Rovers13

To be fair England did give Italy and Uruguay a good game. It's not like they didn't try and got their asses kicked 0-4. The games were close. Just not quite good enough, especially in defence.

I would rather have frustrated them and not lost to be honest.

That's not what Ghana did

Ghana isn't really comparable to iran though.

These teams couldn't be more different.

That potential penalty on zabaleta would've been near impossible to call in real time. It looks as though zabaleta cleared the ball in real time.

That really sucks for muntari. The yellow card suspension is brutal. Those rules are kind of crazy for me.

Ghana should've scored

This Germany won't keep clean sheets in the knock outs.

Out of interest who do people think has the best defence in the competition?

Iran?

Didn't chile start medel at center back? And Colombia have a 38 and 34 year old?

I think Medel nearly always plays CB for Chile

I can't see how they'd have the best defense then.

Didn't chile start medel at center back? And Colombia have a 38 and 34 year old?

Damnit ayew. That could've been it

It'd be a shame if a side as good as Ghana went out in the group stages. The US win really was a total fluke.

That said, was an awesome fluke.

Ghana is good. They were way better than the US was. Play that game 10 times and ghana wins eight or nine.

I don't remember hearing much about Fulham till right before it as well.

Heard he played well last night, by the looks at it, might have been at fault for the balotelli goal as he was caught standing flat footed. But thats not so much a big deal (CB's should really be helping him out there)

yep. Just the 41 goals in 46 appearances this season...

Did you, um, quote the wrong post?

If this is actually your darkest hour, you aren't in bad shape

Also, some of the Rooney criticism is very harsh. His finishing was poor, but he was the only English player creating those opportunities and getting in the right places to have the chances in the first place. It's not his fault England's formation played three strikers and have the fullbacks no support, or that Henderson and Gerrard were poor.

A couple issues there. 1, Baines hasn't really been poor, he wasn't an issue against Uruguay and against Italy he had to defend two on ones all the time. Two, that lineup has no defensive midfielder. Wilshere Barkley and lallana are all attacking minded players.

Ok, I'll amend my original to statement to "I doubt Australia will struggle to qualify because AFC is arguably the easiest confederation to qualify from, certainly one of the two easiest along with concacaf."

Because they're both pretty bad if I'm honest. I'm not usually an American who's blindly prideful in concacaf or says things like "concacaf deserves more bids." (There are seriously people who say that) I think they deserve less places. Maybe 2.5 or 3, but with two half places. Thing is, I feel the same way about Asia. There's a good chance none of their teams will get out of the group, and that's with just 1 of their 4 teams in a challenging group.

Don't get me wrong concacaf isn't a very good confederation. But Asia gets and extra bid compared to concacaf and is largely composed of countries that don't have soccer as their #1 sport.

No way, North America is the easiest.

Anyway, this Australian team was rebuilt after the horrendous qualifying campaign and 6-0 losses to France and Brazil. We have young players now who will have improved again in 4 years time.

I used to think that, but Mexico is better than any of the Asian sides for me and they struggled in qualifying. Plus North America has the US, Costa Rica and mexico in good position to get out of their group, while Asia, despite having its two best teams in weak groups, looks set to have none of their four and a half bids to the second round.

They still qualified, didn't they? The rest of CONCACAF are rubbish (on paper, anyway)

So are the Asian teams... (On paper)

No way, North America is the easiest.

Anyway, this Australian team was rebuilt after the horrendous qualifying campaign and 6-0 losses to France and Brazil. We have young players now who will have improved again in 4 years time.

I used to think that, but Mexico is better than any of the Asian sides for me and they struggled in qualifying. Plus North America has the US, Costa Rica and mexico in good position to get out of their group, while Asia, despite having its two best teams in weak groups, looks set to have none of their four and a half bids to the second round.

Four and a half?

Yeah. 4.5. Jordan lost their intercontinental playoff.

No way, North America is the easiest.

Anyway, this Australian team was rebuilt after the horrendous qualifying campaign and 6-0 losses to France and Brazil. We have young players now who will have improved again in 4 years time.

I used to think that, but Mexico is better than any of the Asian sides for me and they struggled in qualifying. Plus North America has the US, Costa Rica and mexico in good position to get out of their group, while Asia, despite having its two best teams in weak groups, looks set to have none of their four and a half bids to the second round.

Ecuadors goalie is clearly concussed.

I don't rate senderos. Hes pretty poor. But I don't see how any conclusions can be drawn from a game where his entire team was overrun.

Sunderland and palace this year disagree.