World Cup 2006 Blog

Completely agree. If with their 11 best players, England were no way near beating an under strength Portugal side for 60 minutes, it is a folly to assume that they would have done so in the next 30 minutes, with or without Rooney. At least, they went out with some dignity. Players are getting plaudits and all sins forgotten for an hour of defending against a pathetic Portugal attack. Ronaldo is now pulbic enemy number one, and spineless players got away with all the blame.

I couldn't agree more.

No passion, no verve, no chance.

Hey guys,

I know most of you probably won't be interested in football but I'm so Raging that I have to get this off my chest. I'm absolutely done as an England fan, what a bunch of soppy losers they are. Cowards who are more concerned with what latest hairstyles to sport. Don't be fooled by the tears on the pitch, they were really gutted by the fact that they have lost the potential millions from endorsements and sponsorships from winning the World Cup and the fact they could call themselves "Legends", ha ha ha!

The sorry excuse for a Captain was finished 2 years ago. Now don't get me wrong, back in 2000-2002, Beckham was a good footballer, not great, but led by example, which is a great way to motivate others. But the limp excuse for a footballer we see now should have quit way before this period. Now I'm sure if u watched the WC you'll be asking, wait we got to the Quarter Finals and its not that bad, but look who we played, the term "Also-rans" springs to mind, Pathetic!!!

Now this brings me to my major gripe....Sven Goran-Eriksson. This mercenary saw us coming a mile off. The idiot only knows how to talk in dollars and cents, and my god, he's got enough now to verbally recount, word-for-word War & Peace. A clown of monumental proportions, who if I had my way, would be placed in the stocks to be pelted with rotten veg! I hope we never see this creep again and I wish him all the misfortune for whichever mugs give him a job.

Phew, that was some major rant but I'm so disenchanted that I had to share it lol. Now I just have Newcastle United to support..... JESUS CHRIST!!!!!

go on then. put us out of our misery - who was it missed a german penno ?
I agree, in the end it felt inevitable, best it happened this way so we have something to focus on!
I'm backing SMcC to make the right changes that need to be made: a UEFA Final with unfancied Boro (no offence, smoggies!) is indication of his pedigree. 4-4-2, or 3-5-2 if we must start with 5 midfielders !

What about Gerrards goal or Rooneys brilliance??
Also, what the hell dos Terry Butcher know about managing a national team, he cant even manage a club team well - & we should listen to him????? He shouldsort out his own house first....

I think that the simple fact is we aren't good enough. All this "we have the players who can win it..." has some merit but I would question whether that is, in fact the case. One hears a lot of talk about "too many foreigners in the English game" but, personally, I would suggest that the opposite is the problem. i.e. not enough English players go to play abroad. With the exception of Beckham, Woodgate and Hargreaves I'm struggling to name anyone and it's a fact that the game is played and refereed differently away from the Premier League. Finally, I had to chuckle when I saw that Rooney has threatened to "Split Ronaldo in half"...Wayne me ol' mucker....THAT'S EXACTLY WHY YOU ARE A LIABILITY!

Good to see the experts Terry Butcher and Chris Waddle having their say. Um, just what have the pair of you achieved as managers?
Yes Terry, we should all listen to you after your success with Motherwell. All you ever did was bandage your head. And as for Chris Waddle. How come there aren't subtitles when the man talks on tv? Translations for when he's on radio? It's incredible to think that some players who have broken english have subtitles when they speak but this man never does.

What I don't understand is why there was so much hype about the team prior to the world cup?

Why is there so much hype about Tim Henman all the time?

Why is it that every major sporting event that England enters is accompanied by a huge amount of hype followed by a huge amount of disapointment when the team doesn't live up to the hype?

You constantly set yourselves up for disapointment England.

Unlike the majority, i thought england had played well on Saturday before and after the sending off. We had the best of the chances and apart fro ma coupl eof Robinson flaps we never looked like conceding. Crouch played brilliantly when he came on and Ashley Cole was back to his phenomenal best and Owen Hargreaves showed the form which has made him such a regular at Bayern Munich.

A couple of reasons why England fail to progress far in competitions.
...they are crap at penalty shoot outs and their over pampered , hyped- up players like Rooney and Beckham are arrogant enough to throw tantrums .......until these two cankers are dealt with .. i am afraid the story will continue

I dunno about darts but my reaction to that article would have to contain a reference to nails being hit on the head. In other words, well said. But you don't say which dodgy salesman sold you the suspect motor. I hate to labour the point but the untrustworthy bloke in the blue suit springs to mind, aided and abetted by some unethical advertising - courtesy of the tabloid press.

additional, forgot to say:
we didnt start playing until we were a man down. we thought (at my place of work) we needed to go one down, but instead we got a man sent off. not good enough.
Sven once said "The biggest obstacle to success is fear of failure". hmmm. a bit freudian perhaps ? he was certainly afraid of losing the world cup, and it showed in his tactics, and inability to give either crouch, or walcott a cut and dried chance to make a difference. defence was like rock though. something for McClaren to build on!! onwards and upwards! optimism begins in the face of defeat !!

Yes we are all disappointed. yes we are all heartbroken. but should we be surprised? i think its time for a bit of a reality check into what the England team really is. We are a nation in the Fifa Rankings top 10 - Top 10! We have not been in the Top 5 since, well you know when. i feel that 2 semi-finals, one final and numerous quarter finals in the last 40 years backs this up - we are a 2nd Tier team trying to reach the level of Brazil,Germany or Italy who it seems are always there or there abouts. By finishing in the top 8 of the World cup we are where we should be.
Yes we had possibly the best crop of players this country has produced in a long time with the right blend of youth & experience but when it came down to it the majority of them could not perform when it mattered. is this the fault of Sven? i'm not so sure. Chances were created in all games and they were simply not taken - Owen, Rooney & Lampard great players all did not take them and England scraped through the group, beat an average Ecuador and lost out to a Portugal side without 2 of their most influencial players on penalities. on the flip side of that coin is the defence and Keeper who deserve praise for being as solid as any left in the tournament, possibly better. And yet Sven does not get any credit for putting that together - strange.
in conclusion i feel that England should not go into any tournament expecting to win. the fans should show some inteligence and realise there are better teams (maybe not better players) and that the size of an English premiership players wages does not guarantee any trophy. and it never will do.

Ben, completely agree with you, I had fallen for the spin too, how many times were we told the next game we will show how we can play, after Ecuador I said I cant be bothered with this, I still watched on Saturday, I had this hope deep inside that England will do it, they're in second gear I said to myself, "Come on England we'll show them" still there was no hunger to go out and make a mark "we're here to win it", I have followed England all my life and never have I felt so annoyed by it all, we had a overpaid overrated Manager, along with overpaid under achieving misfits of players, no doubt Rooney's mistake will be covered over by the news papers going out to get Ronaldo. At the end of the day, we were all excited by it all, but we need to have a reality check. My player of the Tournament was Owen Hargreaves, how many miles did he runn on Saturday and he still scored a penalty!

The correct answer re the German penalty misser was Ulli Stieleke in Spain in 82 in the infamous Germany vs France game.

Remember Harald Schumaker and his "Jackie Chan" attack on Patrick Battiston?

As to Steve Mclaren please don't get me started on that subject! Let's just say he has been Sven's no. 2 and where has that got us?

Answer to the little trivia:

Stielike (played at Real Madrid) has missed a penalty in 1982 versus France.

Problem is we only start playing when under the cosh. Go a man down and facing an uphill struggle we can battle, tackle, fight hard etc...only thing is, is that to win a World Cup it rather helps if you can play football as well! We need to face facts that the overpaid, underworked ponces who are the players in the top eschelons of the Premier League think they are better than they actually are and the fans have swallowed this crap hook line and sinker. Until we realise that just because Lampard is paid £100,000 a week it doesn't make a decent player. Scoring goals week in, week out against Sunderland, Wigan and Bolton does not make him anything other than a very average player by world standards.

The BBC, along with the FA, have hyped England's chances for years and is therefore partly responsible for the nation's unrealistic expectations of a very average set of players.

Phil W, what you fail to realise is that English players have no need to play abroad, as the Premiership is the greatest league in the world. Obviously La Liga is excellent, but why move your family to foreign soil when you're happy in England.
The 3 players you have mentioned are all questionable, even Hargreaves position in the squad, who had a storming World Cup wasn't definate until the last minute.
Beckham hasn't ran with the ball at his feet for years, and Woodgate, even if fit it dodgy to say the least.
All in all I think we did well, a bit of guts in the dressing room and we could have done something special, although tha has been missing since Sven took charge, which is unfortunate really as I beleive he is a good coach.

As for Rooney, the boy was being drag around for 10 seconds before, watch it real time, you can see that it's just the media ripping him apart for no reason. Thats what we have to live with.

If you had watched Rooney over the course of the season you would have seen a dramatically changed lad from the past, his disipline has been fantasic in the second half of the season and in my opinion his temperament is not an issue anymore.

Good luck to him, not that he needs it.

I agree with the comments made. England were hyped up by the media and the management of the team. What has been even worse has been the digraceful treatment of Christiano Ronaldo.

The referee could not have been closer and must have clearly seen what Rooney did. Ronaldo had every right to be upset about it. If it had been Figo crunching John Terry in that area, the England players would have been incandescent with rage. The red card was correct and Rooney has no-one to blame but himself.

Prior to the start of the world cup Eriksson was lined up as the fall guy. After Saturday it became Ronaldo. Eriksson deserves blame for selecting too few strikers and taking a player he had no intention of playing. These 2 things forced him to change the formation to have one striker up front and we all saw what happened. He is also to blame for playing Beckham when he was out of the game for long periods and has no pace. Lennon made an immediate impact each time he was brought on.

Not good enough and a poor world cup especially considering a highly favourable path all the way to the semi-final. Portugal were very poor but they do have Deco and Costinha to come back.

It is so hard to come to terms with as an England fan. It seems that this sort of disappointment is almost our destiny.

The fact is, though, we DO have a set of players capable of winning a major competition. We DON'T have a management team with the skill set to support them. In 2004 we went out of the competition because Sven was incapable of changing his tactics with the changing demands of the game (firstly against France, then against Portugal). He, once again, failed to read the situation in Germany. No strikers, bad formation etc. etc.

Unfortunately this is unlikely to change with Steve MacLaren. With both 'Big Fil' and Martin O'Neil expressing an interest in the position one can only hope that MacLarens tenure is short and painful and we can then purge ourselves of this inadequate 'management team' once and for all.

Hi Dan,

Well I would question if that is correct. It rather depeneds how you are measuring "the best league in the world". For entertainment certainly, for technical ability and quality? Perhaps but I don't think our players have any experience of refereeing and alternative styles of play due to their reluctance to move abroad. And, of course as you say, why should they? They are paid very nicely thank you very much for staying put...but is money the only motivation?

As for your statement "his temperament is not an issue any more" I'll put that down to the heat...

I think it's partly unrealistic expectation brought about by hype but on the other hand if you constantly tell a player he's the best in the world at what he does he's going to believe it. Not a good attitude to take with you into training.

Best of a generation? No way!
did anyone else see the series of passes that went straight out over the side lines or straight to a portugal player. When they needed to walk the walk all we got was talk. premiership= overpaid and overhyped!

England crashed out of the World Cup mainly because of their inept manager. £25M pounds has gone into Ericsson's bank account from the English FA and they've not come close to getting value for money.
He brought the wrong squad (six players never kicked a ball yet he was screaming out for another striker). He refused to drop Frank Lampard despite the player being off form. That would have allowed Beckham to step inside and release Gerrard and introduce Lennon on the right side where his short appearances looked the most threatening weapon within England's atrillery.
Lampard with 24 efforts on goal forcing nothing more than routine saves should not have been first up at the crucial spot-kicks.
England's football did not merit them getting beyond the last eight and I cannot help but be convinced that a handful of Premiership managers would still be in Germany if they had been in charge and never shirked the big decisions like dropping Lampard.

My reaction to our exit was 'disapointed but not surprised'. Mentally and physically, as a team, we were just not good enough to take the opportunity that this tournament presented. There are 2 key reasons behind this.

1. Celebrity Culture: The better (I use the word advisdly) England sides are always the ones with a no nonesense air about them. Erikson has been in thrall to the glamour that follows our top players and found it too difficult to drop them for the good of the team. Instead of picking the players to suit a system , not necesarily the best ones, he did the reverse and tried to squeeze too many individually good players into a side that clearly was not functioning. The results are there to see.

2. Foreign Domination of our top clubs: Before the tournament began, the great Johan Cruyff was asked to give his assessment of Spain's chances. He said that Spain's top clubs are so dominated by foreign players that Spanish players (only 2 in Barcelona's European Cup side) were a minority, ultimately undermining the national side. So it proved. He also said that England was heading the same way and its true. Of our squad, 3 each are in the Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United first teams respectively. Its more than a coincidence that La Liga and the Premiership are the 2 most dominant, cosmopolitan leagues in the world but produce under achieving national sides.

Steve McClaren can address the first reason with some hard nosed selectorial decisions and banning the WAGS from the camp in future tournaments.

Regarding the second reason, with our top 4 clubs coached by a Potuguese, a Scot, a Spaniard and a Frenchman respectively, whose loyalty is understandably not to our national side, McClaren is powerless to act.

We are and will remain a quarter final team.

Lets accept it and start revising our expectations downwards from now on.

It seems that there are three distinct camps in English football;-

1. The Beckham show - a media mockery.

2. The "we are great tribe" - like supportesrs of George Bush, they never see the terribly obvious wrongs.

3. The grumbling core who can see the king is wearing nothing.

If England ant to be a great football team, then they should create and empower great footballers - not just chant the hype of the media clowns.

Complete and utter drivel for the past 3 weeks ,not one player can hold his head up. by far the worst performance of a england team ever , other less talented teams have lost but have at least tried , not one of these nancy boys put one once of effort in to winning, their full of themselves and full of excuse's , and a complete and utter waste of time. Lampard and terry are 2 of the most overrated players we have made the mistake of picking for the england totally tosh. there is no excuse for the lack of success or at lest playing well, and we should all barack them untill they start producing performances' worthy of the england shirt , or change of personnal is envoked.

We can go on and on about luck being against us and Ronaldo blatantly getting Wayne Rooney sent off. We can moan on about the Argentine referee and his bias against us. We can also moan about our lack of luck in the penalties etc etc etc.

But at the end of the day we were not good enough. We are told constantly how brilliant our players are in the lead up to this world cup but they failed, plain and simple. Calling England's footballers mediocre is being kind!

Wayne Rooney is a hot head and every opposing player knows that if you push him enough he will explode and get himself sent off. In my mind every coach who considers playing Wayne Rooney knows in reality, despite his genius, that he has a huge chance of exploding when the pressure is on. This leopard just can’t change it’s spots.

The Frank Lampard we all know and respect didn’t turn up and the normally assured John Terry at the back was often badly out of sorts. Where was the inspirational play from Steven Gerrard? David Beckham should never have been in this squad, he is a spent force in international football. He is only there because the fans love him and money men adore his selling power.

At some point we have to accept that we are not the best in the world. Maybe the quarter finals of the world cup is the best we can manage, in the absence of dodgy Mexican referees or even more dodgy Russian linesmen. Maybe England’s overpaid players are just mediocre at best and the press/agents/clubs inflate their abilities because it suits them. English clubs only do well in Europe because of foreign players and coaches.

Watching England’s sad performance last Saturday has definitely burst the bubble in my view, once and for all time, about the so called superiority of England’s football team. The next time somebody goes on about England winning the world cup, just take a look at the facts, the sad sad history and take it with a very large pinch of salt.

What can I say? England lost but went to the penalty shootout in equal conditions and with the same chances of winning it. What a big pity that a great civilisation as ours is showing a huge bad face to the world outside... lost ok but at least could show a little more of respect to the game and to the other teams. Let me say that England has great players but do not play as a team! Portuguese did it, in good and moments of adversity and not only with England (Holland for example) and that's the work of coach. Move on and next time might be better! Don't blame C.Ronaldo, he was representing his team and country; M.United has not a fair connection.

Don’t blame Rooney for England crashing out of the world cup. The seeds of failure were sown when the team was selected weeks ago (some might say five years ago).
Taking only four strikers when two were not fully fit, including a seventeen year old who would never make an appearance was complete madness.
With Owen back home, we all knew that a 4-5-1 system with Rooney as the lone striker would not work. Even the opposition knew that if they starved Rooney of the ball his frustrations would soon surface. If we “simple folk” can see the issues, why not the manager who was paid millions of pounds to bring back the world cup?
We need to blame Sven and the FA, no real progress after five years, with all that talent.
England were tactically weak and certain players showed they could not deliver on the world stage at the vital time (why are English players unable to take penalties?!).
On the positive side, the whole of the English back four played very well (Portugal would still be there today trying to score), Owen Hargreaves converted a nation and we finally saw why he was in the squad (including me!) and Joe Cole showed that he is by far the best English player right now.
My 9 year old lad was in tears has he watched his heroes fall and again saw cheats prosper. Thanks to Ronaldo, Henry, Figo etc my job of teaching my son how to play football hard but fair is getting harder and harder after every game we watch.
A large part of this England fans’ football soul died on Saturday afternoon and I only hope that my sons hunger for the game can somehow resurrect that dead zone.
FIFA and their army of “Mordor Orc” referees are certainly taking the beautiful game into the abyss!

im from belfast and i know that northern ireland arent that good at football because we dont have the players. But from an england point of view that world cup showing was rubbish. They seemed to have no believe or inspiration in them. I dont whether its done to the manager or the attitude of the players. I dont think the fa done themselves any favours by keeping sven on till the end of the world cup but the players werent that good either. They either didnt play at all to their potential or they are simply over rated. I must say the way the media hyped them up to be wouldnt help either.
Thank you

As Ronaldo's penalty hit the net my 12year old son wept and kicked the chair in frustration, he asked why I wasn't so upset to which I replied "I have watched this overhyped England for years and still it doesn't improve, get used to it" harsh but fair. I agree with blogger's comment Joe Cole's goal apart wasn't very excited by what I saw. Tactics wrong, players picked were wrong, manager wrong. enough said

Wayne Rooney is a disgrace. He should be mature enough now to realise such behavior as he showed on Saturday just is not acceptable in top level modern football. I have a suggestion or two for Steve Maclaren and the other Premiership managers: Reduce the salaries of these overplayed and undertalented players to the standard level of an average company executive until they can show true talent. Reward the strikers for every goal scored, the goalies for every save and the bad tempered ones for every final whistle acheieved without a card. Then, seeing as Portugal and their current manager seem to be our bogey team, send a few of the younger players out to play with Portuguese teams for a season or two, so they learn how to play the Portuguese way. Then we might be able to beat them third time lucky internationally?

im from belfast and i know that northern ireland arent that good at football because we dont have the players. But from an england point of view that world cup showing was rubbish. They seemed to have no believe or inspiration in them. I dont whether its done to the manager or the attitude of the players. I dont think the fa done themselves any favours by keeping sven on till the end of the world cup but the players werent that good either. They either didnt play at all to their potential or they are simply over rated. I must say the way the media hyped them up to be wouldnt help either.
Thank you

Does anyone believe that David Beckham was really injured that badly that he could not carry on last Saturday. I firmly believe that he was not injured as bad as he was putting on. He had no trouble running on to the pitch when Rooney was in trouble. And as for having respect for the ARMBAND. He did'nt show much respect for it when he threw it at Garry Neville when he was coming off the pitch. His promblem (besides Victoria) was he was not fit going to the World Cup. England will be all the better without him. He is the most overratted footballer on the planet.
Neil

I have struggled as many have, to find the motivation to get up this morning. Almost 48 hours on and it still hasn't fully hit me, even though after our group-stage performances, I expected we would be lucky to reach this stage of the competition.

It's not all doom and gloom because we have the dawn of McClaren's reign to come and I look forward to positive changes. But for now I will have to mask the disappointment and live in hope that I see England win a major honour in my lifetime.

I went to watch England v Portugal in the pub and it was a horrible experience. 2 hours of beered up thugs shouting obsenities and stereotypical slurs at the TV screen. A pervading sence of threat and thuggery. Compare that to when I watched Angola v Mexico is a Mexican bar in London. A great carnival atmosphere with everyone there to have fun and enjoy the experience. I'm glad England are out. We're a bunch of thugs that bring nothing but hate to everythig we do (look at Rooney). PS. Leaving to live elsewhere soon !

I admit I am a rubbish manager for the following reason's:
ROBINSON - Who else is there??
NEVILLE - Unfit, waste of time
COLE - not enough games pre-world cup
TERRY - 1 man band
FERDINAND - I'll just turn up and take me wages!
BECKHAM - Unfit
ROONEY - Unfit - Injured
OWEN - Unfit - Injured
J COLE - No support - out of position
WALCOTT - Need i say more - Ive still never seen him play!
CROUCH - Desperate
HARGREAVES - Best Player - Canadian

So, who & when was the last German to miss a penalty at a World Cup??

A number of interesting and worthy comments. For me the World cup is no longer the spectacle it once was. Too much emphasis is put on diving and conning the referee.
Take a leaf out of Rugby League and Union everyone can see the action replayed on a big screen so it's not difficult to make decisions with a 4th or 5th official watching instant replays. Don't add extra time stop the clock for injuries that are deemed serious. If a team kicks the ball out for treatment to be given to an opposing player, the game starts from where that player kicked the ball out. Too much is made of a player feigning injury, the game stopping and the ball put into or as near as possible for the game to restart with a throw in and no advantage to the team attacking.
I agree with the comment watch the real time of Rooney being kicked and pulled back then judge was it deliberate - I think not. As for Ronaldo I hope it's his last game at Man Utd but after a spell of not making the team list.
As for England not enough commitment and poor decisions.
I'm off to watch Rugby and enjoy it before that becomes a non contact sport!

Of course they didn't deserve to win. In fact, I can't think of a team that does deserve to win. If there is any justice, the tournament will be dissolved and the World Cup will be award to someone more deserving: me, for example.

I think all Englishmen would like to see their team play as France did against Brazil. Now they really struggled in the group stages and in their qualifying group. But got it right when it mattered.

I can't see any improvement happening under this new management. Unless they get Alan Shearer as front man and motivator to install passion and will to win in the team. He surely will sort out the penalty problem.
He also knows what goals scorers want in support play and organise a midfield to accomplish that.
Klinsmann has got Germany playing very well and you wouln't bet against them winning the trophy.
Shearer could do the same for England.

We are all fed up with mediocrity. We want champaign football NOW!
God knows we have the players to do all this.

We want a Natonal team to be proud of, one that sets the standard for others to follow.
I think we long suffering fans deserve at least that.

If English fans now need to understand why Scots and other nations detest thier arrogance and refuse to be supportive this surely is the clearest example yet; before the match england were through and beating Germany in the final, again. Post match recriminations and 'I told you so's followed, with positions reversed faster than Italian politicos. Until there is some objective journalism on TV and English supporters find thier 'place' in the world rankings, we scots will continue to pour scorn on English "under achievement" and baseless bluster...

It always starts the same, the English media crank up the expectation -England will go forth and conquer.
And it ends the same too, with the media wondering why.

I agree with just about everything that blogger says.

England played poorly through out the tournament. The squad seemed to lack any kind of conviction about what they were doing. You could almost see the confusion on the players faces when they were playing.

For all the talk of tactics and formations the England players looked like they had simply lost there enjoyment for playing football. At least in Italia '90 and Euro '96 there seemed to be a swagger and verve in some of England's performences, there was absolutely none of that this time round. That is why the Spanish or the Ghanaians will not be as disappointed with their World Cup campaigns as we are. They left their mark on the tournamemt by playing good football and won many admirers in the process. When was the last time and England team did that?

The problem with British football, and not just with the football, are the towering expectations that are created time and time again. Same in tennis. Every time Henman hit a good ball, he was tipped as the next Wimbledon winner. The same is happening now to Andy Murray. As Henman, so Murray is a talented player who can beat anyone on his day, yet he doesn't have the caliber of Federer, Nadal or even Nalbandian. And I'm afraid, that as in the case of Henman, the false (for partly ungrounded) and screaming headlines will only be a burden for Murray to actually claim the crown.
This same Henmania, or Henmedia, rules British football. So we were told: England has but worldclass players, it has a golden generation, and the Premier League is the strongest in the world.
To start with the last point. Yes, the Premier League is strong, but I don't think the British Top 5 will have an easy ride in the leagues of Spain, Italy, and even Germany or France. World class and golden generation? Sure there are several excellent players, but how many British players would star in my pre-tournament top-11 players? Not many, I'm afraid. Perhaps A. Cole as a left back, Gerard as an alround midfielder and possibly Rooney as a striker. That's it. Lampard? I prefer Deco, Kaka, Juninho, Ballack, Zidane to name but a few. Cole? I prefer Robben, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho to name but a few. Ferdinand? Give me Thuram, Carvalho, Nesta any time.
I think, a more balanced view on Britain's football history (no awards since 1966), as well as an in-depth look on what is happening in football outside the island, would be a healthy, if perhaps sobering experience for Britain. The problem is that it probably doesn't produce screaming headlines ...

Peter Speetjens
Rotterdam

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

sorry i have gone slightly insane.

guess what we will all be doing in 2 years time for the Euros?, the exact same thing! England are the best, we are the best, our fans are the greatest ... despite there being trouble AGAIN by England fans, which amazingly the Germans were generous enough to play down.

we are not the best, our fans still have hooligans, our players are over paid and under achieving. I think with a good manager we can get the best out of the quality players we have ... is Steve McLaren that decent manager?

England were poor throughout as were many other teams. France started badly but in their last two games oused quality. Brazil's stars were not shining.

There's no such job as a full time England manager/coach - part time, picked for the next 2 games - e.g.Allerdyce/Curbishly/Warnock with the "prize" being to manage the team in the "finals"

Any selected player should have strength in BOTH feet and should be able to pass or shoot with left or right.

Too many foreign players in the English leagues...it's going the same way as cricket

Why not an England X1 in the premiership?

How long will it be before the World Cup is played between national teams selected from players who play in that nation's leagues irrespective of country of origin?!

Rooney should be sidelined, no excuse for temperament of that nature...he won't change

For me the blame for our failure is the FA.

I believe tha the FA is an old-boys network of football-associated has-beens. They sit there, sometimes sharing girlfriends whilst receiving substantial pay packets.
When some bright spark came up with the idea of getting England to with the Worldcup Sven's name was put forward, money was thrown at him and that was pretty much it.
I believe it is goingf to take more than money to get us into the WC finals. We need to completely re-think our approach:

1. No fixed captain.
Change the captain to different players as is necessary. This will encourage flexibility in the team.

2. Loosen up play.
Many teams allow players to move around a lot more. The Netherlands championed this approach in the early 70's.

3. Attitude.
Get in decent sports psychologists. Get rid of theis looser attitude we have addopted. Other teams, with less able players have done just as well or better than us.

4. The FA.
Sort this mess out. They are old and stuffy and in the past. We need a new radical approach that makes winning the WC a priority.
They also need to look at giving more young English talent a chance.

We need to work harder than any other team to win, that sounds unfair and its true. We have developed a loser attititude which is halving the ability of our players.

Yes I know we lost again but the important thing for me is to find out what that cool dance/techno music track is that plays over the preview footage of what's to come in the highlights show. can anyone help?

Ronaldo's in real trouble the next time he's in Manchester. the england fan'll roast him for what he did the Rooney! So will fans at all other grounds this season.

This has been the strangest World Cup. We didn't have the excitement of Bryan Robson's early goals against France, of Lineker's hat-trick against Portugal, of Platt's last-minute winner against Belgium, or of Owen's wonder-goal against Argentina. In fact nothing to cheer at all.

The truth is that these players aren't as good as the hype. How many have shone in the Champion's League? Only Gerrard, maybe Beckham 7 years ago. These are not world class players, yet still the press calls them our "golden generation".

We had a different "golden generation" in Portugal 2 years ago, and still another in Japan. How many golden generations can you squeeze into a 4 year period? Of course, by "golden generation", the press are talking about David Beckham, whom most pundits wanted to drop in this tournament.

One day, people will stop buying newspapers. Maybe then we'll win something.

LONDON-I think there were 2 players that make all the difference last Saturday.

One in a good way and one in a bad way

Rooney lost it! And now he's all over the press crying for retribution. For what? For having committed a foul that got him sent off and let’s wait and see, might even get him some extra punishment from FIFA or for making England game so much harder? England fans should blame Rooney that made the foul not like all seem to be doing now, blaming Ronaldo for Rooney's childish reaction.
But there’s no way that is going to happen as there's no way Rooney will apologize to the Country and fans (which is what he should be doing really).
I bet all English players and supporters would have loved to see him get away with it.
Not this time … Justice was made and he was sent off.

On the other hand Ricardo, the real hero of this game, got a hand in all 4 penalties (poorly) scored by England having saved 3 of them.
That made the difference. Not whatever Ronaldo might have said to the ref.

If I was playing football with 21 friends for a “tin” cup and one of them stepped on another’s “soft parts” I would have been very annoyed and would make sure he would get sent off for his conduct.
The one we’re talking about is solid gold and it’s called the World Cup remember…
That’s what Ronaldo did. And I bet that every single player in the England squad would have made the same and every single supporter would have wanted them to.

Another thing people seem to forget or don’t want to see…
Ronney stepped on Carvalho which is a Chelsea player remember?
Was there a bit of animosity from Rooney in that attitude?
Perhaps he was thinking of some old “disputes” while playing against Chelsea. No? I'm sure that's not the case... Rooney is not ill tempered to do such a thing…

People have a very short sight sometimes… You want to blame somebody?
Blame everyone from the FA that picked Eriksson, all the way to the players that actually lost the game on penalties

It wasn’t the Referee and it sure wasn’t the Portuguese lack of fair play.

Thanks
Joao.

>How long will it be before the World Cup is played between national teams selected from players who play in that nation's leagues irrespective of country of origin?!

Why bother playing. Why not just sell the trophy to the highest bidder?

Don't be so negative (I know that may sound hard having just crashed out of the World Cup!)

People seem to forget how much luck comes into it. England ARE a good team. Look how many other good teams are out, and only one of the four good teams left will actually win it. Any one of those could win it, and so could we have on a different day, a different match.

We played badly and qualified (despite injuries to key players) just as we did in '66. Rooney's red card couldn't have been planned for - you might argue that Eriksson should have brought more strikers, but would that really have helped? Would Defoe have come on and turned the game? I doubt it.

Am I the only one who thinks we played well against Portugal and looked likely winners before Rooney was sent off, and looked more likely to score than Portugal even with ten men?

That's the World Cup - cruel & unpredictable, with 1 winner and 31 disappointed teams.

As a welshman I am a neutral in this world cup and did not care if England won or lost. But i am a Man Utd fan and i am disgusted that Rooney was sent off. It was a bookable offense without a doubt but why would a fellow United teamate run over and blag the ref to send him off? Yes this wasnt club football but you must have a bit of respect for a club teamate. I am confident now that Ronaldo is on his way out, if he stays he will be a linchpin for all the English players, especially Rooney, and also he still has his feud with Ruud. £20m good business, lets buy a good, mature right midfielder, Joaquim, Ribery, maybe Lennon.

Back to England and again they loose on penalties, how many times over how many years has this happened to you? You would think they would learn, especially after Euro 2004. Cant say too much though as im well aware my country fail to make the big stage, and so cant fully grasp the joy and excitement of watching your country play in the biggest competition in the world, The World Cup.

Don't be so negative (I know that may sound hard having just crashed out of the World Cup!)

People seem to forget how much luck comes into it. England ARE a good team. Look how many other good teams are out, and only one of the four good teams left will actually win it. Any one of those could win it, and so could we have on a different day, a different match.

We played badly and qualified (despite injuries to key players) just as we did in '66. Rooney's red card couldn't have been planned for - you might argue that Eriksson should have brought more strikers, but would that really have helped? Would Defoe have come on and turned the game? I doubt it.

Am I the only one who thinks we played well against Portugal and looked likely winners before Rooney was sent off, and looked more likely to score than Portugal even with ten men?

That's the World Cup - cruel & unpredictable, with 1 winner and 31 disappointed teams.

I could not understand why only 4 strikers were taken to germany. owen has not been fit enough, rooney was very doubtful and walcott had not played enough at top level and in any case was too young. Defoe and Bent were far better options. Although a West Ham supporter, Dean Ashton and dare I say even Teddy Sheringham would have done better.
Also the system of playing rooney on his own up front was a disaster.What team plays 4 5 1.
Svens appointment has proved a joke and I dont think McClarens any better.

Lets face it. Sven picked our world cup players and formations the same way as if he was picking his National Lottery ticket numbers. Lets hope Mclaren does start playing the guessing game as well.

The last German to miss a penalty was Uli Stielike in the famous semi-final against France in 1982 , as Ian stated correctly in comment 15.

You can watch highlights (UK broadband only) here.

(West Germany still won the shoot-out, but went on to ) lose the final 3-1 to Italy.

The comments from Ben are fair

From outside of England it has been clear for months that the english midfield lacked a Roy Keane or Peter Reid type of player. Hargreaves partly solved the problem but not totally.
English supporters, and maybe management were blind to the lack of a tough tackler and playmaker.
It was obvious Englands midfield could be over-run or neutralised. Beckham & Gerard had not produced for England, Lampard , unluckily off form.
Dont forget a real team includes many parts, not just fancy go forward midfielders

Look at the great midfield players of the past such as Stiles, Hunter, Reid, Ince, Robson etc..
Get some of these types into your side and see the difference.

Of course appoint Terry as captain.

Regds,

Peter Byrne

Good riddance to Beckham as captain. Did he make one tackle during the tournament and ended up crying.

Oh what a tangled web we weave as England supporters and UK media. we build are teams up with expectations of Glory and usually (but not allways) are somewhat bewildered by the final outcome.This was an England side full of quality players and certainly capable on their day of beating any team and yet was allways missing one major factor...confidence. The words were spoken by the team, but was not translated in their play on the field.
Every major team that is through to semi's was heavily criticised by their own fans and media prior to the Tournament and most of these countries are all previous winners of the Cup.
England players need to believe they can win, not be told they can by media hype and public pressure....Then we will win the World Cup.

It's clear to us neutrals that Rooney:

Should be allowed to throw a tantrum every time he doesn't get his own way;

Should be allowed to verbally abuse premiership referees etc,etc

because, when things go wrong, it's obviously all Ronaldo's, or the referee's, or Ericsson's, or somebody else's fault.

that was well clever, Dan. very witty.
tell me - you not got the family brain cell this morning ?

Another note - mention of Alan Shearer. NOW there's a player who played well and knows how to behave too. He's one of the last of the gentleman players. He speaks well and played clean. Can public opinion appoint him and Gary Lineker (another Mr Nice Guy) to teach the England team manners, please? In my humble opinion, the likes of Wayne Rooney and David Beckham are certainly not good role models for the young players of today. Beckham may be (or possibly have been before he started believing his own hype) a good man-manager but his speech is atrocious and he can barely explain what he does in undertsandable English. As for that thug Rooney, if he'd tangled with a fellow drinker in the way he and Ronaldo did, both would be looking at a charge of at least GBH by now.

Let me start by saying I would have loved to see England win the W.C. but I also realise the fact that we are sadly not good enough.
I have watched the Rooney incident quite a few times, the referee was standing waiting for Carvallio to get up, he was not even going to give Rooney a card (let alone red), until Ronaldo came over & stuck his ore in, Rooney quite rightly let him know if had F.A. to do with him, I must say the push must have really hurt him, I bet he was black & blue with bruises the next day!!!!!
It was ok for him to put (not exactly a headbut) his head on Rooneys & whisper (I'd love to know) whatever he did, & Luis Figo to headbut a player as well, oh but apparently he was punished at the time by the referee who DID SEE IT, they should both be severely punished by FIFA, but then again not being English helps!!.....but i'm not bitter!

i still think we have great players, but we need a manager that get the blood pumping and stick to the 4-4-2 which the players know and play week in and week out.

No silly systems, no technical rubbish - blood and thunder and 4-4-2
we will be fine.

Question is .... Will McLaren just carry on as before ???

A few observations on world cup so far:
1.England's level of skill is insufficient to beat intl. mediocrity.
2.FIFA should act to punish cheats-use tv replays.
3.All teams have their share of"feigners, simulators"
4.We will soon be back in the "sky bubble",when most of England's players will become world beaters once again.
5.Pundits-I stopped listening to them when a. hansen thought Carrick was man of match against Ecuador!-use fewer ex footballers who struggle with coherence.
6.A prediction- Mclaren will not be able to naturalise Yakubu or Maccarone and bring them on with 10 mins to go to switch tactics when its gone wrong.
7.Its a team game-which Germany are once again proving.
8.Tv/radio/press media build up then report on the failure-not unique,even in western europe.

Couldn't agree more, you can't be disappointed if you've no expectations to start with, goood old Sven!!!!!

England were simply not good enough - look at the player stats by position and none of them made the impact they should.

In a Premiership burtsing with overseas talent we have homegrown players good enough to make a name for themselves at our top clubs but none of them performed close to their potential in this tournament.

This is down to poor training and bad management and I can't help feeling that the FA is about to serve us more of the same with Steve McClaren.

What worries me is that in a bid to find answers we are all too quick to lash out at the players instead of the management. Few people have done as much for English football as David Beckham and I still wonder why a man who has been such a hero on so many occassions is so quickly cast as a villain. He is one of the best servants of English football we have ever produced and he has simply been badly managed by the English coaching staff.

Rooney's behaviour was deserving of a red card no matter what influence Ronaldo had on the situation. But I do not blame him. England was not playing as a team that had any clear direction and that must have been frustrating for all the players.

We can talk about number of friendlies played versus other nations and the influence on imported talent on the ability of homegrown players to make an impact on the national game but when all is said and done this team's problem was a lack of preparation - they simply did not have a strategy for playing against the teams they faced and were unable to fill that void on the pitch. The performaces were just that - empty.

The FA's influence on English football seems at times to be as damaging as that of the RFU on English Rugby. It is clear that we need a coach who can instill passion, confidence and belief in the team. But we also need someone who can give the team a better sense of purpose for each match they face.

I do not believe McClaren has these skills. True, he was at Man.U. during a particularly bright spell but that team was set on its course before he joined and few of Ferguson's assistant coaches have done anything since leaving Man. U. to suggest that it was them and not Ferguson who was the main driver behind the team's success.

At Middlesborough McClaren has been mediocre and Southgate's commentary has even suggested that his influence in successes has not been as great as McClaren would have us believe.

Finally, McClaren has been an influential part of the current managerial set-up. The set-up I believe was the route cause of England's dire performance in this World Cup. I would happily swap a Quarter Final place for a group stage exit just to have seen us play one game without any inhibitions. McClaren is not a passionate man, nor is he a great leader or moulder of men - if he were we surely would have seen something of his influence on the pitch over the last few weeks? Afterall this was his opportunity to show us what we were getting.

I don't know why the FA rushed this mangerial posting with the World Cup looming. It was obvious that no one of the experience and integrity we seek would be able to, or willing to make such a commitment - except Martin O'Neill.

My hope is that the FA will reflect on this World Cup and McClaren's part in it and they will reconsider the rushed appointment they made. Yes, it would be a PR disaster to sack a manager before he even appointed his new captain but as an England fan I cannot stand the thought of another 10 years of poor England performances before we have a team that is as enjoyable to watch as the team Venables brought together for Euro '96.

In the meantime, I have have loved David Beckham for the goals and assists that have seen us through when England has been struggling to come up with the goods and I will not make him the scape goat for the fact that he and his team were not managed or trained in readiness for this World Cup.

Let's forget about English passion when choosing a manager and start using our heads and not our hearts. Some will say this is too boring but I disagree - Germany use their heads and prepare thoroughly - no one can accuse them of being dull this World Cup and they might just even win it. Then you look at us and our 'passion' and yet we were the most inhibited and nagtive team of the competition. Confidence comes from knwoing what you are doing, from being ready.

Not that you could classify McClaren as a passionate man in fact the only FA requirement he seemed to meet was being English.

Last but not least:
When will we get a team/coaches that the present supporters deserve- when we wake up to reality-mediocre teams tend not to win the world cup.

> Comment 62: People seem to forget how much luck comes into it. England ARE a good team.

I can agree that you need a bit of luck but not the way you see it. England had luck, and plenty of it.

Lucky to qualify for the World Cup in first place from a very easy group, lucky to be handed the easiest group in the World Cup itself "The group of dreams", lucky to win against Paraguay and T&T, lucky to play Ecuador (possibly the easist last 16 match), lucky to win against Ecuador after them hitting the bar, lucky to have Rooney available at all, lucky to be relatively injury/suspension free (look at Portugal's suspensions for that game), lucky to survive until penalties, lucky to play every game as a 'pseudo-home' game with 30,000 fans or more.

If you had given most other teams that sort of luck then they'd be in the semis. England blew it because they are NOT a good team. They have reasonable individuals, overrated by the press and the fans who play in an overrated league.

But you cannot compare them to the passion and flowing football that we've seen from the likes of Germany, Argentina and even Ghana, yes Ghana!

England deserve to be going home now, the only surprise to me is that they didn't go earlier. But that was down to luck, and plenty of it.

England failed and Ricardo, the Portuguese keeper was able to defend the penalties. It is time for the English press learn to respect other Nations and their football teams. England was not the first team to go home. The english media should show the pride on their team, supporting them when they need. This is the reason why the English people are not appreciated abroad.

England failed and Ricardo, the Portuguese keeper was able to defend the penalties. It is time for the English press learn to respect other Nations and their football teams. England was not the first team to go home. The english media should show the pride on their team, supporting them when they need. This is the reason why the English people are not appreciated abroad.

Ben's right that it was a joyless spectacle watching England in this tournament. I differ in that I genuinely would prefer to England play wretchedly and win. I'm getting to an age when I can't afford to be choosy. I want to see them win something while I'm young enough to enjoy it. However, in lieu of that, some élan and (I hate to use this expression) passion, much like that exhibited week in week out in the premiership would have been nice.

I'm reminded of Euro '96 when albeit disappointed at not winning the thing, most England supporters could not find it in their hearts to have anything but pride at the team's display.

English football will never scale the technical heights of the South American game, but it is the most watched version of the sport. This is due to its breathtaking speed and passion. It's beautiful in its own way. If England went out to Portugal after having played breakneck, devil-may-care, exhilarating football, I ,for one, would have been delighted.

Please, please, please do not make Gerrard captain of England. What is all the hype about him anyway? He can't pass properly - look at his first half displays people ...passes overhit, hit too hard and the woeful penalty attempt = no bottle. Terry is you man.

Also our new 'boss' ought to look at the german method of playing as a team, Hargreaves has been taught well. Also go for youth NOW - get rid of the deadwood now - it didn't perform over the past few weeks and it will not in the future.

From a Scotsman & with no hint of gloating (how can I with our recent record!) All of the England games were mince to watch, no attacking flair, no individual brilliance (JCs goal apart although O thought the keeper could have done better) just shear drudgery! The tournament is better without the likes of England & Ukraine. The mentality seems to be "lets not lose a goal then when the other team tires go for it"
In all honesty I wish that half of the England players had been born north of Hadrians wall but the way they are hyped up is unbelievable! There has been a lot of hysteria about the Scots not wanting England to win because we hate everything English. This is absolute nonsense! What really irritates us is your media! To hear Ian Wright say at the start of the tournament "I don't care about anyone else I just care about England" whan is being paid to give unbiased analysis just sums it all up! I also have to say that purely for their comments after Saturday's game both Wright & Shearer should never be allowed to sit on a football panel again! Comments like "I'd land one on him" (Shearer) & "Ronaldo needs sorted out" (Wright)have no place on a football programme. So when some thug does sort Ronaldo out will he get away with it because "Ian Wright said thats what should be done"? Wright is an embarrassment end of...!
Rant over.

As a Scot, I could not really care either way if England won the world cup but as a football fan I cant believe the hype surrounding Ronaldo.

Can someone tell me how it is Ronaldo's fault that Rooney stamped on Carvalho? Surely there is only one person to blame there!

Alright, Rooney is a very special talent but sometimes he just over steps the mark and I find it even more baffling to hear Eriksson also getting the blame. Granted, he should have went with different tactics and played someone beside Rooney but anyone who has played football at any level knows, when you stamp on a player, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Finally, the sooner the fans realise that the England team is not as good as they think, the better for all concerned, including the players.

I disagree, I don't think England do need a Keane type of midfielder. England do not have the type of player who can unlock defences with an outrageous piece of skill or through ball, or have the ability to leave two or three players on their backsides....Gerard and co are great players but they don't and can't do the unexpected that you need to unlock the best defences in the latter stages of the world cup. We need a Zidane or a Deco or Totti (you know what I mean!). The last time we had someone of that sought of quality was Gazza in 1990 - and we were so close then.

That was very clever Superjim, very witty.
Tell me, do you always speak from that end of your body?

Great stuff Superjim.

What can I say? England lost but went to the penalty shootout in equal conditions and with the same chances of winning it. And their football throughout the tournament has been convincing? What a big pity that a great civilisation is showing a huge bad face to the world outside... lost ok but at least could show a little more of respect to the game and to the other teams. Let me say that England has great players but do not play as a team! Portuguese did it, in good and moments of adversity and not only with England (Holland for example) and that's the work of coach. Rooney is a good player but still imature. What he means by breaking Ronaldo? A player from the United and with the visibility that he has should have more sense. English squad does not know how to loose and blame all around but their football in this tournament has never been convincing. Move on and next time might be better! Don't blame C.Ronaldo, he is representing his team and country. Do you really think that if a portuguese player would do the same thing as Rooney did English side would accept it in a pacific way?! Oh, give me a break. Other problem is that English players think that their (huge) wages make them stars and that they do not have to run and work like the others (wages and names do not guarantee results). British squad does not have experience in other championships, they are used to England's and Premiership style and do not have international experience (apart of a couple of them). All that is important. Sven is a good coach but not for a national team and he never knew how to adapt the game to the real needs.

what a disgrceful thing for Alan Shearer tom say that Wayne Roony should assault Cristiano Ronaldo when they get back to pre-season training.
what Cristiano Ronaldo did is what every footballer in the Continent does. it's calles win and if someone like Wayne Rooney, who is a fantastic fottbaler, loses his head its no one's fault but his.
Alan Shearer is a legend and many young footballers wll take his word as gospel. what a hypocrit. surely his memory is not that bad as it was not long ago that he got Roy Keane sent off by goading him near the touchline at St. James Park.
so apologise on air, if you have the guts, or forget about bein involved with England. you're no better than the hatchet men that taint the beatiful game

you english need a reality check. take a leaf out of us scots. we thought we'd win the world cup in 1978
now we dont expect anything ( cos were crap)

From a Scotsman & with no hint of gloating (how can I with our recent record!) All of the England games were mince to watch, no attacking flair, no individual brilliance (JCs goal apart although O thought the keeper could have done better) just shear drudgery! The tournament is better without the likes of England & Ukraine. The mentality seems to be "lets not lose a goal then when the other team tires go for it"
In all honesty I wish that half of the England players had been born north of Hadrians wall but the way they are hyped up is unbelievable! There has been a lot of hysteria about the Scots not wanting England to win because we hate everything English. This is absolute nonsense! What really irritates us is your media! To hear Ian Wright say at the start of the tournament "I don't care about anyone else I just care about England" whan is being paid to give unbiased analysis just sums it all up! I also have to say that purely for their comments after Saturday's game both Wright & Shearer should never be allowed to sit on a football panel again! Comments like "I'd land one on him" (Shearer) & "Ronaldo needs sorted out" (Wright)have no place on a football programme. So when some thug does sort Ronaldo out will he get away with it because "Ian Wright said thats what should be done"? Wright is an embarrassment end of...!
Rant over.

Small point this, but I have to agree with Mr Ryder, regarding Terry Butcher. I've stopped reading his articles now, but what I did read was poorly written, generally spiteful, and thoroughly unconvincing. Why have the BBC - normally such good judges of pundits/reporters - resorted to this twerp. He has achieved precisely nothing in football, either as a player or a manager. Get rid.

The big problem fo me is Ericksson's loyalty to players who have 'done it' in the past.

The only game where we played as a team was the Ecuador game. They neutralised the threat from the wings completely and if Lampard had turned up, we'd have had a few more goals. Hargreaves was doing a great job at right back and Carrick was actually (the first time for eons) making forward passes on the deck, rather hoofing-it like Ferdinand.

So what does Ericksson do for the next game? Sacrifice Carrick so that Gary Neville can take up his guaranteed-if-fit position along with Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard et al.

When John Terry was taken off against Sweden, the proper choice was Carragher (who's had a great season again), but no, we had to have Campbell. Again someone who's done it the past but has been almost clown-like every time he's come on recently. No wonder the rest of the defence went to pieces.

Every single person I know thought that the system against Portugal was overly defensive, and by half time it was absolutely clear we needed more firepower up front, but we are made to wait for Rooney to stamp on someone's gonads and get sent off before SGE does something.

Then it's 'backs-to-the-wall' time and plucky England do their plucky stuff and lose.

And all that crying on the field. What was that all about? The idea that England had any chance at penalties was a joke.

They all knew they were going out before the first penalty was taken. Lampard, Gerrard had it written in bold capitals all over their faces.

I've been sticking by the team and the manager uptil Saturday, but now it's over I say good riddance to SGE.

Only wish it was Martin O'Neill taking over.

P.

what a disgrceful thing for Alan Shearer tom say that Wayne Roony should assault Cristiano Ronaldo when they get back to pre-season training.
what Cristiano Ronaldo did is what every footballer in the Continent does. it's calles win and if someone like Wayne Rooney, who is a fantastic fottbaler, loses his head its no one's fault but his.
Alan Shearer is a legend and many young footballers wll take his word as gospel. what a hypocrit. surely his memory is not that bad as it was not long ago that he got Roy Keane sent off by goading him near the touchline at St. James Park.
so apologise on air, if you have the guts, or forget about bein involved with England. you're no better than the hatchet men that taint the beatiful game

I can't think why anyone is surprised we got knocked out - I'm amazed we got as far as we did. With the exception of Hargreaves we have played without passion or committment and inevitably our skill levels were nowhere near good enough. Radical changes needed - we want people who play for pride not for self publicity !!

what a disgrceful thing for Alan Shearer tom say that Wayne Roony should assault Cristiano Ronaldo when they get back to pre-season training.
what Cristiano Ronaldo did is what every footballer in the Continent does. it's calles win and if someone like Wayne Rooney, who is a fantastic fottbaler, loses his head its no one's fault but his.
Alan Shearer is a legend and many young footballers wll take his word as gospel. what a hypocrit. surely his memory is not that bad as it was not long ago that he got Roy Keane sent off by goading him near the touchline at St. James Park.
so apologise on air, if you have the guts, or forget about bein involved with England. you're no better than the hatchet men that taint the beatiful game

Re comment 72 - just ask Leicester fans and players if Alan Shearer knows how to behave.

It's interesting to see that on one hand basically everybody agrees that Owen Hargreaves was the best English player and to then read Dan's (#20, 21, ...) comment that the English league is the greatest and therefore the players don't have to play outside England. Well, where's Hargreaves playing? Exactly. Bayern München. Germany. Maybe that's where he learned to score at penalty kicks... :-)

As an Expat living in Germany, the frustration at seeing England crash out of a major competition again is more than just soul destroying. You have to listen to the comments and needling to understand how much everyone here wanted us out. Dodgy Referee decisions and diving opposition apart, England always set themselves up as potential winners only to fail miserably time after time. Our attitude to the game is too honest. We are not prepared to "win at all costs" and that coupled with a squad full of players either injured, inexperienced, over-rated or just simply knackered from one of the longest domestic and international seasons of football played anywhere, has once again ensured that expectations were not lived up to. If we want to get anywhere, we need less hype and more planning. The FA has got to change the way our national team prepares for major competitions, allowing more time for the squad to R&R and the manager to get the right mind set going in the team - and no WAGS!!. The Press and the Media have also got to stop "Peaking and Troughing" as if every match or injury was the day of the 2nd coming. Given the right preparation we could have gone all the way this time. Without it we just keep on dremaing!

As an Expat living in Germany, the frustration at seeing England crash out of a major competition again is more than just soul destroying. You have to listen to the comments and needling to understand how much everyone here wanted us out. Dodgy Referee decisions and diving opposition apart, England always set themselves up as potential winners only to fail miserably time after time. Our attitude to the game is too honest. We are not prepared to "win at all costs" and that coupled with a squad full of players either injured, inexperienced, over-rated or just simply knackered from one of the longest domestic and international seasons of football played anywhere, has once again ensured that expectations were not lived up to. If we want to get anywhere, we need less hype and more planning. The FA has got to change the way our national team prepares for major competitions, allowing more time for the squad to R&R and the manager to get the right mind set going in the team - and no WAGS!!. The Press and the Media have also got to stop "Peaking and Troughing" as if every match or injury was the day of the 2nd coming. Given the right preparation we could have gone all the way this time. Without it we just keep on dreaming!

I agree with post #75. (Especially about the 'Sky bubble' and pundits. I had to sit and listen to Hansen slate an excellent Hargreaves at half-time against Portugal. Then, after the 120, he claimed Hargreaves was the best player on the pitch.)

I also agree with what Alan Pardew was saying about England being a team that was 'gripped by the fear of losing'. And it showed. (Germany are the one team at this tournament who look like they don't give a jot about losing, just as long as they give it a shot. Good luck to them, I say.)

How can you say the Joe Cole goal against Sweden was the only bright spark of the tournament? If you remember the Sweden match was meaningless as England had already qualified anyway. Surely the Beckham goal against Ecuador was the highlight of a mediocre team performance considering that magic free-kick sealed England's progression to the Quarter Finals single handedly.

I think people need to realise that England will always be a tier 2 team, the fact they have never got further than a quarter final in 16 years speaks volumes to that theory.

I blame the media partly for saturating the hype and losing all sight of realism. Had we gone into the tournament with a sense of normality and realism a quarter-final result would've been seen as "respectable" instead of a "disaster."

Let us not forget that the only teams to have fared better than England are Germany, Portugal, Italy and France.

I'm really surprised at the attitude to the players. This was the most talented group to come out of England for at least 15 years, probably longer. Sven believed there were loads of talented players around and he put his money where his mouth was: he selected 72 of them during his reign.
Abd that's the problem. No continuity, of either tactics or selection. The players didn't know from week to week where they'd be playing, who with and in what formation. No wonder they never looked settled: they weren't. They were shackled, not settled.
Lampard looked like he'd got stage fright, which he wouldn't have had if he'd been playing pretty much the sme place in much the same team for the past two years. Beckham would have been better in a defensive midfield role, because he's not as fast as he used to be - but his ball-winning and defenssive work was excellent.
Generally, we saw a team of outstanding talents whose great potential was never exploited because they literally didn't know what they were doing. And did the manager? The selection of Theo Walcott - very promising but not there yet - ahead of Jamaine Dafoe, when the fitness of two talismanic strikers was in doubt was idiotic.
Sven was right to say 'don't blame Rooney' - not least because whether Rooney actually committed a foul - afetr having been fouled himself four or five times immediately before the ref blew up - is very much open to debate. But why did Sven say it? To divert attention from himself, I suspect. It wasn't rooney's fault: it was Sven's. He made a mess of this championship. He made a mess of the England team. With all that talent at his disposal, he cocked up, big time. He should move on wherever he's going as soon as possible. Goodbye and good riddance.

The England team had some world class players and on paper had a great chance of doing well. I do find it totally bizarre that players have to be 'motivated' to play well and win a game. This is the world cup for heavens sake, every footballers dream stage and one where confidence for the England team should be high given the suposed calibre of players in the team. There were too many average performances from 'star' players who should of been at their peak and desperate to prove their billing. The players who failed were the ones expected to shine, whilst the players lined up in supporting roles were the only glimmer of hope (Hargreaves, J.Cole, Crouch and Lennon.) Argentina and Spain, although out too, at least put in some very impressive performances and inspired their fans but Brazil, like England, failed to meet expectations, rarely got out of second gear and in fact did not deserve to be be in contention for the final and glory on MERIT. France and Italy have improved as the competition has progressed and we were always being told that England would too - but sadly it never came.

England were mediocre. Sven is as good a manager as the team were players. Rooney learnt a cruel lesson but he will be wiser for it. David should certainly concentrate on his modelling while he has a few years left. They have all done very well moneywise out of this adventure. Good for them all.

Phil W - completely agree and let's just be clear about this.

The premiership may be the best league in the world but other nations now benefit from knowing how the English play the game. As a result, dealing with/defending against the tempo, velocity etc is less of a problem.

With so few players in foreign leagues, we have little hope of being able to deal with or take on the Italians, French, Germans, Spanish and Portuguese at their own games (e.g. playing the game as though grass grew on the ground rather than hoofing it upfield in the hope of a mistake/some tenacity/an occasional flash of brilliance).

It is all very well living in isolation about how our leagues etc are the best, but the fact is that this is a global game and the sooner we (both players and fans) stop being so provincial in our attitudes the better.

As for Rooney and Ronaldo, well - Wayne you had to go. Doesn't stop me thinking Ronaldo is an eejit. Showboating does not make you a great player: how often did we see Cruyff, Pele, Maradona, Gullit etc stepover well at the expense of doing the rudimentaries well also?

The issue here is fans versus Engish people.. A fan won't go into a World Cup knowing his team will win, they'll be hoping, where as an English person (i.e. Non-football fan) will assume we're going to win and moan when we don't, and probably read poor-quality newsprint, and basically spend the next 2 weeks spouting whatever is written on the back page of the sun.

Me, I'm looking forward to 2008, I *know* we're gonna win that ;)

P.S. Gerrard for captain!

England need to change their mentality from "penalties are a lottery" to the simple philosophy "the team who scores the most goes through". Practice practice practice. Get a qualified referee as part of the squad and make them take penalties every day during the world cup as if it were the real thing not avoiding the finest detail such as having the players in the centre circle. Carragher not realising he had to wait for the whistle epitomises Englands philosophy.

Surely I don't know as much about English football as the most bloggers here, yet I'd like to contribute to this discussion from a German point of view.

Before the tournament started, I was very confident England would play a major role in determining the new WC winners. You got a good defence and a very reputable midfield with players like Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham beeing able to make a difference. The lack of decent *and* healthy strikers was the only flaw I could see.

But after the first couple of games it was quite apparent England could not live up to the high expectations at home as the squad could not dominate the weaker teams and struggled again in the match vs Sweden. When the first real test came, England showed a good performance, but it was not enough to beat an enfeebled Portugal.

Why is that? By looking at the players beeing a part of the sqad, you can easily tell it's not a lack of quality. And I disagree with the argument there're too little Englishmen playing abroad because that counts for Germany as well.

I think that, on the one hand, Englands' expectations were too ambitious. Everyone - the manager, the players, the fans and the press - repeated the slogan "We *will* win the WC" at every opportunity, although there're like 8 other teams that actually could win the WC. Lifting the trophy is too difficult a goal that you could plan it or take it for granted. Notwithstanding, everything else than winning the WC seems to be viewed as failure, although reaching the quarter-finals is already a great success.

On the other hand, I was under the impression the sqad never really believed in its strength. After every game, the players kept promising a better performance for the next match, but - to me - it sounded like hollow phrasemongering. In addition, SGE let them play a very defensive and halfhearted system that was hardly convenient to lift the players' faith. During the final shootout against Portugal you could tell the English lack of confidence by looking at the players' body language.

Four yeary ago, I enjoyed the magnificent English victory over Argentina, and if it hadn't been for a brilliant Brazil, your side would have made it to the finals giving our guys another beating.

Somehow the spirit of that team has vanished long ago, sadly. Hopefully, your new manager will bring a turn for the better.

Greets from Cologne!

I can only agree with the vast majority of what people have written. My great concern is that McClaren might be another "yes" man for the English FA. I was rather troubled when I heard that Martin O'Neill (who has stated that he DID want the position) was rejected after replying "only if he's playing well enough, then yes" to the question "would you choose David Beckham as captain?". I hope I have been misinformed....does anyone know if there's any truth to this? I think we should have chosen a different type of manager when we had the chance, and he ought to have been installed as soon as the decision was made - or else, keep Sven's resignation quiet until after the World Cup. It's another English FA shambles. I feel so frustrated that we shan't be on telly on wednesday evening.......

Just a note the players in this country are to over hyped from beckham and co.
Its just a shame the public don't see :(

why is the premiership so entertaining please tell me?
its the likes of henry / robben / van nisteroy / cech / garcia / fabregas / drogba / crespo / yakubu and much more that give's views value for money.

I imagine it was the reverse watching rooney / beckham / lampard / gerrad / rio / e.t.c they are not value for money sorry to say but true.

The problem here is one you 2 scenarios, first you have henry /garcia plus the rest that were hungry to achieve something due to certain surroundings they struggled all there lives growing up in tough neighbour hoods seeing love ones mugged / degraded in soceity i mean think of what a the ghettos are like in france / spain / argentina / holland.

Secondly you beckham / lampard they have struggled but what struggle when everything is based on hype in the UK .They dont have ghettos in this country if they did the willigness to succeed will be apparent not just based on earning but belief/survival and gutts.

I think there wages should be capped first of all and everything should be based on performance related pay you tell me if they wont get it sorted. To much money living lives people in the UK aspire too. Its a shame to say but true are looking at working class people but not scholars.

The desire to be a winner is not down to money but down to desire and belief as a human being forget the ego,search within you.

Look at wenger / mourinho / freggy / bentiez e.t.c that's all I have to say

I think the press and media have to take some of the blame for England's failures. Yes, we won the world cup and it was a fantastic achievement - but that was 40 years ago. So why rake it up every 4 years since then? It doesn't matter if Geoff Hurst's goal was over the line or that we lent the '66 match winning ball to a museum in Germany. It's simply a history lesson with nothing to be learnt from it. The best thing we can do is to forget the past and look to the future. That means no more Alan Ball (sorry Alan) as a TV pundit or 'where are they now' specials, or the media filling air-time and column inches with 40 years of hurt. Instead of trying for the tournament fair play award, we need to focus on winning. And it's the press and media that play a large part in setting the tone of the nation - and the expectations of the team.

England were possibly the most boring team in the world cup, completely flat, no penetration, no flair (except maybe lennon). You looked like scotland under berti vogts, though with better players/defence, nobody seemed to actually have a clue how exactly they were going to score. In the last 210 minutes of football, you didnt score a single goal in open play - 3 and a half hours and this supposed "golden generation" could only muster a free kick (which should have been saved) from a has-been.
Once again, overhyped, overrated and a media build up that makes anybody who's not english want them to crash and burn. Only problem was that you were so unbelievably crap - much worse than previous years - that nobody up here ever really feared that you could win it, and the fear is half the fun.
England always need their damn scapegoat. This time its ronaldo for complaining to the ref that his teammate had his balls stamped on. Reverse the situation and imagine your reaction to roooney asking for a red card for a ronaldo stamp... get over yourselves

Oh - and maybe, next time, England should be a little bit more like France (post group stage) or Italy: e.g. play like the games are your last games *ever* and have a resolutely group based approach - players and coaches sticking together rather than worrying about whether there was a hair gel/soft drink photoshoot to go to!

Whoever wrote that Beckham faked his injury is talking rubbish. He is out of action for 6 weeks, also shown by the fact he was visibly upset to not be able to take any further participation in the match after he was subbed. So he protested at the Rooney red card during the match, oh so that of course means he was faking his injury then...

You will always see people have a go at Beckham, but who else in this tournament for England provided 2 crucial goal assists and 1 crucial goal to get the team to the QFs? No yellow cards, defensive help and general stability. If it was anyone else they'd be immortalised in gold. As Pele said last week, England need him and he has nothing to prove.

And it is highly pathetic to say "good riddance" to him when not many captains have helped the side get to three major tournaments and 3 quarter finals in a row. And that guidance came just last week with the Ecuador goal. And people have the nerve to call him a bad role model? At least he has redeemed himself time and time again over the 6 years.

England will miss his right foot more than people will ever credit for at this moment in time...

Some of the worst football i watched this world cup was watching England. We would have only won the world cup despite Sven not because of him.
For Sven to pick the pick a player based upon a happy slapping mms he received from Wenger shows how tacticly inept the man truly was.
Wright- Philips was told he didn't play enough games for Chelsea ( not that i would have took him anyway.) so he wont pick picked for England but Walcott..... There's irony in there somewhere.
No could escape the hype and not got caught up in it, but in reality most of us were embarassed by watching sunday league football from 'so-called ' world class players, who seemed all the way through this competition uncomfortable with the formation and instructions they were given. I always thought you play to your teams strengths and Sven has no idea how to do that.
I do think that Lampard or Terry are over-rated, as Makelle and Gallas do all the donkey work for them and it showed.
A couple of bonuses, the defence,also Hargreaves, Carrick, Joe Cole, Lennon, the talent is there!! and with King, Anton Ferdinand, Nolan, Defoe, Bent just to name a few we have the players to win but not the manager, i hope that SM will make the changes needed, make big decisions, but alas i dont think this will happen.
My final point make Steven Gerrard England captain top class player, top class captain, leads by example.

England was never going to win. Why don't the rest of you ever expect to come away having lost? There can only ever be one winner and with the present team it is never going to be England. It is not the fault of the players nor even the manager. It is because we do not have enough English players playing in the Premiership. We need to change the rules on overseas players so that we can nurture home grown talent. It will also prevent the fiasco of Premiership team mates scrapping on the pitch!!

I believe this team was good enough to go all the way, the only problem was that Sven made bad decisions "big decisions".

Lampard should of been dropped, as a Chelsea fan it hurts me to say that but he just did not turn up. Perhaps a spell on the bench would of woke him up, but of course that was too much for Sven, unlike the Italian coach who dropped Totti and brought him on late in the game against Australia and he made a impact, basic common sense.
Beckham should of also been dropped, I think it was clear enough to the rest of the world after his initial display that Lennon was going to cause all types of problems for the opposing teams of the world cup, again Sven would not take the hard decisions, why? He had nothing to lose, he was on his way out anyway. Perhaps he still has to remain buddies with Beckham, as the next Real Madrid coach.
Why is it that after seeing two years of Lampard and Gerrard together for England and everyone knowing that it does not work,why does Sven continue with such folly?
The basic fact is the manager got it wrong he had a great team and never let them off the leash, the caution that he showed by not taking more strikers should off been a warning sign for everybody, Sven was going to be very negative in his approach to the world cup games, and this approach never gathered any confidence in the team.
They looked like a bunch rabbits caught in the headlights of a oncoming truck.

Putting aside the hype over whether England were good enough, whether Rooney should have been sent off, whether Ronaldo influenced the decision, where do you English see your team going now? How will they develop, improve, how will Mcclaren change things and make his era different from Sven's? Who do you want out? Who should come in? These are the questions the English FA should be asking you because the fans are the only people who make sense

GroovyDave,no doubt a scot.Im sick of them pouring scorn over England.Hopefully Scotland will get a decent side sometime in the next 50yrs so the Scots can concentrate on their own comedy team.

Saying tht,England were poor throughout the tournament and although i would have loved them to progress,they didn't really deserve to with the performances.

There has been so much spin about how good this team is. I'm not English but got fed up of Sven saying that the best was yet to come from this team. What best is that? In the past 10 years I can remember 2 great performances from an English team - 4-1 v Holland at Euro 96 and the 5-1 result in Munich a few years ago. Sven has used that as his benchmark performance ever since. Unfortunately they havent come close and didnt look like getting remotely close during this tournament. The team needed goalscorers up front to progress and didnt have any. They also needed a back 4 who played like a back 4, and Frank Lampard Jnr shouldve gone to specsavers before the tournament- he might have had at least 1 shot on target if he had

So, England are home with tails between their legs after a dismal failure yet again. It was all so predictable :

Incessant hype for months about the 'golden generation' winning the World Cup, right down to the details of the victory parade

A clearly unfit Michael Owen picks up another injury.

The red mist descends on Rooney for more thuggishness and a red card.

Theo Walcott - minutes on pitch = 0, nice holiday = 1

England fail to beat Sweden. Again.

England fail to beat Portugal. Again.

England bottle it at penalties. Again.

The English media write off the hosts as no-hopers - 'the worst German team in living memory'. Germany outperform England. Again.

The English media blame everybody (the ref, FIFA, cheating foreigners, the CIA, aliens...) rather than the failings of themselves and their own team.

England immediately installed as favourites for Euro 2008 (by the English).

For once, can't England just go into a competition realising that they are just an average team, and giving the other teams the respect they deserve? Then again, don't bother changing...it's so much fun for the rest of us.

One of those scotch sounds like he had more than one of those scotch.. He is right though - we were crap. Scotland have been through this, so they know what it's like - oh, sorry, I forgot.. they never actually got this far in any tournament - still, they know what it's like to lose alright, and they're right, we just weren't good enough.
I've been pleasantly surprised by the comments fron Scots and Welsh contributors - I expected much more gloating. The good thing is that, in the main, they realise that it isn't English football fans that created the hype, it was the press. The sad thing is that a lot of us wanted to believe it. It actually looked logical with the players available. The problem is that Sven didn't use them properly, or they didn't perform, or we just plain weren't good enough.. we lost... Ahh well, there's always next time!
Let's hope some more of the home nations make it through qualifying - let's hope WE make it through qualifying. It would be nice not to be carrying the flag alone - to be fair it'd be nice to see the Scots because you can always rely on them to have a go, even if they go down, they go down fighting. Nobody can say the English didn't go down fighting though - and there'll be some bruised Portugese plums to prove it!

I think cristiano is a disgrace. I think that he should not be allowed to play football in this country again. And what a performance from the heroic Owen Hargreaves, who received so much criticism, but showed everyone what a player he can actually be...He was outstanding and did not deserve to be on the losing team

Englands next Captain.

F.A.
Do the sensible and thing for once skip a generation and for the next England Captain and appoint Michael Carrick NOW !! let him grow into teh role to lead us into teh next world Cup.

The hasbeens have failed us dont even think about Terry or Gerrard.

Any true football supporter could have told you that England were never good enough, but like you many people have believed in the Press hype instead of realising that the 'best two' midfielders in the Premiership have not performed consistently well for England -who? The two who manage to score from 30+ yards every week but not from 12yards for England.
All this tosh about Sven's tactics makes me laugh too...you mean to tell me that these so called superstars cannot think for themselves once they cross the white line?

England do have good players, but they have to be given the confidence to go out onto the pitch and use this ability. Our players confidence was undermined by Sven, by playing them out of position and in a formation which they were not happy with. Hargreaves was excellent on Saturday, but is naive as a holding player. England played better after Rooney went off because they adopted a 4-4-1 formation which they were all more comfortable with. Rooney's sending off was only a result of his frustration at being a lone striker!

Can anyone enlighten me on this theory..

There are two certainties in life..

Death and
England losing on penalties

..heheheheh

1. Leave the kids (Rooney & Ronaldo) alone; both did things that are acceptable & normal in hot pursuit of a goal.
2. If Ronaldo wants to play for Man Utd next season, fine; if he doesn't, fine. The nay-sayers are no better than the Brits who took-the-p when the Ities sacked from Serie A the S Korean who knocked them out of the WC last time.
3. When this country gets itself a proper name , it might assemble a proper team. "England" is not a national entity, & the "United Kingdom" is a ruritanian nonsense.
4. Until then, I DON'T want Germany, France or Portugal to win the WC.

Lennon could have been the new hero if he'd scored the open goal that presented itself to him against Portugal. At the moment he's not fit to lace Becks boots. Lots of mazey running which looks spectacular but very little in the way of a final ball. One for the future though.

Beckham has been a fantastic captain. I wish him and his family well. Our goal tally in Germany would have been halved without him. It would be nice if the press and pundits would get off his back for a while. What did Taylor/Butcher/Lawrenson EVER win at International level. Not a lot! Taylor worst substitution ever when he took off Lineker, Butcher famous for bleeding a lot in Italy and Lawrenson famous for shaving off his moustache.

If they wanted to pick on a midfield player then surely Lampard must have knocked £10 million off his value, he was awful - couldn't hit a cow's backside with a banjo. Owen Hargreaves set the benchmark and deserves all the plaudits.

Roll on 2008. England forever!

Rooney's red was harsh, I don't see where else he could put his foot without risking injuring himself with an awkward fall, but what was Carvalho doing tackling from behind with both feet forward anyway, isn't that a foul and yellow card straight off?

I don't think we'd have won in any case, so this isn't a hard luck story. But I'm not blaming Sven, strange as his decisions might be, because in truth this wasn't, isn't, and never looked like being a golden generation, that's just the SKY-fuelled premiership hype machine talking. They need your subscriptions, so ratchet up the billing for every player, but have we really players to match those Bobby Robson had? Barnes, Beardsley, Waddle, Steven, Robson, Walker, Butcher, Wright, Shilton, Pearce, Parker, Hateley - 20 years ago Clive Allen could score 49 goals in a season and barely win a cap, 10 years ago Robbie Fowler was experiencing similar. Hateley left Milan for Monaco, scored right through the '86 qualifiers and was usurped by Lineker for the finals, with Cottee, Dixon and others missing out entirely. Now we blast Sven for not taking the likes of Darren Bent or single-figure Defoe? We just don't have the depth we used to.

Well, it's all over now, and McClaren has to take stock of what went wrong and ask himself how we could take a clutch of some of the brightest stars in world football and make them look so average.
Gerrard has to be captain. Terry has helped guide Chelsea to a couple of Premiership titles, but Liverpool won the European Cup after Gerrard took it upon himself to get back into the game against Milan. Very few players have the ability to do that - and he grows with the captaincy.
Please, Steve - pick Stevie.

shame england's mental flaws were exposed yet again... still, was nice to see a world class player win the match. get over it you muppets!

Thought the article was a bit hard on Ford Mondeos myself!

Lets face it, England have some of the best players available, but on performances were definitely among the poorer, less inspired teams to progress throught to the quarters. I've heard the expression before and it seems to apply to Sven and the team, "Good Horse, Bad Jockey".
If he thought they were as good a team as is left in, he shouldn't be commenting on, let alone running, a football team. Hope Mclaren does a better job.

The reason England doesn't deserve to win is that they tolerate (and the media and former players apparently encourage) the hooligan/yob culture that embarasses civilised Englishman the world over.
Yes it can be "entertaining" to hear Shearer's shameful comments (isn't inciting violence in public a criminal offence?) or read the tabloid's daily dose of propaganda for the lower classes (which incidentally ensures they will always remain low class), but it contributes to the culture of violence and intolerance that permeates football, specially with some fans (ie. England). For that reason I don’t take my kids to the matches anymore. I was at the match in Gelsenkirchen and was saddened by the look of fear and confusion on the face of many portuguese children faced with threatening and abusive behaviour from many english “fans”. Shame on you England for tolerating these goons and shame on you FIFA for allowing these goons to sit mixed in with the Portuguese fans at the stadium. I personally witnessed violence and threatening behaviour which the stewards preferred to ignore (no doubt in fear for their own safety). The Germans have been keeping this type of behaviour out of the news outlets, surely so as to not encourage more, but you can't hide it from the people present in the stadiums and the city centre. I will never go to an England match again, ever.
And you talk so much about fair play. Hypocrites.

Thank you for stating so eloquently what many of us have been saying for years. Far too many people believe England to be way better than they really are and are therefore constantly disappointed when they make their inevitable exit.

The fact is, England benefit from their seeded status, gifting them minnows against which to play their early games. This allows them to progress from the first round despite playing stale, unimaginative and uninspiring football. Eventually they face some 'real' opposition and as we've seen repeatedly, are unable to overcome them. However, they did indeed progress to the later rounds, which earns them seeded status for the next tournament and the cycle continues.

What we have is a 2nd rate national side masquerading as a 1st rate one. The sooner the BBC, the press and the supporters accept that, the better off we'll all be.

I think it is apalling that England progressed as far as they did given their pathetic performance. Mexico going out early while England advanced made a mockery of the World Cup. Mexico displayed talent that England can only dream of.

You cant blame Sky or the BBC for over hyping the premier league...at the end of the day they have to over hype it because theyve invested huge sums of money for broadcast rights..meaning they have to create huge hype in order to get people to watch it!!!its up to the english public to make their own minds up!!!!just cos somebody on tv says this player is great or that team is great...watch the bloody game yourself and make up your own mind!!watch other leagues to help give you some comparison...the best game i saw all last year was werder bremen v bayern munich where bremen won 3-0 playing an all out attacking style (against one of the best teams in europe with whom a cetain english star happened to be playing but people in england still think he could be the target of premiership clubs!!!!!!!!why?????)!!!just because you dont see other leagues on tv does not mean they are crap.....return to the perspective of the premier league!!!!!in the last 20 years 3 english teams have reached the final of the european cup/champions league,2 have won......now compare that with serie A, la Liga, the Bundesliga, or even the french championship and it will tell its own story!!!!and the last point to add to that is how many english players represented foreign teams in these finals compared with french, german, italian, portuguse, spanish and even eastern european or south american players
a severe reality check is needed by the whole english public!!!!because at the end of the day the media is only represntitive of those who listen to it....if you do not agree with them find an alternative they wont be long catering to the demands of the public on who there profits depend!!!!

last point best soccer coverage of last year was james richardsons gazzetta coverage of serie A on bravo(even with some idiotic pundits)

They looked like a bunch rabbits caught in the headlights of a oncoming truck.
I completely agree. In fact the prevailing thought in the english side at its most optimistic was "we might be able to win here"
How many times have we seen England balk in front of the big guns like Germany and Brazil, rather than go out and play football.
Most of this is intheir heads. They need to be inspired! After every half time break the boys played WORSE! Sven just can't inspire.
We should take a page out of the Brazilians book and play with the desire not just to win but to score as many goals as possible - to totally annihilate the opposition (remember 5-1 against Germany - what joy!).
As for the hype that this was the best team ever - what rubbish - Sherringham, Shearer, Adams, Pearce, Seaman, or 1990 when we came 4th with Shilton, Gazza, Lineker, Waddle Platt Wright. No this was a long way from the best team that England have fielded in the last few world cups. And as everyone has said - we took no strikers with us this time. Sven screwed our chances, not the players!