The Official World Cup 2010 Thread

[Soda Jerk]

Capello is really getting a grilling today. It's not his fault Glen Johnson is shit. He'd looked like he'd improved his defensive game alot, and he offers alot going forward. How was Capello going to know he'd piss it up the wall against a good team? Who knew that a foot injury would make Gareth Barry incapable of passing a ball 5 yards? No one did.

He's a good manager, and if the strict disciplinarian that is Capello and the suited, scowling cheerleder that is D Beck can't motivate the "golden generation", then who can? Nice guy Hodgson? Wheeler Dealer Arry? Good grief no. He needs to pick an entirely new squad from scratch, which I think he'll do based on this campaign. More Joe Hart, Michael Dawson, Adam Johnson, LEE CATTERMOLE and Jack Wilshere. Sorted.

[Woodsinho]

How do you beat this Brazil team? They have no obvious weaknesses, it's scary.

[Oedo 808]

How do you beat this Brazil team? They have no obvious weaknesses, it's scary.

I never watched the match, but I hope Brazil get gubbed. Can't stand them.

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

How do you beat this Brazil team? They have no obvious weaknesses, it's scary.

They are quite incredible, never really broke into a sweat against a good Chile team.

[Guest Gladstone]

They are quite incredible, never really broke into a sweat against a good Chile team.

Can't see past them at the minute, but I predicted they'd win the tournament right from the start, so they'll probably get beat 3-0 by Holland.

[Mr Owl PhD]

I think Argentina or a properly functioning Spain might run Brazil close. Not sure the Netherlands will give them too many problems unless they play a lot better than they have so far. I suppose it's worth remembering previous World Cups (e.g. 1982) when Brazil looked totally unbeatable until they lost. Although I suppose there are also quite a few World Cups when Brazil looked like they'd win it. And did.

[Soda Jerk]

How do you beat this Brazil team? They have no obvious weaknesses, it's scary.

There was talk that they had no width, but you just don't need any wide midfielders when you've got Maicon and whoever it is who plays left back charging up and down the flanks. The work ethic of the full backs is just ridiculous. The two central defensive pair look unflappable, just about every single starting midfielder is capable of scoring from outside the area, and Fabiano has every trait you'd want in a striker. Even the goalie is good. All 3 goalies are good.

Come on Brazil. Win me the sweeper.

I think if anyone could beat them though, it's Holland. Robben and Sneijder, though they do have a bit of weakness at the back. They look to position themselves quite poorly alot of the time, but their midfield is a bit more physical than Brazil's. That game is going to be great. I'll be at work whilst it's on. Twat.

[Chris]

That game is going to be great. I'll be at work whilst it's on. Twat.

Fuck.

Think we can persuade FIFA to swap the games on Friday?

[Soda Jerk]

Having the quarters on Saturday afternoon/evening then Sunday afternoon/evening makes so much more sense. I really can't remember so many of the games being on during the day on a week day the the World Cup before.

[Guest Gladstone]

By a stroke of amazing luck, I am off on Friday. Ace.

The game will probably be a disappointing 1-0 win for Brazil (disappointing as in it won't be 10-9).

[Guest Gladstone]

They really should just kick off at 5pm and 8pm, instead of this 3pm nonsense. What an inconvenient time. Even the 12.30pm kick offs were better because you could catch a half at lunchtime.

[Soda Jerk]

By a stroke of amazing luck, I am off on Friday. Ace.

The game will probably be a disappointing 1-0 win for Brazil (disappointing as in it won't be 10-9).

It might go to penalties! There hasn't even been one shootout yet. What a crock of shit.

[Shaki]

Eboue listening in on North Korea's tactics

YouTube - Eboue listening in

[Guest Gladstone]

Eboue listening in on North Korea's tactics

YouTube - Eboue listening in

That's ace. He's even nodding along in agreement.

As for Brazil - Holland going to penalties. I can't see anything but a Brazil victory in 90 minutes. Holland look good, but so did Chile until they played Brazil. Not as good as Holland. I can't remember Holland creating loads of chances against the teams they've played so far - they drift in from the wings and shoot - that seems to be their tactics, but the Brazil defence will mop that up all day long. Lucio will break Robben in half - twice.

Going forward, Brazil have much more to offer than Holland as well. Fabiano is a complete beast, and despite everyone saying Kaka is out of shape, off form etc. he's still been involved in nearly every goal they've scored when he's on the pitch. Robinho is a livewire and they have the perfect set-up to nullify Sneider's threat with the two sitting midfielders who nobody can get past.

Should be a good game though, but I honestly think it will be another comfortable 3-0 Brazil. If Brazil score first, Holland will have to come at them, and Brazil will just pick them off.

[Soda Jerk]

Trevor Brooking is the latest to bemoan England's methods of educating youngsters in football. It's daft that this argument is only resorted to every time we go out of a competition. Everyone has a good moan, and puts forward their bulletproof plans, then nothing is done about it. Euro 2012 will come along, the ageing Gerrard and Lampard will probably play together badly, we'll get punted out against the likes of a faster, nimble Sweden or Romania, and we'll do it all over again.

My favourite argument so far is: "Kids in South America play football on the streets for hours everyday. Kids in England play Xbox". That's about the half of it. We're all lazy, vile gobshites too. It's incredible hearing English players in interviews, compared to the likes of Xavi, Juan Veron and and Blanco for example. They are all so collected and intelligent. Yet we've got neanderthals like Jamie Carragher who can barely construct sentences, and always resort to "y'know, I'm enjoying me football n' that". Perhaps we're encouraging the wrong sort of culture within football at a young age to begin with.

[Soda Jerk]

Lucio will break Robben in half - twice.

Fuck! Quarters! Like a stick of Kinder Bueno.

[Guest Gladstone]

Trevor Brooking is the latest to bemoan England's methods of educating youngsters in football. It's daft that this argument is only resorted to every time we go out of a competition. Everyone has a good moan, and puts forward their bulletproof plans, then nothing is done about it. Euro 2012 will come along, the ageing Gerrard and Lampard will probably play together badly, we'll get punted out against the likes of a faster, nimble Sweden or Romania, and we'll do it all over again.

My favourite argument so far is: "Kids in South America play football on the streets for hours everyday. Kids in England play Xbox". That's about the half of it. We're all lazy, vile gobshites too. It's incredible hearing English players in interviews, compared to the likes of Xavi, Juan Veron and and Blanco for example. They are all so collected and intelligent. Yet we've got neanderthals like Jamie Carragher who can barely construct sentences, and always resort to "y'know, I'm enjoying me football n' that". Perhaps we're encouraging the wrong sort of culture within football at a young age to begin with.

It's muscle over skill everytime from a young age.

One or two people on here will have heard of Stuart Cumming who has graced teams such as Blackburn Rovers and Montrose...

He was off for a trial at Rangers when he was about 14/15 and I spoke to his Dad about the whole process, and he was criticising the system because Stuart got picked to advance ahead of better more skillful players than him. Stuart was a brilliant football player as a kid - nearly 3 years younger than me, but he was the kind of guy who could have walked into my team and fitted in no problem, and probably been one of the best if not the best player in the team (I was actually quite handy as kid as well - we had a pretty good school team actually, but Stuart would have strolled into it despite being much younger).

But what his Dad was saying was that despite the fact that Stuart was obviously a good player, he shouldn't have advanced ahead of these other boys who were definitely better than him. His Dad was convinced it was all down to the fact that he was big for his age, both in height and strength, and he was pretty quick as well.

Now, if that's good young, skillful players getting rejected by clubs when they're 13/14 on the basis of strength, what hope do we have (I presume England and Scotland are pretty similar when it comes to this sort of thing) of producing any really talented players?

A close to home example is Aberdeen turning down Shaun Maloney for being too short. What the fuck is that about? Before he left Celtic he was brilliant, and I really hope he hits his form again - that's the type of player we need far more of in this country. Technically gifted football players. The problem with a guy like Maloney, or McGeady, or I don't know Sone Aluko even is that about 90% of the players in the Scottish game are big hammering defenders who are set out to just wipe guys like that out. Anyone who's played football will at one point have heard "get your first tackle in hard and early - make him know he's in for a game". I remember once being set the task of winding up an oppenent in the middle of the park in an attempt to get him sent off. We were playing a far superior team, and I was man-marking their captain. Spent the first half just taking him out. Didn't get the reaction I wanted, but he went off injured. How I didn't get booked 8 times I'll never know. His replacement came on and was about a foot taller and 3 feet wider than me, and just ran through me everytime he had the ball. Not sure what the moral of that little story is.

But yeah - we need to bring on the talented players, and concentrate less on just developing "athletes". Kenny Miller would never be a footballer with this philosophy, and that can only be a good thing.

[HateEvent]

I have a tenner on Holland for the tournament.

I don't think they'll win. I just want them to.

The Brazil match will be a good 'un. After the France '98 semis, Holland deserve this one.

[Shaki]

Trevor Brooking is the latest to bemoan England's methods of educating youngsters in football. It's daft that this argument is only resorted to every time we go out of a competition. Everyone has a good moan, and puts forward their bulletproof plans, then nothing is done about it. Euro 2012 will come along, the ageing Gerrard and Lampard will probably play together badly, we'll get punted out against the likes of a faster, nimble Sweden or Romania, and we'll do it all over again.

My favourite argument so far is: "Kids in South America play football on the streets for hours everyday. Kids in England play Xbox". That's about the half of it. We're all lazy, vile gobshites too. It's incredible hearing English players in interviews, compared to the likes of Xavi, Juan Veron and and Blanco for example. They are all so collected and intelligent. Yet we've got neanderthals like Jamie Carragher who can barely construct sentences, and always resort to "y'know, I'm enjoying me football n' that". Perhaps we're encouraging the wrong sort of culture within football at a young age to begin with.

I was discussing this the other day with guys I used to play juvenile football with. We played 11 aside from under 10's to under 18's with moderate local success but none of us could remember ever being trained in tactics or what your specific role was in the team. "Stay goalside of your man" was about as technical as any advice got. We never went out with any different game plan from one week to the next and never changed things around during a game other than like for like substitutions. I imagine this was the case at most juvenile clubs in Britain unless we were just unlucky with our "management" team.

I remember once going to play an international tournament in Blackpool and watching the younger age group of our team lining up against a Dutch team. The two warm ups consisted of this:

Dutch team: Synchronised stretching in a big circle followed by 3 or 4 groups with one man in the middle of each trying to win one ball. They then lined up in their formation and passed a couple of balls this way and that way without having to move out of position.

Scottish team: Entire squad line up on the 18 yard line and blooter multiple balls at the goalkeeper at the same time before standing around talking about who looks the oldest and should therefore be designated to go to Vicki Wine that evening.

If my memory serves me correctly the Dutch team won.

It's that old grass roots argument that is so obviously the problem. Having said that the guys that actually are professionals in our country are most often the ones who were caught early and trained properly by professional or semi-pro clubs. This often means that these were the guys with the best attitude rather than the most skill. It is alleged that Lampard was an average footballer as a schoolboy but did nothing else but practice football in his spare time.

It's the culture, it's the attitude, it's the system, it's the swally. Its also that any time a ball is passed back the way in the SPL the whole stadium screams Get it up the fucking park ye useless cunt!....

[Guest Gladstone]

It's the culture, it's the attitude, it's the system, it's the swally. Its also that any time a ball is passed back the way in the SPL the whole stadium screams Get it up the fucking park ye useless cunt!....

Agree with your entire post.

That last sentence is so true. A few lines I've heard time and time again since I was about 5:

"If in doubt, put it out" - meaning, put your foot through the ball if there is any hint of danger

"Never pass the ball across your own goal" - meaning instead of making a simple pass to your centre half, or opposite full back, put your foot through the ball, just in case.

"Clear your lines" - put your foot through the ball

"You've got to earn the right to play football, before you play football" - kick lumps out of your opponent, clear your lines etc etc before you even think of making a couple of 5 yard passes

Crock of shit. It all leads to individuals being crippled by the fear of making mistakes and the fear of losing. That is exactly what just happened to England. Regardless of formation or tactics, England should be capable of putting a few goals past Algeria and Slovenia, but instead they were all too scared to be caught out of position, or to give the ball away, or do anything remotely adventurous.

[Shaki]

Agree with your entire post.

That last sentence is so true. A few lines I've heard time and time again since I was about 5:

"If in doubt, put it out" - meaning, put your foot through the ball if there is any hint of danger

"Never pass the ball across your own goal" - meaning instead of making a simple pass to your centre half, or opposite full back, put your foot through the ball, just in case.

"Clear your lines" - put your foot through the ball

"You've got to earn the right to play football, before you play football" - kick lumps out of your opponent, clear your lines etc etc before you even think of making a couple of 5 yard passes

.

This is the only solution:

Minister for Football Development in the UK.

[calum]

"If in doubt, put it out" - meaning, put your foot through the ball if there is any hint of danger

"Never pass the ball across your own goal" - meaning instead of making a simple pass to your centre half, or opposite full back, put your foot through the ball, just in case.

"Clear your lines" - put your foot through the ball

"You've got to earn the right to play football, before you play football" - kick lumps out of your opponent, clear your lines etc etc before you even think of making a couple of 5 yard passes.

This is the only solution:

Minister for Football Development in the UK.

Lucio wouldn't look much good if he didn't get to play alongside Samuel and Juan - players who live by the "crock of shit" adages in Gladstone's post.

[Soda Jerk]

Last thing we want is for Lucio's diving to be introduced at grassroots level. Then Steven Gerrard wouldn't have anything to moan about

[Shaki]

Last thing we want is for Lucio's diving to be introduced at grassroots level. Then Steven Gerrard wouldn't have anything to moan about

Forget integrity and fair play. We are being left behind. Everyone else is doing it. Let's stop dragging our heels and get them flying through the air.

"Clear your Lines!" will be replaced by "Roll eight times!"

[Hugh_Jazz]

A few years ago when Neil Simpson started at Pittodrie, he tried to encourage the organisers of kids football to do away with 11-a-sides, and concentrate from a young age on 5 or 6 a-side matches on small pitches, to focus on skills. Good idea I thought.

He was, as expected, met with a resounding "fuck off" by all the the organisers who weren't interested in being told that the training methods they'd used for decades were part of the problem, and not the solution.

Unless everyone from the volunteers who run kids football to the very top of the FA/SFA start subscribing to the notion that the game in the UK is fucked, and something needs to change from the ground up....it will always be fucked.

Holland, Germany, France etc etc have produced top quality homegrown talent for decades. If we're so insular we can't even take on board what works abroad and adopt it at home, we deserve everything we fucking get.