isn’t just limited to rovers.
Germany have been absolutely woeful in both their games. And Sweden just put everything behind the ball and hope to hang on.
How you can say Germany have played better than us, god only knows

Strange that a side can be woeful against sides as decent as Mexico and Sweden and still manage 44 shots and over 2/3rds of the possession.

Germany have looked uncharacteristically disorganised at the back, but to say they have been woeful is something of an exaggeration. 

They were terrible against Mexico, and not much better against Sweden.
Sweden are a poor side and Mexico were around 10/1 to beat them.
After Mexico in Germany they were in uproar at the performance and the manager then made 4 changes so obviously he wasn’t as happy as you seem to be with their performance

[Michael Shaw]

I can’t imagine the elation in the England camp having scored 8 goals in 2 games. What a start. Let’s hope they can build on the momentum.

[drfchound]

I can’t imagine the elation in the England camp having scored 8 goals in 2 games. What a start. Let’s hope they can build on the momentum.

.......ah, but two of them were pens and five goals were scored from set plays so (according to some of our posters) that isn’t very good.

[steve@dcfd]

Compare today with the fluidity of Sweden and Germany. We just don’t have the ability to move the ball around so quickly and with such a high completion rate. Not saying we could not turn either of them over but those two teams for example are playing a quality of football much better than we have shown thus far.

I will go back again though - results win tournaments not performances. We look like we can get something even if through set pieces.

In the game Sweden and Germany allowed each other to play the ball quickly, they were not clinical or ruthless at all cost tackles. We’ve had that twice against two lower tier sides. We did play fast flowing football in the first 20 minutes against Tunisia but were not clinical in front of goal. So we may not play the ball quickly we will only see if this develops through the competition when we are playing better sides.

[RedJ]

I can’t imagine the elation in the England camp having scored 8 goals in 2 games. What a start. Let’s hope they can build on the momentum.

.......ah, but two of them were pens and five goals were scored from set plays so (according to some of our posters) that isn’t very good.

They count if they're from set plays though. So really, we only won 4-1!

[drfchound]

Yes and that ball from Henderson leading to Stones second goal was top drawer.
If a German had played it some people would have been drooling over it.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Yes. They played well. They put the worst side in the entire tournament to the sword clinically and effectively.

That doesn’t give any indication whatsoever what will happen either way when England come up against a top drawer side.

In 1982, Hungary put 10 past El Salvador in their first match. Then they lost 4-1 to Argentina and didn’t make it out of the group.

Scoring a hatful in a turkey shoot doesn’t say anything about how good or bad you are.

[dickos1]

For years we’ve struggled at major tournaments to overcome shite.
Trinidad & Tobago being a prime example

Just enjoy the fact that we’ve destroyed a side that a few years ago we would’ve laboured to a 2-0 win

[Alan Southstand]

But it does say how much better this team is compared to previous feeble attempts!

[RoversAlias]

I half expect BST to come up with a reason why England aren't very good even if we win the tournament beating Brazil, France and Spain on the way.