speeeeeeedie

You've done nothing but moan and groan about England. You need to give it a rest. We are through to the last 8. Enjoy it.

James has not bene fit for the whole tournament. He missed game 1 and came off last time. Hopefully he hasn't recovered as he is a dangerous player. Cuadrado is an interesting one. Undeniable talent but was useless at Chelsea. I'm not worried about him. I've said it before but don't mock the BBC until you've spent 2 weeks watching Alexi Lalas. You'll be craving Ferdinand after that. England can do it today.

Catching up on today's posts and some got me thinking about England's World Cup exploits in my lifetime. Looking back England have had some bad luck, and idiotic individual mistakes. 1982 - went out without losing a game. Weird format, but a 0-0 against West Germany in the 2nd group stage allowed them to advance to the semis. 1986 - Maradona's hand of God. England didn't start playing until 2-0 down. 1990 - lost on pens in the semis to the winners. 1994 - didn't qualify. Did I not like that. 1998 - 2nd round penalty loss to Argentina. Played with 10 men for a long stretch due to Beckham's sending off. Robbed of a winner early in extra time. 2002 - Quarter final loss to Brazil, the eventual winners. Beckham bottling a tackle and Seaman nailed to the floor caused the goals. I'll leave the fact that they played with 10 men for ages out of it. Probably about right. 2006 - QF penalty loss to Portugal. Again played with 10 men. This time Rooney was the offender. 2010 - first knockout round defeat to Germany. Completely outplayed, but had a potential equalizer disallowed just before half time. 2014 - out without wining a game.

Mexico are out in the first knockout round again. It was always going to be hard for them to beat Brazil but they hardly helped themselves by playing old man Marquez from the off. Regarding Neymar's antics. It's a hard one. He gets kicked from pillar to post each game, but doesn't half make a meal out of every one of them. Layun tried to do him, but made it subtle enough that he got away with it.

Spain paid for being too pedestrian. They have so much skill but no end product. They didn't impress before today, and went out to an organized and enthusiastic home nation. When they were the kings of the world they had killer strikers with pace in Villa and Torres who would benefit from incisive through balls that Spain's crew could play regularly. As good as Costa is he's not a player who can run in behind defenders, thus stifling the attack. Add that to the fact that Spain have no pace in midfield to run past Costa made it worse. Costa should have stuck with the nation of his birth. Croatia-Denmark was a very boring game that cried out for some excitement. Some bad penalties failed to add to it. I appreciate the take on the Modric penalty. I thought it should have been a red, but if the rule is a genuine attempt for a ball isn't one, then so be it. It's been a wonderful world cup. There are more hair raisers to come. For the first time in a while England have a cohesive team. Let's back them and hope for the best on Tuesday. This weekend has proven that team play is worth more than individual talent.

France - Argentina was a great game. Sampaoli should have been fired after their 2nd game. It's definite now. As has been said, he has some real attacking talent at his disposal yet plays no name Argentine league players ahead of quality goal scorers. Otamendi needs a long ban. For the 2nd time this tournament he booted a ball at a player lying on the ground. Clown.

The press need something to batter England for, this is the latest overblown reaction. It's ridiculous. It's also par for the course on here that people moan and groan. Southgate did what he saw best for the team. As has been said, if he played Kane and then Kane picked up an injury it would have been a much worse outcome. Professional athletes want to win. Those lads playing on Thursday want more game time so wanted to impress. There has been endless debate on Rashford v. Sterling. I don't think that Rashford did enough to warrant a start. It would have been in his best interest to run rings around Belgium and have scored 2 giving Southgate a real headache. As it was he ran up a lot of blind alleys and missed an absolute sitter. England were through after 2 games therefore Southgate was preparing for the next round. I doubt that he thought "ooh, I'll lose this one so we may get an easier quarter final opponent." He will take it 1 game at a time. I think that England are the only team to use all 20 outfield players. That experience is invaluable.

I'm with you. Southgate didn't rest players to try to finish 2nd. He did it to give his key men time to recuperate, and the others in the squad valuable World Cup match time. Every game is hard. As a fan I'd rather not play Brazil and France, but England's record against Sweden and Switzerland isn't great either. All concentration should be on Colombia. They are a very handy side.

What an odd experience that game was. I was all in on England winning, saw the team sheet and thought the same. Yet with 10 minutes to go I was hoping that England wouldn't score as not only were England going to the softer side of the draw but I now have an afternoon of drinking to look forward to, followed by July 4th. The game itself was akin to a preseason friendly with players auditioning for a contract. A genuine bit of skill form Belgium won the game. I've been calling for Rose to paly ahead of Young but ironically he would have stopped Januzaj's shot as it would have been on his good side. Rashford should have made it 1-1 though. It's hard to say that any player was poor. I will say that Southgate played this one well. Few people knew that he was going to make wholesale changes. He kept his first 11 fresh whilst, now, letting the rest know that they must improve to get a chance. Onward and upward.

Serbia look technically proficient with little end product. They knock it around well but have to lump it high for Mitrovic as he can't do anything else. Brazil haven't impressed either.

I'm of the opposite opinion. A win builds momentum, something that England never get at tournaments. Most fans complain about England's defence. Another game playing together will do them good.

There's some good old fashioned BRFCS negativity going on after the Panama game despite the great result. England slowed it down in the second half as they didn't want to get involved in any antics that the Panamanians were trying. Cooper, I think, elbowed both Lingard and Maguire. Others were rolling around like they were on fire if an England player touched them. It was disgraceful from Panama. They were much inferior and resorted to idiocy. Kane may have scored a fortunate 3rd but his 2 penalties were taken with real confidence. Hard to take that away from him. Be happy with what commentators you have. Fox have the World Cup in the USA. I had to listen to ex USA women's international Ally Wagner during the England game. There's also Dr. Joe Machnick who provides referee analysis periodically. He's modelled on their NFL coverage, and is useless. Studio insight is provided by Alexi Lalas, who is a first class goon.

Portugal - Spain was a classic, the Germany game ran it close. Intense from beginning to end. Sweden should have had a penalty, and with better decision making could have had another. But the Germans win for a reason. Kroos has won it all at every level. that mentality keeps them moving. I was surprised that Gomez wasn't their starting striker. He will be after today. Werner is good but he doesn't fit into the modern German team. Gomez is the latest big man post Klinnsmann. They've had; 20+ years of them; Bierhoff, Jancker, Klose., Gomez. If my memory serves me Klose didn't start the first game in 2014. As soon as he did they started winning. Come on England.

If Tito would have lasted a bit longer or the former Yugoslav's managed to get along a bit better they could have own a World Cup. Genuine talent everywhere. Red Star Belgrade won the European Cup. It all fell apart after that.

I'd drop DI Maria back so I could play either Aguero or Higuaín up top. Goals galore there. It was a great game. I wonder how it would have ended if the Argentina lad (Meza?) hadn't missed an open goal? Modric and Ratikic are an outstanding pairing. As good a partnership as Uruguay's Giminez and Godin. The latest England gossip has Sterling being dropped. I'd wager that few would argue against Rashford and Loftus-Cheek starting.

They do. Messi is lost. The pressure is too much for him. I doubt they'll get through. Their game plan is give it to Messi and watch. That's not working. Add that lack of a game plan to Caballero in goal, protected by Otamendi and his band of bang average players equals an early exit. Iceland have a tenth of Argentina's talent but have all the confidence in the world.

I've been having this debate myself. France are a hard team to figure out. They are through with 2 wins yet look utterly unconvincing. They are stocked with talent but don't seem to know how to best use it. Giroud starting has to be concerning. If they do click they'll be up there. If they keep plodding they'll be out sooner rather than later. I also agree with DE"s point regarding finishing. There are only a few teams with players who look like they can score. Fortunately England have one of those players. In World Cup's gone by shots from outside the box were commonplace (Mexico 86 was fantastic for long range goals). I've not seen many players even trying to shoot from 20+ yards out.

I think that it's been a good world cup. Yesterday's 1-0's may have looked dour but both Morocco and Iran played very well. Spain - Portugal was a classic. Australia - Denmark was a bit boring, and the draw means that the Aussies need Peru to beat France or they are going home.

Morocco are out. They are a hard working side with no cutting edge. They outplayed Portugal, but couldn't finish their chances. It's being reported that Dele Alli won't be fit for Panama so Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be given the nod.

It was the Telegraph; Rose and Young to battle it out From the article; If Rose is fit he should play.

Lingard was indeed busy, but his host of missed chances unnecessarily made it a close game, hence me giving him a poor grade. His scuffed first chance was awful. His last was a shout for Rashford to leave it, then he got the ball stuck under his feet. I do think he should start the next game though. He deserves a chance to improve. I'd do the same with Sterling too. Give him another opportunity. Dropping him won't do his confidence any good. Conversely Kane was anonymous for large portions of the game, but scored 2, and won the game. I read the other day - Daily Telegraph I think - that Southgate sees Rose as his starting left back but was worried about his fitness in the heat so was giving Young a chance to impress.

A win is a win however hard it was. Their penalty was soft, especially when England didn't get any. Decent; Kane (largely anonymous but goals win games), Trippier, Stones, Henderson. Fair; Maguire (mistake tarnished a good display), Walker, Pickford. Poor; Lingard, Sterling, Alli, Young. I'd bring in Rose for Young against Panama and stick with the rest. Young was wasteful, got caught out a few times, had poor delivery, and consistently slowed down play when he had to cut back onto his right foot. Dier, Rashford and Loftus-Cheek could easily replace the other poor performers so they need to improve. That competition should hopefully beget a reaction. England don't have a free kick specialist either.

As a US resident I am very happy that North America has won the 2026 bid. The USA will host 60 games, Canada and Mexico 10 each. FIFA will make a king's ransom off a USA based tournament, probably why it won. England deserves another chance to have a World Cup. Cheating and bribery were the reasons behind the 2018 loss as England's bid was the strongest. Spain's mess gives people another reason not to like Real Madrid.

Sonny Pike was another child prodigy who amounted to nothing; Hero to zero.

There are players that didn't make it and those that didn't crack on. A few from Everton; Barkley, Rodwell, Jose Baxter, Billy Kenny spring to mind. The latter 2 moreso. Man U; Ben Thornley, Chris Casper. Class of 92 members who were both derailed by injuries. Lately Berahino, Luke Shaw - although he has a chance if he leaves Mourinho.