Ok if you figure that anyone can coach brazil and win trophies, then fine.  However, Lippi's teams weren't exactly lacking stars either from bench to technical staff you know.  Same with Jose, Capello etc.  It's a fact that someone still has to be able to manage them successfully. 

Portugal were pretty much a mediocre side struggling with USA beating them and all in the WC korea and Figo was playing, so...i think the team improved tremendously to beat England and had a successful World Cup.  In fact, I think that's the best Figo has had with Portugal at a World Cup.

The jury is still out on Jose's greatness....but if you think so, then Scolari did what he did with Porto and Chelsea with Portugal by "rebuilding" the national team.  I'm sure he would've gotten credit if he successfully coached England.

israel did the unexpected. If only Croatia NEEDED to actually win against england i would have put a bet on them winning

hmmm, so odds on england to qualify and beat croatia?

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

israel,israel,israel.lol

we will probably win the group now, all that worrying for nothing.

i noticed that france, spain , italy all qualified only yesterday but its england who are in crisis, if we win the group playing bad i will be very happy, about time we got some luck, and what makes it better is i HATE

come on england!!!!!!!!!

well done israel, i'm shocked but happy, its about time we got some luck, i hope we go and win the group wednesday.

the best thing about this is i hate russia and everything the b*stards stand for.kiss my ass putin, hiddink , abramovich.

did anybody see tim cahills overhead kick against chelsea?

put that in your pipe and smoke it mr russian billionaire, you can't buy team spirit like everton.

and gregory if you don't think rooney is world class then i think you haven't seen him play, do you realize he is 21 and has scored in major championships & champions league games, he is a monster of a player(just like tevez mate)

the reason rooney is "hyped" here is because he was scoring in the premiership aged 16, he scored more goals off the subs bench for everton than shevchenko has managed in about 50 matches.he scored a hattrick on his CL debut and has reached 20 goals in his last 2 seasons.not bad for a younster eh?

also some of his goals are nothing short of spectacular, personally i think his temper will cost us but he is still world class and could get in any team in the world.

i read that article guys, i've read lots of similar ones in the papers here and i disagree with it, english fans are patriotic and hopeful, not arrogant and mislead, we know we have as much quality as italy,france & portugal we just need to find the right blend and get a bit of luck, like the luck italy got in the last world cup when the ref sent them through against australia.

we probably won't win the tournament but we have as much chance as anybody, i don't see us as weaker than anybody in it and when it comes to england against italy or portugal we just need that bit of luck that those teams have got against us.

as for steve mcclaren, well i don't think he can win this for us but i'm right behind the team for wednesday.

bobbymoore:

come on england!!!!!!!!!

well done israel, i'm shocked but happy, its about time we got some luck, i hope we go and win the group wednesday.

the best thing about this is i hate russia and everything the b*stards stand for.kiss my ass putin, hiddink , abramovich.

 

 

did anybody see tim cahills overhead kick against chelsea?

put that in your pipe and smoke it mr russian billionaire, you can't buy team spirit like everton.

 

and gregory if you don't think rooney is world class then i think you haven't seen him play, do you realize he is 21 and has scored in major championships & champions league games, he is a monster of a player(just like tevez mate)

the reason rooney is "hyped" here is because he was scoring in the premiership aged 16, he scored more goals off the subs bench for everton than shevchenko has managed in about 50 matches.he scored a hattrick on his CL debut and has reached 20 goals in his last 2 seasons.not bad for a younster eh?

also some of his goals are nothing short of spectacular, personally i think his temper will cost us but he is still world class and could get in any team in the world.

 

i read that article guys, i've read lots of similar ones in the papers here and i disagree with it, english fans are patriotic and hopeful, not arrogant and mislead, we know we have as much quality as italy,france & portugal we just need to find the right blend and get a bit of luck, like the luck italy got in the last world cup when the ref sent them through against australia.

we probably won't win the tournament but we have as much chance as anybody, i don't see us as weaker than anybody in it and when it comes to england against italy or portugal we just need that bit of luck that those teams have got against us.

as for steve mcclaren, well i don't think he can win this for us but i'm right behind the team for wednesday.

with views like this it is no wonder why England havent been to a final since 1966, and will fail again if they reach the tournament.

i don't get your point teee.

what point are you making?

are you trying to say because i think we won't win it that we can't?

how does me saying we probably won't win it harm us?

please explain

and what you forget is neither has spain reached any finals.

also portugal has won nothing.

its quite hard to win you know.

right now i think there is about 10 teams at the same level, only brazil stands out but they look vulnerable, but they are brazil and if in the mood usually win.

germany, italy, portugal ,argentina, spain ,france, holland, well none of them are any better than england infact only france out of these teams has beaten england in open play since 1994 in competetive games and france scored 2 in injury time from set pieces.

i'm confident we would dispatch of spain, germany, holland and the hardest games would be portugal and italy.

an argentina england game is unpredictable but we seem to have the beating of them, it looks like our players want it more when we play argentina.

lets just all be honest, england has just as much chance as any other, you need LUCK to win whoever you are and none of the other times would want to meet us(except brazil who treat big matches the same as going to take a ***........routine.)

if it comes to penalties then just pray.

Teee:

bobbymoore:

 

come on england!!!!!!!!!

well done israel, i'm shocked but happy, its about time we got some luck, i hope we go and win the group wednesday.

the best thing about this is i hate russia and everything the b*stards stand for.kiss my ass putin, hiddink , abramovich.

 

 

did anybody see tim cahills overhead kick against chelsea?

put that in your pipe and smoke it mr russian billionaire, you can't buy team spirit like everton.

 

and gregory if you don't think rooney is world class then i think you haven't seen him play, do you realize he is 21 and has scored in major championships & champions league games, he is a monster of a player(just like tevez mate)

the reason rooney is "hyped" here is because he was scoring in the premiership aged 16, he scored more goals off the subs bench for everton than shevchenko has managed in about 50 matches.he scored a hattrick on his CL debut and has reached 20 goals in his last 2 seasons.not bad for a younster eh?

also some of his goals are nothing short of spectacular, personally i think his temper will cost us but he is still world class and could get in any team in the world.

 

i read that article guys, i've read lots of similar ones in the papers here and i disagree with it, english fans are patriotic and hopeful, not arrogant and mislead, we know we have as much quality as italy,france & portugal we just need to find the right blend and get a bit of luck, like the luck italy got in the last world cup when the ref sent them through against australia.

we probably won't win the tournament but we have as much chance as anybody, i don't see us as weaker than anybody in it and when it comes to england against italy or portugal we just need that bit of luck that those teams have got against us.

as for steve mcclaren, well i don't think he can win this for us but i'm right behind the team for wednesday.

 

with views like this it is no wonder why England havent been to a final since 1966, and will fail again if they reach the tournament.

its like you havent read a single post or point i've been trying to make throughout. You DONT have as much chance as anybody else, because technically you arent as good as the other teams you mentioned. Portugal got to semi final and final of euro while england havent reached a final since 66. Germany, Italy, France and even Holland have got to more finals than England, the only team relevant to england is Spain, but unlike england, spain always cruise qualification.

Now..

the point im making here is very similar to the man who wrote that article. Your 'good' players are HYPED to be world class, which is SIMPLY NOT THE CASE.

for example, a supposedly world class player (like Rooney in your opinion) should not have a goal drought in internationals for 4 years dude.

and the other problem english fans are, they let their passion for their national team BLIND them from facts on the ground- how the hell can you blame England never got to a final since 1966- on bad luck? pathetic dont you think?

its english mentality to seemingly disregard the fact that most of the time they are just not good enough... fair enough their personnel is definatley better than that of someone like portugal but england is quite clearly lacking cohesive interplay to which other euopean nations and south americans have.

oh my god you guys are hilarious.

do i detect bitterness?

england has lost to portugal in the last two tournaments against portugal on penalties.

you know, penalties!

Germany would get the munich treatment in any competetive match against us and they know it.Argentina against England would be titanic and would be 50/50, no englishman or argentinian would debate that.France do not give nightmares, most of their great players times are ebbing way.Who cares if spain qualify easily, all that matters is getting there.If England win on wednesday they win the group and prove they are the best team in  the group.

portugal like I said would be close & I'm sure Italy would give us a game of a lifetime but Italy would be just as worried as us.hell Scotland frightened the life of them, Italy were inches from missing out on euro 2008.

The article was just spouting the same cobblers hype/premiership/hype/media/arrogant england fans.lol

its all i hear.I'm convinced there is a factory mass producing people that don't care about who wins, just that England loses.We have a great team with great players like WAYNE ROONEY.not world class?, if he isn't then nobody is cos he is frightening and this goal droght was not 4 years.

rooney top scored with 4 at euro 2004 for England and was injured against portugal, when he was injured so was our hopes.

Now on here people say "you should be able to cope without him" well we did cope, we drew 2-2 and lost on penalties, what I mean is rooney had the talent to win the game because he is world class.

as for his supposed 4 years drought, well he was injured for the 2006 world cup, we rushed him back for the portugal game and he was sent off(rightly so).he was injured from euro 2004 and with suspensions missed lots of games.HE IS 21.do you really not see how good he is??

The term worldclass is used loosley in england I agree, ferdinand, terry, carrick all supposedly world class.The real world class players are david beckham, wayne rooney, steven gerrard, michael owen with potentially aaron lennon & theo walcott being one's in the future.

That is a nucleus of players as good as anybody in the world except brazil.

you will see, our time will come.

once again you seem to be missing the point... yes england have the stars, but they dont have the chemistry and no trophies since 66' pretty much support that thought.

when they get knocked out at QF (thats if they get there) he'll probably blame bad luck again,

and he'll still be clueless as to why england never reached a final of a tournament since 1966.

Teee is just vex, don't worry ~ I, on the other hand, am not worried by England's presence or absence at the Euros since they won't win it.  I'll be the first to say i was wrong, but I think they're pretty ordinary.  They don't have anything on many teams which may be considered mediocre like Sweden, Croatia etc.

You guys can agree or disagree with me, but professional football is filled with alot of players who are very good and quite professional, but not that many World Class players.

I agree, Steven Gerrard, Micahel Owen and David Beckam may be World Class, but Wayne Rooney still has a little way to go before I'd say he's truly World Class.  The nucleus of players are quite good you're right, but ONLY except Brazil? C'mon!  Italy  easily has better players than England in every position.  The thing is that even Spain have better players and I would say that England WILL NOT get into a top 5 in terms of nucleus of players, but can compete with them in terms of, that they're not going to be beaten 3-0 by all of the teams too often.  However, Spain has already showed that they can beat England at home and currently I'd say that these teams are easily better than England:

Brazil, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Germany. 

That is not to say that i would expect England to beat any of:

France, Portugal, Holland, Sweden and Czech Republic on any given day so, while England CAN be in the top 10 i don't think they can win or get to the finals of a competition with all of these teams lurking around and this is not an attack on England, it's just a reality i've observed and i put USA in the same bracket and their wins come from more unity and effectiveness than talent and skill.

OH Please tell people around English football to stop blaming the foreign players.  If you're good enough, the same way Benzema can come from Bron Terraillon youth team is the same way English players can come through West Ham, Crystal Palace, Leeds United and a host of smaller clubs and earn a reputation.  Christian Vieri didn't exactly start playing football at Milan, Inter, Juventus, Roma etc, he started at Torino.  These English teams make ALOT of money from these foreign players playing for their clubs like C. Ronaldo, Drogba, Essien, Henry, Torres etc, but because the young English player can't make all make 120,000 pounds per week, they're up in arms complaining about chances ~ who is Gabriel Agbonlahor?  He came through Aston Villa...there is no shortage, England just likes to complain and not give the right players chances in their OWN national team.  All they have to do is put out the foreigners and let the German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch leagues win the Champions League and Uefa Cups more often cause surely France will have their usual Africans, same for Spain and ITaly with the south americans etc. 

It's really annoying how the English want to roll about in their mediocrity, complain and blame others for their folly.  Their managers are not even good enough, much less their brand of football {as Omar Hitzfeld said typically English is long-ball}

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good post.

i agree with lots of that & i don't care how many foreigners come here, i love the premiership, LOVE IT.

If rooney is not world class then neither is messi,tevez or robinho as these players are at his level and have achieved the same in their short careers.

these are the 4 best young players alive and rooney is one of them and not cos he is english cos he is good, i love messi, tevez and robinho and i don't care where they are from.

disagree about you thinking italy is miles better than us and germany???? please.