speeeeeeedie

Portugal weren't better than England. You can blame numerous people for the loss. It turns out that Ronaldo is not one of them. The ref sent off Rooney for stamping on Carvalho. If Rooney deliberately did it (I don't think he did) then he gets a lot of the blame. If not, the ref gets some for a bad decision. Next up are Lampard, Gerrard, and Carragher for missing penalties. After that Paul Robinson for not saving Portugal's. Ultimately the blame lies with the lot of them. A manager stuck with playing silly systems, players not playing to their club levels, coaches not preparing the team properly. I could go on. There is no jingoism here; just bitterness at getting beat playing awful football against a team playing awful football of a different brand. Oklahoma, read this board, we have non-English on here slating the Portuguese for starters. What about the French?

Beckham. His performances were only half of what he could do.

When English players dive it is looked upon with scorn for the mostpart. I reckon that if the English played like the Portuguese the fans would be happy but there would be a bit of shame about it. As I've said before England is miles behind in the theatrical stakes. Until FIFA do something about it we will have to play catch up in order to progress. Portugal garnered their reputation way before the England game. The group stage was a prelude, the Dutch game was a horror show, England was the zenith, and France was the fall. The fact that the crowd booed every time Ronaldo got the ball said something about the following Portugal had. Many neutrals wanted Portugal out as they weren't very appreciated for their constant tactics. I do believe that the worst single game was USA-Italy. The Italians completey bewildered the very honest Yanks. However they've picked up since then, the Portuguese did not. What really cuts to the bone is the fact that a bad Portugal put an inept England out. They won an easy group, resorted to attrition against Holland, scored more penalites than useless England, and finally came unstuck. If they'd have played a team with any attacking nouse before the semi's they would have gone home as they never looked like scoring. Scolari deserves credit for making them organised, but you have to wonder why he's now played 2 tournaments with toothless Pauleta up front whilst having decent strikers keeping the bench warm. I think Ronaldo has played well this WC, unfortunately everyone in England will remember his winking. If he does leave it will be a shame for the Premier League as he is a genuine talent who is only 21. Carvalho is the bigger villain in my book. His constant pulling, holding, arms wide in innocence poses grate me. He put in an awful tackle for his booking last night. It was his just dessets that he caught Henry for the pen.

Phillip, why do you continually spell Brazil with an 's'? In English it's a 'z'.

The ref has come out and said that he sent Rooney off for stamping on Carvalho. You can argue until the cows come home about the deliberateness of it but shouldn't people now leave Ronaldo alone... ...and start on Carvalho for being a big puff.

Knowing that 5 of the French side, including Zidane, are on yellow's I have a sneaky feeling that the Portuguese will be on fine form trying to get them all banned. This may backfire, if a player is going to miss the WC final they have no reason to hold back. France 4-6 Portugal (bookings) At least 1 sending off. No bitterness here.

I agree. It must be all the reactionary press they read.

It is purely psychological. Mourinho is in the papers today saying what everyone else thinks; England were done for as soon as "England's finest goalscoring midfielder" rolled one to Ricardo. Every player had either experienced the loss before, and definitely remembered our previous cock ups. It has been said that they practiced penalties every day, why? It wouldn't do them any good as you can't replicate emotion. Why didn't all the players take the same pen; go up and blast the ball. The sheer power should beat the keeper. Also Robinson should have taken the first, he likes kicking it hard.

Good signing. Sounds like he won't cost much unless he scores a hatful of goals; oh no! Some of you are unbelievable. 300 pages of tripe about who's signing, 30+ pages lamenting Bellamy, then Dickov's replacement gets slated based on the fact that they've never seen him in a Rovers shirt. If Jeffers hasn't done anything by FA Cup 3rd round day, then you can have a complain. The lad is back north, he's working with a man who saw him when he was younger, and he certainly does not have "Matt Jansen syndrome"; Jeffers never fell off a moped and ruined his psyche.

The papers seem quite calm, more sympathy than vitriol. My personal favourite is Joe Cole banging on about stopping diving. I agree with him, but it's like the pot calling the kettle black. I do believe that for England to further their chances on the international stage we have to adopt the Portuguese way of playing (why don't all English players go to play in Portugal? They will learn quickly there); cheat, dive, con, and generally annoy our opponents. England's finest hour in that department was Rome before 1998. We had Sol Campbell and Tony Adams diving like swans, it was comical to watch, but it worked. This goes against our Bulldog spirit, but unless the laws are changed and postgame bans based on TV evidence are handed out to n0b's like Maniche we will have to play along. I would like to see a highlight reel of all this WC's greatest dives. It will wind everyone up but may show what we need to do or help the powers that be react. I still haven't changed my mind; Sven's the man to blame. As long as Steven Gerrard is fit Frank Lampard should be a sub for England. Beckham stands down as skipper but wants to play on. What will the new captain think? How will having the old captain still playing help matters? Beckham was never a captain, he doesn't have the personaility. Someone mentioned our players lack of fitness. I wouldn't say that but I would say that they could have been a bit jaded. Gerrard has played for 12 solid months, he was still going, but had no energy to kick that ball just a bit harder, and futher toward the corner. The media praised Lampard's consecutive game record; it really helped England. Beckham had a Christmas break but was barfing against Ecuador. Incidentally, the FA told UEFA to bog off last month about lowering the Premier League to 18 teams. McClaren has a job to do. England needs to find a new striker to partner Rooney as I fear Owen will never be the same again afer this injury. He was already crocked before this one, he will get slower and slower. His only saving grace will be if he manages to retrain his game. Our keeper will be around for a while, I think our back 4 won't change as Gary Neville will continue as he can't lose any pace, and the other 3 are still young enough for another 4 years at least, and we have ample replacements. Midfield? Gerrard definitely has 4 years, Lampard see earlier, we need a left winger, Lennon maybe, and a couple of strikers. What was our 11 v. Brazil 4 years ago? Seaman, RB, Campbell, Ferdinand, A Cole?, Beckham, CM, Scholes, LM, Owen, Heskey. Will we have another wonderkid in a few years? The beauty of this is that come August we will all have got over the disappointment and be looking forward to a good season of Premier League and European football down at Ewood. What may grate is when Frank Lampard scores his 15th goal in his 10th game for Chelski's rampant side and he is again voted in the top 5 for European player of the year, with World Cup flop Ronaldinho winning it.

Absolutey sick. Was not feeling too good after the England game then I watched France maul Brazil and felt worse. Just skimmed through a couple of posts and there are some I agree with and some I don't. Ultimately the blame for our exit in this tournament has to be at Sven Eriksson's door. His tactical stupidity, squad selection, ba!!less substitutions, and lack of motivational skills have cost us big time. The only time in this tournament we started playing was when Beckham was off and we were forced, because of 10 men, to link up with the lone striker. Sven seems like a very charismatic bloke, he got the players to believe his system, unfortunately it was the wrong one. Why play sit back and wait when it goes against the way these players are? Our defence is one of the best in the world, we don't need to protect it with 6 players. France proved that by outplaying Brazil with attacking football based on a decent back line. That is what is so frustrating; knowing what we could have done. 1 striker? Please. Lampard and Gerrard cannot play with each other; I think two wasted tournaments have proved this. These two are miles better for their club sides, but put on an England shirt and it makes them invisible. Lampard was woeful every game. I said drop him earlier but it didn't matter, he was anonymous for long stretches. You cannot play two similar players in different positions, they end up getting in each other's way.Scholes quit because of this. If we had 2 world class goalies would we play them both? No. So why play two similar midfielders? Greaves was dropped in 66 and we won. England is a team not a collection of good individuals, like Brazil. Do England's players/agents/ club managers weild too much power? How many times have we heard that we have numerous world class players? How many of them proved it? My only hope is that in the future, McLaren is able to pick the best team regardless of who they are or where they play or even how much money they make for the FA. We always hear stories of football going down the tubes, can it be saved? My guess is that the press will leave the players alone and stick the boot into Eriksson as he's off into the sunset. He can leave with a great record as an England manager, us fans are left with yet another bitter end to a pumped up tournament. Penalties are not our cup of tea, and never will be. Lampard looked like a deer in headlights walking up. That set a precedent for the rest of the lads, with probable sighs of "here we go again". We managed to get lucky, but got crocked again. Compare our pens to the German ones yesterday; night and day. The bright spot about today was watching Zinedene Zidane showing the everyone what world class really is. He ran all over Brazil and put more light between himself and thes rest of this generation in my eyes. Unlike our hopeless heroes.

Phillipl's quote from a few days ago Pity Pekerman chose to bring on Cambiasso, Gonzalez, and lampost Cruz. He played for 1-0 and came unstuck. A boring game, both teams were too hot. The Germans' were out of sync, the Argies played to hold on. Pleasure got something right. Oh no he didn't. Sorry lad, just having a laugh.

Grab your luggage lads As expected Poll has been given his marching orders, as well as the mad Russian. But Markus Merk stays; probably to wind the Yanks up.

An excerpt from Soccernet's players who are out article. How much can we get for him?

So did Henry. Appiah is class, I'd love him to run our midfield.

The best team won. France are improving and are solid at the back, not including Barthez. Spain are fuming at Henry the cheat (in their eyes). It's a bit rich coming from a team that got a dodgy penalty. Spain aren't as bad as the Portuguese but they do tend to dive a lot. Why don't Spain concentrate on thinking why they are worse than us when it comes to major tournament bottling. I do believe that they view club play to be superior than playing for Spain. I think the English suffer from that syndrome too, maybe because of media pressure. You could view the result as Karma for Aragones after his comments toward Henry.

ESPN 360 are showing games online. I think it's a promotion before they start charging for it. How nice of them to do it now.

Kewell went off after 20 mins in the 2005 CL final, injured in the 2006 FA cup final, didn't play v. Italy. Does he get nervous, consequently is too tight and gets injured? I read an article when he signed for Liverpool saying that he signed for them intead of Man U because he couldn't handle the pressure of taking Giggs' place so took the easy option.

The Aussies were unlucky. I too am also surprised at Hiddink. A very talented coach lets the Italians sit back and do what they are good at instead of taking the game to them. Probably wasn't a sending off, and probably wasn't a pen. What was Neill doing though? Just think, if the first defender had manhandled Grosso instead of letting him go. Harry Kewell, why in every big game does he go missing?

You are dead right. The number of times I've had people ask me if I'm a hooligan just because I'm English and like football. There is nothing better than having a few drinks and a chat with likeminded fans from different countries. Mind you, brainless idiots would probably say the same about fighting. Why was Waggy "surrounded" by 20 Germans?

Tommy Smythe is a total and utter fool and has been for the whole time I've been here. The bloke has no idea, unless you are talking whisky (sorry whiskey for him). Balboa doesn't really know his ar$e from his elbow but he's OK. John Harkes is the best. The coverage has been good, far better than 2002. All the games have been on live and there has been a decent amount of media attention. I like Wynalda (minus his odd idiotic comment) and Lalas, they tell it as it is, unilike fawning British pundits. ESPN has too many graphics, it's like watching a film at the cinema with somone always in your way. ABC is shocking though. My picture quality is bad, the crowd noise is turned down too much, it is about 10 seconds behind and my local station decides to have a quarter of the screen devoted to telling everyone that there is a thunderstorm warning for an outlying county for the whole game. Univision is great, the picture is ace. I'm even learning a bit of Spanish.

1-0. Hot weather. Quarter final hear we come. I keep seeing boring performances, but we keep advancing and I'll take that. Part of the boredom is the fact than Sven coached in Italy for years and has adopted that style of play, contrary to English cravings. These players are good enough to do it. I also think we will play better against better opposition. Ecuador were surprising in that they were so defensive. In the group games they looked very adventurous but yesterday nothing. Did we stifle them? Robinson - booked for time wasting. He'd better not get another one. Hargreaves - did well, would be a shame if he was dropped as has done well. Terry - bad game, not his usual self. Ferdinand - class. Keeps things organised. Cole A. - MOTM. Saving tackle and didn't give them a sniff. Beckham - tired. Can we just bring him on for free kicks? Carrick. Very tidy, kept the play ticking over. Would also be a shame if he lost his place. Lampard - awful. Nothing new from the latter day David Platt. Drop him for wasting space. He's had more shots than anyone at the tournament; including the Germans who had shooting practice against Sweden. Gerrard - getting there. More space and he'll do better. Cole J. - subdued. Not up to his group game standards. Rooney - pleased. First half quiet but came into it late on showing his fitness is there. Will be much better next game. I do think England suffers from the same club syndrome as Spain; players seem to perform better for them instead of their national team. Everyone is having a laugh at Emerton's world class performances why do our lads not up their game? England must be optimistic about facing Portugal this time around. The game is not on Portugese soil, they will have no Deco or Costinha. Ronaldo is iffy right now, but should be fit, and there are no agents sniffing around trying to engineer big money moves. They do need to watch out for Portugal, they were up to allsorts of dirty tricks yesterday, we'd better not get involved. Their keeper did the same thing he did to us at Euro 2004; he came out flapping for a cross, missed it and flopped around like a fish out of water to get a free kick. The game should be more open as they like attacking. Us v. Holland would have been a sleep fest. Roy, Mexico had one decent performance, against the Argies, and got beat. Their group play was crap, they just had easy opposition. Where are you going to study Stateside?

The best game so far was Aussies v Croatia. Argies demolition of the Serbs ranks good as a technical game. I've like the WC so far, the good games will start on Saturday as they are playing to stay. How may penalty shootouts will we see?

In the cold light of day I beleive that the USA don't deserve to go through. They are a team that I watch and look out for their result, I have been a part of US soccer on some level since I've been here and as long as I'm a fan of football I want the US to do well as it can only bring the game more popularity over here. Lets look at what happened to them: They came out flat against the Czech's and got a pasting. This made everyone sit up and say that the Czech's were one of the best team's in it. 2 losses later and they are gone (yes, we all know Koller got injured). They played their ba!!s off against Italy, had no shots and scraped a creditable draw. Against Ghana an error from their skipper and a very debatable penalty cost them twice. They huffed and puffed but couldn't find it. Fans all over the place have talked about being done by the ref's in two games. Both sendings off in the Italy game were deserved (Mastroeni's a tad harsh) and today's penalty was a bad one. But these excuses mask what was a very ineffective US team. They hardly got into the box in all three of their games and some of their players weren't up to it. I think Arena (the coach) has a lot to answer for. He should walk, or be pushed. Tactically the USA were miles behind and although many will feel sorry for them they weren't good enough to progress.

Half time post. Never a penalty. If a decision like that costs them the game it is very harsh. FIFA need to address players dropping like flies every time someone touches them. Not just this game but all of them, even England do it; Beckham especially.