England to win the world cup?

Sven's Swedes - Best chance since 1990?

[foxtunes]

So England scraped through with another unconvincing performance. Again the opposing team hit England's woodwork for the 3rd or 4th time this tournament.

England has definitely had the rub of the green against Sweden and Ecuador....Yet here they are 1 game from the semis and yet to hit 5th gear.

In previous tournaments (ignoring the lethargic display against Brazil in Japan 2002), England have played well only to go out to a Maradona hand goal (86) penalties (90), and penalties again in 1998.

Now with Rooney regaining match fitness for the final stages can England win the world cup this year?

Germany, Argentina and Brazil look strong but I think England will raise their game for these teams.

Am I hopelessly optimistic, or is England about to erase "40 years of hurt"?

I'm with New Order:

We're singing for England, Eng-er-land
Arriverderci, it's one on one

[giggle]

Nothing wrong with being optimistic but based on every england match I've watched they've been un-original and lucky.

Having watched the likes of Brazil, Argentina and Germany (and others) playing good, constructive football, the England long ball approach looks out-dated.

It's gone 1am here in Thailand (and I'm a bit pished) and the Portugal/Holland match hasn't kicked off yet but I can't see England getting passed the winner of that match...still, as someone once said "It's a funny old game, Saint"

[walkman]

dreaming can be good for you :)

actually I think they are great, but so is Germany and Brazil. England barely squeezed 1-0 out of Ecuador, and with experienced teams it's total different game. While Rooney has started to improve, I remind you of Klose, Podolvski, Robinho, Ronaldo (finally awoke up), and Ronaldinho; they are just as unforgiving if they get the ball.

All that said, anything can happen, and England can win. We all know that the "best" team does not necessarily win, luck plays a huge role.

England will have it easier with the winner of Holland - Portugal though, it seems like the winner will have to play with their B team because of all thse yellow and red cards. Insane.

[Essex_boy]

I think that we had the best chance in years today.

Ok so we are not playing top notch football and have been very lucky so far, but was wasnt Argentina and Marabone when he handballed the ball?

Fingers crossed

[duncan biscuits]

Better hope we don't get the Russian referee who was 'in charge' of the Portugal/Holland game. Otherwise the next England match could end up as a five-a-side.

[foxtunes]

It seems the referees are on a bookingfest this year, what was it 14 yellows and 4 reds in the Holland v Portugal game?

So it's England v Portugal. An excellent chance to make amends for the loss in Euro 2004 (another one we lost because of missed penalties)

Portugal may be without Deco, Figo and Ronaldo.....I also think this is the game Rooney comes of age in.

[Essex_boy]

Superb! I did indeed hope that Holland would bite the dust.

[Visit Thailand]

Yet here they are 1 game from the semis and yet to hit 5th gear.

5th gear?! I think they are having difficulty finding 1st never mind 5th gear.

[oneguy]

Superb! I did indeed hope that Holland would bite the dust.

I did too, but only after watching several of their players blantantly shove Portugese players to the ground while the ball wasn't even in play. It was strange to watch such a cardfest and see that go unpunished.

[Grassroots]

If we win every game playing poor and winning by scrappy performances, I'll be delighted. I've watched England play well and look the part only to suffer at the hand of Maradona, penalty failure or other such 'injustice'. Germany, Italy and Argentina have all won World Cup's playing like that, grinding out wins and scrapping their way through tournaments.

Other teams will look at our performances and think we are poor, but they'll look at our top players and also think they can play much much better... and we can, so that's quite a dangerous prospect for any opposition to consider.

I think we can win the World Cup, but I don't think we will, but we'll prove hard to beat for any nation, even those much better than us as a team, like Argentina or Brazil for example.

Rooney is the key, he's getting sharper and some of his play yesterday was exceptional, he can win games on his own and almost created 4 goal chances out of nothing but his strength and skill yesterday afternoon.

Fingers crossed :)

[Iguana]

At least the other teams will find it difficult to prepare for a game against us. Normally they would train for 4 days on combatting our system of play. But that is really difficult for them since we don't have a clue of which system we are going to play each match, and the players don't seem to know their roles when we do choose one.

I still dream that all those fine players will come together as a team just for three matches.

[Grassroots]

It's knock-out cup competition time now so anything can happen, the best team's don't always win Cup competitions. We should just look at our own FA Cup to realise anything can happen in one off Cup matches.