aka Dus

I guess it's a fool parting with his money following Spain. How many times do they need to get kicked out before people learn. A bit like England.

I will never bow to the Queen or even Freddie Mercury. Portugal won't either I daresay.

You're suffering from inverted Freudian racism there, you stupid drunken spud munching Mick.

I used to live in those parts. Its very easy to get to and you'll get a warm welcome from the Gelsenkirchen people provided you haven't trashed any squares in a German city recently.

Lads, there's a time and a place for casual racism. During/at the following; Sports Events. Pubs. Queues. Holidays. Traffic violations. NOT forums - you don't want THAT necklace.

Will the 1386 Treaty of Windsor have an impact on this game? I fear it might.

Well at least everyone can see by now how over-rated they have been. But as for that other twin impostor, over-hyped. Well you aint seen nothing yet... :-):-(

No useful comparison is possible. The FAs provide the framework and even coaching that develops young players in their countries. Big clubs then throw fortunes at these players and G14 are now engaged in an attempt to undermine the position of international football at the top of the football pyramid. Certainly all FAs should be made have comprehensive insurance but the rest is horsetrading.

Disaster for Sweden. manager should be embarrassed for leaving Henke over the spot like that. What a s*** player Mellberg is. A Shambles. Germany will be taken downtown by Argentina.

but we have done ok out of triggering release clauses, havent we.

He comes across as quite bright in the interview. We will see if he is smart enough to take the biggest opportunity he will ever have. My guess is he will.

As Dunphy said on the telly. "Poll is a fat clown. A fat clown for all to see." Regardless of what FIFA online said, there will have been an assesor at that game and Poll is finished at this world cup. As for the idea of an a national association suing FIFA for a referees mistake is the fast lane to mentaltown.

Heh heh. Stevie might be on thin ice there, to be fair.

It's a bit of a forum speciality, that. Not having a go at you Dan but too many posters here do it. It's like they are arguing with their sibling and trying to annoy them as much as they can before their mother shouts at them to stop it (while at the same time trying their best to make a clear implication that their knowledge on the subject is such that your point is utterly worthless and that their more informed opinion should be accepted, without question). Or like they are auditioning for pantomime. (I dare someone to post "oh no it's not.)

Heh heh. Class.

Thought he did ok in that he was involved plenty and clearly played out of position. Looking at him, it strikes me that his natural game would be putting himself about and holding the ball up a bit in the Mark Hughes mould. The only bad thing I could say from my one game watvhing him was that his first touch was often very heavy.

Is there someone on Red Cafe with 36,000 posts.....???

Poor fecker has had a round 12 months professionally and now this. I wonder if Bellamy will be questioned?

Sven learned a lot from the Sex Pistols about hype and swindles. Give him credit: he even has a McLaren in the back room.

Hows things in Russia Gary? Long time since I've seen you on. (Not that I'm here every day)

Sven's group tactics are based on the assumption that Crouch will grow another 2 inches before the semifinal. This is just not going to happen so now he told the players to use 'shorter passes'. .

Peaking too early is the conundrum that no English manager has successfully unconundrumised since the heady days of 1966, where they decided to peak early and maintain that peak and see how it turned out. A naive, if successful and therefore lucky decision by Ramsey.

England did play well for the first half but didn't create anything like the amount of chances they needed. I've got to say that I'm loving this new thing that England will get/look better when they're playing good teams as opposed to crap teams. Given that Ecuador are still assumed to be in the latter camp, can we expect another bad performance before finally seeing England string three passes together in both halves against Portugal or Holland in the Quarters? As for defending set pieces, Sweden are a Premiership style team and their corners and set pieces were done in a way that you'd expect England's defence to be dealing with week in and week out. For some reason last night they turned into the keystone cops.

Not at all injury prone. Real shame for him obviously. Get well soon Michael, life must be very boring recently with all this sitting around recuperating.

England are in it to win and he hasn't got them anywhere near a winning position. So the stats can say what they want - he has never got close to the best out of the players as might be expected (over-rated as many are) and that may not be a 'fact' but it's self evident when they play.