The re-birth of the England team

[OIL]

The match against Croatia opened the world's eyes as to how dominating England can be, without 2 key players (Gerrard, Beckham).

Croatia wern't poor, we were just amazing. Gave them no time on the ball, inch perfect passing and deadly finishing. (The 4 goals proves that)

Now with Capello finally getting his instructions across to the team, is England finally starting to realise their potential?

Finally players like Walcott, Rooney, Heskey, Brown, Cole, Barry, Lampard ect ect are FINALLY playing as well as they do at club level, at international level. Every player played their part in that HUGE victory (even Lampard), and I was really impressed. Finally we're playing as a team and not 11 induviduals.

So, will England finally win the big one? Will England make it all the way to the WC and prehaps win it?

In my opinion, yes. If we can play how we did against Croatia then we could have been playing Brazil, Argentina, Italy or France (The other big countries) and we would have done exactly the same. It dosen't matter if you're Ronaldinho or Modric, if you don't have time on the ball at all then you're not going to do anything with it. If we play as well as we did then there is no stopping us.

Your thoughts?

 

[HBK-aholic]

I think it's too early to say definitely yes, they'll be in the final. But that was the best football I've seen from England in quite a while. It seems they're finally on track with everything, and have a lot of potential to go far in this. 2 years is a long time. If they can use those 2 years to improve, it's going to take a great team to stop them.

 

[a0161613]

That performance was not only the best in 7 years since Munich, it was easily better than that, matching the awesomeness that was Shearer, Sheringham and Gazza during Euro 96. Especially the last 60 mins.

I thought Lampard played well, but it took Rooney and Walcott to find space and time for him to really start dominating the game. I feel that while it is good news for the team that we were missing Gerrard and Owen and could still put in such a performance, I feel Gerrard should be alongside Barry in the first choice England midfield.

While Gerrard will be back, Owen I am just not so sure about. Heskey and Rooney showed signs of a partnership. With Crouch and Owen almost certain to come back, as well as others, I am very excited about the next two years. It will take an awesome team to beat us if we can play like that.

Spain are favourites for the World Cup though. Villa and Torres are the best two strikers in the world.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Pretty quick re-birth. I remmeber just a few days before, a little match with a nation most of us have only heard of through football. Andorra, where is it anyway? England won, but it was hardly a convincing victory. They then go and beat Croatia. Big deal. They should beat them anyway with the players they have. People talk about how certain players just don't work well together. If that's the case then they're not as good as people say they are.

Good performance by England. Poor performance by Croatia. On any other day England wouldn't have done half as well. Come the next Croatia match, when they're playing better, everyone will see that.

 

[The Snake]

England winning a major tournament just won't happen, this is the last major side I think we have - We are so far behind in youth development, the likes of Holland, Spain, Italy, Germany and even some up and coming nations (Russia and Croatia are 2 of them) are all very good at all levels, England don't have a good few world class players coming through (M. Richards and Theo Walcott are the 2 who I would tip to go to the top).

Players like Ferdinand, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard, Owen, Rooney, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole and Beckham are all world class players not capable of playing in a system that suits a team, they can't handle not being the central figures to a team, and their clubs always come first - something we can also accuse the fan (inc. myself) of.

Capello wants us to play the Italian way, but the Italians are so unique (i'm a part Italy fan) in that they know how to play for the 1-0 or even the 0-0, almost every other major side sees the importance of the 2nd goal - and England players will always do that, which means we attack and leave ourselves open at the back.

Of course we will get to the World Cup, but we've only beaten Croatia, the same Croatia that were knocked out of the Euro's by Turkey - Would beating Turkey be seen as a resurgance of the England side - I think not, it's just our bitterness to the Croats that has deluded a nation once again, when we come up against Portugal in the Quarters, thats when we prove how much we want it.