The International Football Thread

[Hutcho 8,443]

World cup here we come...

Prepare yourselves Brazil for a quarter final exit...

[bushman 2,043]

Rooney actually makes up only a small proportion of our goals.

Do you know how many he....?

[zolayes 14,489]

seems easy to score in Internationals ..just ask Oscar Juan Kevin or Andre,,, now we tell them our next game is against Wales

[zolayes 14,489]

so pleased Wales scored as I decided not to bet on Brazil ,England and Belgium all wiining

[Stingray 9,441]

Sleep tight. We belgians sucked a bit after the euphoria. Kdb was active, Eden came in with a bang and looks like EDEN.

Lukaku looked a bit clueless in tight spots, but ..... So dangerous in any counter situation.

[Kojo 4,676]

Townsend is the most annoying commentator ever, once again overhyping England.

I'm not going to expect anything with this team, this game and last game are the only good performances I've ever seen from England since Roy Hodgeson has took over.

[zolayes 14,489]

Townsend is the most annoying commentator ever, once again overhyping England.

I'm not going to expect anything with this team, this game and last game are the only good performances I've ever seen from England since Roy Hodgeson has took over.

this was the most entertaining England side since Joe Mercer was manager . Check out his results when he was caretaker

[Kojo 4,676]

this was the most entertaining England side since Joe Mercer was manager . Check out his results when he was caretaker

They have been very good, but that for me is only two games. Getting carried away on two games isn't going to help the side when we go to Brazil. I would say this World Cup we don't have as much pressure as we did in the last World Cups, but can you remember how dominant England where when on the road to South Africa? Rooney couldn't stop scoring, and didn't Lampard and Gerrard get hat tricks each in the very last game against Croatia? Either that or Gerrard got 2 and Lampard got 3. But still we where playing great football then, however when we got the World Cup it was a different story we where bloody awful.

[Amblève. 4,995]

I know somebody who's gonna have bad hangover when he wakes up in a couple of hours. Am I right, @?

[Jase 43,479]

I know somebody who's gonna have bad hangover when he wakes up in a couple of hours. Am I right, @?

Said it in the Pub but again, congrats lads!

You're gonna have another Bosnian fan here.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

They have been very good, but that for me is only two games. Getting carried away on two games isn't going to help the side when we go to Brazil. I would say this World Cup we don't have as much pressure as we did in the last World Cups, but can you remember how dominant England where when on the road to South Africa? Rooney couldn't stop scoring, and didn't Lampard and Gerrard get hat tricks each in the very last game against Croatia? Either that or Gerrard got 2 and Lampard got 3. But still we where playing great football then, however when we got the World Cup it was a different story we where bloody awful.

2006 and 2010 England had teams of worldbeaters. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole in defense, Lampard, Rooney scoring for fun for their clubs but at the tournament the expectations are so high and the players so tired, they get extremely shy in front of goal. They were so slow due to their fatigue, the whole German team which is not exactly fast looked like motorcycles against them. England usually have the quality but as long as there is a Carling Cup, replay rule in the FA Cup and 20 teams in the league, England will never win a tournament. Also I'd love to see a real world class coach in charge for England. Hodgson, Capello were ok, but they are rather taciticians. England needs a motivator, who unites the team with his spirit and actually instill some belief in them. When Germany exited the 2004 EM in the group stages, the NT was down. Only 2 years later, Jürgen Klinsmann almost won the World Cup (admittedly in the own country) with a side that was good but individually not remotedly close to what England or Italy had in their ranks at that time.

It would be brilliant to have a strong England team again. They deserve it. The premier league has produced some of the best football ever seen and brought the whole sport on a compeltely new level. English players have been a massive part of that. The Golden Generation has been one of the most impressive collection of players ever. Their international medal cabinet does not reflect that, but their club medal cabinet surely does.

Btw couldn't the English and the Welsh FA just merge? The best Welsh clubs play in the EPL anyway and the relationship with Wales has never been as strained as the one with the Scottish (which Scottish player would even get in the England squad?). England + Bale and Ramsey would rock.

[Korea 734]

2006 and 2010 England had teams of worldbeaters. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole in defense, Lampard, Rooney scoring for fun for their clubs but at the tournament the expectations are so high and the players so tired, they get extremely shy in front of goal. They were so slow due to their fatigue, the whole German team which is not exactly fast looked like motorcycles against them. England usually have the quality but as long as there is a Carling Cup, replay rule in the FA Cup and 20 teams in the league, England will never win a tournament. Also I'd love to see a real world class coach in charge for England. Hodgson, Capello were ok, but they are rather taciticians. England needs a motivator, who unites the team with his spirit and actually instill some belief in them. When Germany exited the 2004 EM in the group stages, the NT was down. Only 2 years later, Jürgen Klinsmann almost won the World Cup (admittedly in the own country) with a side that was good but individually not remotedly close to what England or Italy had in their ranks at that time.

It would be brilliant to have a strong England team again. They deserve it. The premier league has produced some of the best football ever seen and brought the whole sport on a compeltely new level. English players have been a massive part of that. The Golden Generation has been one of the most impressive collection of players ever. Their international medal cabinet does not reflect that, but their club medal cabinet surely does.

Btw couldn't the English and the Welsh FA just merge? The best Welsh clubs play in the EPL anyway and the relationship with Wales has never been as strained as the one with the Scottish (which Scottish player would even get in the England squad?). England + Bale and Ramsey would rock.

I question your Germany ethnicity.

[Korea 734]

I'd say England had the best team in recent years in 2002... 2006 and 2010 teams were never going to win, but 2002 had a chance I thought.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

I question your Germany ethnicity.

Ach ja? Deutscher geht's gar nicht. Deutsche Eltern, deutscher Pass, ich bin sogar katholisch. Außerdem würde ich bestreiten, dass Deutsche wirklich eine ethnische Gruppe sind. Wenn dem aber so wäre, wäre ich absolut representativ für die.

Warum sollte ich überhaupt lügen? Ich kenne wirklich keinen der freiwillig behaupten würde Deutscher zu sein.

Germany and England are not really natural enemies. Even Kaiser Wilhelm II and Hitler admired the British. Only in football there is a real rivalry. But England's main footballing rivals are Scotland, France and Argentina, whilst Germany's main rivals are the Netherlands and Brazil.

Englands 2006 and 2010 team were much much better than 2002s team, which was just too young and had a lot of average players in it. Also Brazil and France were the only decent teams in that tournament.

2006 and 2010 England had a world class player in almost every position. They had Lamps, Rooney, GErrard, Cole, Terry, Ferdinand in top form and had absolutely waltzed through the qualifiers.

[BluesChick 1,260]

Can some one explain the FIFA playoff set up to me? I don't mean the logistics because I get that I mean the reasoning behind setting up Asia to play against S America and Oceania against North/Central America/Caribbean... And why Asia and South America get 5 qualifying teams but Oceania gets none?

It seems to set up a preferential system for European and American teams...or am I dead on?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Strike 7,489]

The England National team is funny. Players like Smalling, Cahill, Milner, Welbeck sit on the bench at their clubs but start for country.

[Barbara 15,149]

I don't know if it was commentated by anyone before, but we were lucky with the NTs. Despite yet another break coming in the middle of November, no players will be involved in the European play-offs (I'm not sure if Brazil have any matches scheduled, but they probably do), so it means that most players in the squad will be with us instead of risking injuries in the NT matches - which is always a relief. Also, we can use the extra training before December comes as the winter isn't normally Chelsea's favorite part of the calendar.

Speaking of injuries I breathe relieved knowing none of our players had them when we have a very important match against Schalke coming next week. If anything this international break was a blessing for us as some of our players will come back to the club with renewed confidence (Schürrle, Mata and de Bruyne) for scoring goals in their teams. It must be specially important for de Bruyne - to start working harder in the training sessions and finally be selected, while Schürrle could keep the scoring boots for us. All in all it was a good break - as much as going without club football can be good anyway.

[Kojo 4,676]

2006 and 2010 England had teams of worldbeaters. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole in defense, Lampard, Rooney scoring for fun for their clubs but at the tournament the expectations are so high and the players so tired, they get extremely shy in front of goal. They were so slow due to their fatigue, the whole German team which is not exactly fast looked like motorcycles against them. England usually have the quality but as long as there is a Carling Cup, replay rule in the FA Cup and 20 teams in the league, England will never win a tournament. Also I'd love to see a real world class coach in charge for England. Hodgson, Capello were ok, but they are rather taciticians. England needs a motivator, who unites the team with his spirit and actually instill some belief in them. When Germany exited the 2004 EM in the group stages, the NT was down. Only 2 years later, Jürgen Klinsmann almost won the World Cup (admittedly in the own country) with a side that was good but individually not remotedly close to what England or Italy had in their ranks at that time.

It would be brilliant to have a strong England team again. They deserve it. The premier league has produced some of the best football ever seen and brought the whole sport on a compeltely new level. English players have been a massive part of that. The Golden Generation has been one of the most impressive collection of players ever. Their international medal cabinet does not reflect that, but their club medal cabinet surely does.

Btw couldn't the English and the Welsh FA just merge? The best Welsh clubs play in the EPL anyway and the relationship with Wales has never been as strained as the one with the Scottish (which Scottish player would even get in the England squad?). England + Bale and Ramsey would rock.

England have been failing for a long time, not just 2006 and 2010, England has always been England.

You look at our history for the past 30 years and we've reached the Semi Final about once, and have always been kicked out ridiculously because we aren't up for it, getting knocked out by the likes of Ireland and so on.

I'm not expecting anything different just because Roy has finally managed two good performances in two years.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Can some one explain the FIFA playoff set up to me? I don't mean the logistics because I get that I mean the reasoning behind setting up Asia to play against S America and Oceania against North/Central America/Caribbean... And why Asia and South America get 5 qualifying teams but Oceania gets none?

It seems to set up a preferential system for European and American teams...or am I dead on?

The amount of qualified teams depends on number of countries and total fifa ranking points each continent has... (a bit like UCL)

Europe: 13 places

Africa: 5 places

South America: 5.5 places

Asia: 4.5 places

North/Central America: 3.5 places

Oceania: 0.5 places

Oceania used to have one place in the WCs, but since Australia is so much better than any other team in Oceania, FIFA decided to put Australia in the Asia Qualifiers (adding one more qualifying spot) and taking away Oceania's automatic qualified team.

The play-offs are done by rotation. One time it is North/Central Americas vs South America, another time is Asia vs South America, North/Central America vs Oceania, and so on. And since Europe and Africa already have way too many countries inside their football associations, they have internal play-offs.

Now, if all of that is fair is very debatable, but that is how it is...

[Spike 12,049]

2006 World Cup

2008 Euros

England should have easily made the semis for both of those tournaments. With the team they had, it should have been a no brainer. They had talent stacked in every position on the field. Maybe lacked a clever playmaker like Deco or Sneijder but that alone shouldn't have held them back too much. Their squad list read out like beautiful song:

Michael Owen

Frank Lampard

John Terry

Ashley Cole

Joe Cole

Steven Gerrard

Jamie Carragher

David Beckham

Rio Ferdinand

Wayne Rooney

Gary Neville

Owen Hargreaves

Michael Carrick

Joe Cole - Michael Owen - David Beckham

Frank Lampard - Michael Carrick

Owen Hargreaves

Ashley Cole - Rio Ferdinand - John Terry - Gary Neville

David James

Look at that team. Great isn't it? Not much flair or panaché but the talent is there.

Look at the team they fielded just recently:

Wayne Rooney - Daniel Sturridge

Danny Welbeck - Steven Gerrard - Michael Carrick - Andros Townsend

Leighton Baines - Phil Jagielka - Gary Cahill - Chris Smalling

Joe Hart

There are three players I'm very fond of in that team. Jagielka, Baines and Carrick. The rest at the moment are 'meh'.