England vs Mexico

[Big Ern]

Thought the scoreline flattered us. The Mexican commentators were not too impressed by England and to be honest neither was I.

We looked suspect in defence, and Carrick and Gerrard in the 1st half were appalling.

The only comfort to take is that we will have Terry and Ashley Cole back for the World cup, and hopefully Barry to shore things up.

[AndyRFC]

Looking at our shit defence, lack of midfield and general reticence to close the opposition down, I can't see us getting very far in South Africa.

Could be worse.

Portugal 0-0 Cape Verde Islands (FT).

what kind of team did Portgual play? i was going to have an e/w dabble on them!

[Tails]

Eduardo, Paulo Ferreira (Miguel, 68), Bruno Alves, Ricardo Carvalho (Ricardo Costa, m. 46), Fábio Coentrão, Pedro Mendes (Tiago, 57), Miguel Veloso (Raul Meireles, m. 46), Deco (Danny, 57), Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo y Liedson (Hugo Almeida, m. 46).

[TBM]

It was obvious the players who felt they had nothing to prove didn't really try tonight (Gerrard, Rooney etc) and the ones who were trying to impress were trying a tad too hard and getting it wrong (Walcott, Milner, King etc)

Would like to see more of Adam Johnson and Aaron Lennon on Sunday - think those two could be our surprise package in SA

[Compo's Hat]

What a terrible night, an England flag made of football shirts (not surprised with the money the FA spent on Wembley they wasted yet more money), a mexican wave and a team who look nowhere near good enough to win the World Cup.

The plastic bandwagon will think we can win it still though of course with one of the easier groups in the tournement to get them carried away.

[Handsome Man]

Back from the game.

Good things:
The goalies looked good; all the wingers looked fast, Johnson scored a great goal, Wembley looked amazing with the crowd's shirts making a flag, the Chelsea players will all be happy.

Bad things:
We were a bit shit, Ledley King and Baines won't have played as badly all season, Gerrard just couldn't be bothered first half, Carrack was invisible, the car park

/10
Green 8
Johnson 7
Ferdinand 7
King 1
Baines 2
Carrack 4
Gerrard 3
Milner 6
Walcott 7
Crouch 5
Rooney 6

Hart 6
Lennon 7

[Big Foot]

From what I saw of the game, Baines looked like a lost boy who'd somehow ended up on the Wembley pitch. Poor positioning and panicked a lot, wouldn't take him to WC.

Carrick looked poor as well, don't know how he's in the England squad - still living off one good season at Spurs IMO.

[PieEater]

To be fair we did improve a lot in the second half, the first half performance though was dismal.

Carrick, King, Ferdinand, Baines and Walcott didn't look good enough. We improved a lot when Carragher replaced Ferdinand, Gerrard played more central, and we bothered to tackle.

I'd give Johnson another chance, he looks like he has the skill to actually beat defenders.

[Big Foot]

To be fair we did improve a lot in the second half, the first half performance though was dismal.

Carrick, King, Ferdinand, Baines and Walcott didn't look good enough. We improved a lot when Carragher replaced Ferdinand, Gerrard played more central, and we bothered to tackle.

I'd give Johnson another chance, he looks like he has the skill to actually beat defenders.

Yep, he needs to get the ball played ahead of him though to make sure he's running towards their goal, that's when he's at his most effective.

A lot of the passes last night were poor, looked like a team who didn't know each others strengths on simple things like which foot they want the ball passed to, what kind of pass they could receive best etc

[papereyes]

Baines got done and done again by the Mehican right winger.

[Hoop Blah]

You have to remember that the players are largely going through the motions in these last few games, they're not going to risk injury with just days to go until the squad is named.

It would be nice if performances were a bit better but look back to 1990 and we lost to Uruguay in our last home game, then drew with Tunisia. These were off the back of beating Denmark 1-0 as well. Not the greatest results (or performances from what I can remember) and yet we had our second best World Cup ever.

The last 3 games before the '98 World Cup saw us draw with Saudi Arabia, edge a 1-0 against Morocco and then draw with 0-0 with Belgium, all within a couple of weeks of the group games starting.

Keep some persepctive here...

It's all about how we settle down and grow into the touranment once we're there. The last few places in the squad won't make a massive difference as a lot of it is going to be down to a bit of luck and how our 'big guns' do in the big moments in the knockout stages.

Having said that, I'd still rather have Joe Cole in the squad than any of the photo-fit quick but no guile wingers we'll probably end up taking.

[Handsome Man]

From what I saw of the game, Baines looked like a lost boy who'd somehow ended up on the Wembley pitch. Poor positioning and panicked a lot, wouldn't take him to WC.

Carrick looked poor as well, don't know how he's in the England squad - still living off one good season at Spurs IMO.

Much of Baines' poor positioning was becuase King just wasn't moving. He had to stay within touching distance of King, or else huge gaps in the centre would open up; this left it open down the wing. It was a really poor performance from the pair of them.

[TBM]

At least King admitted he had a shite game......

Question is, who should be our number 1 come the first game?!

[FORSTERS_RIGHT_FOOT]

At least King admitted he had a shite game......

Question is, who should be our number 1 come the first game?!

I would have Joe Hart personally.

[Hoop Blah]

I know I wouldn't have Green, but I'm not sure if I'd go for James or Hart at the moment.

I think I'm edging towards James still as you just don't know how Hart will deal with the pressure yet and at least we know exactly what we'll get with James.

[SpaceCruiser]

We looked suspect in defence,

If we did, then how come the Mexicans only managed to score 1 goal?

[FORSTERS_RIGHT_FOOT]

We looked suspect in defence,

If we did, then how come the Mexicans only managed to score 1 goal?

Because their shooting was woeful coupled with good saves from the goalkeepers.

Idiot.

[SpaceCruiser]

We looked suspect in defence,

If we did, then how come the Mexicans only managed to score 1 goal?

Because their shooting was woeful coupled with good saves from the goalkeepers.

Idiot.

Tbf, I thought King wasn't good in the first half when he was beaten by a Mexican, but you can't say the Mexicans were better than us if they still failed to beat us.

Why the abuse? I never said much to you, so I'll give it back to you, moron.

[FORSTERS_RIGHT_FOOT]

I didnt say they were better than us. All i said was their finishing was woeful and our goalkeepers made some good saves. Hence why they only scored 1.

At one point during the first half. Just after we went 1-0 up. A stat came up saying we had had 1 shot, 1 on target, Mexico had 8 shots, 3 on target.

Woeful finishing.

[SpaceCruiser]

At one point during the first half. Just after we went 1-0 up. A stat came up saying we had had 1 shot, 1 on target, Mexico had 8 shots, 3 on target.

Yeah, I saw that, I was slightly shocked. But, tbf, I think we were playing a counter-attacking game.