england sweden

just saw a passage of play by the england pen box that reminded me of a pin ball table- anyway good start by england- englands 2000th goal by barry

ok we only won 1-0, but could have won 4 or 5. two good wins on the spin- only friendlies but laid to bed two demons of this week!!

It was an OG,

yep it was - but at first credited to barry

We played pretty well to be honest...

Still very much in the second tier of European Football. Sweden are very much on the same level as England.

I don't really take much notice of the results in friendlies, but I was impressed with some performances of the younger players.

Walker looked very composed and just how quick is he? Problem is, no doubt it will be back to the same old faces next summer. Why is it we seem to lack the nerve to put new blood into the team for tournaments?

super_realist wrote:Still very much in the second tier of European Football. Sweden are very much on the same level as England.

While I think we share a tier with Sweden, I think we are at the top end of the second tier. The problem being we're not good enough to break the top tier or beat any of those within it on a regular basis. It's almost a limbo position that, for the near future at least, leaves us as perennial quarter finalists.

Lets be honest here, doesn't matter what the media says, Sweden were awful and England were slightly less awful. Like the Spain game I didn't think the performance was of great quality so it could be argued that England are doing well to win despite poor performances.

Agree, The results of meaningless friendlies with too many substitutes does little to dispel the reality that England are still an awful team.
These games do not recreate any conditions similar to tournament conditions.

England arnt an awfull team at all- that is quite disrespect to the 185 that are worse in reality- we are not at the top thats for sure - but we can only win and keep trying to improve.

Well, not exactly awful, but nowhere near as good as the media like to project. Realistally perhaps a top 12-14 team, but nothing more.

i am happy with that. still support them

I think I would also be happy to see them do well if they could get rid of some of the irksome and loathesome players like Cole and Terry.

The media do knock England too, when it's not going well. They just sensationalise the form to the extreme.

Yes, the sooner Terry is out the better.

Obviously i am exeptionally proud of british golfers. I agree its much harder to be proud and even support the football team- but i unconditionally do. Its tough to get that good at so many sports. Football is played by our lower classes on the whole and they reflect badly on that class. However they can never win even if there were all monks- the papers will still find stuff about them.

Just because you are "lower" class, it doesn't mean you can't be a decent person. Some of the nicest people I know haven't a pot to pee in.

I think it's just the culture of footballers in that many are rather selfish, self-important and have had smoke blown up their backsides for too long.
In a sporting sense, their sport is not as skillful as others, and compared to other sports they are of a poor athletic standard.

Unfortunately for every bright, articulate player like Hargreaves, Fletcher or Owen there's a dozen Cole's, Ferdinands and Terry's.

i thought our youngsters played realy well yesterday. Jones, Rodwell,sturrgidge,walker all played well

2 wins out of 2, 2 clean sheets, really good stuff from our boys.

SR they could stop getting caught out i admit that. But its who there are , they are the best we have. Id rather just not know about what any sportsman gets up to outside of there sport

Admittedly we weren't tested as much as we should have been, but we've produced two solid displays. Jones, Rodwell and Walker all did themselves proud by seemingly booking their place on the plane. None of them played flawlessly; Jones gave away a few freekicks, Rodwell should have done better with his chances and Walker got caught out defensively a couple of time- but they held their own.

I don't think we're one of the best teams at next summers tournament, but if we get an easier group then we should expect to get to the quarters, which might be interesting given some of the possible groups.

Oakey, I don't think they'll be England success until people/media stop treating the players as demi-gods. They believe the hype too much I think.



By the way, Why has no Premier League team ever shown interest in Kim Kallstrom, fair enough poor game last night, but he's a tremendous player.

i think they believe they are demi gods due to there club successes and bank balances in all fairness.

i dont know much about kim. to be honest though id rather the clubs buy less forign talent than more. I dont think having an open league is bad- however id rather english players get more time at the igher level

I don't think it would do any young player any harm to spend a season on loan in Holland, Germany, Belgium, Sweden etc. Teach them a bit about life, culture, language, taking care of themselves and most importantly take them out of the spotlight for a while and a chance for them to take a good look at themselves. National service for footballers as it were.
Most of the foreign players, Tevez aside are pretty grounded, grown up and more humble. There may be too many foreigners in English football, but the English could learn a lot from them.