T&T v England

[picaro]

Flying out to San Francisco to watch it with my sister (fellow Wanderers supporter) at 9AM local time! Hey, it's 12:00 somewhere!

Actually it is at 12.00 here AT so I will take a [longish] lunch.

since the Cup began it has been a "longish lunch" for me

[Batman]

What a dull game so far. England playing long ball (or is it route one/elevated pass?).


Typical England game. What a one-man team we are. I give it til 60mins before Rooney is brought on.

Can someone tell me what Beckham actually does - bar crosses and corners?

[communistworkethic]

free-kicks.

if you want to criticise anyone, then Crouch for the miss and robinson for almost costing us a goal should be top of your list

[Batman]

Free Kicks come under the 'crosses' skill.


Fortunate not to be 0-1, good job Terry had the concentration that Fat Robbo lacks.

I've said it before but Carragher is not international class.

How the bejeesus did Crouch miss that????????? Granted his shins are x4 times longer than most normal folk, but that was gilt-edged.

[FaninOz]

Very poor, too slow build up, playing into the defenders hands. Crouch and Owen are having bad games, both missed chances that the Ecuador strikers would have scored with ease.

[Batman]

1-0 Crouch 83mins, typical Beckham cross, back post header.


Very dicey, T&T should be proud of themselves.

[Batman]

2-0 Gerrard 90mins, screamer from outside the box.


Scoreline doesn't hide the flaws, but I suppose the win is the main thing.

[FaninOz]

2-0 Gerrard 90mins, screamer from outside the box.


Scoreline doesn't hide the flaws, but I suppose the win is the main thing.

Great second goal but what about the earlier woeful finishing, and very slow build ups. Sven can say that they were pacing themselves and don't want to peak to soon but that was a very poor performance against a team made up of journey men in general. However, a draw against Sweden will see us top the group and at the end of the day that's what really matters.

Can't see Owen getting back in the team now, also need to see Lennon starting against Sweden he looked very good and certainly England picked up when him and Rooney came on.

[Mar]

Far from World Beaters and certainly lacking the performance we all came to expect. The scoreline was probably expected but the time it took to get off the mark just highlights flaws in our game.

The finishing was wide off the mark today and I thought that our attacking prowess was certainly needed when Owen was on the pitch rather than after we took him off. Lampard's shooting was a lot worse than usual and it ended up with us changing possession.

Aaron Lennon looked impressive by stretching the opposition but what we could have done is a final ball, his crossing was usually overhit and misplaced. SWP should have been called up for that exact same reason but Aaron Lennon is the best we've got in the squad at the moment and rightfully so his inclusion from off the bench is warranted.

[Mar]

Hehe so nice to see Sam Allardyce celebrating like a real England supporter.

[Batman]

Now they have qualified, England might as well experiment against Sweden.

Fat Robbo

Terry
Campbell
Carragher

Lennon
Downing
Carrick
Gerrard
Lampard

Rooney
Crouch
Walcott

[warthog]

Hehe so nice to see Sam Allardyce celebrating like a real England supporter.

That's what he wants you to think. In fact, it was a cunningly disguised to thump Stuart Pearce for sniffing around the players that we want. Pearce will be taken to hospital tonight with extensive bruising to his thigh.

[Dr.Karl]

Now they have qualified, England might as well experiment against Sweden.

Fat Robbo

Terry
Campbell
Carragher

Lennon
Downing
Carrick
Gerrard
Lampard

Rooney
Crouch
Walcott

Err, sorry to piss on your bonfire batman but thats 12 in the starting line up. Crouch and Rooney(if fit) up front, drop Lampard and play a holding player be it either Hargreaves or Carrick. Keep Beckham on the right and Cole on the left. Then you've got a balanced team with options on the bench.

England are fast becoming the international version of Bolton. Maybe they'll start to play it on the deck more with Rooney in the team. Terrible game yet again but they're through and they'll have to up the tempo against Ecuador in the next round, they look a solid team.

[warthog]

Both Gerrard and Crouch are on one yellow each so they may be rested for the Sweden game.

I liked the look of Cornell Glenn for T & T

[Batman]

Now they have qualified, England might as well experiment against Sweden.

Fat Robbo

Terry
Campbell
Carragher

Lennon
Downing
Carrick
Gerrard
Lampard

Rooney
Crouch
Walcott

Err, sorry to piss on your bonfire batman but thats 12 in the starting line up. Crouch and Rooney(if fit) up front, drop Lampard and play a holding player be it either Hargreaves or Carrick. Keep Beckham on the right and Cole on the left. Then you've got a balanced team with options on the bench.

England are fast becoming the international version of Bolton. Maybe they'll start to play it on the deck more with Rooney in the team. Terrible game yet again but they're through and they'll have to up the tempo against Ecuador in the next round, they look a solid team.

Maybe playing 12 is the only way to go. The future!

ps- Hog - all yellow cards are quashed at the second round.

[Le Snake]

I give it til 60mins before Rooney is brought on.

That was ... spooky.

List of gripes:

1) His goal aside, Stephen Gerrard just doesn't get forward for England, thus robbing of us of what should be one of our real top-class assests.
2) First half especially, the gap between midfield and the front two was horrible.
3) England seem to be learning the philosophy of pass-and-move, one step at a time. Today we got 'pass'. One day, we may also get 'move', but who knows?
4) Good as he looked running at a knackered, third-rate full back, Aaron Lennon just can't deliver the ball into the box effectively, and so whatever positions he gets into are next to worthless.
5) Meanwhile SWP is a player with, in my opinion, far more in his locker, but chose to play for the most amount of roubles he could get and so was rightly left at home after not playing all season. This is his own fault, and it hurts our squad.
6) Lampard and Crouch snatching at easy chances they could honestly have taken a little time over.
7) The people around me honestly expecting a player who hasn't played for over a month because of injury to completely turn a World Cup match, and then swearing at him when he looked a bit rusty.
Long ... Effing ... Ball

All that said, it would be hard to expect much more from the players in the second half given that the way we approached it all in the first set the pattern of the game and allowed T&T the confidence of knowing that their game-plan was working and we didn't really look like hurting them.

[Le Snake]

Both Gerrard and Crouch are on one yellow each so they may be rested for the Sweden game.

I liked the look of Cornell Glenn for T & T

Was he the one who almost ran right through? Well Sam was in the studio ...

(Wouldn't it be great if the only player we came back from the World Cup with was a Trinidad and Tobago substitute?)

[picaro]

WTF!! No Robot !?!

[CrazyHorse]

Very happy with the result.
The performance, while better than Saturday, was still (and let's be fair to them) very iffy.

That said..

WHO CARES...WE'RE THROUGH!!!!

[sluffy]

ps- Hog - all yellow cards are quashed at the second round.

All single yellow cards are - but if a player receives a second yellow card in the first round of games they will be unavailable for the next match.

So it would make good sense to rest all our players who have received a yellow card in our first two matches.