Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Okada, being a tactical genius, has planned it so that they will be in peak condition just in time for the Semifinals.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] It was with a Korean friend.... Can't exactly bet against can I? Thinking back I should have just gave him the money right then.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] I think they got away with a lot more physical bs than they'd get away with in -- say -- Champions League. I don't know that I'd call it "EPL rules" -- because they were definitely fouls for which the ref decided, for whatever reason, he wasn't going to call or card but just let the game continue.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Aww, look not really your fault seeing that Japan used to be predictable and a bit easier to bet on.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] He may have been. But that is because the game was not overly dirty. The challenges where tough, but not malicious. There where challenges from both sides that could have been carded. Maybe more challenges from the English than the Japanese, but thats because the Japanese dont play the game as hard as the English in general. Walcott got his ankle clobbered on a couple of occasions as he went down the wing. Challenges where not dirty, just a little late since Walcott can really shift given a little space. Anyway. The Japanese played much better than they did against the Koreans, which should help with confidence. Some nice one-touch passing, one round of which saw the Japanese score a well-taken goal. From an English point of view, the fact that some of the players where (barely) running around half-arsed, makes Capello's life much easier in cutting some of the squad today!
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] A number of "challenges", as you say, from Rooney in particular struck me as crossing a line. There was more than one time he ran out of nowhere just to slide tackle one or two players who had, apparently, displeased his royal highness and in which he was nowhere near the ball.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] That's Rooney man. Im not condoning it, but many of the sport's geniuses have nasty streaks, look at Zidane. I'm just happy he has calmed down a bit compared to a couple of years back.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Hey look I'm just pleased that we came out with no injuries, at this point in time I don't really care what Rooney did just pleased the defence kept england's forwards goalless. in at 10 pm AEST, Denmark are playing Australia in south africa. Will be interesting to watch. See how Denmark are without Kjaer and Sorensen.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Denmark looks pretty flat out there, they have had some decent opportunities, but they don't look like they want to win this match. Denmark's keeper doesn't look that great either, we should take lots of shots I'm thinking.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] It's a friendly, and maybe they want to mind-fcuk people? but then again they have a few injured people on their squad.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] I know there are injuries, but still, I don't think anyone is going to play this half-assed in a friendly right before the world cup, I think that Denmark has fitness issues similar to Japan's, they have really slowed down here, and haven't looked to adventurous in trying to go for an equalizer in the last 20 minutes.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] LOL half-arsed, then it'll be an interesting game against Japan and Denmark. I reckon that game will be their hardest. While, Japan should aim to beat Cameroon, the Denmark game will be tight. We have no hope against the Netherlands.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] The likely scenario is win or tie vs Cameroon, lose not too bad vs Holland and then play your chances vs Denmark. If we lose to Cameroon, of course there is no scenario.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Wow, Walcott stays at home. Capello must think that Nagatomo did a too good job... Nagatomo said that Walcott was the fastest player he played against yet. But anyway, was not Uchida shadowing Robben against NL?
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Ok, I don't want to read too much in it, but I think we probably have the games in the best order of the group (assuming NL don't really care who comes first or last): Cameroon is in turmoil, no pressure against NL and finally Denmark who may be under pressure to beat us.
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] But if we fail against Cameroon, or simply tie, we're gonna be 0 or only 1 after two games and there will be a lot of pressure vs the danes. Danemark -> Cameroon -> Netherlands would have been the best IMO. But we had this type of draw 4 years ago and did nothing with it so ...
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Ultimately, the game against Cameroon is crucial. Beat Cameroon and Japan have a shot. Lose to Cameroon, and will need to go for wins against the Danes and the Dutch. Beating the Dutch will be a hugely difficult prospect!
Re: (05.30.10) Friendly: England vs. Japan [R] Psh ... Japan have been mind-fcuking people for the last half a year or so now .... I would have had Cameroon 1st but given the injuries Denmark has had hmmm ... and that last statement oh so true ... but then again in Euro 08 I believe the Dutch advanced with 1 group game to spare then rested key players for the final game though they still won Statistics back the absolute importance of the Cameroon game. This was posted somewhere before which shows how teams perform after their 1st game result. '98, '02 & '06 Result------Teams Advanced Percent Win----------36--------31-----------86.1% Draw----------24--------14------------58.3% Loss----------36--------3--------------8.3%