(20 Jun 2014, 6:09 pm)AdamY wrote As I said, normally, I always root for the underdog to win.

I really want Uruguay beat Italy now!

Yeah, I like a good Underdog story and Costa Rica is the best underdog tale of this tournament.

Beginning of the tournament Costa Rica came with nothing to lose and went to pull off 2 of the biggest shocks beating the current South American Champions and European Champions.

I wish them all the best in the tournament and it would be a neutral fans wet dream for them to win the tournament.

So the inquest and fallout starts, where do we go from here, the FA have said Woy will wemain until Euro 2016, that sounds like a Vote Of Confidence which is never good for any manager and means they are on borrowed time...

Let say Woy gets sacked, who will replace him, 'Arry Redknapp, Steve Bruce, Alan Pardew, that would be a No, No and No from me or do we go foreign again.

As for the team, I am starting to think the National Team should look for Stevie G's replacement and give Charles Hart the Captaincy.

We have some good youngsters in the squad who have not peaked yet, so focus on that, try and develop the likes of Jack Wilshere, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw.

I am gutted to be honest, but to be fair there wasn't any high expectations for the tournament

Why do i have a feeling we will leave with 0 points..

Costa Rica has surprised me, like AdamY said.. i always go for the underdogs

(20 Jun 2014, 6:11 pm)AdamY wrote Germany are my second international team after Scotland.

The Germans and Jocks, 2 teams I absolutely love to hate Northern Ireland is one of my other teams whose results I look out for

France are on the rampage...5-0 up against the Swiss

(20 Jun 2014, 8:31 pm)marxistafozzski wrote France are on the rampage...5-0 up against the Swiss

If it stays that way, 15 points for me

The commentator just said "you know your in trouble when the box at the bottom of the screen has to scroll to show all the scorers" it's like the Grandstand/Soccer Saturday vidiprinter, you know your in trouble when not only the score is shown in number form, but also spelt out in capital letters in a bracket [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

(20 Jun 2014, 8:33 pm)Tom wrote If it stays that way, 15 points for me

Should have kept my mouth shut.

Hahaha

Not a bad result from a neutral pov...5-2 France with Benzema being denied in the last seconds

Right... Have thought long and hard about this, so...

England were poor at the World Cup.
I predicted we weren't going to get out of the groups and we didn't.

Whatever is said about the performance against Italy and Uruguay, England weren't good enough.

We have qualified using the older, more experienced players - yet when it came to the crunch, Hodgson decided to go with a blend of youth and experience.
Granted, that was probably a good thing, but why not start with the youngsters in qualifying?
At least they would have had a tad more experience going into a major tournament.

The next point is about the Premier League and the amount of foreigners playing in it.
I read somewhere, approx 1/3 of players in the Prem qualify for England.
Haven't done any maths, but it would be interesting to see how many wc goals or appearances have been scored by players plying their trade in the Prem.

I have no idea whether it is EU law or not, but there needs to be something done, to encourage teams to play English players.
Look at Micah Richards. In my opinion, twice the player Glen Johnson is, yet he is rotting away in the reserves on massive wages - with foreign players being picked season after season ahead of him, all of varying quality.
Zabeleta, the fella who was there just a season and left cos he was past it (his name escapes me), Corluka, Boateng and now they have Sagna coming in.

Then you have Luke Shaw - who wont get a game when he leaves Southampton for a top three team (Jack Rodwell anyone? Andy Johnson? Scott Sinclair?).

You have other teams, buying quick fix foreign players - that can be sold on for a quick profit too (Newcastle... ).

Granted, encouraging native players into the first team, wont solve everything.
Bobby Robson gave caps to some poor, poor players in the 80's for example.
However, what we also had during that period, was a handful of pro's playing across Europe - in part because of the UEFA van on English clubs.
However, there is no doubt, those moves helped the majority of those players become better.

When I heard Tom Ince was interesting top clubs abroad, I was pleased.
However, it looks like he is going to a mid table Premier League team of some description.

Getting back to England - forget the old guard and start again, with youth for the Euro's.

edit: The player who's name I couldn't remember - Maicon.

(20 Jun 2014, 9:49 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Right... Have thought long and hard about this, so...

England were poor at the World Cup.
I predicted we weren't going to get out of the groups and we didn't.

Whatever is said about the performance against Italy and Uruguay, England weren't good enough.

We have qualified using the older, more experienced players - yet when it came to the crunch, Hodgson decided to go with a blend of youth and experience.
Granted, that was probably a good thing, but why not start with the youngsters in qualifying?
At least they would have had a tad more experience going into a major tournament.

The next point is about the Premier League and the amount of foreigners playing in it.
I read somewhere, approx 1/3 of players in the Prem qualify for England.
Haven't done any maths, but it would be interesting to see how many wc goals or appearances have been scored by players plying their trade in the Prem.

I have no idea whether it is EU law or not, but there needs to be something done, to encourage teams to play English players.
Look at Micah Richards. In my opinion, twice the player Glen Johnson is, yet he is rotting away in the reserves on massive wages - with foreign players being picked season after season ahead of him, all of varying quality.
Zabeleta, the fella who was there just a season and left cos he was past it (his name escapes me), Corluka, Boateng and now they have Sagna coming in.

Then you have Luke Shaw - who wont get a game when he leaves Southampton for a top three team (Jack Rodwell anyone? Andy Johnson? Scott Sinclair?).

You have other teams, buying quick fix foreign players - that can be sold on for a quick profit too (Newcastle... ).

Granted, encouraging native players into the first team, wont solve everything.
Bobby Robson gave caps to some poor, poor players in the 80's for example.
However, what we also had during that period, was a handful of pro's playing across Europe - in part because of the UEFA van on English clubs.
However, there is no doubt, those moves helped the majority of those players become better.

When I heard Tom Ince was interesting top clubs abroad, I was pleased.
However, it looks like he is going to a mid table Premier League team of some description.

Getting back to England - forget the old guard and start again, with youth for the Euro's.

I agree with pretty much everything you have said there mate, as for the team Hodgson took, everybody asked for youth to have a look in, Hodgson went for youth and it never paid off, but out of the starting XI last night the average age the 11 on the field must have been well under 30, with Stevie G being the oldest, at least the young lads have had some valuable experience.

The problem I see with England is we are like the Dutch in the late 80's right through the 90's, 11 fantastic individuals, not very good as a team.

The time to start rebuilding is now, England is a team in transition now and we need to getting the best out of the young lads, Jack Wilshere, Alex Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge, Gary Cahill etc.

As for quotas on foreigners, I am also not sure about EU law, but I am sure if we start capping on EU players that would be against EU laws, restriction of trade, I'm not 100% sure. As for developing young English Players that is supposedly what the idea of a B Team League Is For, So Youngsters can Get More competitive Experience.

England were not good enough, it is that simple, but there were moments when we looked half decent, I personally reckon Gerrard will retire from International football in the near future and I reckon Charles* Hart will get the armband.

The inquest will have pretty much started into what happened at the World Cup and despite a vote of confidence by the FA I will be surprised to see Woy in charge in 12 months time

Incredible stuff. 2 goals in about a minute by Algeria.

There's been some great games the past few days. The Argentina and Iran game would have to be an unlikely favourite for me, and Iran were unlucky not to take a point away from the game. But on the other side of things, Messi has pretty much single handedly given Argentina 6 points. Who said he didn't do World Cups?

There's the Germany match too. Every player giving it everything for 9 minutes, and about as back and forth as you'll ever see in a match. Ghana have some quality players, and Gyan was looking as sharp as ever. Was good to see Klose not only break Gerd Muller's record for Germany, but also go level with Ronaldo. I think it's a certain that we'll see that record broken this tournament.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/...ected.html

It is American, so you may have to read it a few times to make sense - but an interesting read nonetheless.

It will be interesting to compare the top performing European clubs to the performance of that of their country too.

I.e Real/Athletico Madrid - Spain; Bayern Munich - Germany etc.

Oh dear!

Luis Suarez looks to of bit a Italian player on the shoulder.

What a absolute idiot... will he ever learn?

Banned for Ajax for biting
Banned for Liverpool for biting

(24 Jun 2014, 7:05 pm)Michael wrote Oh dear!

Luis Suarez looks to of bit a Italian player on the shoulder.

What a absolute idiot... will he ever learn?

Banned for Ajax for biting
Banned for Liverpool for biting

He has bitten off more than he can chew this time!
Bdum Tish!

(24 Jun 2014, 7:05 pm)Michael wrote Oh dear!

Luis Suarez looks to of bit a Italian player on the shoulder.

What a absolute idiot... will he ever learn?

Banned for Ajax for biting
Banned for Liverpool for biting

What a cumstain, give him a very long global ban...Club and Country and make it months...Not weeks

(24 Jun 2014, 7:18 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote He has bitten off more than he can chew this time!
Bdum Tish!

As for punishment...

As Alan Shearer has said

3 bites and your out [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES]

This just popped up on my facebook feed:

Messi carrying Argentina, Neymar carrying Brazil... British Airways carrying England.

Hahaha

Seems we will find out today or tomorrow about Luis Suarez's punishment

I hope

Rest of the world cup
Banned for 2 years from ALL of football

If found guilty Liverpool should rip his contract up

(26 Jun 2014, 8:11 am)Michael wrote Seems we will find out today or tomorrow about Luis Suarez's punishment

I hope

Rest of the world cup
Banned for 2 years from ALL of football

If found guilty Liverpool should rip his contract up

We can only hope...at worst it will most likely be anywhere up to 6 Months...And that should be a global ban as well, not just club, not just international, any game of football, even friendlies.

The punishment I can see him actually will be 24 games international ban, which equates to about 2 years in International Football

World Cup: Luis Suarez banned from all football for four months and for Uruguay for nine matches


http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/...ne-matches

4 month playing ban with 4 month stadium ban to run alongside, 9 match Int'l ban and 66k fine, he has getting away with it in my opinion, he will be back in November for Liverpool, playing Int'l by early next year and the fine will be loose change to him, should have punished him to dental extraction without anaesthetic

(26 Jun 2014, 2:25 pm)marxistafozzski wrote 4 month playing ban with 4 month stadium ban to run alongside, 9 match Int'l ban and 66k fine, he has getting away with it in my opinion, he will be back in November for Liverpool, playing Int'l by early next year and the fine will be loose change to him, should have punished him to dental extraction without anaesthetic

He is, disgraceful punishment

(26 Jun 2014, 2:33 pm)Michael wrote He is, disgraceful punishment

Hes already done this twice with one of them was in the premier league came which he had a ban inposed on him.

(26 Jun 2014, 2:55 pm)cbma06 wrote Hes already done this twice with one of them was in the premier league came which he had a ban inposed on him.

He has served 17 games out for biting, 7 at Ajax and 10 at Liverpool of which 7 of those games came at the beginning of last season...It was only back in April 2013 when he bit Branoslav Ivanovic

That ban is an absolute joke. In essence, it's no more than he got for the last one. FIFA have really bottled this. A years ban should have been put in place at a bare minimum.

(26 Jun 2014, 4:54 pm)aureolin wrote That ban is an absolute joke. In essence, it's no more than he got for the last one. FIFA have really bottled this. A years ban should have been put in place at a bare minimum.

I always said before the tournament, the best way to deal with him was to give him elbow related teeth surgery [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES]

Sure last year, I'm he was back before October, 7 games followed the last 3 of the 12/13 Season, that's not the point really.

It is a pitiful ban by FIFA, they should have ordered the 4 month ban from either the day the Mickey Mousers start Pre Season or the from the first game of the English Season, which would have seen him out till January...

This is what I would like to have seen at the very least...

2 year ban (6 months straightaway, 18 months suspended)
3 Year International Ban (with a further 1 year suspended)...

Michael said earlier he would like to see Liverpool cut him loose, would Liverpool have any legal grounds to do that, although he wasn't in a red shirt, he is still Liverpool FC employee and if I was them I would looking into the possibility of not paying him for the duration of his ban as he is of no use to them and he is unsellable right now...Once he is back, I would just transfer list him, some other idiot club would surely take him...

Also the thing about Suarez, why does he need to do the things he does, he is one of the finest players in the world, certainly close to the best in England, what he does it for, I do not know, because a straight headed Luis Suarez on his best day would walk into any of the world's best teams, the kind of striker, in form, could get 30+ goals a season

Suarez is due to sign for a NE club, he has been at Kingston Park this afternoon saw this at the Metro station

Here is a great video summing up the group stages of the world cup: