England

[Deckydee]

Picking up here on a blog from a Eleven a side:

http://www.eleven-a-side.com/blogs/viewblog.asp?bid=478

What an article!

These are my favorite lines:

“Only in the semi-final will the place in the final which Capello craves come under serious threat.”

“At least England should avoid Spain until the final”

Adding onto this blog, I saw this a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/6786240/England-v-Italy-the-ideal-World-Cup-2010-final-for-Fabio-Capello.html

I mean come on, who else talks like that? This is why everyone wants them out

My friends from England always get péissed off when I laugh when they bow out but how could not laugh when you read that dribble?

[superfrank]

My friends from England always get péissed off when I laugh when they bow out but how could not laugh when you read that dribble?
As opposed to this from the eleven-a-side article:

Sure, don’t America and Ireland have a special relationship? Can’t we empathise with the Algerians and their long struggle against a colonial oppressor? Slovenia is small and mainly Catholic. They may as well be ourselves.
What tosh.

EDIT: Having re-read that article, I don't if you're man is taking the mick or just an eejit.

There's also a horrible tone of "we hate them but they don't hate us, waah!" off this tripe. I can imagine English people having a good laugh at that.

I don't see why people get so upset that the English dare consider us "cousins", there is a substantial amount of people of Irish descent there. What's so different between that and Ireland's "special relationship" with America?

Anyway, England have good players. Since the switch to a knockout format for the second round onwards in 1986, 1994 aside when they didn't qualify, England have only once failed to make the quarter-finals and have gone out on penalties in 1990, 1998 (second round) and 2006. The other ties have all been lost by a single goal against to the eventual winners in 2002 and 1986. They have a pedigree in the WC.

I really don't see why they shouldn't be hopeful, expecially seeing as they have improved greatly since Capello took over. They only lost one game in qualifying, having won every other one, and that was to Ukraine away after they had already qualified.

They have every right to be confident. And as I say to everyone who bitches about the English media getting a hard-on about their WC chances, if you don't like it, stop consuming English media. It's simple.