He has been playing there for years.

^ haha

Whens the draw for the groups?

Early December. England are 2nd seeds so will get one of the big boys in the group.

Brazil
Spain
Argentina
Germany
Belgium
Switzerland
Colombia
Uruguay (if they don't win their play-off The Netherlands will be seeded)

Hope we get Spain/Brazil and smash them. Save Germany for the knockouts.

Hope you get who? :laughing: Spain/Brazil would crush England. LOL

BBC Sport - International friendly: England 1-0 Spain

BBC Sport - England 2-1 Brazil

BBC Sport - Brazil 2-2 England

#js

Seriously though, I know what you mean, but they would be massive games. I would look forward to those far more than I would Switzerland or Belgium.

so Uruguay a team that needs a play off to qualify are a top seed, how?

Top seeds - Top 8 in the FIFA World Rankings.

The seedings are ridiculous though, Switzerland 7th, ahead of Italy, England, Brazil, Portugal etc. What have they ever done to get that ranking?
Plus all Columbia have ever done is qualify for the World Cup, so they get 4th? WTF?!?!?
And Bosnia over France, sure France aren't great, but Bosnia should be like rank 100 apart from Dzeko.

The FIFA rankings have always sucked and have been inaccurate by and large. I always felt that previous world cups, european champs and copa america results should be the only influence on how they're calculated. Which of course would mean that England wouldn't be seeded.

Yeah they're massively flawed, we were 3rd this time last year, lose 1 game in 15, beat Italy, Brazil & Spain in that run, draw with Italy & Brazil, draw with France, beat Poland & Ukraine, avoid defeat in the Euros... Drop from 3rd to 17th (now in 8th after the new rankings were released). Spain win World Cup... Drop from 1st to 2nd. It's a bollocks system. And of course Brazil were never a 23rd placed team, they got that low because they weren't playing much. Back up now cos of the Confederations Cup.

Teams like USA & Mexico play loads of teams who aren't anywhere near the quality teams in the European & South American confederations, so they pick up loads of easy wins (hence why they're so high in the rankings usually).

South American teams get more opportunities to get points due to the number of games they play for qualification. 16 games vs the 10 that European teams play.

Also, there are a lot of teams that were qualifying with ease in their groups over the last two years which enabled them to climb and maintain high positions in the rankings: Spain, Germany, Argentina, Belgium and Switzerland. Colombia weren't poor at all in their qualifying also.

& Belgium who were beating Croatia and Serbia away, aren't going to have England rise above them who were drawing to Ukraine and Montenegro away.

With a bit of planning England could have been seeded ahead of the Swiss | Football | The Guardian

That is an excellent article explaining why we have dropped so heavily. Also FIFA don't take into consideration the quality of opponent, just the level of competition. So all friendlies, qualifiers and tournament games will have the same rankings points at stake, whether you're playing Brazil or Belize.

I just hope we get Switzerland, Belgium, or Columbia in our group. We have a good chance of winning against all of them, especially Switzerland imo. Then we can finish the group and maybe get an easy(ish) route to the quarter or semi finals till we meet Germany and get thumped.

Beat the other two and it won't matter who the top seeds are.

A good result against Spain/Brazil/Germany in the group will give us confidence for the knockouts where you're going to have to beat teams of that quality to reach the latter stages.

Don't want us to become complacent and arrogant like we were in 2010 when we got the infamous EASY group (England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks).

I'd rather we got top in our group than become a confident side, I am sure Roy Hodgeson will see to that anyway.

:laughing:

Brilliant.

Penalty shoot-outs are life or death... England may need a psychologist to help them get through another one | Mail Online

Sven's advice to Hodgson ahead of the World Cup.

I agree with this to be honest. It's ingrained into the English psyche that we won't win a shootout at a major tournament. Players know they'll end up in one and won't win. It's actually excused now and the norm. I know the pressure is massive in a penalty shootout but it is vital you stay focused and do everything right from body language to the run up, our players look beaten before they've even kicked the ball.

The amount of penalties I see, that aren't struck correctly and are half arsed attempts at placement, is fucking shocking.

If I was the England manager I'd be telling them to walk up to the spot confidently, pick a corner, keep your head down & body over the ball and put your laces through it.

I was in the cup final for my local team and it went to penalties, I volunteered to take one but regretted it. I was so nervous and completely miss-hit the ball. Luckily the keeper must of had Down's syndrome or something cos he didnt even save the worst penalty ever. But never mind my story, Im just saying its scary taking penalties no matter how good you are.
It's more to do with experience rather than actual talent really. Any footballer can score a one on one, even a goalkeeper. I think we have a good set of experienced players that should take the penalties. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Carrick, Lambert are all experienced and all can sure score penalties for their clubs. With the right mentality, they should all score a penalty.

You say it's down to experience but how many high pressure shootouts have our players actually been involved in?

Gerrard: '04, '06, '12 for England, '06 FA Cup Final & '05 CL Final, 2012 League Cup Final w/ Liverpool
Lampard: '04, '06, '12 for England, '08 & '12 CL Finals w/ Chelsea
Carrick: '06, '12 for England, '08 CL Final & '09 FA Cup Semi w/ Man. United
Rooney: '12 for England but taken off/sent off in '04 & '06, '08 CL Final & '09 FA Cup Semi w/ Man. United

Could go on as well, I mean Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard have taken a ton of important pens for their clubs that weren't in shootouts but you get the point. We've been in more shootouts than anyone so it's clearly not down to experience. It's because it's a mental thing with these lot now and I reckon they aren't practicing them for England either, the preparation and run up is half of the battle. In fact I'm sure under Sven he said they didn't practice pens.

Tbh the only English player I would say revels in high pressure pens is Hargreaves, scored against Portugal twice (Euro's & World Cup) and the CL Final in 2008 and they were all class pens. Funnily enough he was actually trained in Germany :D.

Penalties are a lottery, simple as that.

Not when you're English.

'90, '96, '98, '04, '06, '12 - All lost.

Beat Spain in '96. Won 1, lost 6.

If it was a lottery that'd be split more like 50/50. You don't lose 86% of your shootouts because of luck.

Of course you can. Derren Brown flipped a coin and hit 10 heard in a row. Took him a few hours but it happened.

England have plenty of players who are used to the pressure, the issue is having individuals taking rubbish penalties or the keeper going the right way and saving it. Or even a simple matter of lesser technique on average. It's a lottery in that respect, not because they all sh*t their pants.

I've seen it, penalties are not a coin toss though, there is some science involved.

Technique can be worked on, so if it's down to that we weren't unlucky to lose and it wasn't a lottery. English managers have in the past admitted they didn't practice penalties, it was Hodgson who changed it and got them to practice. Still went out though.

As soon as it goes to penalties the fans straight away think we're out. It's only human that past losses have planted a seed of doubt in the players' minds, then they rush the run up and scuff the kick, or try too hard and sky it. If they think they will win I reckon we'd have won at least one more of those shootouts.

Half of them don't look confident going into them, compare that to someone like van Persie or Balotelli.

If we just practise enough till everyone believes they're ****ing incredible and can do anything - then we're sorted :)

Anyone else apply to be a volunteer? I just had my interview last night. Good stuff!

No sorry. Did you see my post re: tickets a few pages back?

Yep, I did. But I'm not interested in tickets, anyway, I'm going for the cross cultural drunkeness and general celebratory atmosphere. If I get accepted as a volunteer, I might get to watch a few games for free! :)

Fair enough. Hope you enjoy it Miss P, bit jelly tbh but it will be pretty good here as it always is during World Cups so that's some consolation, I guess.

A terrible record I'm sure you'll agree.

There was a time when you had to toss a coin to decide. Seriously. There were no penalties whatsoever: Argentina lifted their first U-20 South American cup like this after some tough 1-1 against Colombia in 1967. I really prefer penalties to coins after all!

That would of been the worst!!! Imagine, drawing after extra time the. It's all just decided on luck!
"I call Heads"
"It's Tails"
"Aww Dammit We Lost"
So crap^

Well, I've just got to know that if 2 teams finish the season with the same amount of points, they will play a kind of final game. However, if 3 teams finish the season with the same amount of points, they will... toss a coin!!!
Where does such silly thing take place? In Messi's country! In Argentina!
Pathetic!

Well I'm pretty sure that will never ever happen.

It might happen. Unparalleled incompetence.

France cheated. Just like they did against Ireland 4 years ago.

Oh, missed this thead.... Sorry

Mexico in. Sorry Vanilla, would have rather seen the Kiwis make it.

What a masterclass from Ronaldo!

http://i.imgur.com/TE5p7fb.gif
http://i.imgur.com/f7Qx0Uo.gif
http://i.imgur.com/jbSFppU.gif

Privileged to have seen this twat play live as he is surely top 2 of all time with Messi being number 1. What a player.

^live - as you were in Sweden? I hope you didnt praise Ronaldo out loud afterwards, and if you did, I hope you didn't have to visit the hospital.