World Cup Discussion Thread

[SlightlyJames]

Sounds like I missed an interesting England game while I was out at my concert, eh? When do they play next? And as a noob: does Rooney have a history of not showing up in big games?

He has more Red Cards than Goals in the World Cup.

[Kyle]

Sounds like I missed an interesting England game while I was out at my concert, eh? When do they play next? And as a noob: does Rooney have a history of not showing up in big games?

He has more Red Cards than Goals in the World Cup.

So that would be a "yes" Tim.

[Twister]

Rooney is an overrated turd and needs to be dropped.

[Viazon]

Wayne Rooney gets paid £300,000 grand a week. One of the highest paid players in the world. He should have no problem scoring in the World Cup. But he never does. All other top strikers have no trouble scoring. Neymar. Van Persie. Balotelli. Even Sturridge. They should continue with Sturridge up front and play someone else on the left. But no matter what Rooney does, he never gets dropped.

[PorkChop]

I heard there weren't enough pensioners in Manaus to keep him satisfied, so he ended up having a bad game.

[SlightlyJames]

They should have played him at left back in England.

[AkydefGoldberg]

A good England performance but defence a worry with their second goal conceded. Teams will target the full-backs (Johnson because he's not great defensively; Baines because he might not get enough help from the left sided player). Pirlo was amazing to watch, that free-kick at the end.

Henry was right, he probably did aim for the bar to waste time! Rooney got the assist, but tbf his second half chance should have been target but he was trying to open up his body to go to the GK's left but with the defenders converging on him, went for the GK's right. IMO, Sturridge is a player who deserves the number nine slot ahead of Rooney so with Rooney not playing on the left, I'd have Barkley. I think Rooney's only hope for a striker's slot is if Strurridge is unable to play on Thursday and if he does, to score for a chance to grab that position.

Also, Phil Neville's getting hammered for his commentary. Poor lad, not having a good season is he lol. No chance he'll do do the Garygasm like his brother did.

[Everlong]

So why do they continue to play Rooney if he sucks so much in the big games? Is it because of his pay grade?

[Enygma]

So why do they continue to play Rooney if he sucks so much in the big games? Is it because of his pay grade?

Because of his club record. And the media ride his dick by saying the fate of the nation is on his shoulders.

[AkydefGoldberg]

So why do they continue to play Rooney if he sucks so much in the big games? Is it because of his pay grade?

Not so much his pay grade but expectations. His first tournament in Euro 2004 was exceptional and everyone thought he'd go on to be a world-class player, delivering consistency regularly. His international career I'm mainly talking about but can be attributed to his club form as well.

He is one of England's top goal scorers, yet he hasn't been able to produce at a World Cup. People would probably rather he delivered in the latter than accruing a huge amount of goals in qualifiers against teams who are ranked poorly.

I think in a way, England managers are afraid to drop Rooney incase they get it in the neck if England do poorly. But now that there are younger, fresher alternatives Hodgson wouldn't get criticised, he'd get praised.

[PorkChop]

[SlightlyJames]

Idiot commentator in this Switzerland/Ecuador game just said the Ecuador team is so good that Jackson Martinez couldn't even get in. Might have more to do with the fact that he's Colombian mate.

[PorkChop]

Idiot commentator in this Switzerland/Ecuador game just said the Ecuador team is so good that Jackson Martinez couldn't even get in. Might have more to do with the fact that he's Colombian mate.

It's ITV. Enough said.

[prophet]

Hardly groundbreaking analysis here but I thought England played really well last night and probably did enough to justify a draw. We controlled the game for most of the second half and had a few chances to equalize but it never came so overall I'm not too downbeat about it - the performance was there, the result wasn't. If we play like we did last night in the next two games we'll win both and get out of the group. As for Rooney I actually feel he's being turned into a scapegoat these days, he'll come good if he's allowed to play up top in his natural position.

I don't know about you guys but I fucking love it when England play, the atmosphere where I was last night was immense.

Idiot commentator in this Switzerland/Ecuador game just said the Ecuador team is so good that Jackson Martinez couldn't even get in. Might have more to do with the fact that he's Colombian mate.

It's ITV. Enough said.

It's also Clarke Carlisle. Enough said.

Also did anyone else go fucking mental when Sterling hit the side-netting after 3 minutes? I wasted a perfectly good pint celebrating thinking he'd just bagged an absolute worldie!

[AkydefGoldberg]

^Haha yes, I think pretty much everyone thought it was a goal! I thought it was baffling how Sterling was so non-plussed about having scored a beauty in the first five minutes!

[PorkChop]

Hardly groundbreaking analysis here but I thought England played really well last night and probably did enough to justify a draw. We controlled the game for most of the second half and had a few chances to equalize but it never came so overall I'm not too downbeat about it - the performance was there, the result wasn't. If we play like we did last night in the next two games we'll win both and get out of the group. As for Rooney I actually feel he's being turned into a scapegoat these days, he'll come good if he's allowed to play up top in his natural position.

I don't know about you guys but I fucking love it when England play, the atmosphere where I was last night was immense.

Also did anyone else go fucking mental when Sterling hit the side-netting after 3 minutes? I wasted a perfectly good pint celebrating thinking he'd just bagged an absolute worldie!

Rooney may take the brunt of criticism for England, but you can't deny he was poor last night though.

https://vine.co/v/MIquQEHump2

https://vine.co/v/MIAYQZpA7Lx

[Viazon]

Turns out there was a bit of trouble in my town last night. There are reports of English fans burning the Italian flag in my town center.

There's really no need for that. It's a shame really. There are so many people in my town, Italians and English, who try to keep to peace and respect each other during a tournament like this and especially when they play each other. But there there are idiots like this who just ruin it for everyone else. It gives English fans a bad name, when not all people are like that. Then it gives the Italians a reason to despise the English even more and act harshly towards them, which then gives the English more reason to act out towards them. Its a never ending cycle.

The Italians are entirely innocent during times like these. Some of them can be right arrogant little twats and rub up the English the wrong way because they know it winds them up. But one thing they have never done is burn the English flag.

[Everlong]

Lawdy lawd Germany is absolutely taking it to Portugal right now.

[AkydefGoldberg]

^Pepe combusts and gets sent off. Muller made the most of it (the slap in the face) but deserved red. I didn't see the full game but great start for Germany. Muller up front seems to have worked a treat over the aging but experienced Klose.

Argentina-Bosnia was a game worth staying up for. Latter really showed no nerves and tbh, for 60 minutes deserved something from the game. But they waned in the last half hour and Messi and co upped the pace and got the second. Well taken by the little maestro. Even when Bosnia scored, never really looked like equalising. But Bosnia, if they can beat Iran/Nigeria could get through and it'd be an amazing achievement - willing them on after seeing them last night.

Also, BBC and ITV's pundits (namely Juninho/Fabio Cannavaro) are getting stick for lack of decent English. Latter is woeful tbh, didn't listen to much of Juninho last night coupled with boring Phil Neville and Jonathan Pearce going nuts, been an entertaining WC in the broadcasting department aswell.

[GNR]

I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN