Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:05 pm
England are out of the World Cup because of three parties, the F.A, Sven and the players.
The F.A's handling of finding a new manager was disgraceful; it should of been sorted out after the World Cup. It wouldn't of surprised me if Sven sabptaged England's best chance, not that I can blame him if that's what he did. England might well of got Phil Scolari had they waited until after the World Cup, but the F.A don't seem to be able to do anything right.
Sven could and should take most of the blame, after he took a huge gamble on the players he took and it didn't pay off. He took a 17 year old whose never played on the top level, he took two injured players and a target man as his 4 strikers and it backfired greatly, Jermaine Defoe and Dean Ashton must be seething at the teeth with the decision to be left out. Sven's negative tactics were also to blame. England were so defensive and sat back so much that they forgot how to be creative up top. He refused to drop players like Beckham, Lampard and Owen and all the other media hyped, Sven favourized players. The fact that he also had to change from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 during the tournement didn't help things, in fact it made it worse.
And then theres the players. The midfield lack direction, creativity, the strikers were injured or had toe punts hoofed up to them instead of having mixed and short passes as well as thru balls into their feet. The defence at times look shaky and generally England played poor football and when it came to the crunch they were nowhere to be found. The players went missing against Portugal. Ppl blame Ronaldo for Rooney's red card and whilst I agree Ronaldo shouldn't of been such a little worm and influence the refs decision to send Rooney off but it did look like he set out to stamp on Carvalho's groinal area. Therefore he deserved to be sent off.
I'm sure Ace Ventura will pick apart my post and say that Portugal cheated, which they did and England lost cause of the heat, which is a factor but it's an excuse, the reason why England went out was because they were incapable of creating sufficent chances in front of goals and they played for penalties and they lost.
Better luck next time England, and it looks like I got my prediction right, England 0-0 Portugal and England to bow out on penalties.
The F.A's handling of finding a new manager was disgraceful; it should of been sorted out after the World Cup. It wouldn't of surprised me if Sven sabptaged England's best chance, not that I can blame him if that's what he did. England might well of got Phil Scolari had they waited until after the World Cup, but the F.A don't seem to be able to do anything right.
Sven could and should take most of the blame, after he took a huge gamble on the players he took and it didn't pay off. He took a 17 year old whose never played on the top level, he took two injured players and a target man as his 4 strikers and it backfired greatly, Jermaine Defoe and Dean Ashton must be seething at the teeth with the decision to be left out. Sven's negative tactics were also to blame. England were so defensive and sat back so much that they forgot how to be creative up top. He refused to drop players like Beckham, Lampard and Owen and all the other media hyped, Sven favourized players. The fact that he also had to change from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 during the tournement didn't help things, in fact it made it worse.
And then theres the players. The midfield lack direction, creativity, the strikers were injured or had toe punts hoofed up to them instead of having mixed and short passes as well as thru balls into their feet. The defence at times look shaky and generally England played poor football and when it came to the crunch they were nowhere to be found. The players went missing against Portugal. Ppl blame Ronaldo for Rooney's red card and whilst I agree Ronaldo shouldn't of been such a little worm and influence the refs decision to send Rooney off but it did look like he set out to stamp on Carvalho's groinal area. Therefore he deserved to be sent off.
I'm sure Ace Ventura will pick apart my post and say that Portugal cheated, which they did and England lost cause of the heat, which is a factor but it's an excuse, the reason why England went out was because they were incapable of creating sufficent chances in front of goals and they played for penalties and they lost.
Better luck next time England, and it looks like I got my prediction right, England 0-0 Portugal and England to bow out on penalties.