Group B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden

[Magrat Garlick]

Be interesting to see how they'd do against teams that play so deep and 1 man on his own up front.

Given that they went through qualifying with 10 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses in a group with Finland, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra, probably a fair bit.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Be interesting to see how they'd do against teams that play so deep and 1 man on his own up front.

Robben aside they were pretty workman-like. A young side though, Marco has gone on record as saying he's building for the Euro's and the next WC. Having a Wesley in ones side is always a bonus.

 

[TT Boy]

Given that they went through qualifying with 10 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses in a group with Finland, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra, probably a fair bit.

Good of you to miss out Romania and the Czech Republic.

 

[marc71178]

Given that they went through qualifying with 10 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses in a group with Finland, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra, probably a fair bit.

The likes of Andorra don't have the ability to play so defensively and be so hard to break down though.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Good of you to miss out Romania and the Czech Republic.

The point was to find the defensive sides of the group. Czechs can't exactly be called that. (Romania were a bit dreary when we played them a couple of years back, tho...)

 

[Scaly piscine]

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[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Time to get some proper commentators in for these England games.

"Shaka Hislop kicks the ball downfield and right into the path of Paul Robinson, who collects easily. That's probably Trinidad and Tobago's most accurate shot on goal today."

This is after John Terry saved England from being 1-0 down at the half by a sensational bit of defending. The commentator only deemed it fitting not to be biased heavily toward England after Crouch netted in the 82nd. In his relief he unleashed a barrage of compliments upon the Soc(c)a Warriors.

It's really unfortunate that these people are allowed into the commentary booth at this level of the sport.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Just a shame all T&T look capable of is sitting back and holding out for the 0-0 draw....

(bar the odd counter-attack when the other team is really going for a goal)

Against a team rated about 40 places ahead of us, you really expect much more?

Just a shame England and Sweden hardly look capable of scoring against one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament.

EDIT: Some teams will never get any respect...

 

[JASON]

Watched the Eng v T &T game live. Was almost to the point of giving up and going back to sleep at 5:30 AM (NZ time) when Peter Crouch got his header !! What a great goal.
Gerrard's was even better IMO.

But the number of times England had opportunity to score but fluffed was unbelievably very very high !! Particularly Lampard and Crouch.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Awful the word to describe that performance, of course the last 10 will cloud people's judgement. Crouch was terrible

Also pulled on Brent Sancho's dreadlocks to score.

That goal really goes down to Crouch losing his marker though (Dennis "Tall Man" Lawrence... who actually more lost himself).

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Was almost to the point of giving up and going back to sleep at 5:30 AM (NZ time) when Peter Crouch got his header !! What a great goal.

You think? It looked like a practice goal to me. The service was good (which in itself is shocking, given who served it) but the goal itself was hardly great.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Southgate is such a patronising ****, "The ref has to realise these Trinidad boys do things differently, you won't see them running too fast" when a chap was subbed the other day Any respect I had for him has evaporated. Thank **** he wasn't commentating on the Jamiaca friendly. Motson is the worst though, "these Ghanaians aren't scared, they're here to play football and aren't showing the Italians respect at all". Remind me again how long Appiah played for Juve, and how much Essien cost Motty, or should they just lie down in front of their white betters.

****.

 

[marc71178]

Just a shame England and Sweden hardly look capable of scoring against one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament.

Sweden 23 shots, 6 on target.
England 25 shots, 8 on target.

Clearly neither side looked very capable of scoring...

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Sweden 23 shots, 6 on target.
England 25 shots, 8 on target.

Clearly neither side looked very capable of scoring...

Way to miss the point Marc...

 

[marc71178]

So what is your point then?

T&T were set up to defend for 90 minutes and make it as hard as possible for the opposition.

In spite of that, both sides certainly looked like scoring.

 

[GIMH]

I think Trinidad have been great. I'm hoping we turn Sweden over, and you lot beat Paraguay, because then you might well go through on goal difference

 

[luckyeddie]

Time to get some proper commentators in for these England games.

"Shaka Hislop kicks the ball downfield and right into the path of Paul Robinson, who collects easily. That's probably Trinidad and Tobago's most accurate shot on goal today."

This is after John Terry saved England from being 1-0 down at the half by a sensational bit of defending. The commentator only deemed it fitting not to be biased heavily toward England after Crouch netted in the 82nd. In his relief he unleashed a barrage of compliments upon the Soc(c)a Warriors.

It's really unfortunate that these people are allowed into the commentary booth at this level of the sport.

You get them everywhere, blinkered jingoistic types.

Play scrabble, breed budgies...

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

So what is your point then?

T&T were set up to defend for 90 minutes and make it as hard as possible for the opposition.

In spite of that, both sides certainly looked like scoring.

The point is that Trinidad and Tobago shouldn't have held teams ranked as highly as Sweden and England scoreless for about 3 hours of World Cup football. They did a sensational job to do so, and to say that the tactics were defensive because the team is not capable of doing anything other than defending is insulting and plain incorrect.

The fact is that the best tactics to compete with teams of the calibre of England and Sweden is to absorb the attack and take advantage of the counterattack. England was not about to be beaten in the midfield. Not with guys like Gerrard and Lampard about.

Worth noting that Trinidad and Tobago came within a couple of inches of scoring against Sweden on Saturday via a counterattack. John Terry also broke up a near thing on a counterattack yesterday. It's a tactical choice, not a technical limitation.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I think Trinidad have been great. I'm hoping we turn Sweden over, and you lot beat Paraguay, because then you might well go through on goal difference

It'll have to be:

1-0 England v Sweden
2-0 T&T v Paraguay

Worth noting that Sweden hasn't lost to England in about 40 years, and that Sven may not start a full strength team either. I'd think he'd want to beat Sweden (for obvious reasons) and top the group though.

Prediction: Russel Latapy to get his first World Cup game time vs Paraguay.

 

[GIMH]

How about we stuff about 6 or 7 past the Swedes for ya so you only need the one

The fact that you were playing us was the only thing preventing me wanting you to advance as we never finish above Sweden. But I'm now sure we will, and I hope to God you lot go through