And some want to sign Zigic?

Thanks Phil, if you can't get it either I guess that the cohorts caught up with them, for now.... American it's nothing to do with the Beeb, it is about licensing. ESPN/ABC paid for the WC, they have sole rights, and should broadcast the games online.

Phil, I've installed the player but everytime I launch it it says that it cannot be initialized and to find a network connection. Any ideas?

T&T wasn't as boring as Paraguay but in the cold light of day we've won both and are moving on. I too wonder about our performances, and I think we need to drop Crouch to make us play it on the ground, but with Owen looking lethargic it may not happen. Sven tends to stick to what he's got, but you have to give him credit for having the ba!!s to switch it up. We completely changed when Lennon came on, not just for the fact that he ran at players but it gave Beckham more space. T&T played for a draw and nearly got it. We should play Rooney against Sweden, get our first 11 out there to get ready for a long run!

American, I think France '98 was a different case than the current one. In 1998, team captain Harkes got booted 3 weeks before the tournament (alleged carnal indiscretions have been mentioned) David Regis played every game despite getting a US passport 2 weeks before the tournament. Then the manager played the most bizarre system ever seen in a World Cup; 3-6-1. How I laughed when I saw that line up. Separately, Harkes, Wynalda, Balboa, and Lalas have all commented indirectly about Steve Sampson and his mis mangement of that team. Lalas has also got more revenge by firing Sampson from LA. Wynalda may have sour grapes but it doesn't detract from the fact that he's right. The 2006 team played awful on Monday, unless they get something out of the Italy game, which I doubt they will, they are home with the public switching off as usual. I believe that Arena's days are numbered if the USA come back with 0 points. DanLad, I mentioned Johnson ages ago on here, the lad is fast and can score. His touch needs improving but a good coach like Sparky will do that. Rover6, do you really need someone with insider knowledge to answer that one? Of course not. The only male-female debate ever in the USA came in the 1970's when some crackpot actor/pseudo star said that women shouldn't play sport and challenged manimal tennis legend Billie Jean King to a game. She beat him.

I heard Wynalda on the radio this morning, he is still seething. He had a right go after the game and did so again this morning. He said that how can the USA play that badly when they have a great chance to show the nation that they are decent. It makes a change that commentators are saying what they think. It's normally glory glory glory with Americans. This is refreshing as journo's don't have a clue. Arena needs to make changes. He needs to give them a kick up the ar$e. Play Eddie Johnson (who we should sign), drop Beasley or Convey or Donovan (it wouldn't matter who after their performances) and Mastroeni. Tactics: get the ball wide and in the box, Mcbride will eventually get something. Donovan may now be rueing his decision to stay in the MLS, he got found out yesterday. It does look bleak though as the Italians were very impressive.

The New York Red Bulls (formerly Metrostars but Red Bull took over sponsorship). He was there last week. No news on a contract yet. Mo Johnston is the coach there.

As a side; how do I change my name, I'm fed up of typing all those e's in. Is there a way to shorten it?

The Czech's were good, the USA were bad. Lacklustre with no imagination would sum it up for the Yanks. I think Arena has to take some blame, his plan did not work. The Czech's are up there with the Argies as the best team I've seen so far. Arsenal have themselves a player in Rosicky, he was very good. IF Spurs get Reid I doubt that Arsene will be worried.

Lathund, I agree that you had the majority of possession and were quite tidy, but playing for 45 minutes against a 10 man WC debutante would give you that space. I also agree that England weren't the best but wasn't comparing the two. The fighting story was on soccernet, I'm not Swedish so don'tknow who posted it first. Who is Chippen?

I heard a snippet that FIFA are thinking about putting roofs on the stadiums to stop "shadowing". As for coverage, I mentioned that you can't complain until you've watched a game on US TV. They don't show national anthems, cover half the screen with graphics, adverts all through half time, don't give the line-ups until the game has started, and keep harping on about rankings. The Spanish language station is great though, shame I don't speak a word.

The Scandavanian alliance! Sweden were not very good, and you've now got your skipper and star man fighting again. It's not looking good.

JK, most of what I've read so far has been positive. Maybe it's because of all the live games ESPN needs to recoup its outlay by using journos to promote it but there is far more coverage this time around.

Woy: a highly pedigreed continental manager with a knack of paying vastly overpriced sums for Championship players. Sherwood: a common retort whenever someone perceives that another has done something wrong. Normally preceded by "bloody".

Good one this, especially for me living in the USA and having heard these stories since I arrived here. The article is taking the Michael; the LA Times is well known as being a liberal, left leaning, newspaper (see always having a go a George Bush). Los Angeles has 2 MLS franchises, one of the best university teams in the country (UCLA; Friedel's old uni), loads of kids playing, and even Rod Stewart's Hollywood United! He's playing to his audience by having a go at the intolerant folk who don't understand the rest of the world and actually get mad when football is mentioned. Some American journalists do not like the sport, they do take any opportunity they can to put it down to promote their own favourite. It will get interesting over the next few weeks as for the first time ever all world cup games are on live on TV. ESPN has been promoting it quite well and some journo's will jump on the bandwagon as it will get them reads and ESPN will be friendlier later on to those who promote what they are showing. I hope the US does well just for the coverage; they start winning and it will be like last year's Ashes series. I can't be ar$ed debating baseball, basketball, college American football attendances, it's all apples and oranges.

The US looked OK against Latvia, they gave them the runaround for a while. Donovan needs a free role, which I expect he'll get. Convey was very good when he came on.

There are a good few. The tournament is very even. The Serbs and Croats can beat anyone on their day (amazing that they were the same team at Itaila 90), the Ivory Coast will scare some, the Aussies might surprise a few, Sweden could beat anyone with Larsson and Zlatan up front and their stingy defence, the USA are a strange bunch too. Mexico will capitulate. They had all this talk last year too, during the Confederations Cup, but it will go nowhere.

I heard onceover in the pub...... that Thwaites got a licence from Carling's brewers in Burton on Trent to brew the stuff using local water. Ture or not I've no idea but it sounds good.

Disrespecting numbers? Fading stars? This should not be an issue. The starting 11 of a football team should be 1-11, Dickov was deemed as one of our top strikers so he got the shirt. Jansen crocked himself, I have some sympathy for him as accidents can be hard to recover from, but holding his number sacred is a tad daft. Kuqi wears Shearer's number, is that a slight on Shearer? Are we going to turn Yank and start retiring numbers?

You reckon? Even with Rooney fit? Sven's 11 was based on his best starting 11 injured or not. Who would get dropped for Carrick? Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Joe Cole (Gerrard out left then)?

Joey, it is my understanding that referee's have been told to play the advantage at every opportunity. Within a hair's breadth of Lehman's undisputed foul the ref had blown. Even he has now admitted that he was too hasty, one second to think and it's a goal. Did Lehman deny a goalscoring opportunity? Yes for Eto'o, no for Guily and Barca. Leave it 11 v. 11, 1-0 and play on. Barca were lucky with refereeing decisions, not with their finishing. Shevchenko, it would take me too long to explain my reasoning behind my post but watch Eto'o over time, he's not a natural like Fowler Gerd Muller, Romario, Van Horse and their ilk. But he has an asset that gets him plenty of goals. It was not a cristicism of him, just a comment on his style of play. Doctorryan, remind me to come and ask you when dealing with only yes and no questions. Barca may have won in 11 v. 11, but we'll never know, just like Mourinho said after Barca beat Chelsea's 10. LA Rover; USA, Australia, New Zealand, Georgia, England, Australia, Turkey, Wales, Norway, Finland, Wales. Who would want to cheer a team on filled with that many foreigners? Think about who supports the teams and where the team is from, not who plays for them.

Just played catch up with the last few pages. I find some of the posts quite interesting. One of the underlying currents is that many seem to have wanted Arsenal to lose. Am I right? I've got friends like this. They'll stick up for whoever plays against an English team in Europe because they don't like the English team. I'd rather support a home grown team any day against foreign opposition. As for the game; it was ruined by the referee. How he managed to get his whistle to his lips so quickly is a mystery to me. A showpiece spectacle, the pinnacle of world club football, an advertisement for the game was effectively over as a contest with 72 minutes to go. My enthusiasm sunk after the sending off, I knew Barca would win it, so the ecxitement went. 11 v. 11 would have been a great game of attacking football. Henry had missed one and had another one saved, he looked good. After the red Henry was forced to run it alone whilst getting booted from the fiery Mexican Marquez, yet Henry got booked for a good challenge on Van Bommell. Arsenal were unfortunate, Barca were lucky. Henry will stay. I think the Barca players p!ssed him off, he would have to build a few bridges there, and he wouldn't be top dog. At Arsenal he can rule the roost for as long as he wants. As for him not running; I'm sure there is a thread on this board about players' fitness relating to the Cup Final. He spent over an hour running like an idiot against four, he was knackered, just like the rest of the team. The soft pitch alleviated cramp. Ashley Cole looked fit but he doesn't have his match brain working yet. On the sending off he was the Arsenal player keeping Eto'o onside. He was also out of position for the second. Eto'o is blindingly fast. He's no finisher, but his speed will get him loads of goals. Henry strokes a ball in, Shearer blasts it in; both of them know what they are doing and put the ball there. Eto'o just hits and hopes, but I'd still have him playing for me. Eboue will be a class act, Arsene has found another one there. Campbell should be playing for England, not just for his attacking aerial ability but his defensive organisation. Ferdinand doesn't have that presence. Ronaldinho had a bad game last night, but no-one can touch him. Credit to Arsenal for closing him down. Ljungberg and Gilberto were excellent. One last thing. You cannot complain about bad commentators and pundits until you've experienced the ineptitude of the US ones. Once you have witnessed this you'll be very happy to have anyone on the BBC or ITV. I hope other US based posters will back me up here but I have the unfortunate prospect of listening to a World Cup with these idiots. There is an Irish bloke called Tommy Smyth who is useless beyond comprehension. His analysis is constantly wrong and spent 5 minutes waxing about Almunia's "tum". Also we have 'expert analysis' from Marcelo Balboa, an ex-US international who thought that "Ronaldino" wasn't playing well.

I disagree. For major tournaments England have always maintained a policy that the numbers 1-11 are usually the starting 11. To get number 15 means that you are a sub.

Tchocky, Oewn started with England when Shearer was holder of the number 9 shirt, he also started at Liverpool when Fowler was king. Traditionally the England number 9 is the battering ram style with the 10 being the poacher/more creative. Lineker was 10 for England.

Sven has given out his squad numbers 1-23. Looks like it's Terry and Ferdinand at the back with Joe Cole on the left.