England vs France in the footy

heavymental

Score prediction please! I'm predicting another 2-1 victory for our newly purposeful boys.

Ferdinand is captain and Beckham gets his 100th cap. Hopefully people will stop going on about his 100th cap once he's actually got it.

paul27

1 - 0 to England

Beckham to score

jpembroke

3-0: Lampard to score a hat trick, including a penalty

just kidding

TheBoyBilly

1-1, though I'm saddened that Beckham is getting his 100th cap. Were any of the previous 99 given for sentimental reasons? No, so why should this one be. If he's not good enough now (and he's not) he should be left on one cap short of the ton.
I've nothing against DB, in fact I am one of his greatest admirers but he won't be around for the next tournament.

heavymental

I think its probably just to get the issue off the table. Unfortunately the press will keep badgering Capello about it until he reaches 100 caps so might aswell play him in this game. You never know, he may show his class and bring something to the team. Players could benefit from having him on the field for a few more games until his time really is up.

gnvqsos

Friendly matches are there for experimentation(and revenue raising).Beckham will never play againin a meaningful match so whats the point.Handy for the media as it provides an easy story.
Does anyone think DB will go into management?My guess is that he will avoid such a challenge.

Rob Sallnow

1-1 Beckham to provide the cross and Gerrard to head it in.

Rob Sallnow

Just read on the BBC 'Goalflashes and major incidence' that between the warmup and kickoff Beckham has swapped his boots from the special white with gold trim (as featured in the papers today) to all gold!!! :?

nwallace

England are playing football? From what I could hear on the telly, radio and papers that it was a journalist mass wank that was taking place to night.

Then again the scottish papers have said more about who isn't playing than about croatia warming up for a drubbing... of us.

lateralus

nwallace wrote:

England are playing football? From what I could hear on the telly, radio and papers that it was a journalist mass wank that was taking place to night.

ROFL

Couldn't have been less interested in an overhyped friendly when the track wrold champs was on at the same time...

heavymental

Oh dear! Another rudderless England performance! Capello knows he has his work cut out now!

el_presidente

Same old same old from England

Ashley Cole spends the week attracting the disgust of every right-thinking fan in the country yet still starts even after the FA and Capello's supposed new "hard line"

Beckham runs (well, jogs) around in gold boots and a special shirt likes it's some sort of pantomime but does nothing actually meaningful while Bentley sits on the bench wondering what the point is

Wes Brown plays at right back again.

James makes ANOTHER high profile mistake.

I could go on.



Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

heavymental

Thing is, if Capello can't do it for us, who can?! In theory, if we don't improve then the finger should be pointed at the players rather than the manager this time because he's widely regarded as being up there with the very best. As the Alans pointed out on the tv last night, the England pass and move game was non existent compared to France. Capello must be wondering if he has to coach them from the very basics. I just hope he gets enough time to do it, the trouble is, once the fans start getting bored of the Italian style of game and unease sets in, he'll have the nation on his back, and thats a heavy burden for a manager as we've seen time and time again.

Anyway, he's only been in charge for 2 matches and last nights game was against opponents who will be fairly well fancied to win the euros this summer. Not a huge surprise that we lost. Lets just hope progress isn't too slow in coming.

el_presidente

Trouble is with England they play so infrquently every performance is massively overhyped whether it be bad good or indifferent.

All teams have bad games and bad runs but there's always another game is 3 or 4 days time to move on from it.

However I think picking A Cole and Beckham sends out the worng messages (though in two different ways). Beckham playing in the US should now never get near another squad. Cole should have been dropped straight out of the squad and told he had to win his place back on club form (and behaviour).

Now all the England players will assume Capello doesn't walk his talk and they'll carry on as usual paying lip service to England but playing within themselves and keeping the best performances for club games.

daniel_b

el_presidente wrote:

Ashley Cole spends the week attracting the disgust of every right-thinking fan in the country yet still starts even after the FA and Capello's supposed new "hard line"

I missed this clearly, what happened during the week?

heavymental

Usual story...horrendous tackle, remonstrating agressively with ref, no remorse...that kind of thing. The guy's a prick isn't he.

sing_for_absolution

That game last night was terrible. I know it's just a friendly, but that second half had to be one of the dullest halves of football I've seen. England never had a shot on goal and their attacks consisted of Beckham doing futile crosses into the box that almost always met a French player.

geoff_ss

I was really annoyed when listening to the 'Today' programme's so-called sports report (actually it should be renamed Football report) this morning and they spent the whole time talking about a match England lost. They never even mentioned, even in passing, that Bradley Wiggins had successfully defended his world pursuit championship the evening before.

None of my sports (cycling, sailing) ever get much of a mention so I should be used to it I suppose. I don't think they're interested in sports we actually win at.

Geoff

ndodd

when will people realise that our footballers are not world class and the premiership is so overrated might get one decent game at the weekend but the rest are just crap