England 0 Portugal 0

[ABBEY]

He's probably had more shags than Abbey though

had plenty of shags but not fkd anyone up as much as the prk swede...grrrrrrrrrr...

[Shevchenko]

Imo this England 'failure' boils down to his spineless nature which prevented him from choosing one from Gerrard and Lampard . They can't play together, how many bleedin matches do they need to play before that is concluded?

And do you think McLaren will do anything about it?

He won't have the balls to drop one of the two "stars" either.

[joey_big_nose]

He has the best stats of any england manager ever, and I would certianly take him over anyone in the last fifteen years apart from Hoddle and Venables.

3 QF is actually quite a decent performance, if unexceptional.

The worrying thing is that we clearly need a change in coaching style but McClaren is merely going to continue the boring insular nature of our football.

[SouthAussieRover]

Come on now Rover6 you reckon he had balls for picking Theo.

Pity he lacked the balls to put him on the pitch.

Anyhows good riddance to the turgid, unemotional git.

[promoted2001]

Will Rooney be treated the same was beckham was after 98? Doubtful.

That was a horrible thing to do though, I wouldn't step on my worst enemies crotch!

[Biddy]

Will Rooney be treated the same was beckham was after 98? Doubtful.

That was a horrible thing to do though, I wouldn't step on my worst enemies crotch!

Personally I hope Ronaldo gets treated the same as Beckham and he gets hounded out of England. The dirty little cheat.

[rover6]

And do you think McLaren will do anything about it?

He won't have the balls to drop one of the two "stars" either.

McLaren will be out of his depth but at least he'll be paid less. He'll have enough to qualify us for tournaments but we can forget about winning anything for a while.

Credit to Hargreaves - the guy was simply outstanding.

Edited July 1, 2006 by rover6

[ABBEY]

Damn right, Paul. The stats might state otherwise but the guy has been a horrendous appointment.

Imo this England 'failure' boils down to his spineless nature which prevented him from choosing one from Gerrard and Lampard . They can't play together, how many bleedin matches do they need to play before that is concluded?

JESSUS H CHRIST ...4 WEEKS AGO YOU WAS SAYING HE WAS FANTASTIC...GET a life you muppet

[Bobby G]

You guys slag off Sven too much. Dont forget he has made your side a team to be reckoned with on the world stage. Teams actually worry about playing England now.

Before, you guys were just never-beens and a laughing stock of falling short.

In this age of football, playing pretty football doesnt always mean success. The style you were playing in the WC, could have taken you far. Just look at Germany and Portugal...

I dont know. I just feel he has built a base to take it further now. But I dont think SM is the man to do that.

[Mr. E]

I have to say, I rally cannot understand how you english can be so calm after what just happened. I mean...wow.

[DanLad]

Personally I hope Ronaldo gets treated the same as Beckham and he gets hounded out of England. The dirty little cheat.

I agree. Ronaldo is a disgrace.

Was the Rooney incident a red card? I don't think so. He didn't stamp, he just put his foot to (where he will have percieved to be) the floor. I reckon he didn't even know the chap was there.

If anything he's been fouled whilst trying to hold the ball up previously anyway.

If the little push is a red card then that's a very disappointing decision.

I agree with a previous poster. Football is a sport with which I'm becoming rapidly disillusioned because of the appalling and biased refereeing. On the other hand maybe I should try my hand at being a ref. At least I've played the game at a reasonable standard and can see what's going on!

Very disappointing tournament from England, though. We can't say that we deserved to win the World Cup, in any event. C'mon Brazil from hereon in!

Edited July 1, 2006 by DanLad

[T4E]

Thank God for that. We can all get on with watching the rest of the tournament now.

Spineless, boring, simply not good enough.

Roll on Euro 2008 - you'll get it right then........

Edited July 1, 2006 by Tugay4England

[RovertheHill]

Personally I hope Ronaldo gets treated the same as Beckham and he gets hounded out of England. The dirty little cheat.

Hated him before. Hate him now. Until club managers start sorting out their own players, cheating little s__ts like him are here to stay.

And as for Rooney, clearly the lesson for him is that instead of trying to stay on your feet after the first foul by Carvalho, or the second, or the third, you should go down. Preferably holding your head and rolling around a bit.

[rover6]

JESSUS H CHRIST ...4 WEEKS AGO YOU WAS SAYING HE WAS FANTASTIC...GET a life you muppet

Abbey you are such impetuous and ignorant individual. People humour you for some reason but I don't see why I should.

Please find the quote in which I said Sven was fantastic. I have always maintained he was a bad manager. I praised him for picking Walcott because he seemed to have disposed of his spineless nature and started backing his own judgment and I mistakenly believed he had a plan.

Get your facts right before you make your comments.

Bobby G, Sven did not make England a force to be reckoned with - did they actuallly put in one impressive performance in this World Cup despite having a plethora of excellent players?

stick to debate and cut out the abuse

Edited July 1, 2006 by Alan75

[joey_big_nose]

Is beckham staying after this world cup? If he goes then that solves the Gerrard/Lampardproblem in a single bound.

[ABBEY]

Abbey you are such impetuous and ignorant individual. People humour you for some reason but I don't see why I should.

Please find the quote in which I said Sven was fantastic. I have always maintained he was a bad manager. I praised him for picking Walcott because he seemed to have disposed of his spineless nature and started backing his own judgment and I mistakenly believed he had a plan.

Get your facts right before you make your comments.

Bobby G, Sven did not make England a force to be reckoned with - did they actuallly put in one impressive performance in this World Cup despite having a plethora of excellent players?

deleted. see Abbeys post below

Edited July 1, 2006 by Alan75

[Lathund]

How brilliant is Ricardo on penalties? He got his hand onto all four penalties. A couple of them were poor, but still impressive.

[RovertheHill]

And as for Mark Lawrenson...

[AxesFirstTouch]

Why has england pinned all its hopes up to this tournament on a thug like Rooney who cant even stay on the pitch long for the entire match. We dont see other world class players players acting like this, Henry for example when he was frustrated against Spain we didnt see him acting like a thug.

Rooney a footballing role model to all english youngsters, says it all really.

[percy]

Nothing like a bit of support eh?

Well done to all those who've slated SGE - it was exactly his fault that 2 midfielders capable of scoring 20 goals a season, missed at the penalty spot.

For all those slating SGE, try and take into account the fact England were still the best team with 10 men. I hope you're all well behind Steve McClaren.............

To see people throw their toy's out of the pram because we didn't sign a striker 5mins after selling Bellamy was almost expectable.

To see the same after this match is very disappointing.

[ABBEY]

Provisional England squad:

Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson (Tottenham), David James (Manchester City), Robert Green (Norwich City) Defenders: Gary Neville (Manchester Utd), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester Utd), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Wayne Bridge (Chelsea)Midfielders: David Beckham (Real Madrid/ESP), Michael Carrick (Tottenham), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich/GER), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham) Forwards: Michael Owen (Newcastle), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Wayne Rooney (Manchester Utd), Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

.

I'm with Sven (believe it or not). He's been bold and Walcott, from what we hear, has that extra special ability to run with the ball that Defoe and Bent don't have. I'm really happy to see Lennon in and Walcott could be the secret weapon.

THERE YOU GO PILLOCK

I just hope that you and Abbey and the others will have the guts to accept that you were so wrong when the time comes. I will be if I'm wrong but I am pretty sure that Sven has made the right move in including Walcott.

You (and others) have fallen into the trap of expecting a squad of the best English players based on the records rather than thinking of a squad of players capable of winning the World Cup.

You may not see the nuance but there is a difference. For example, Defoe might be a top English striker but what sort of substitute is he? If he's a rubbish sub, WHY TAKE HIM? because chances are that he won't start a game.

Everyone's saying Walcott's something special. Is Darren Bent something special? No, he's just a decent striker who had a good season. With Crouch filling the target man role, in the World Cup we will need a player capable of the exceptional to help us if Rooney isn't doing it. Walcott could be the man/boy.

And btw have Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole never played as second strikers? I think the hysteria is uncalled for. I don't rate Sven but this squad has restored a modicum of my faith in him.

THERE YOU GO MUPPET

Abbey needs to stop whinging because we all know if Sven had picked the standard squad like everyone expected he'd have still found fault! He'd have pointed out how boring and predictable Sven is and how a manager like that could never win a World Cup. Defoe is not a worldclass striker and England have lost nothing by leaving him out of the squad. Despite having a good shot, his pace is often wasted because he runs at the wrong time and into the wrong places. I'm shocked Darren Bent didn't make the reserve 5 ahead of Johnson or Defoe but again he's not a World Cup winner! Sven has finally admitted that his regular selections are not ever going to win a World Cup even if they do look the strongest Englishmen on paper so he's finally taken some risks that MIGHT actually give us an edge!

And for god's sake will you please stop whinging about Rooney and Owen's injury concerns. They are being treated by some of the best paid doctors and physios in the world using some of the most expensive equipment and therapy in the world therefore I think we can logically assume that they are being treated well by people who know their stuff! If these doctors and physios (and you can't deny that Sven will have asked their opinions!) had said Owen and/or Rooney would not recover in time to be ready for the World Cup then Sven would not have selected them in the squad so ffs stop saying we've only got 1 striker in the squad - we've got 4 and Joe Cole who has played fantastically for Chelsea right behind a lone striker!

MMMMMMM WAS I RIGHT ?

[T4E]

For all those slating SGE, try and take into account the fact England were still the best team with 10 men.

What were you watching?!

[ABBEY]

PERCY ITS ERICSONNS FAULT HE DIRTYED ON UNKLE JACK,ITS HIS FAULT HES THE MOST UNEMOTIONAL COACH IN HISTORY HES PASSIONKLESS,ITS HIS FAULT HE TOOK 3 STRIKERS;4 IF YOU INCLUDE THE KID...WHY OH WHY DID HE TAKE HIM,ITS HIS FAUALT HE TOOK JENAS,CARICK ,WALCOTT ETC AND DONT GIVE THEM A CHANCE ,ITS HIS FAULT HE PLAYS ROONEY ON HIS OWN IN ONE HALF THE PITCH,ITS HIS FAULT END OF ....

GOOD RIDDANCE

AT LEAST MACCA IS ENGLISH!

[Lathund]

Nowhere in those three posts does r6 claim Sven is fantastic. He does have the audacious opinion that Sven hasn't only done wrong since taking over... horrible isn't it?

[ABBEY]

deleted. see Abbeys post below

NEVER MIND DELETED ...BRING IT ON ROVERS 6 TIME AND A PLACE