England are going to fuck up tonight.

[Rum]

Off to watch the excruciating pain that is an England match!

[Geoff]

Off to watch the excruciating pain that is an England match!

Dev's an England match?

[Feck]

That was shit .

[Clinton Huxley]

I think the worst England performance i've ever seen. Maybe the poor lambs are missing their Ferraris and strippers?

[Animavore]

I thought Dev would be rushing to the computer with the "I told you so".

[Rum]

A bag of wank.

[AnInconvenientScotsman]

Hehehehe

[Coito ergo sum]

I think the worst England performance i've ever seen. Maybe the poor lambs are missing their Ferraris and strippers?

Might be a metaphor for the slow decline of the anglo-saxons.....

It was a sorry display, and I am sad for England. I like England. It would be cool to be English. But, I have to say, I am glad for the US that Rooney and the gang decided not to play hard. It means the US is in if they win, I think, or at least most likely.

[devogue]

[Pensioner]

Fuck off you paddy cunt.

[Rum]

They did worse than fuck up. They ran around like pansies looking lost and a bit dazed. Sunderland's second team could have played better. How they managed not to be slaughtered is a murcle!

[klr]

They did worse than fuck up. They ran around like pansies looking lost and a bit dazed. Sunderland's second team could have played better. How they managed not to be slaughtered is a murcle!

How dare you insult the Sunderland reserve team by comparing them with England.

[devogue]

...and with awesome predictability (even more predictable than last night's result) the English Press goes ballistic, ripping the players and the manager to shreds, slagging off "multi-millionaire losers", claiming that it's obvious Capello should never have got the job, attacking the FA for handing him a contract extension...and on, and on... the nation goes mad, whipped in to a frenzy by the scum hacks, falling for the same bullshit they fall for at every single English World Cup Finals campaign since 1982.

It's just sooooooo difficult to remember the following examples:

1986: England start with a dire 1-0 loss to a poor Portuguese side, followed up by an atrocious display in a dreadful 0-0 draw with Morocco. The press in England go nuts. Only a stunning 3-0 display against a fine Polish team inspired by Boniek saw them sneak through to the knock out stages. A fine win over Paraguay then set up one of the most famous World Cup matches of all time against Argentina. What people forget (and it's no wonder considering the nature of Maradona's goals) is that England played Argentina off the pitch that day, and they came within a whisker of an equaliser through Lineker, who caught fire only in the third group game. Only the genius of Maradona sank them that day - they would have been strongly fancied to win the whole thing if they had gone through.

1990: A piss poor performance against Ireland and a yawnfest of a draw against Holland was followed by a scraped win over a shit Egypt team. Remember the press howling for Bobby Robson's head? The anguish, the despair... then an extraordinarily tight match against Belgium was followed by a less than convincing display against Cameroon...oh look...England in the World Cup semi, and all of the operatic tragedy that followed as Gazza cried and England were the width of a post and then a couple of penalites away from another date against a seriously shit Argentina team in the final...

Or what about the "shocking" loss to Romania in the group stages of 1998, or what about the woeful draws against Sweden and Nigeria in 2002...

The truth is, England are shite in the group stages of World Cups - the players are terrified of the weight of expectation and they just stumble through - one day they'll get caught and will be dumped out, but not this time. I expect them to win, and win comfortably, on Wednesday. The press need to have their stupid fucking criticism stuffed right up their arse. Let Argentina rip minnows to shreds and ponce about in the group stage - their openess and fluency will be their eventual undoing, just as it was in 2006. Do you honestly think that the likes of Diego Maradona would be able to out-think Capello down the line?

Also, Rooney has been totally fucking shit in the last two games - would you rather he was shit in the group stage, or in the business stage of the competition? He will not play shite three times in a row - I expect him to claim at least two goals in England's final group match, and then kick on from there.

All they have to do then is avoid fucking penalties. Either go down 2-0 or win 2-0 in the 2nd round and quarters - they need to stop faffing about and, just for once, take a World Cup by the throat. Jesus Christ - any team coming up against players like Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Cole and Terry should be apprehensive - Champion's League winners and finalists, players who have proved their strength and class at the very highest levels of club football.

They need to sort it to fuck out.

[Lozzer]

A prophet walks among us


Last night was possibly the most exruciating thing I've ever had to watch. In a word, boring. The only one who's came out of it looking good is a fucking African pidgeon.

[JOZeldenrust]

Looks like England might not even make the next round. USA looks quite a bit better then Algeria, and England will have a hard time against Slovenia.

But look at the bright side: England isn't quite as preposterous as France.

Other good news: New Zealand might stil make it into the eighth finals. That'd knock out Italy. It'd be so awesome.