How would any sane person say that they won't ever make a mistake again?



It is one of those things and it does happen, it's just unfortunate.



FWIW I thought we played well overall and will get better as the tournament goes on. Can't believe the amount of people writing us off already after one game?

I take your point....there is no guarantee that it won't happen again....but if you don't learn from your mistakes the chances are it will happen again. And above and beyond that it is a bit of an insult to say it's one of those things.

After all we can ascribe any cock-up as one of those things...when in the real world responsibility has to be taken. But it's football so it doesn't matter..it's just a game.... a game that is worth millions.

Sums it up nicely for me.



The performance wasn't a disaster but it looked a long way from good enough. Hopefully it was our worst of the tournament, because we won't beat any decent sides playing like that.

It was a performance we can build on.



We didn't keep the ball well, which we never seem do, meaning we couldn't dictate the tempo of the game and take the sting out of the game when we got the early goal.



I'd drop Lampard for Carrick and start with Joe Cole on the left wing.



The keeper situation is a tricky one. Does Capello drop Green and destroy his confidence? Who does he replace him with? The talented rookie or the experienced eccentric?



In tournament football it's not about how you start the campaign, it's how you finish it.

Italy won the last WC and in their first game they drew with USA. That's not to say we will win it but last night was far from a disaster. The worst part of the game were the long balls in the first half, it meant Lamps and Gerrard never got on the ball and Rooney was a spectator, 2nd half we played properley and Rooney started to show his talents. If we get it down and play and have a holding midfielder allowing Gerrad and Lamps to get forward then we will do well.

Megson rated him.

Unfortunately he has a number of clangers to his name at Club level too.

3 further points ...



1. Green got lucky with his save where he pushed it onto the post ... badly positioned and could easily have scored an own goal.

2. Heskey is not international class!

3. Despite it all we are far from out of this tournament but will need to step up through the gears if we are to trouble the 'better' sides.

I bet Adam Johnson is loling all over.



Keeps SWP out of the team of the 6th (?) best team in England, yet watches SWP fail miserably on the international stage.



Same old England, even if it's wrapped up with an Italian coach. McClaren would've been murdered by the press / fans after yesterday's selection and performance.



Carragher and Terry as a CB partnership makes me look like Usain Bolt. Rooney has got to be up front on his own, with Gerrard just behind him - it's worked well all season for him, so continue it.



The lack of width on the left is the most worrying thing. I'd consider chucking Warnock at LB with Cole at LM, as he's probably the best left 'winger' in the squad.



If you're looking for positives, at least the curse of the English GK has happened in a pointless game rather than a knock out game ala Seaman or Carson.



I'm sick of all the pointless excuses, "the ball", "Capello didn't name the side" etc. Capello's decision of naming the team didn't affect qualifying, so it shouldn't affect the game.



James

Johnson Dawson Terry Warnock

Milner Lampard Barry A. Cole

Gerrard

Rooney



That'd be my team in the next game.

See my comments above regarding SWP.



O'Neill sees Heskey every day, and sees enough to keep him out of the starting lineup for Villa, yet he manages to steal an international career.



Heskey didn't play that badly, but I would have backed A. Cole / Johnson to score his one-on-one. You can't excuse misses like that.

Anyway, as the World Cup starts for real today, I've backed Zigic to score first and the World Champions (

) to win 2-0 at 35/1.



Also gone for Algeria/Slovenia to draw, Serbia to win, and Germany to win at 6.25/1.



I need to start winning some money!

I really think Slovenia will beat Algeria.

I'm a Norwich City fan so I've followed him throughout his career.



Admittedly he has made a few errors but nothing of that magnitude.



I have football coaching qualifications and I can sympathise with keepers because it's the most difficult position to play.



If an outfield player makes a mistake, he misses a chance, he gives the ball away, he gifts somebody a chance.



If a keeper makes a mistake, the ball invariably ends up in the back of his net.



It's an unforgiving position emphasised by the fact there probably only 3 or 4 keepers on the planet who could be considered truely world class.

Go back and watch every Yanited game. Rooney will have probably missed 20 chances like that. If I watch the Chelsea games again, Drogba will have probably missed 20 as well.



Rooney and Drogba are infinitely superior to Heskey, so they hide their 20 misses by knocking in a load of other chances. That results in people remembering their great scoring rate, but for some reason the misses get forgotten.



If you're talking about Joe Cole scoring that chance then you simply haven't watched him. He'd have skied it or hit a tame shot that bounced towards the keeper.

It very much depends which Algeria turn up. If their heads are bolted on, they're a handy side. However, as we saw in Angola earlier in the year, they can be their own worst enemies at times.

Slovenia are a well organised side, difficult to break down, and I have one English pound on them winning the comeptition. Forward Slovenia!

I was actually talking about Ashley Cole mate.



You're probably right about the miss TBF, it just looked unforgiveable. Like you say with Drogba / Rooney, they can make misses like that, but inevitably they make up for it.



If England don't improve, I can see Rooney getting another World Cup red shortly. His temper seems to be worsening. It's probably due to the fact that he's not scored for a while for England and he's feeling the pressure of been the key man. He needs a goal, desperately.

If you hadn't seen the game but read the reaction to Heskey's miss you'd think he had missed an open goal from a yard out or something, yes the very best strikers would have probably put a similar chance away 8 times out of 10, but it was far from the gimme it has been made out to be.



It just smacks as people trying to find a reason to slag off the usual scapegoat because, in the main, he actually did what he is in the team to do pretty well.

This is the problem I have with Heskey though. He seems to get picked in the team purely to be a nuisance. Surely at this level we should picking players who can score goals? Crouch provides an aerial threat, admittedly less than Heskey, but knows how to finish. Heskey has 5 in 45 for Villa(i think) and has 7 in 60ish for England. That just isn't enough for me. All the stuff about Rooney playing better of Heskey didn't happen last night. Personally I would start Crouch against Algeria.

Ashley Cole scored 4 goals last season. Last season was his best goalscoring season in his career. I really wouldn't have expected him to score from that position at all.

Crouch maybe tall, but I don't think he playes anything like Heskey does at all.



We scored lots of goals in qualifying, and Gerrard and Rooney started showing consistent form for England in the system because the presence of Heskey pushes defences back and stretches them - leaving space for those two to do their stuff in, I don't think Crouch has the pace, strength or movement to do that.



I think the system Capello used to get us here uses what we have got pretty well, I don't think it is good enough to win the thing, because I don't think we have the players to win the world cup.

Was Emily going for the Gary linekar sponsored Offisde Award last night?

I see where you're coming from, and already said I thought Heskey played pretty well.



For me, I was more concerned about the performances of SWP, Lennon, Lampard and Rooney.



I may be wrong, but up until the last 5 minutes, I can't recall SWP and Lennon swapping wings to give the USA defence something different to think about. In the modern game, I believe it's important for wingers (especially ones that don't have the best delivery) to swap wings now and then.

I thought that was odd too, I can see why SWP came on rather than Joe Cole, as he has a higher work-rate and would help us defensively, but he was never likely to provide anything from the left, whereas I feel Lennon would be more likely to have an impact from there.



For me last night showed that unless we can use Capello's favoured system and personnel we lack the depth and quality to make much impact, the system you suggested earlier is one I'd like us to be able to play well, but once again it puts Gerrard and Lampard in each others way, I'd have liked to have seen us try Joe Cole in behind Rooney with Gerrard continuing to play from the left but I'm not sure the actual tournament is the place to start experimenting, especially now we won't get a dead rubber in match 3.

A "Mexican wave" started 26 minutes into this game, I think that shows the quality...



C'mon Algeria

C'mon hen grrr lund at the Mo & Ron kickball world cup.



After all the HYPE



The reality is slowly but surely beginning to sink in.



What an "entertaining" competition this is









but don't forget to buy yer rip off merchandise!!!