Greece may very well go through another World Cup without scoring a goal. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who saw yesterday’s game. Nor should it surprise anyone who followed them at the 2004 European Championship, which they won by scoring more than one goal only once – and that was a penalty that beat Portugal 2-1.
The USA-England match suggests three possibilities, none of which offer any comfort to England and at least one of which has to be true: Fabio Capello’s tactical decisions were not good in that game, England has precious little speed in defense and will be vulnerable against teams that can maintain possession and has attackers with good pace (i.e. Brazil or Spain) and/or their midfield is in trouble, especially if they can’t maintain possession against a team like the USA..
Peter Crouch still fails to impress me. His wife is quite lovely.
David (Calamity) James must be wondering what nickname they will give Robert Green.
The critical match in Group B will be Nigeria v South Korea. Argentina will feast on South Korea’s back line and everyone will feast on Greece.
Memo to Leo Messi and Gonzalo Higuain: you have to finish those chances. the next round isn’t going to be any easier.
Memo to South Korea’s defense: if you offer subsequent teams as much space offered the mediocre Greek attack at the end of the game, your speediest attackers won’t be able to make up the difference in goals scored.
This may be the best analysis of the US-England game.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
David (Calamity) James must be wondering what nickname they will give Robert Green.
Can they recall David Seaman? Why can’t England produce any good Keepers?
Corner Stone
Abigail Clancy is quite lovely indeed.
That sums up my total level of interest in soccer.
Randinho
@Corner Stone: Gee. Now I’m going to cry.
valdivia
I put this in another thread but since we are talking futbol here: I am actually in Costa Rica where everything starts at 5 am local time to watch the games and life stops for the games. Pretty fun. Everywhere I go the games are on. Every channel is futbol all the time with great commentary. I watched the Argentina game yesterday on an Argentinian channel and the announcers were hilarious. Can’t wait for the Germany game a little later on.
valdivia
oh and btw everyone here knows the World Cup song By David Bisbal which plays constantly on the radio.
JenJen
Hey!! That’s the second time now you’ve commented on the beauty of Peter Crouch’s wife. Never took you for a WAGs kind of guy. ;-)
(ducking!)
Loved the Ghana match. Und jetzt? Gehen wir, Deutschland!!
Stroszek
Well, Serbia just did a great job defeating themselves. Ghana probably just got a free pass to the next round.
@Randinho: Don’t mind Corner Stone, his late night thread-spamming suggests a compulsive need to troll. He’s the Balloon-Juice equivalent of a homeless guy muttering obscenities at a bus station.
Randinho
@JenJen: I wish the WAGS were there now!
JenJen
@Stroszek: What Stroszek said.
@Randinho: You wish the WAGs were where? In your living room? ;-) No, truly, I’ve always thought soccer boys seem to snag the most gorgeous wives. Right after that, hockey boys. Rrrrrrrowr, hockey boys!
There’s gotta be a Ben Roethlisberger joke in here somewhere, but I just can’t seem to find it…
wobblybits
@Stroszek: A win is a win :)
Brandon
I think your analysis on USA-England is off a bit. Let’s start with Capello.
I don’t know if you can call them “tactical decisions” or just flat out mistakes. Both Milner and King were struggling for fitness heading into that match and Heskey has been struggling for form his whole career. The idea to start all three was foolhardy and I think it had more to do with Capello trying to justify his team selection than anything else. He left both Bent (who has consistently been a top scorer in the league, save his spell at Spurs) and Walcott at home on favor of Heskey. He left Upson at home in favor of King, who has had fitness issues his whole career and even asked Carragher to come out of retirement. He also controversially left out The dynamic Adam Johnson in favor of Wright-Phillips, when Johnson has already taken his starting position at ManCity. Capello needed to prove he made the right call and the reality we can see is that ge didn’t.
Cherundolo was abusing Milner for the 30 minutes before he was mercifully taken off and Altidore had King on the back foot. Both Wright-Phillips and Lennon were passengers, with Lennon’s only saving grace being that Bocanegra had a shocker and couldn’t handle the overlapping runs of Glenn Johnson. Capello flat out picked the wrong team to take to the cup and doubled down on that foolishness by trying to justify it against a USA teamhe clearly did not respect.
Now let’s turn our attention to the England defense. There is no doubt that both Cole, Johnson and that disgusting Terry are all world class. They all also have a decent speed and trickery, particularly the full backs. Losing Ferdindand was huge for England and because as I said, Capello had to justify King and Carragher, he couldn’t turn to the more obvious choice, Michael Dawson, who was one of the last cut and was asked to rejoin as an emergency replacement for Ferdinand. We’ll see how pig headed Capello is going forward if Dawson doesn’t make it into the team for the rest of their matches. But as for the defense as a whole, the only problem they pose is that they are completely exposed by the joke of a midfield.
Gerrard and Lampard have never played well together in the middle ever. The fact that Capello tried to make it work shows that he is either incapable of learning or that he had no respect for the USA. Neither player offered any protection to the defense and except for a late shot and awful freekick Lampard was not a factor at all. But even worse, Capello’s selection on the wings were so awful that they left their great attacking full backs pinched back most of the game and exposed. I have a feeling that by the time this tournament is over, he is going to wish that he never heard the names Theo Walcott and Adam Johnson after watching how pitiful SWP and Lennon are. If Barry can get fit, they might have a chance.
One last thing is that the USA did not outplay England in the midfield. They were just tactically smarter and it is one of the few occassions where Bob Bradley got the tactics spot on. The match was not particularly pretty or pleasing to watch, because the USA refused to allow it to settle down. They played it like ping pong and it took away any advantage that England had with the ball at their feet. If England were allowed to settle the game and build up their attack by passing it out of the back, they would have picked the USA apart
with their superior skill and movement. As it was, the Clark/Bradley v. Lampard/Gerrard matchup became a total non issue.
One last thing, Green’s gift was horrendous. But it was equally as horrendous as the goal the USA gave up. The back line was disorganized, with DeMerit keeping Heskey onside, Bradley slow to pick up Lampard and Clark and Bocanegra caught ball watching. It was actually worse than what Green did because it took five player to coordinate their shoddy play. I suspect that everyone in England wants Joe Hart to play now.
Stroszek
@Brandon:
This is what I’ve been saying. If English fans feel ripped off over an aberrant mistake, they should be glad Gerrard was able to tap a goal in based on a comparable lapse by the Americans. If the US had woken up to the game five seconds earlier, England would be hanging out with Algeria at the bottom of the group.
Randinho
@Brandon: I think that the player choices are all tactical decisions.
I stand by what I said regarding England’s pace in defense. If they had been facing Kaka, Robinho and Luis Fabiano, all of whom are great in possession and have speed, they would have been crushed.
Randinho
One last thing is that the USA did not outplay England in the midfield. They were just tactically smarter and it is one of the few occassions where Bob Bradley got the tactics spot on.
If their tactics were better then Capello’s tactics obviously were worse. They did outplay them as they executed their tactical plan.
JenJen
@Randinho: Hey, Randinho, what are your thoughts on the vuvuzelas?
There’s a little chatter out there that FIFA is considering banning them, and I’m of mixed emotions on that. They’re part of the culture of African soccer, for sure, but they’re also distracting, and I miss hearing the chants, the songs; it all gets drowned out and all you hear is a drone. It’s taking away from one aspect of the terrific atmosphere of international soccer, but at the same time, the vuvuzelas support and color the atmosphere of the host country.
To get rid of them would probably be a bigger “story” than the vuvuzelas in the first place.
Kirk Spencer
Fourth possibility: the US is (or was, if it’s a one time thing) a little better than they’re credited with being.
thalarctos
“David (Calamity) James must be wondering what nickname they will give Robert Green.”
Two different tabloids had the same headline this morning: “The Hand of Clod”.
Punchy
The US should have won that game, that unlucky block-post-whothefuckstheretofinish sequence to deny them. That would have set off suicide alarms in England.
That said, the biggest thing I took from yesterday’s games is that I had NO IDEA England’s flag looked just like the Swiss’s. I always thought the Union Jack was their flag. I’ll be dammed.
wobblybits
@Punchy: Union Jack is the UK flag. It is made up of the three flags (crosses) of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Robert Waldmann
Nicknames for Green
1) Robert Green and bear it.
2) suggest he let the ball in because he was bribed so
Robert Green-backs.
3) Suggest he just needs some practice in how to hold on to things
Robert Green-horn
4) Describe how Wayne Rooney feels knowing centre forwards of opposing teams can score by kicking the ball right at him
Robert Greenwithenvy.
Oh come on, it’s just a game. He played well for all but one tenth of a second of that one. Besides, he did it so we would go easy on BP, so he’s a true patriot.
Brandon
@Randinho: On the midfield issue, we basically ceded that area to England, but it was to no effect because we directed most of the game around them. It was smart and perhaps superior tactics v. outplayed is a semantic issue. But it worked really well until Rooney recognized the problem and started dropping deeper and deeper to pick up the ball, with runners advancing ahead of him. That’s when when we really hit trouble and thankfully it was only the last 25 minutes. If he had been doing that from the beginning, he would have scored a brace.
As for the defensive speed issue, I wholly disagree. It was only King/Carragher. Certainly I cannot believe you would intimate that Cole and Johnson are slow. The problem with their defense is firstly, they really needed Ferdinand, absent him it is clear that Dawson is the best choice. Second, they were totally unprotected. No Barry means no DM the wingers never bothered to track back, except Milner, who did nothing but track back and made got exposed by a rather ordinary RB in Cherundolo. Milner was so awful, he should have been sent off for his two challenges. Capello knew he was lucky to still have 11 players, so he got him out of there asap.
I agree that their defense looks highly suspect, however I think their undoing will have more to do with the superior movement of a team like Brazil or Spain instead of raw speed or quickness.
scav
@Punchy: Pedantry attack (sorry), England’s flag isn’t exactly like the Swiss one, look at the edges of the stripey cross. Pedantry bonus points, the Swiss flag is really square, although it does have a rectangular variant. Funny thing that the United Kingdom actually means kingdoms that were united. Ah well. Biggest thing I learned either today or yesterday was that WAG isn’t always Wild-Assed Guesstimate which probably explains a lot about my life.
Mark S.
When I looked at the US roster, I noticed only three of them play for MLS. I would guess at least half of the roster in 2006 played for MLS. Good for the players, but is that league going to survive?
I think there are enough football fans in America now that a league can do modestly well, but it should try to cater to actual football fans. Don’t have some convoluted playoff that renders the regular season meaningless. Don’t have a salary cap: let a few superteams form; it’s not like La Liga is unpopular because Real Madrid and Barcelona win all the time.
Brandon
@Kirk Spencer: Well there is two parts to that. First, the USA is ranked #14 by FIFA. I believe we were ranked even higher going into the last World Cup, where we did not really look good at all against Italy, the Czech’s or Ghana. So there’s that. I happen to think though that #14 sounds about right. We should make it to the Round of 16 and will probably need some luck to go much further.
The second part to that however is the perception that our opponents have of us. On that note I’d say that we get little, if any, respect at all. Even after we get results. Just look at Mexico, they still don’t respect us after we’ve already beaten them in high stakes matches everywhere but Azteca. But a record of winning Gold Cup and in particular that R16 World Cup match in 2002 evidently means little.
As for other teams, ask Nigel de Jong how much he respects us or Stu Holden after breaking his ankle in a “friendly”? The only thing we can do is beat them and let our record speak for itself. “They” can justify it however they want
calling all toasters
@JenJen: Banning the vuvuzelas would instantly make one billion viewers happier and healthier. So I doubt FIFA will do it.
JenJen
@calling all toasters: HA!! Excellent point!!
wobblybits
@calling all toasters: It won’t get any better for the 2014 World Cup.
Ked
@Brandon:
I am not a soccer expert, but as a sports fan (a Colts fan, even, who has engaged in some of the same rhetorical self-immolation not too long ago) I know this style of whining quite well. You’ve basically managed to disprove your own point. The USA didn’t outplay them, but their tactics were better. The game wasn’t “pretty”, and it took away England’s advantage. If England were allowed to do what they wanted, they would have been better.
Sounds to me like you just don’t like the result. Poor baby.
…
I mean to watch a fair amount of the World Cup this year, but Friday’s games put me off and there’s been entirely too much racing (Most. dramatic. Lemans. ever.) this weekend to sit through any more, though I did DVR the early match this morning.
Sometime I’m going to sit down and write out my argument for how this sport would be improved by increasing scoring averages by about two goals per game. I don’t mind low-scoring sports (I learned to love the NHL during the trap era and all these 6-5 games freak me out), but ties in half the games played so far make for a truly crappy way to name a world champion.
Svensker
Like a bunch of old guys who’d just been awakened from comas and had about 30 minutes to learn the rules of this new game called “soccer”. Clueless and sluggish. The hubster and child woke up early to watch and were quite crushed.
Chris
Re: Crouch
I think that’s a premature assessment of Crouch, given he came on as a late sub and you’ve barely seen him play.
He’s had stretches of great productivity in both the national side and club, and there’s a slight public bias against him (in my view for two reasons – one, his height and gangly appearance, which is deceiving in that he has great control over his body and the ball, and two, he’s pretty bright and well spoken which doesn’t help you in football world). I think he can work really well in tandem with Rooney slightly more withdrawn. Similarly, there’s a public bias against Heskey given his low scoring, by people who don’t appreciate what his presence opens up behind him for other players.
The problems for England were mostly focused in midfield. The US should have been more ambitious.
PS Clancy is good looking, but there were some tabloid hints about her “playing away” as they put it here. Here’s a good one, Lampard’s girlfriend, Christine Bleakly
PPS. One of the tabloid headlines, with a picture of Green allowing the goal “Hand of Clod” Poor guy, is going to get that clip played the rest of his life. Doesn’t happen to a defender missing his manmarking by a yard and allowing a goal
calling all toasters
@wobblybits: Only if Brazilians can the samba and decide that leaf blowers are the national instrument.
Mark S.
@Brandon:
Actually, the US was number four going into the 2006 World Cup, but FIFA rankings at that time were a joke and they didn’t even use them for seeding.
I don’t think other countries think our team is a joke, and if Mexico still does they’re loco considering all the times we’ve beaten them. 14th sounds about right; we’re solidly in the second tier.
wobblybits
@calling all toasters: I am brasilian and we have them here, they are called cornetas. Google “cornetas brasil” and click images. I have a yellow and green with the flag attached and a mini corneta. Like I said, it won’t get any better when the World Cup is in Brasil.
Ked
@calling all toasters:
Banning the vuvuwhatevers would make all the South Africans sad, and for what they’re paying to host the Cup they should have the right to party any way they want.
I propose a technological solution – the pitch of the damn things is pretty constant, and it can’t be too hard to just filter them out. Or even just turn down the volume of the stadium sound – it’s not like you can hear anything happening on the field anyway. ESPN has to have a cheer-track machine somewhere. Or maybe just substitute in some music – for the games I’ve seen so far Enya would be about the right speed.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@Brandon:
?
The logical extension of this reasoning is that goals are never scored, so long as back line discipline is rigorously maintained. Of course, that’s how it looks to most Americans already.
In fact, that’s how you score in soccer, hockey, basketball, and a bunch of other sports; you wait for that momentary lapse of discipline and have skilled players take advantage. The goal Green let in was more like Tiger Woods missing a three inch tap-in. Expecting four or so players to maintain rigorous group discipline for 90 minutes is unreasonable (for American soccer, anyway), expecting a goalie to never, ever, ever let a weak kick trickle through him is de rigeur.
Bootlegger
You mean against a midfield with two excellent Premier League starters and a Bundesliga destroyer? I am far from a rah-rah nationalist when it comes to sports, but the US/England talent difference was nowhere near as great as the “conventional wisdom” held. Certainly the US is not as deep, but there is not a huge difference in the starting XI. Yes, Rooney is superior to Altidore, but that is cancelled out by Howard over Green. Our fullbacks are also important starters in major leagues.
England was going to struggle against us because we knew them probably even better than they knew us because of all our players in their league.
BFR
@Randinho:
I remember thinking that during the 2nd half yesterday. It was pretty clear that England couldn’t come close to matching Findley/Altidore/Buddle’s speed. England may have scored had they more time. The US would have scored with more time.
If England has to face a team that has speed + decent ball control, it could get ugly.
BFR
@Mark S.:
Probably. MLS has a couple of teams now with strong local followings which will get better over time. They also have absolute control over player costs – taken together, I’d guess that they’ve weathered the darkest time.
licensed to kill time
@JenJen:
Someone here yesterday called them “constantly buzzing vulvas” which I thought was pretty funny, and an interesting mental image to boot.
Bootlegger
Did anyone else wonder why Bradley kept his third substitution in his pocket with his team tiring in the last 10 minutes? And why did he wait until the 80th minute to make his first sub? Our guys were obviously gassed at the end and three sets of fresh legs for the final 20 minutes could have produced the game winner.
KG
@Mark S.: I count 4 MLS players on the WC roster. But the player pool has about half its members playing in the MLS.
I think the problem for the MLS is stability more than money. Expansion and contraction – necessary parts of any young league, I’ll admit – make it tough for casual fans to get involved. But I suspect having lower tier leagues, along with college soccer, will help stabilize the game in the States. Then it’s just a matter of marketing and getting a decent television deal. If they were smart, they’d try and get a Game of the Week deal with ABC/ESPN, either every Saturday or Sunday during the regular season.
Thlayli
@Mark S.:
Three of them play in MLS now. The majority of yesterday’s starting lineup, and the majority of the squad as a whole, are former MLS players. Heck, five of the 13 that played are former New York MetroStars/Red Bulls: Howard, Clark, Bradley, Altidore, Buddle.
cmorenc
@Randinho
The British tabloids already determined that with the wickedly witty nickname for Green’s infamous misplay:
“The Hand of Clod”.
Ronnie P
“I think there are enough football fans in America now that a league can do modestly well, but it should try to cater to actual football fans. Don’t have some convoluted playoff that renders the regular season meaningless. Don’t have a salary cap: let a few superteams form; it’s not like La Liga is unpopular because Real Madrid and Barcelona win all the time.”
I couldn’t disagree more. The top heavy nature of Euro leagues isn’t a feature, it’s a bug. Even worse, the US doesn’t have the long established hard core fans who will turn even if their club has a 0% chance of finishing near the top of the table, as is the case with most Euro clubs. Imbalance killed the NASL.
MLS *does* cater to soccer fans. Gone are the shootout and the teenage cheerleaders. The salary cap is flexible enough for them to sign Beckham.
cmorenc
@Ked
There really is no way to tweak the rules or the field to accomplish this during regulation time or conventional overtime (golden goal or not) without inflicting significantly more damage to the game than improvement, and/or greatly cheapening the paramount value of great ball skills, perhaps the most crucially vital element of all for the game’s current popularity. TWO OR THREE BILLION or more futbol afficianados throughout the world know and understand this, and like the game pretty much as it is with minor tweaks designed almost entirely so far to keep the game true to its spirit rather than attempting to add any novel departures to supposedly “improve” it.
Diego Maradona didn’t need any stinkin’ rules “improvements” to score his brialliant goal for Argentina vs England in the 1986 quarterfinals of the WC (no, NOT the infamous “Hand of God” goal, but the other one he scored that game by feinting his way through half the English defense with magically deft ball touches, leaving badly faked-out wrong-footed limey jockstraps hanging in thin air, including the GK, for a surprisingly easy finish to one of the hanful of most marvelous goals of all-time.
KG
@cmorenc: I agree, scoring (or the lack thereof) isn’t the problem. It’s simply the nature of the game. You have to learn to appreciate the flow of the game, I think.
Also, since we are talking soccer, I was wondering, why hasn’t discussion of the magic spray been a bigger part of the HCR debate? Seems like it can cure just about anything
John Cole
I don’t think goals has anything to do with whether a game is fun. Ghana/Serbia was 1-0, and I was mesmerized because of the chances and the play style. Slovenia/Algeria was just horrible no matter what and made me want to shoot my tv. France/Urugay was also horrid.
calling all toasters
@wobblybits: OK, then. Do Brazilians blow them constantly and indiscriminately, too, as if the action on the field doesn’t matter? Because that’s one of the problems: it creates the impression that the stands are filled with morons.
Ronnie P
The truth is, that most sporting events are not exciting. Don’t tell me the standard 6-2 MLB or 27-10 NFL games are exciting (and I love the NFL). What you get out of a sport is related to what you put into it.
Bootlegger
@cmorenc: One easy change that wouldn’t change the “look” of the game would be to allow unlimited substitution. Do it like hockey with players changing on the fly. The fifth official could ensure that its one player off-one player on. The three subs, no returns rule has always struck me as unnecessarily restrictive.
Hmmm, Klose is starting for Germany, he couldn’t even break into Bayern Munich’s starting XI this season.
burnspbesq
@Ronnie P:
This. Just wait and see what happens to La Liga when Real Madrid goes into bankruptcy, as it inevitably must in the next 2-3 years. The best thing that has happened in the Premier League in recent years is the improvement of Man City, Spurs, Villa, and Everton. Now there are eight teams that come into each season with legitimate European aspirations, and that many more marquee matches during the season.
cmorenc
@Corner Stone
Then why are you here wasting your time commenting in this thread?
I will give you credit for being sensible enough to simply indicate that soccer isn’t your cup of tea and doesn’t grab your interest, a sentiment even the most ardent futbol/soccer fanatics can respect, because it doesn’t disrespect us and the vast majority of the rest of the world. That’s in dramatic contrast to commentators like Jim Rome (sports talk-show broadcaster) or Glenn Beck (you-know-who) who go out of their way to direct xenophobic, hateful ridicule at the sport but only manage to demonstrate their own astounding ignorance and stupidity, when instead the far wiser course would be to simply ignore it.
burnspbesq
The next match is extremely interesting. If Germany isn’t good enough to rip Australia apart, they’re not good enough to get past the quarterfinals.
JenJen
We could use some subtitles for this Scottish announcer. WTF?
Gehen wir, Deutschland!
Und… JAAAAA! GOOOOOOAAAAL!
@cmorenc: Well done. And, bonus points for the Jim Rome slam. ;-)
Stroszek
@Ked: I really don’t get the “ties are boring” argument. You don’t know the result until the end of the match, and ties mean you likely just watched a tense game. I’d rather watch that than an 8-2 blowout in baseball. Baseball “wins” don’t even mean that much since there’s over a 150 games per season.
As for increasing scoring… I don’t get that at all. A 2-1 result in football means you have a goal about every 30 minutes. That’s the equivalent of a 4-2 result in baseball or a 28-14 result in American football, and as I said, I’d rather watch a close, low-scoring game in anything than a blowout where I spend the last two hours flipping over to Futurama reruns.
cmorenc
@Bootlegger:
I’m a long-time soccer referee myself at competitive levels (albeit far lower competitive levels than World Cup). Trust me, there are VERY strong reasons why, on a full-sized pitch at the higher international levels like World Cup, why you DON’T EVER want to allow substitution “on the fly” instead of at a well-controlled stoppage. If there’s misconduct while such a sub is underway, as the official USSF “Advice to Referees” indicates (echoed by similar advice by the controlling bodies for other referees worldwide) – you can get into situations the rules have no answer for (because of the difficulty of determining who was still a “player” at the moment of misconduct, and whether the guilty side has to play a man down or not).
The other factor at the international level (as opposed to youth or recreational levels, where opportunity for all to participate is a more important value than at the higher levels) – is that player conditioning, fatigue at the latter stages of the game, and ability to pace oneself to go the full 90 minutes + OT if necessary are essential elements of the game. I agree that the number of subs could be made more generous than 3 (maybe 5 total would change the character favorably). For example, that was a stupid, but also probably fatigue-induced mistake by the Serbian defender today to commit a stupid deliberate handling foul in the Penalty Area – a fresh player would be much less likely to commit such an error.
JenJen
I’m loving the Krauts in this match. Amazing speed and style. This is what soccer is, and I hope all the haters are watching this level of play because it’s just astounding.
(Caveat: Having lived in Deutschland for years, and having first fallen in love with Fußball as a HSV (Hamburg) fan, I’m quite partial to the Germans.)
Stroszek
@cmorenc: I would add that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to demand both more subs and more goals.
Tony J
Hopefully, Capello will look at the game against the US and conclude that his tactics stiffled the attacking vim that England need to make the most of their top players.
Rooney was virtually invisible until he dropped back to link up the play, and then he was out of position to spearhead the attacks he’d started. Without a midfield set up to provide him with constant service and support his goal-hunger, his talent ends up being diverted into selfless donkey-work for the team as a whole. Play him as a lone striker the way he’s been playing all season, and he’ll get goals.
Gerrard simply cannot play with Lampard as a midfield partnership, they want to operate in the same areas and cancel each other out. Far better to let him take over from Heskey and play in the hole behind Rooney. Lampard can do what he does best and link up play between the wingers and the forwards, getting forward himself when the opposition are under pressure.
There’s not much that can be done about the nature of England’s defence – slow in the middle, speedy on the wings – other than to make sure that the opposition is constantly worrying about the speed and deadliness of a quick counterattack. The only way to put that kind of fear into the likes of Spain, Brazil, Argentina, etc, is to set up the team so the ball spends as little time as possible in our half of the pitch.
We’ve got a team of top class footballers who, if given free rein to attack will, in the wise words of Kevin Keegan, just score more goals than the other guy because that’s how you win.
Re – Peter Crouch. Has anyone already related the best ever Crouchie quote?
When asked something like “What do you think you’d be now if you weren’t in football?” responded, “Probably a virgin..”
Ked
@cmorenc:
That’s an argument I’ve heard before, and there may well be something to it. On the other hand, ball skills are going to be ball skills no matter what set of rules is implemented. (Unless you’re going to give even more advantages to the defense… which is the wrong direction anyway.) FIFA tinkered with the definition of offside some time back with the intention of increasing scoring, and it hardly ruined the game. It’s time to admit that those changes have failed to make a meaningful difference and start looking at more radical options. I’d propose doing something more hockey-like with offsides to spread defenses a little more, but there may well be better or more-incremental steps to take.
Argument from popularity? I suppose it’s a valid point, though a much more fragile one than it seems at first glance. Consider cricket, which is undergoing a surge in popularity due largely to a rules innovation. Rugby has done a fair amount of tinkering with scoring and other aspects over the decades, and has managed to get into the Olympics with what I’d once dismissed as a “lite” version. Would two or three billion fans love the game even more if watching it was even more exciting and game results less ambiguous? I don’t think anyone knows without trying. Nor do I think that you really know what is in everyone’s head worldwide any more than I do.
As with any rule tweak in sports, this sort of stuff has to be experimented with. Why not make the price of entry to the World Cup participation in a couple of international games under trial rules? It’s not like everyone doesn’t play a half-dozen international tune-ups before the Cup anyway. Try some ideas, get some data, make intelligent choices.
Ronnie P
It used to be you weren’t allowed to make any substitutions, so it’s not like the current rules are sacred. But on-the-fly subs would be a radical (and I think, terrible) change. One thing I like about soccer is it is relatively under-coached. US sports give the coach too much input during the game.
Ked
I think the field of play is just too large for true on-the-fly subs. (You’d need at least two new officials, just to deal with that.
If I could make a radical change in substitution rules, it would be to allow any number of substitutions… but like the current game never allow a player back onto the field after he’s left.
It would give the coach something to do besides looking bored for the cameras, reward team depth, and make the game more strategic, particularly in a tournament situation where you have to consider the possibility of overtime.
(Also, note that I’m not actually against ties – I’m against the statistical weirdness that results from extremely low rates of scoring and I really, REALLY hate the pkick shootouts that we’ll start seeing in the second round.)
HumboldtBlue
Who do British sportswriters suck so badly? I mean, they suck, as in sucky suckitude that sucks even worse than plain old suckiness.
What is it that they find so difficult about relaying the facts of a game that just happened?
wengler
To address some of the topics on this board:
MLS isn’t in trouble. Its ratings have been down a little bit of late, but it is the only major American sport that is steadily expanding with the inclusion of the Philadelphia Union this year and the Vancouver, Portland, and Montreal franchises in the coming years. A majority of the teams have their own stadiums and the New York Red Bulls just got a beautiful new stadium that is considered tops in the league. MLS currently has a Game of the Week deal with ESPN2 on Thursdays and Fox Soccer Channel on Saturdays.
Jim Rome and other American sports pundits don’t understand the sport so they choose to ridicule it. The “boring” meme is basically an attempt to make up for their ignorance. If your job is to comment on sports, I am certain that you tend to prefer certain ones over other ones, but you are knowledgeable about them all and you don’t tend to play favorites on the air. Except for soccer. Because you don’t follow it all and don’t know a thing about it. So instead of offering ignorant opinions, I’d rather they just shut up and not talk about it at all. Imagine if they had the same attitude about any of the major 3 American sports.
And to end Peter Crouch better not John Terry anywhere near his wife.
wobblybits
@calling all toasters: It’s how the crowd celebrates. Isn’t that the point of hosting them in different countries? So we can see how a world game is celebrated in different countries?
dadanarchist
Peter Crouch is the Shaquille O’Neal of football: no discernible skills, just really big.
Though, before I get flamed, Shaq did improve his fundamentals in the mid-00s.
Randy Paul
@Brandon: But that’s my point: Cole and Johnson push up so much they leave the weaker Carragher and King exposed and as good as John Terry is he couldn’t (nor should he be expected to) pick up the slack for them all the time.
I certainly don’t expect the USA to win the WC, but as much hype has been given to England as a contender, I really can’t see them as a legitimate contender to win the WC based on yesterday’s performance.
I disagree with you about Green’s mistake being worse than the USA’s mistake for the following reasons:
@Chris: I’ve seen him play a lot for Spurs, Portsmouth and Liverpool. In an earlier post I mentioned that he didn’t impress me and his performance yesterday seemed to be more of the same.
@JenJen: The vuvuzelas? Suffice it to say I’m glad I’m not in the stadium.
@Bootlegger: The larger issue is this: England is one of the seeded teams. By virtue of that ranking they were not going to be put in the same group as say, Holland, Brazil or Germany. Assuming they get out of the group – and I expect them to – it will only get tougher.
@cmorenc: Does anyone remember when Jim Rome incurred the wrath of Jim Everett by calling him “Chrissie?” Would love to see him try that with Eric Cantona, Stig Tofting, Jaap Staam or Adriano.
Chris
@dadanarchist:
That’s just ignorant.
in 2006/7, he was Liverpool’s top scorer. They weren’t all dunks, i mean, headers.
watch this
And most importantly, the dance……too bad Clancy won’t let him do it again or he’s cut off from the good stuff….
Chris
Peter Crouch, no discernable skills? Bull shit.