Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP & Post Match Thread [R]

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Not according to Gerrard -- "this is their world cup final."

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

They are still god awful on the world stage. Possibly the worst team in the competition.

By concacaf standards they have improved.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Has the third CONCACAF team ever been decent?

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

England, France, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic and Portugal have gone significantly backwards from what they were at the close of last century.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

The same kind of patented Maple Leafs denialism present in this post is afflicting England. The Maple Leafs prove themselves night after night, year after year, to be third rate at the ultimate point of ice hockey, scoring more goals than the opposition, and rather than facing the stark reality that something is dreadfully wrong, there are endless excuses about why the opposition is more motivated ("checkbook in hand", etc.).

(Everyone wants to play in the "hotbed of hockey"...I hear Rick Nash really wants to be a Maple Leaf, and he's *just about* to sign with there! )

Speaking as a mostly-neutral, were I England, I'd just play the whole second team with maybe a couple of holdovers - one of Lampard/Gerrard and Defoe. Your second 11 have to be able to put together than the joggers and loungers who've been out there so far.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

If Gerrard said that, i'dd ask him why he didnt win this world cup final, if England is soooo great. Funny how all the comments emphasize on how badly England played, how about Algeria played well? I've been reading this forum for a while, and ill tell u what, its funny the scores everyone was coming up with, 4-0, 5-0.....when you have the three center backs : Bougherra, Yahia and Halliche, its not very easy to beat, even if ur rooney.

next time, do your homework before underestimate a team in such a disrespectful manner, like as if the Algerian players play their professional football in Madagascar. Glaskow Rangers, Wolfsburg, Lazio....

and enough with the pressure talk, the Algerian team has as much pressure as england, if not more.

Matmour isnt a striker and he played as our lone forward, Djebbour was left out, Ghezzal suspended and Saifi too old and useless.....

USA, Algeria is coming for you...

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Yeah, sorry, but thats total nonsense. A foreign coach is not the problem. 3 months ago, and the England hype machine built up Don Capello as the greatest coach ever to grace Planet Earth. Two games later, and he's a dunce. The players should be motivated enough, it's the game's largest stage, the tournament everyone grows up dreaming they'll win.
It's not the coach. It's this group of players, they just can't perform well on the international stage. Capello and Sven both have excellent records clubwise really, and the last domestic coach, like the one you're calling for, did pretty well with a midtable side and just won the Dutch championship with a unfancied side. Of course, he was made out to be a inbred moron the last time England choked. What other domestic coaches are there, anyway? Moyes and O'Neill aren't even English, you'd be picking between Fat Sam and 'Arry. LOL.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Saifi is useless like Temoc Blanco is useless: he won't run, he won't hustle, he won't send a cannon to the corner from 35 yards away.

But he will step on the ball and find the hole. You're underestimating him. One intelligent pass can be worth several fast dibblings that end in nothing.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Exactly my thoughts... a couple of months back I was warning all these English fans here and all they said back was "Oh no we are England we are going to win 4-0 if not more, Algeria doesn't stand a chance" I was loling...

Anyways, as an Italian, I can relate to the Algerian game style but lately they were very impressive. I can't believe how fast Algerian football evolved from 2006-2010! I will be cheering this Algerian team just because they play entertaining football, unlike the English and Yanks. Oh boy that move Yebda did on Carragher (57') was pure class. I predict a 1-0 victory for Algeria against the USA. Best of luck.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

^^^^^
I hear Algeria has some of the most promising football talent these days as well. I was watching Wenger saying that the Algerians have really done a good job of developing youth football over the last couple years.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

I remember Honduras being in WC 2002, when Slovenia was there for the first time ...

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

nope Costa Rica were there - Honduras almost made it but blew it at home to TnT....

 

Not surprised at all by the score. As usual, England is overrated and overhyped by a lot of people. Just because the EPL is the most-popular and best-marketed league in the world doesn't mean the England team can easily beat the so-called weaker teams.

It seems to me Gerrard can't handle the pressure of the World Cup. 4 years ago he cried like a baby after missing the PK against Portugal. Yesterday against Algeria, you could see from his facial expressions before the match that he was very tense, just not comfortable and relaxed at all, and sure enough his performance during the match was crap.

It's obvious that Gerrard and Lampard cannot co-exist together in a 4-4-2. Very surprised this problem has existed for such a long time and hasn't been fixed by Ericksson, McCarthy, nor Cappello. The solution should be either take Gerrard or Lampard out of the 442, or use 433 and let Barry be the holding MF, Gerrard and Lampard be the other two MFs in front of Barry, and use Joe Cole on the left wing, Lennon on the right, and Rooney as the lone striker (as he's so used to do in Man U).

And what about Crouch? He has been quite often used and was proved effective in the warm up matches, even scoring good goals. Why is he now behind Dafoe in pecking order in South Africa? Why did Cappello choose to use the out-of-form Heskey instead? To me, Crouch is way more effective than either Heskey or Dafoe, if playing with Rooney up front in a 442.

And Carragher over Dawson? That's another mystery to me. Carragher can't even seem to last 90 minutes, and his lack of pace is very vulnerable to fast attackers.

Anyhow, like I said England is overrated. The team is under a huge mountain of pressure now that it's do or die against Slovenia. Good luck to them but I don't see them win against Slovenia.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

I stand corrected. I don't know why I was so sure about it ... I was 14 at the time, though, collecting those stickers .

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

england were dreadful, but algeria were utter rubbish too.
algeria absolutely NEEDED to try and win, they were up against an england side playing as badly as they probably ever will and yet....algeria just seemed content not to lose. what was the point of that? 6 shots in total and one single solitary shot on target for a team verging on world cup exit?
if anyone thinks algeria were the reason england were abyssmal they probably need to look a bit closer.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

In 2002 Costa Rica lost a tiebreaker and failed to become the third CONCACAF team to get out of the group stage that year. The team that beat them on the tiebreaker? Eventual 3rd placed team Turkey. The other team from the group to advance? Eventual champions Brazil.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

if any consolation, what England accomplished yesterday was about two notches above than the French. At least England sembled some form of a team that wanted to actually want to push the ball up and create chances. Les Bleus... F Les Bleus.. I am still reeling from that pathetic display

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

In the 2006 World Cup:

CONCACAF advanced 1 of 4 teams past the group stage.

AFC advanced 0 of 4 teams.

CAF advanced 1 of 5 teams.


In the 2002 World Cup:

CONCACAF advanced 2 of 3 teams past the group stage (and the third only lost out due to goal difference in a group that contained the winners of the tournament and the third placed team.)

AFC advanced 2 of 4 teams.

CAF advanced 1 of 5 teams.

In the 1998 World Cup:

CONCACAF advanced 1 of 3.

AFC advanced 0 of 4.

CAF advanced 1 of 5.

In the 1994 World Cup:

CONCACAF advanced 2 of 2.

AFC advanced 1 of 2.

CAF advanced 1 of 3.

In the 1990 World Cup:

CONCACAF advanced 1 of 2.

AFC advanced 0 of 2.

CAF advanced 1 of 2.

Last Five World Cup Totals:

CONCACAF advanced 7 of 14.

AFC advanced 3 of 16.

CAF advanced 5 of 20.

Since 1990 CONCACAF has advanced the most teams outside of the "Big Two" confederations despite having the fewest number of berths allocated.

CONCACAF has never failed to advance a team in that time period, whilst Asia has three times failed to advance a single team.

Africa has NEVER IN ANY WORLD CUP advanced more than one team out of the group stage. CONCACAF has done it two out of the last four times.

 

I admit that rules of how many places each part of the world gets are a bit funny, and they might make some rules like they stand for clubs in the CL.

However, I do believe CONCACAF is a bit special, because it has 2 big teams (USA and Mexico), and a bunch of small countries, which occasionally have decent teams, while Asia and Africa have many more countries.

2 countries advancing from this section is not so surprising then, it's more surprising that Asia and Africa with all that population and popularity of football don't perform better.

Africa just might get 2 in the next roung this year though, and Asian countries are doing extremely well, Japan winning one and losing to Netherlands 1:0, N. Korea barely losing to Brazil and S. Korea also winning one.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

Algeria was awful in what was a very open final third, but they played the ball out of defense and in midfield very well. I realize they took out strikers to play all midfielders but they should have adapted later on in the match when it was clear they were never going to create a chance.

 

Re: Match 23: England vs Algeria, June 18 PBP Thread [R]

It's ok, France shouldn't be there anyway, it's only fitting if they don't make it out of their group.