Not only that, an overworked Rooney will be pressing on his recovering foot. If he re-injures himself, wow. I don't want to imagine. England should just play 1 striker and two attacking MFs. Lampard doesn't bother to defend anyway and is a good scorer who'd rather shoot than pass, and Gerrard a brilliant striker as well, plus Cole can put it in the net. Just play a 1-5-4 and be done with it
Very True...they can put Crouch on the bench and put Rooney as the lone striker to start off and like you said they have capable scorers in the mid field. Only place they will lose some advantage would be Crouch on the set pieces for the headers becuase he causes such a mismatch with his height.
The biggest mistake the FA ever made was not appointing Hiddink after the world cup. Sven has no balls at all and is willing to take a chance and once again England will fail. The only positive to come out of the injury to Owen is now Gerrard will be used more as an attacking midfielder. I bet SGE is regretting the decision to leave Defoe and home and bring in a very raw Walcott right now. Big game tonight for Australia against Croatia, only needing a draw to progress yet the way Hiddink coached against Brazil there is no doubt Australia will be going for the win Super, Super Tim. Super, Super Tim. Super, Super Tim Super Timmy Cahill
Then England is toast as you are playing 4 strikers, and 1 defender. Seriously, I agree with you that 1 striker with 2 attacking MFs is a better formation for England than 2 strikers, esp. when the other striker is Crouch.
I think people get too caught up in formations, they are fairly free forming and morphing anyway...backs come up to support a run, midfielders drop back on defense. Just play with attacking midfields like Lampard or Gerrard... DD
The guy looks like so goofy playing, reminds me of Mueresan or something when he played basketball just no real coordination. The only useful thing he is good for is set pieces. When i watched him play and he was trying to do side kicks or just any type of attack he sucked so bad...it was just ugly to watch and he had no timing.
IMHO, the matches in knockout round are totally different from those group matches. Every match in the knockout round is a do-or-die situation. The so-called "weaker" team often knocks out the "stronger". That's part of the funs too. For those who said Protugal and Mexico won't advance next round, I beg to differ. Portugal is playing their B team against Mexico. I think they can proceed into the quarter-finals. Although Argentina appeared to be 10x better than Mexico, I still think Mexico has the chance if they played "Defense first and wait in ambush" tactic. (please bear my poor English here, I am sure there is some other term for this kind of soccer tactics) Although it is very exciting to watch Argentina's and Spain's matches, sadly in World Cup history, teams with outstanding performance in group matches seldom went far in the knockout rounds. Perhaps they were too exposed to their opponents or the teams had went into their best forms too early in the tournament. I didn't do a research but as far as I could recall, Argentina, Spain and Denmark used to play very impressively in group matches but then get eliminated in knockout rounds in prevoius world cup tournaments.
Formation is very important to commentators. Most of the time they called out the player's name by recognising their position.
Did you get a look at Tommy Smith's teeth when he was talking on ESPN...man im surprised they didnt' do some digital enhancement and make them at least some what white instead of the brown yellow color they are...woahhhhh
You see, that's the difference between you and me. You'd rather your team be there in misery, upon pity, when other teams' losses and own goals help you get you in, when leftovers are the only food you can eat. You are scavengers. You feeel ok with being the Hyenas of a tournament. That makes you happy. I don't. I want my team to be there righteously with wins, scoring, playing better soccer against the powerhouses that are the European figures, the African heroes, the Asian promises. We want to score our own goals, not have other teams score them for us in the same game we play. You're happy with how your team gets in, because you're expected to lose...? Because you're not the entire country's hopes like mine is and soccer, unlike other sports, is as popular as Conan O'Brien in Houston at 2 in the morning? WTF am I supposed to say to you? "Oh, we made it because Angola didn't win?" F*ck no. We made it because we won at least one game, and that gave us enough cushion. What if the games would have been in another order? Would you still say that we won against Iran because we got a score from an own goal? Would you say that my country didn't handle Angola well? We played abismally bad, and if you ask anyone in Mexico or anyone who goes for my country if that was ok, we would chastize our own team... we're expected to get there on our own. thegary, NO, I won't chill the **** out. Be this passionate about the ROCKETS and see how you like it. Yes, I've got a hard on for my team. Don't YOU?
And he is good at breakdance too. And Stack24, Iran is my favourite West Asia team (apparently the only West Asia team despises time wasters). I have high hopes on your team and Corea in this tournament. Too bad they can't proceed this time. Daei is old and Karimi wasn't in his best shape.
are you an anti american? are you a traitor? are you canadian? ahh, kidding kidding. i just copy and paste what i see in the D&D. USA 402 Ghana 1 via an own goal. stupid reyna.
Not a chance, ESPN lost to a local cable tv in Hong Kong. I can't even watch EPL on ESPN. Talking about English soccer commentators, I like Andy Grey.
thegary, leroy420... are you listening...? Stack didn't say anything about MEXICO or Iran in that one post that speaks beyond truths. Are you going to answer...? Please answer. I had been saying all along that the US had a chance in a "toughly seeded" group, but then the game against Italy said everything to me... that I shouldn't cheer those who are happy with sloppy seconds... now you want me to believe that they will beat Ghana? I don't think so. I don't want to make any predictions... I will be back in here tomorrow at 11.
last one before I go... have you all checked these stats on THIS WORLD CUP?? http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/stats/detail.html?section=ta Dude, even freakin' Trinidad played well.
