CardiffGreens

There were a couple of radio convos between Nico R and the pits suggesting that Lewis' brake balance was a lot further towards the rear than his - so it's possible Lewis' rear brakes were taking a heavier pounding than Nico's - especially as Nico was given very explicit instructions to change his brake balance after Lewis retired. Bit of a shame that crash marred a cracking race - Canada does give us some cracking racing eh?

That looked terrible. Lucky they didn't collect Seb there as well.

If Honduras go into games the same way as they did last night, it could make for interesting viewing, if only as we'll be treated to some rugby 7's style action.

The more I think about these, the more I change my mind. So here we go (and cue endless posts mocking my predictions). Bra v Cro 3-0 Mex v Cam 1-1 Spa v Ned 1-1 Chi v Aus 2-0 Col v Gre 0-1 Uru v Cos 1-0 Eng v Ita 1-1 Cot v Jap 2-3 Sui v Ecu 1-1 Fra v Hon 4-0 Arg v Bos 2-1

Wow. Lovely run, only problem was the gf was talking to me at the time, so my exclamation gave the game away that I wasn't paying any attention :-P

Lord help us if we have to rely on this back line at any point. I can only presume Foster has left the oven on as he seems intent on getting himself sent off...

Well, I finally got around to go get this. Time to fire it up for an hour before the football =)

James Milner to be shoehorned into a right back role. "There may be moments in the World Cup where we'd like to use him there" said Roy H, I can only presume "those moments" being any time Glenn Johnson has to do any sort of defending. It just reminds of that time McLaren tried to play Kieron Dyer there in a training session before the media turned into a furiously frothing mess and the whole thing was never spoken of again.

Nope, click on another user on swapstick and it'll tell you want that they have and vice versa,

Only when we're in a game that matters!

Easy.

Genius substitution there!

Wouldn't be an England game without the defence aimlessly giving the ball away in dangerous places would it...

Oh look, another advert featuring Joe Hart.

Rooney is somewhat lacking in match fitness mind. But he is having a pretty poor game thus far.

Pick that out. Credit to Johnson for the harrying and winning the throw in the first place.

Is Danny Welbeck the new James Milner?

5th of July. And yes.

They could be doing it using only 5p pieces?

I've got one if you need it. =)

Con, it's an interesting concept for a game, and kudos for coming up with something rather different. Personally I'm not a fan of negative points for non-participation (especially as the group stage schedule is quite full-on) And could you clarify a couple of the scoring rules please? In particular you say "10 points each win" - if a striker scores 3 times is that 3 "wins" (and 30 points) or just 1 win as "$goals > 0"? If a For midfielders, what consitutes "dominating" possession? (More than 50%?) There is a few other things I'd be aware of - but I'll hang fire until you can clarify just how the scoring system works.

Squad named: Joe Hart Fraser Forster Ben Foster Glen Johnson Phil Jones Gary Cahill Phil Jagielka Chris Smalling Leighton Baines Luke Shaw Steven Gerrard Jack Wilshere Jordan Henderson Frank Lampard James Milner Ross Barkley Adam Lallana Raheem Sterling Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Wayne Rooney Daniel Sturridge Danny Welbeck Rickie Lambert Standby: John Ruddy Jon Flanagan John Stones Michael Carrick Tom Cleverley Andy Carroll Jermain Defoe

Personally I felt out of the 3 left backs I'd have left Baines at home - which is daft after the last couple of seasons he's had. But in terms of pure defensive ability Cole trumps the other 2 (and there'll be times we'll need to keep it tight at the back out there), and I'm quite the fan of heaping pressure onto the youth in an effort to make them crack and ruin their development in the international arena (see Scott Carson) so I'd have taken Shaw over Baines for the other spot. As it turns out, this is clearly another reason to add to the heap as to why I'm not managing international football teams. And frankly it wasn't the most important selection headache that'll have been made. It'd be nice if we had the same sort of problem for right back as well really.

MoTD pundits question whether dropping Cole for Shaw is the right thing to do - as "it'd be a lot of pressure on the youngster" (should Baines be injured in the first game)... It's funny how none of them have expressed an opinion on this sort of selection before isn't it?

Jbowz off for KEA.