England!!!

[G 0]

Nothing Norwich related to talk bout so England. 1-0

[I am a Banana 0]

Get in, although i like Holland more [:D]

 

Aaron Lennon - brilliant!

[G 0]

Holland? Are you Dutch? I am only supporting Holland because my uncle is Scottish and whenever England or Norwich lose he rips the mick out of me

[ncfc4life 0]

Come on england lets give these lot a good hiding. Only need a draw now to qualify.

Keeping an eye out on the northern ireland score aswell as be good if they qualified aswell.

[Excited Canary 19]

I am the only one who wants Scotland to qualify (Who is English)?

[Downloads 35]

One of the best starts i''ve seen in ages for Egland - Against good opposition too.

[G 0]

N Ireland are losing. I would have wanted Scotland to qualify if my uncle wasn''t an arse when England and Norwich lose.

[G 0]

CMON GERRARD

[I am a Banana 0]

GERRRRARDDD

finally a quality player scored!

[John 0]

Gerrard and Lampard both scored, and both have played very impressively. Who''d of seen that happening last year?Lennon, Heskey and Johnson are working superbly together down the right hand side, as is Rooney with Gerrard, and Barry with Lampard.Loving the work rate from Heskey as well, but he''s not making up for the oppertunities he''s missing unfortunately.We should be out of sight now.

[G 0]

GOAL!!!!! CMON surely home and dry

[Herman 11,136]

Good goal Lampost[Y]

[Houston Canary 0]

Rooney is a dangerous player for England.  Too many stupid tempermental fouls.  England up 3-0 now, is that what the previous comment means?

US play Trinidad and Tobago there tonight and could qualify for our 6th or 7th World Cup in a row depending on what happens with the Mex-Honduras match and Costa Rica who were leading but dropped to 4th after getting hammered at home by Mex on Saturday..

I''m happy to see Scotland in it if they can, and N Ireland would be great since Worthington is their manager last I heard.

[G 0]

4-0 Gerrard. 3 headers tonight?

[John 0]

[quote user="John"]Gerrard and Lampard both scored, and both have played very impressively. Who''d of seen that happening last year?Lennon, Heskey and Johnson are working superbly together down the right hand side, as is Rooney with Gerrard, and Barry with Lampard.Loving the work rate from Heskey as well, but he''s not making up for the oppertunities he''s missing unfortunately.We should be out of sight now.[/quote]Forget that, who would of seen this!

[Herman 11,136]

[quote user="Houston Canary"]

Rooney is a dangerous player for England.  Too many stupid tempermental fouls.  England up 3-0 now, is that what the previous comment means?

US play Trinidad and Tobago there tonight and could qualify for our 6th or 7th World Cup in a row depending on what happens with the Mex-Honduras match and Costa Rica who were leading but dropped to 4th after getting hammered at home by Mex on Saturday..

I''m happy to see Scotland in it if they can, and N Ireland would be great since Worthington is their manager last I heard.

[/quote]

Good luck,see you out there[Y] Scots and N.Irish both lost,so the Scots aren''t going.Not sure yet about Worthys boys!

[Houston Canary 0]

Hah, I wish I could be at the game in T & T, Herman. I''ll be watching both games on TV.  Gives me something to talk about with my latino students tomorrow.

[Brendo 0]

[quote user="Norwich"]I am the only one who wants Scotland to qualify (Who is English)?[/quote]

I assume you meant "Am I" anyway. Yes [:P] I wouldnt mind Scotland, but they seem to despise, so why would I like them?

 

[I am a Banana 0]

5-1 in the world cup finals 2010!!

england holland my dream final!

[Excited Canary 19]

Yeah I did Brendan! Anyway there distant ''dream'' is over know ain''t it?

[John 0]

5-1 To England. Great win.They''ll face tougher opposition though. But as far as football is concerned, if you ever manage to put in a performance of that standard against ''anyone'', you''re going to win, and comfortably.Capello, and the players have every right to feel proud of themselves tonight.... And i also think Robert Green is Englands no.1 without question. It''d be plain stupid and foolish not to bring him to the World Cup in South Africa. And it would be cruel to blame him for the goal from Croatia tonight.First shot prior to the goal was well saved by Robert, pushing it to the side creating a tight angle. Second shot wouldn''t of been caught by the best keeper in the world (despite what the commentator said... As harsh to Green as ever clearly [8-)]). No keeper should of expected that ball to come back at him after his first save, with the amount of white shirts around him. And then to get in such a decent position as well despite only seeing the ball in the last half a second due to the tree''s standing around him blocking his sight, was commendable. The third shot that followed simply wouldn''t of been saved by any keeper in the world. And if the media have one bad word to say of Green because of that (or even for the whole night) i think it''s time they had a long hard look at themselves in the mirror personally.Green is most certainly Englands number one.

[John 0]

[quote user="Norwich"]I am the only one who wants Scotland to qualify (Who is English)?[/quote]I would....But because they hate us so much, i couldn''t care less to be honest.

[First Wazzock 1,012]

Full marks to Capello, he has got the team playing brilliantly.

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

[quote user="1st Wazzock"]Full marks to Capello, he has got the team playing brilliantly.[/quote]

Yes indeed.

He has got significant options on the bench as well enabling him to change tactics without a significant reduction in average player quality. 

OTBC

 

[Fromage Frais 14]

You get what you pay for.I love capello he always looks like he means business.

[Shack Attack 0]

A very good performance against a disjointed looking Croatia side. Hard to believe they beat us twice in qualifying for Euro 2008 and many people were tipping them as dark horses to win the tournament itself.

Capello seems to have solved the Gerrard/Lampard problem by simply telling Lampard to play in a deeper role. Who would have thought it could be that simple [;)]. McClaren and Erikkson seemed to pander to much to egos of the pair of them and you could never imagine them telling them to curtail their attacking instincts. Capello has no such problems and Lampard seems to be doing as he''s told and only breaking forward when there is ample cover.

The right side still worries me a little. Johnson and Lennon linked up well going forward but Johnson is prone to too many lapses defensively (Slovenia''s goal on Saturday being a case in point). Wes Brown is a better defender but doen''t offer the same threat going forward and you wonder if he may be needed were we to be drawn against stronger teams in the finals. I think Walcott is a better option than Lennon as well although the latters delivery has improved dramatically from when he first got in the squad.

A lot of people are slating Heskey and I suppose now we''ve qualified Capello can maybe try a Defoe/Rooney partnership in the remaining games. Personally I think Heskey is doing a great job and although he''s not scoring if your teams winning 5-1 it''s not really such a problem. The work he gets through and the way he drags defenders about is leaving huge gaps for Gerrard and Rooney to exploit and I just don''t think Defoe will do the same.

The one concern is that for as long as I can remember England seem to knocked out of major tournaments by the first side they come across who are capable of keeping possesion well. The friendly results against France and Spain when Capello was in charge would suggest that this may still be a problem. Can Fabio teach us to take the sting out of games by keeping the ball once we go into the lead or will a lifetime of being coached to play a high-tempo, physical game mean we lack the footballing intelligence? I honestly think this is the best chance we''ve had in years (and I swore I''d never buy into the hype of the England team again after the 2002 World Cup [:(]) but this one problem will be the difference between getting knocked out in the QFs again or going on to the SFs and possibly further.

[B-ru 0]

I never knew Theoklitos was Croatian!! [;)]

[Beauseant 0]

I find it amazing that problems that appeared insuperable under previous managers ( successfully playing Gerrard and Lampard in the same midfield, the lack of a genuine left sided midfield player etc) have been resolved without any fuss by Capello. This is the first time in many years that we''ve had a side with such a common focus and an acceptance that the collective is more important than the individual (since Venables, I would suggest) and the manager deserves huge credit for that.

With 8 months to go I''m sure that he will be working hard to eliminate the problem areas that Shack correctly outlined above, but his biggest problem will be dampening down the hype. As usual the media''s "feast or famine" fixation has kicked in and we are being presented as likely winners. Despite Capello''s best efforts to play things down he''s going to have his work cut out as the redtops rack up the pressure of expectation while sharpening the knives for failure.It seems to be a peculiarly English disease (well, maybe British, given Ally''s Tartan Army in Argentina!) but it does little for our international popularity, nor does it help our players.

Oh, and best of luck to the ladies tonight!

[Romantic 0]

Good post Beauseant. I was about to post similarly. Our Achillies'' heel of late has been man management in my opinion. The wally in the brolly couldn''t say no to anyone and so we got pulled out of shape. Here come that annoying English hype though! I totally understand why the Scots et al get exasperated by our banner waving. We''ve won nothing yet!

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

Great stuff, with England qualifying for the World Cup with so much to spare. I for one am looking forward to next year''s Finals, but I''m not going to get too carried away with what England might achieve out in South Africa. There are a few very strong teams to overcome before the final game, and then I feel you need some luck as well as a lot of ability to lift the Jules Rimet trophy. Having said that, I would be very disappointed if we don''t reach the quarter finals, because I feel the present England squad is well capable of that. Come on, England!