World Cup

You and 60 million other people.

I'd like to see this "Donivan" fella play. From what I've read, he's quick down the wing and has got a pretty good pace. Apparently your whole team is quick. But what's up with your keeper? Ain't he got some kind of back injury?

Even so, he's solid. You will be amazed at Donovan's play though.

If he's as good as I've been hearing, then he should be an interesting guy to play against... that is if we meet up in the Quarters, Semi's or even the Finals.

To quote directly from a little World Cup thingy I picked up from a Newspaper:

How do you beat them [USA]? Catch them on the counter-attack. The domestic Major League Soccer is slow in comparison to the Premiership and less technical than Serie A or La Liga. High tempo, high quality football could unsettle them.

Now I don't really watch Premiership matches all that much, but let me tell you - they can be as slow and as boring as wathing paint dry. If that's the case, and if the American Leagues are slower, then I shudder to think what you have to put up with.

Once again, it'd be interesting to see how you handle the Czech's. 5.00pm on Monday, I'm gonna be watching.

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EDIT: Right, 10 minutes before the match.

Watch out for Beckham's crosses, Terry on set-pieces, and Owen and Crouch up front.

And I'm off again.

COME ON ENG-ER-LAND!!

Your quote is right, the MLS is slower than the Premiership and Serie A. But, the USA has proven that they can definitely keep up with international play.

Did you see Beck's amazing goal in the 3rd minute!!!???

Lol, sounds like you liked that.

Actually an OG by Gamarra, but we're letting Beckham have the glory. You'd better get used to that - he's an absolute demon with his free-kicks and crosses. So accurate.

Paraguay only really had one chance, didn't they? Right at the end of the First Half. In the Second Half they nearly got through, but we still held them... even though we played abysmally. That's our problem - we can keep up the tempo and whatever in the First Half, stunning everyone, then when we come out for the Second Half we lose our Killer Instict.

Methinks Sven was stupid bringing Owen off. Sure, he hasn't played much and needs to not be playing so much he tires himself out, but did you see how Crouch had no-one to head on to? Or when beckham broke through, knocked the ball across the goal mouth... and there was no-one to get it. Owen would've scored that, no questions asked.

Lampard had his chances too. He was unlucky not to score. We should've got a second, but we just didn't take the chances. We need to play more as the tournament goes on we will get better.

And the fact that we had a wanker for a referee didn't help one bit. Yellow card for Gerrard, because someone jumped over him... but no free kick given. Yellow Card for Crouch for a trivial little tackle. And all those free kicks and decisions going Paraguay's way. But what happens when Downing, amking a superb run down the wing, is taken out with the ball 10 feet in front of him? "Carry on!" Absolute wanker.

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Let's see if you fare any better. I really do hope for you that you don't have a stupid ref. They can really ruin matches. If you don't have that South American ref, or that Swiss bastard we had for our game against Portugal in Euro '04, then you should be OK.

I liked the England game, but I thought it was dangerous trying to hold on to a 1-0 lead. I would have gotten another goal just for security.

You really liked it? I 'spose it wasn't that bad... but I've seriously seen a lot better. And there were no Owen runs! Just wait till you see one... he ought to do one. He first came on against Argentina in '98, had a run, and BAM! Jeez louise was that good. Did the same against Brazil in 2002.

To be perfectly honest - the way England play football, naturally, is to get a second goal after a first. But Sven, being Sven, an itsy bitsy Swede, coaching the England squad, with the spirit of Italian football in him, prefers to hold onto each goal.

IF we'd've had Owen when Beckham knocked across the goal mouth, we'd have scored.
IF we'd've had Owen when Crouch was heading them up, we'd have scored.

And IF, it's a gigantic IF, IF we'd've had Rooney playing, we'd've got hundreds of goals (well, slight exageration, but he works absolute magic. Not even Gerrard or Owen can receive the ball with their back to the goal, surrounded on every side by defenders, and still score).

Don't you think we played absolutely awful during the second half though?

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Going back to:

I want Argentina to win

1. Never tell that to an Englishman. You'll get your head kicked in.
2. The beat Cote d'Ivoire 2 - 1, and got 3 (out of 5) yellows in the process.

I'm sorry, but Landon Who?! I watched the whole game, and he did sweet F.A.

First impressions of the American team:

- Defence. Defence. Defence. You'd be safer putting a fence up around the box than relying on the defence you've got. The Czech defence was good. They managed to stop you having any major chances... but the number of times they broke through yours. Rosicky's second goal was because of that. Granted, all three defenders nearly got there, but he should never have got into that position.
- Defence again - in the box when there were corners and free kicks, your men lost their targets easily. Then again, it is very hard to mark at a time like that.
- Third point of defence -- pet peeve. Onyewu. I don't like him one bit.

Good point about your defence -- first part of the second half it really was awful. But around the 65 minute mark, it started to improve a lot.

In fact, that seems to be the main thing I thought was bad about your side. The Defence.

It's hard to push against the Czech's - if you somehow manage to get through their midfield, then you've got their defence to deal with. And if you notice, when they closed a man down to tackle, a lot of te time it was two Czech's to the one guy.

Reyna's shot on target in the 27th minute was a scrocher. He was really unlucky for it to hit the post - he had Cech beaten completely. The same with Johnson's chance in the 70th minute. He had the power, he had Cech beaten, he just missed by a snail's whisker.

In the last 10 minutes you really picked up the pace. You probed the Czech defence much more, with one or two real chances - you even managed to break through! But I think McBride as a lone striker was a bit silly. He was relied on too much, the poor guy.

Sorry to be so negative... I started watching the match thinking you'd win, if only by 1 goal to nil. It really disappointed me, but I did see some great football in the Czech side.

You've got a hard group, with hard matches - especially in Italy and Czech Republic. Methinks if the defence problem was solved, and Donovan had chance to show off his blistering pace, you'd win.

And let me say, you have boring fans. Sure, they dress up, but where was the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant? You'll never beat the Europeans fan-wise.

Altogether - could've been worse. Johnson, for me, was your man of the match. And the Czech's are hard opponents. At least the match kept me well and turly occupied for the full 90 minutes. Watching Australia v. Japan got kind of boring in the end, because they just kept on doing the same over and over and over again. That wasn't the case with this match.

I look forward to your match against Italy.

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EDIT: Just seen Gang'a reply.

We did play terrible. Especially in the second half. Hopefully on Thursday, when it's cooler, we'll play better. And there's news that Rooney might play, which is a great thing.

And let me say, you have boring fans. Sure, they dress up, but where was the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant? You'll never beat the Europeans fan-wise.

If it was the world cup of basketball or "football" then you might actually see some real fans. For soccer you are consider lucky if you find 1 out of 100 people in the US actually care about the World Cup. It's kinda sad.

Still, you've got to be one of the most self-important countries in the WC, let alone on the planet. I expected to hear some "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants, if only at the start of the match. Singing the national anthem was pretty quiet too - another thing Europeans really go for.

oh man, Japan couldn't hold up for the last 7 minutes, I was actually chanting for them.

I was hoping Japan would win too.

They nearly had a couple of chances in the last few minutes.

But Australia! Man alive!! Talk about a comeback. That was absolutely amazing!!!

Wahey!!

We've won our second game.

And this time round, we had the awful first half, brilliant second.

First goal - Beckham crosses a lovely ball into the box, Crouch gets over T&T's 6' 7"cher, and scores a great header.

Second goal was an absolute scrocher from Gerrard, left footed from just outside the box.

Brilliant!

First time we've scroed in the second half for 8 years, and we got 2!