World Cup 2006

[reed]

Too bad about Owen. Hang in there. Still looking good Angleterre despite all. Cheers.

[fryke]

Aw... :/ ... That doesn't sound too good.

[Esquilinho]

Cool! Portugal will play against the Netherlands and not against Argentina!

[fryke]

Hm. ... Portugal's the third team I'm cheering for, actually. (Switzerland, Brazil, Portugal.) I am thinking about getting a Portugal shirt tomorrow. Love the colour, haven't had a football shirt for more than 20 years, I guess... And the last one had the same colour (SFC, Servette FC, Genève, Swiss club.)

[bbloke]

I was glad to see Ghana get through. They seem to play with lots of spirit. I was also quite pleased that The Netherlands went through; they've often seemed to me to be traditionally a strong side who don't win as much as they maybe should.

Interesting... Brazil against Ghana in the next round... oh, errrrr, and Italy versus Australia. I'm guessing so far it will end up being Germany against Argentina in the Quarter Finals, and quite possibly Ecuador (alas) against Portugal.

[mw84]

I'm interested to see our line up on Sunday with Owen out. Personally I'd like to see Gerrard playing up front with Rooney.

[bbloke]

Originally Posted by mw84

I'm interested to see our line up on Sunday with Owen out. Personally I'd like to see Gerrard playing up front with Rooney.

I'd like to see Gerrard and Lampard havign free roles, with a holding midfielder behind them. This would mean Rooney plays on his own up front, but he would have support from two attacking midfielders. Hmmm, I'd also like to see Lennon again... and I'm curious about Walcott. Errr, how many players are we allowed on the pitch again?

Congratulations, fryke, Switzerland are safely through. Portugal are through as well, so I'm sure Esquilinho will be pleased.

[lilbandit]

Lots of talk on the beeb about playing Rooney alone up front in a 4-5-1 formation. Crazy stuff, Rooney isn't fit enough to play 50 full blooded minutes as a lone striker. Like bbloke I'd like to see Lennon again, I'd drop Beckham in a heartbeat! Give Terry the captain's armband and let him scream at the others to get them going. He's a natural leader. I'm curious about Walcott too but he can't be impressing in training if he hasn't been used by now. The match against Sweden was an ideal chance to blood him in a relatively unimportant match. I think Sven wants to play with one striker. He got Benfica to European cup final and Lazio won the double in 2000 under him but both teams played one striker and counter attacking football. This might go some way towards explaining the bizarre decision to take the squad that he did. My 2 cents, I have no idea really!