You championed Spain pretty much from day one.. . Well they are out now n yes they may have dominated world football over several years their reign is over

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

Errrrrrr I championed Germany not Spain

Originally Posted by: Medlock Vale Weather 

Yes any team except South American ones.

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

Yes any team except Spain If England lose tonight I won't be bothered, it wasn't expected we would venture far into this tournament anyway!

Originally Posted by: Medlock Vale Weather 

It was always going to be tough to get thru the group and Costa Rica look to be half decent so even a win tonight leads to another tough game. I enjoyed the positive attacking play of England against Italy and we were unfortunate. I really hope we scrape through as the next round possible opponents don't look the toughest

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

Yes we didn't play too badly, Italy made 93.2% successful passes as seen below which is the highest in a WC since 1966! That in it self might of made life difficult for us to get the ball half the time. If they weren't so good at keeping the ball it might of been a different score line.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2658288/Italy-prove-pass-masters-Azzurri-rack-highest-accuracy-recorded-World-Cup-game-1966.html

well i think this tournament is becoming more open than many were predicting. i think itis worth a tenner on england to win 

You championed Spain pretty much from day one.. . Well they are out now n yes they may have dominated world football over several years their reign is over

Originally Posted by: Medlock Vale Weather 

Errrrrrr I championed Germany not Spain

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

Yes any team except South American ones.

Originally Posted by: Medlock Vale Weather 

Yes any team except Spain If England lose tonight I won't be bothered, it wasn't expected we would venture far into this tournament anyway!

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

It was always going to be tough to get thru the group and Costa Rica look to be half decent so even a win tonight leads to another tough game. I enjoyed the positive attacking play of England against Italy and we were unfortunate. I really hope we scrape through as the next round possible opponents don't look the toughest

Originally Posted by: Medlock Vale Weather 

Yes we didn't play too badly, Italy made 93.2% successful passes as seen below which is the highest in a WC since 1966! That in it self might of made life difficult for us to get the ball half the time. If they weren't so good at keeping the ball it might of been a different score line.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2658288/Italy-prove-pass-masters-Azzurri-rack-highest-accuracy-recorded-World-Cup-game-1966.html

 

Originally Posted by: future_is_orange 

I was surprised by Italy, they were much better than I'd thought.

Yes me too. Astonishing statistics for the Italians (and to think we were second in the best passing stats only to Italy!). That arguably puts the Italy versus England game as the closest in terms of strategy and quality of play.

Early morning here...4:38am. The geounblocker is go and ITV on.

Coffee made and all ready to go....shame I have an important meeting at work this morning, o well, my contribution will be limited.

C'mon England 

Midday here, calendar blocked out so no meetings could be arranged, 4.3inch mobile screen just enough. Come on Engerland!

Plenty of fouls by the Uruguayans. Spanish ref doing OK so far.

England need to wake the **** up here, giving the ball away everytime!

Uruguay look dangerous.

Quite.  Uruguay look to be settling a bit. Mind the couple of times we have gotten forward we look dangerous.  Uruguay back 4 are cynical. Should have been a second yellow for the blatent bringing down of Sturridge.

Spoke too soon about the ref, mistakes in his calls starting to come through.

So when did England forget how to take corner kicks. This is the second game where they have been absolutely cack.

Uruguay to park the bus second half, bny hook or crook, and they'll do it in as cynical a way they can if need be.

Baines has been poor. Caught on the ball too many times. England have gone back into their normal shell.

Funnily enough, the one player who's playing quite well is Johnson.

Is Henderson on the pitch?

Have to agree with Matty. Gets the ball, and just walks with it.  We need to get the corner set pieces sorted and also distribute play through the centre as well as the wings/channels so the uruguayans are not just defending attacks coming from one predictable place (i.e. wings).

Amazingly I agree with Glen Hoddle on ITV (first time for everything) that Rooney still isn't doing his job properly in open play,

Uruguay are well organised and they're outnumbering us in midfield, but have created little. The difference is they take their chances we don't.

I'd take Henderson off bring Barclay on, early in the second half. Let's give the uruguayans something to worry about.

Getting back to Baines he's like a rabbit in front of the headlights. 

Rooney has largely been annonymous.

Disagree there, he has been in the game and unlucky not to score from a couple of set peices, but his positioning in open play is still not right

Rooney has played better, but still not justifying his place.  He has 45 minutes to show what he can do but I fear the pressure is too much for him.

As for England, we are also attacking too slowly allowing the opposition defence to track back in numbers.  We need to open them up with pace of attack like Costa Rica did.