swajames

I will do just that, DD - good advice!

juris335

If FIFA ranks England 8th where do you get your substantiation for ranking England 1st? If you are going to get into the discussion you should know the subject matter.

swajames

That wasn't what I posted...

If you re-read what I did post, you'll see that I said that England had perhaps the best qualifying campaign of the European nations who qualified for the 2010 competition. I didn't actually say England were ranked first in the world - i.e. top of the FIFA rankings - in any of my posts. Brazil have that honor. Argentina are ranked one place higher than England too. Mind you, Brazil and Argentina don't generally compete in the European qualifying campaign...

The top European qualifiers are not automatically going to be top of the FIFA world rankings. We are not talking about all countries, all regions and all groups. I simply said that England had perhaps the best qualifying campaign of the European nations. By best, we are talking about a generally accepted footballing measures of goals per game scored and points as compared to the other nations who competed in the European qualifying groups. The other likely candidate for the "best" campaign would have been Spain, who did not drop points but scored fewer goals and had a poorer goal difference. So, to repeat, I didn't rank England first and it was actually you who brought up the FIFA rankings. For the purposes of this discussion, the two really aren't connected.

pipper

thats footy for you...as long as no one takes it too seriously, its more fun with a little trashtalk!!!!
heres comes the trashtalk.....

that and a quarter gets u a phone call. what teams did they beat? andorra? kazakhstan? croatia and ukraine are half the teams they were a couple of years ago.
sorry, but im just not impressed by any of the english players. and as a team they dont play very well. their defense is nonexistent. ferdinand is too busy trying to snort the sideline dust, and terry (though once the best defender in the world) is too busy banging his teamates' wives. and shrek...i mean rooney...is just an overhyped fagment of british media. all he did today vs. japan was piss and moan about all the missed passes from walcott. they desperately need good performances from defoe and walcott.

i dont care about either team, but as a rivalry its fun to watch (sort of like usa vs. mexico or greece vs. turkey) id like to see the USA get to the round of sixteen, but not beyond that, mainly because football isnt appreciated in this country. in any other country it would be a weeklong national holiday, over here youd be lucky to even get a mention on the local news.

swajames

Absolutely - it's way more fun with some trash talk.

Roll on June 12th!

Bteljuice

I don't care about stats, don't care about history and hell sure don't care about their pothead coach, im with

miguex

ARGENTINA!!!!! VAMOOOOOOO ARGENTINAAAA CARAJOOOOOO!

DD_545i

Don't forget that Capello has been mixing up the team massively to try and pick his final 23. You haven't been seeing the best 11 play yet. I hope they'll be better than the mish-mash teams Capello has served up so far. I just hope he chooses to leave Lampard at home. He ruined the 2006 world cup for England. Every time there was any chance and Lampard got it, he threw it away. Any random fan from the crowd would have done better.

Really? I don't see that from an English person's point of view. Maybe expat Brits who moved to the USA do, but I don't think it exists. England's biggest rivalry games have always been with Germany, Scotland and (because of 1986 and the hand of god) Argentina. Everybody else (including USA) is "just another game".

VHHDT

Well.... I'm gonna tip AUSTRALIA!!!! denied last time by a cheating/diving girly Italian and his controversial staging for a free kick.... this time they will reach the finals...

Go Socceroos!!!!!

Cheers....

DD_545i

Well there go England's hopes of winning it - it looks like Frank Lampard probably made the cut for the final squad. He single-handedly ruined any chance England had in Germany 2006. Every time he got the ball he either lost it, missed the target or bottled it. We'd have been better off playing with ten men rather than have him on the team.