World Cup 2010

[Van Basten II]

That was the best game of the tournament so far, think both teams will move on, not convinced about Slovenia or Algeria. By the way we have yet to see an European team win. So far their record is 1 lost and two draws.

[J.A.W.]

Seriously, I'm guessing England comes out and scores, what, 2 or 3 goals in the second half?

Doesn't look all that likely @ 75 minutes.

...and it didn't happen. A poor English game. Haven't seen Gerrard - apart from his goal - or Rooney. Why on earth didn't Capello play Rooney in his favourite spot?? He looked lost. England favourites for the title? I don't think so, based on this performance.

[sidewinder]

Lukewarm performance by England tonight. That USA goal was a howler.

Rooney looked in less than A1 form, although Gerrard did have a really good game. Good pace by the USA, a spirited performanbce by them.

Ahem......(cough)... who is saying England are favourites? Not round here they're not.

Edited June 12, 2010 by sidewinder

[J.A.W.]

Rooney looked in less than A1 form, although Gerrard did have a really good game.

Did we watch the same game?

I must admit, though, that I'm not a Gerrard fan; I've never quite understood what people see in him. OK, he's a good player, but in my opinion not one of the greats.

Ahem......(cough)... who is saying England are favourites? Not round here they're not.

That's right, but elsewhere...

[sidewinder]

I stand by what I just said about Gerrard. A couple of his crosses into the box were superb - although (untypically) he did lose posession a couple of times near the end.

[mjazzg]

A fairly underwhelming English performance against a spirited US team, I thought.

Again England betray their lack of a truly inventive mildfielder who can unpick an organised oppostion (the player that Milner may be in a couple of years). Certainly England's best chances came from out wide where Lennon, Johnson and Gerrard all looked more than capable and beat their man well. I agree, I thought Gerrard had a good game - he was there or thereabouts both going forward and defending - he scored an excellent goal

US were useful but shoouldn't have been allowed to stifle England so much. They had the best defender on the night in Unyewu who was mighty impressive

[papsrus]

Seriously, I'm guessing England comes out and scores, what, 2 or 3 goals in the second half?

Doesn't look all that likely @ 75 minutes.

...and it didn't happen. A poor English game. Haven't seen Gerrard - apart from his goal - or Rooney. Why on earth didn't Capello play Rooney in his favourite spot?? He looked lost. England favourites for the title? I don't think so, based on this performance.

Yeah. I was just going for a little reverse hex.

Feel a little bad for Green. I figure his house is probably on fire by now.

[Jim R]

For me, the big story was England squandering so many good chances. I thought Howard was very good, but a number of his saves were on shots hit right at him. I feel very badly for Green, poor guy... he's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life (not that it will necessarily turn out to be all that meaningful, but that's still a living nightmare for a young keeper on such a big stage).

I wish Bradley had brought on Buddle for Findley sooner than he did. I think Buddle would have done better at holding up the ball, and would have been more dangerous in terms of shooting. As it was, we got a few corners toward the end, and I thought the U.S. might just get one more shot past Green and steal two more points. Now that would have been a story.

Looking forward to the early match tomorrow, and seeing our other group opponents group facing off.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Jim R

[mattes]

Think I will watch with the sound off , those horns are annoying

Those horns are the only reason I watch

[Brad]

Sounds like something Allen would say

[.:.impossible]

Re: shots right at Howard. Isn't that what a good goalie does? Positions himself well and stands tall? I know, the shots at his goal weren't all that inventive, but that isn't entirely on the offense is it? I read that as the result of circumstance. Seemed to me that US defense held its own well. England worked very hard the entire second half to get off shots that were less than ideal. Not desparate, but not high percentage either. No? I was on edge for US. Green had a hell of a save (post), but there was a lot of less

organized action from England as the clock wound up that resulted in some very confused situations down near Howard. I thought the D looked pretty good.

I'm hooked.

[Van Basten II]

Looking forward to the early match tomorrow, and seeing our other group opponents group facing off.

That's interesting you're saying that because I was thinking that unless you have a direct or indirect involvement with the teams playing sunday, the series of game is as uninteresting as you can get, only big team playing is Germany and they play no hoper Australia, then again that's what makes the charm of the World Cup, what is the other time where you'll get up at 7 am to watch Algeria-Slovenia.

[brownie]

Can't say I was impressed by the England team and Robert Green's blunder will follow him for the rest of his life.

I feel sorry for him!

[Jim R]

That's interesting you're saying that because I was thinking that unless you have a direct or indirect involvement with the teams playing sunday, the series of game is as uninteresting as you can get, only big team playing is Germany and they play no hoper Australia, then again that's what makes the charm of the World Cup, what is the other time where you'll get up at 7 am to watch Algeria-Slovenia.

Out here, the early games start at 4:30 am! :eye: If I want to see one of those (like tomorrow's Algeria-Slovenia match), I record it at watch it later. I didn't bother to record the South Korea-Greece match this morning.

I was surprised at how vulnerable Argentina looked today. They dominated the game of course, but they're fortunate that none of those near-misses by Nigeria went in. A draw would have been an embarrassment for Maradona and his side. That Nigerian keeper was impressive, though.

[mjazzg]

Re: shots right at Howard. Isn't that what a good goalie does? Positions himself well and stands tall? I know, the shots at his goal weren't all that inventive, but that isn't entirely on the offense is it? I read that as the result of circumstance. Seemed to me that US defense held its own well. England worked very hard the entire second half to get off shots that were less than ideal. Not desparate, but not high percentage either. No? I was on edge for US. Green had a hell of a save (post), but there was a lot of less

organized action from England as the clock wound up that resulted in some very confused situations down near Howard. I thought the D looked pretty good.

I'm hooked.

I agree. I think Howard did play well and that although England created good chances they didn't make the most of them at all. Both Heskey and Wright-Phillips managed to shoot directly at Howard when there was more empty goal than not to hit - but Howard's positioning and speed off his line certainly intimidated them into their mistakes.

England do have a tendency to forget the finer elements of the game as they get more desperate (unlike Spain et al) and resort to long distance shooting.

Green's save from Altidore was very impressive too. Some compensation for his earlier mistake

[Van Basten II]

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

[J.A.W.]

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

The worst game so far

[brownie]

Was not expecting much from the Algeria-Slovenia match and it did match my low expectations.

It was not World Cup worthy!

The Algerian team proved once more it was not ready for this competition!

[Van Basten II]

Are they competing for offering the worse game as possible ?

[Brad]

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

The worst game so far

Let's hope it gets better because no match so far has been memorable.

[papsrus]

wtf?

[Van Basten II]

Good result for Ghana. The second half was watchable at least. Slovenia's win will put some pressure on England and the US to get some results in their next games, it might be a good thing.

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

The worst game so far

Let's hope it gets better because no match so far has been memorable.

Well the US-England was entertaining and it provided a memorable moment, to say the least.

[Matthew]

Good result for Ghana. The second half was watchable at least. Slovenia's win will put some pressure on England and the US to get some results in their next games, it might be a good thing.

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

The worst game so far

Let's hope it gets better because no match so far has been memorable.

Well the US-England was entertaining and it provided a memorable moment, to say the least.

I've been watching the games off ESPN3 (which does not carry games from ABC, which stinks), anyway, I thought Argentina, of all the teams, looked the best, very dangerous when on the attack, plus Messi looked like he's serious this time around. They're going to be tough to beat.

[Brad]

Good result for Ghana. The second half was watchable at least. Slovenia's win will put some pressure on England and the US to get some results in their next games, it might be a good thing.

The Algeria-Slovenia game has so far lived up to its billing

The worst game so far

Let's hope it gets better because no match so far has been memorable.

Well the US-England was entertaining and it provided a memorable moment, to say the least.

Well, I was going to say England US but thought better of it. What if that Green moment had happened in the Slovenia match? Would anybody be really talking about it. A little but not that much.

Regarding Argentina, I saw some nice passing in the box but the Nigerian goaltender was up to the challenge.

[Brad]

So far, the Germany Australia match appears worthy of being called a WC match (at least from the German point of view).