Sorry can’t agree - If you look beyond the British media hype and think about it the team isn’t great - for example I regard Beckham as a good player at best.
Great model, great free taker, average player.
(Having said that - he’ll play well tonight against a weaker team)
World Class Players - Paul Scholes
Very good - John Terry, Beckham, Ashely Cole, Gerard, Owen
Good - Sol Campbell, Lampard, Rooney (unproven yet)
Average players … David James,
France as another example would have in the World Class Bracket
I’d think it’s fair. Other teams have bigger stars - the Nederlands for example - but for the Netherlands I’d say: great players, terrible team.
(If you believe the rumors there must be some terrible quarrels going on in the Dutch team)
True - a very poor Ireland team - (who haven’t made the Euro Qualifiers) - and who haven’t near as many stars anyway - beat them a week before the Games!
Kluivert is massively overrated anyway. Did you see how well they played when Van Hoojdonk came on? Kluivert is behind him and Makaay in my mind. He’s a big mouth too - complaining already. What ever happenend to the team being more important than the players…
The team is solid rather than great, but I’d disagree with the way you’ve grouped the players. The French team is very good on paper, the only worry would be the goalie (Barthez).
Owen and Gerrard are much better than Scholes and IMO and would be rated world class. They had a poor first game though. Beckham is important in the team sense - I think he is a good influence on the others. He also had a good first 6 months in Madrid. Little bit off the boil at the moment.
Ashley Cole is a defender that can’t defend (moulded himself on Roberto Carlos by the looks of things) - Wayne Bridge is better. You know that David James nickname is ‘Calamity’? King is the 6th choice centre back too which doesn’t help, though he played well against France.
I also have doubts about Rooney, but we’ll see. If he or Owen gets hurt the back up strikers are poor.
Mmm, that’s a fair point, but they played 20 times better with him on the pitch that with him on the bench. Seems to work well with Van Nistelrooy - Van Hoojdonk plays as a target, VN plays on his shoulder.
Thats because those Irish boys play the game with guts and balls…Did u see them in the last World Cup? Awesome! England for some reason can’t put it together…great players on paper, but the end result can be frustrating to watch…I must say we played a brilliant game against France but couldn’t keep it together…we lost the battle in Midfield in the 2nd half. Why Beckham was allowed to take the penalty is beyond me! He lost the battle before the kick was taken…think about it… Barthez and Becks…both ex Man Utd players…have spent endless hours training together and playing together…if anyone knows better where and how he would have struck the ball its Fabian! Rooney or Gerrard should have taken it. Sometimes Mr Beckham you have to take a back seat and think rationally…The reality of it is he wanted to be the HERO OF THE DAY…the man who sunk France…The Victor…the Lion…The Brave Heart. He would have publicity for days…To be brutally honest i glad we didn’t win!the tabloids would have had a field day…examples of headlines:
“Keep that Cup warm for us” says Becks
“We are the Champions”
It was only the first game folks! Strange place my country…we hold the front page of our papers for losers… Tim Henman, Greg Rudseki,England Rugby Team (post World Cup), England Football Team…and the winners get relaged to the far depths of the back pages. - Jason Gardener, Ricky Hatton,Lennox Lewis,Dwain Chambers,Paula Radcliffe…
Should be a very interesting game tonight! Keep Ledley King on! He played a brilliant game!
Ireland have been on quite a run though. They beat the Czech Republic and drew against a full strength Brazil team in the last couple of months. NB - They are only ranked one place below England in the latest standings.
Ireland aren’t half as bad as you think. But yes, much poorer team on paper. They have great spirit though.
Beckham takes England penalties. Full stop. And he is fine mentally - he scored a penalty against Argentina after all the fuss at WC98. If you recall, Gerrard missed his last penalty for Liverpool, so I wouldn’t be so quick to suggest him.
The penalty was well struck, but it was a perfect height for him. Should have put it high or low, not chest height!!!
OK fair points …
But I still regard Scholes as having the ability to do something special which I think is beyond Gerard.
Owen is in a bad patch and for Englands sake he better start fixing that tonight.
(BTW - You a Scouser?)
Very good point about Wayne Bridge also.
Beckham might be important in the team sense but I’m not sure about about much else.
I’m sick listening to the hype about how good he is and the media displaying him as the most importnat player England have.
Roberto Carlos 2 years ago said he was average, had no speed no left foot and no ability in the air and I’ve yet to see those points rebutted yet.
(… or maybe I’m just jealous… Rebecca Loos didn’t look bad - but … as for having to listen to Posh every day I’d rather boil me *#$ !)
Fair points.
Seeing as I’m Irish I ain’t going to disagree … now Roy’s back I’m a happy man!
Spirit and balls we definietly have … skill isn’t in abundance though.
Soccer is only our 3rd game over here anyway and with a total population of 3.5 million people - that’s not many to pick from.
The funny thing is in previous generations the English teams always had more heart and fire - but this has deserted them over the past 15 years.
Not a Scouser, but a Liverpool fan. I try not to be biased; hopefully my points aren’t too tainted.
I’m with you on DB - how he’s been top 2 or 3 player in the world is completely beyond me. I’d understand if the voters were teenage girls, but it’s club and international coaches that are asked in those things.
He’s a winger that’s slow (though I think he’s moved into the middle at RMadrid). Absolutely. How does that work exactly? Surprisingly Rab Carlos makes three excellent points. Or perhaps he was worried that he wouldn’t be taking the free kicks
Mmm, Rebecca Loos was pretty nice. What a life though - the guy could have any woman in the whole of Europe! But he wouldn’t do that. Allegedly…
[Do you mean the English teams had more heart and fire vs the Irish? If so read on, if not ignore me!]
I think though (correct me if I’m wrong) there weren’t so many born and bred Irish men in the Ireland squad over the past 15 years. Looking at it now, Clinton Morrison is the only ‘import’ I can think of, off the top of my head.
