Best victory in 5 1/2 years under Sven, Crouch gets a hat-trick, who needs Wayne Rooney?
Here are highlights from the Jamaica game,
youtube.com/watch?v=MUIfYLju-pI
you can see Crouch do his robot dance after his first two goals but he premiered it some days back at Beckham’s pre-World Cup party, footage of which has been remixed here
youtube.com/watch?v=rlfLx1HrOz4
And here’s his Hungary goal and the moment when England learnt a new dance move
youtube.com/watch?v=FVm3zhrDeZw
as long as he doesn’t have to do the crouch crotch dance
-Imp
I just have one question. Those little England flags that peeps are driving around with! Who exactly are they trying to convince that they’re English?
We know where we are mate!
A
I recieved an email the other day explaining this phenomenon, and I have no reason to doubt its authenticity:
Mystery solved.
I have to admit that I didn’t think much of “Crouchy” when he started for England, and I was surprised that both Liverpool and England picked him. But I can see his merits now - he can do nice touches (including shots), he seems confident, and he is of course intimidating. I actually think that a Rooney/Crouch partnership would be ideal this summer.
Here’s a teaser: if Rooney recovers for the knockout stage, will he be able to come back in-form? If, say, we cruise through the 2nd round and the quarters, is there a case for leaving him out?
Hysterical. Hahahahaha!
A
ChimneySweep,
Sven has demonstrated with his laughable
Beckham Gerrard Lampard Cole
midfield that he’s happy to just pick the best 11 players we have and hope that they do well together. The little fact that Rooney, Cole, Lampard and Gerrard all operate in the exact same area of the pitch (approaching the goal, favouring the inside left channel because they are all right footed) seems to have escaped him, along with the fact that Lampard brings nothing to the team that Gerrard and Beckham don’t provide in abundance. Personally I’d drop Lampard because his performances in an England shirt, as with John Terry’s, are mediocre and he takes away from the team more than he adds in my view. That way we could afford to put someone in midfield who can actually tackle (something I’ve never seen Lampard do in an England shirt) and thus free up the attacking talents in the other players.
But yes, I’d start with Owen and Crouch up front and bring back Rooney when he’s fit, for whichever out of Owen and Crouch are playing worse. Even if we cruise through the group - it’s an easy group - we should still be prepared to drop someone for Rooney because we don’t have another player of his ability.
I’ve never really thought about it like that. From that premiss, we could have a nice “total football” situation in the middle, where those four alternate positions, taking it in turn to be the man who attacks.
I think you’re being a bit harsh on Terry - I think he’s an asset to the team. As far as our defence is concerned, the only major problem I can envisage is Ferdinand becoming stroppy like he was a year ago, but he seems to be focused now, so I’m not worried about that.
I am perhaps being harsh on John Terry, who I rate very highly. It’s more a case of never being able to remember a single top-notch defensive performance from him in the last 2 years in an England shirt. I’ve seen him play excellently in the Premiership and in Europe but never at international level. Lampard is a very good player, but his strengths are goalscoring from midfield (which Gerrard can do equally as well), long range passing (which Beckham and Gerrard can do better) and set piece delivery (Beckham is one of the best in the world). We don’t need him, given that if we put a Carrick or a Hargreaves in there to just break things up, cover against opposition split strikers, and move it upfield to the more creative player, then we could have a 4-1-4-1 with 4 from Beckham, Cole, Gerrard, Rooney, Lampard, Lennon, Downing supporting a lone striker in either Crouch or Owen (depending on the opposition’s main weakness at the back).
However, Sven’s thinking is clearly to start by playing a 4-4-2 with Crouch and Owen up front and Gerrard and Lampard in the middle. While the collective passing ability of Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard is excellent and therefore the tactic of using Crouch’s height and link play to create things for Cole and Owen (and whoever else) should bear fruit, I’m worried about opposition with wily forwards who can drop into the space behind the striker or into the channels. We had this exact problem in Portugal against both France and the hosts - our central midfield dropped deep to try to combat the split strikers and this pushed our defence back, inviting the opposition into our half. This was because no one player had the specific responsibility for a second striker (or winger playing inside, or whatever) and so the whole midfield backtracked to try to cover for this.
Now, in the last World Cup Gerrard needed a groin operation and so he didn’t play so Sven put Butt and Scholes in central midfield, a natural defensive-attacking partnership. We lack a Nicky Butt, an unglamorous and not particularly talented player to do the dirty work in the middle of the field. Like I say, Sven will pick the 11 most talented players, regardless of the tactical problems.
Note on Ferdinand - he’s amazingly inconsistent in short periods, sometimes looks like he’s got his Ipod on, listening to his hip-hop, not paying the slightest attention to the game. But the last few months his form has been solid and the Jaffa Cakes seem to have helped enormously…
Just bumping this thread so I can provide a tedious blow-by-blow commentary on issues of note during the World Cup…
Another cool trick from Ronaldinho
And I apologise once more to the Arsenal fans for this
It’s a Welshman taking apart the England defense…I can live with it
Two things. First it is exactly 24 hours from the start of the
world cup and second
[size=200]I had a dream[/size]
In my dream, I dreamed who would win the world cup.
My dream told me TOGO will win the cup. Yep, you read it here
first. TOGO win win. Grant you it will be the biggest upset in
the history of sports, but think of the odds you can get.
Personally, I just went to the bookie and put down a
thousand on TOGO to win. When I win, not if, when I win
I will make a gazillion dollars back.
So now you know.
Kropotkin
I’d take Ghana, Ivory Coast, Ukraine and South Korea over Togo. Sorry, but along with my girlfriend, you’re wrong, they don’t stand a chance.
TOGO, TOGO, TOGO, TOGO, TOGO, TOGO, TOGO.
Besides there is a sandwich chain named Togo, to go,
around here, maybe national, don’t know that,
but I love their Italien sandwiches.
[size=200]TOGO[/size]
Kropotkin
You’re placing a thousand dollars on Togo to win the world cup because they share their name (sort of) with a sandwich shop chain? I can think of several better things to do with a thousand dollars.
someoneisatthedoor:You’re placing a thousand dollars on Togo to win the world cup because they share their name (sort of) with a sandwich shop chain? I can think of several better things to do with a thousand dollars.
K: NO, I had a dream. Get it right.
I never said a thousand dollars.
I said a thousand. It could be pennies for all you know. At those
odds, I could bet 5 dollars and make a fortune.
And knowing you, you would spend it on wine, women and song
anyway, so I suggest going to las vegas. I can direct you to some
great strip clubs. I know I am a humanitarian. I am still waiting
for my Nobel prize in the mail.
[size=200]GO TOGO. [/size]
Kropotkin
You did talk of winning a gazillion dollars, so I assumed you meant a thousand dollars as your stake. Maybe American bookies haven’t got the hang of calculating the odds for football matches yet…
And I would not spend it on wine, women and song. I don’t spend much on women - only really have one woman to spend money on, and she’s got esoteric but generally cheap tastes (hence me as her boyfriend - 
), song is always cheap if you can sing yourself and wine - I’ve not been on the wine recently. Maybe it’s the heat, wine is very much a winter drink in my life.
And how is this weather we are having? Bloody marvelous!
A