Will England win the World Cup?

(28-05-2010 17:01 )m100 Wrote:  

(27-05-2010 17:23 )Phoenix Wrote:  Well if my predictions are correct then our route to the final would be:
R16: Serbia
QF: Brazil
SF: Holland
F: Spain

Serbia/Australia/Ghana/Germany (take your pick) would be a tough enough match but we should get past them (unless it's the Germans)

Really can't see us beating Brazil, who'll go on to win it me thinks

And even if we did beat Brazil...Holland AND Spain (probably)! Sorry lads but I just don't think we're good enough unfortunately

England can't play Brazil in the quarter finals because of the way the draw works we can only play someone from groups a,b,c,d until the semi-finals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football..._and_teams

Ah bloody hell that's what I get for using the News of the World's wallchart/brackets thingy

Cheers for correcting me though or I would be looking like a right melon for the next couple of weeks

I'm Irish.
And I have a feeling that England will win it.
Good Luck! Hope they do well.

(28-05-2010 20:07 )2Bud Wrote:  I'm Irish.
And I have a feeling that England will win it.
Good Luck! Hope they do well.

I spent days/weeks having this argument in the normal football thread last year. I just don't get the animosity that exists between some england/scotland/wales/n ireland/ireland fans. I spent years and i'm showing my age, as a child supporting scotland in world cups because england were too inept to qualify and i'd still like to see them get to a major finals and do themselves justice. Craig levein was quoted yesterday as saying he expects and hopes that england do well so at least he sees the bigger picture. Similarly didn't a lot of us become irish in 1994 thanks to the turnip taylor.

Phoenix - you are sure the news of the world weren't secretly filming you aren't you? Was john higgins in the room probably with sarah ferguson?

I always get my hopes up and have a feeling that we can win it from the 3 World Cups I have seen of England during my life (I was 3 in Italia '90 and we didn't even qualify for '94), but I do not think we have a chance of winning it, I hope to hell we do and I hope I am as wrong as I usually am in my WC predictions, but I thought the team was better 4 years ago and we fucked it up. Then again we have got a much better manager this time so who knows? I just hope he can implement the squad correctly.

If England make the QF's, then for me anything beyond that is gravy. Do I think England are the most individually gifted side? Nope, Argentina have that one sewn up. Are England the most exciting team to watch? Nope, Spain are. Have England got the best team spirit and ability to play as eleven men within a perfectly designed system for said eleven? Nope, that would be Brazil. But there's no way on Earth that I think there are more than eight teams who are better than us. So long as we can reach the last eight (which I think is a fair reflection on our standing in world football), then in knockout football anything can happen... After all, Italy won the last one and they sucked out loud.

In short I expect a QF place, but I hope for better than that.

England - Spain Final

of course they will and Gazza will stop drinking

(30-05-2010 00:40 )Mister Gummidge Wrote:  If England make the QF's, then for me anything beyond that is gravy. Do I think England are the most individually gifted side? Nope, Argentina have that one sewn up. Are England the most exciting team to watch? Nope, Spain are. Have England got the best team spirit and ability to play as eleven men within a perfectly designed system for said eleven? Nope, that would be Brazil.

In short I expect a QF place, but I hope for better than that.

The last time all of that applied to the actual winners of the competition would be Brazil 1970. Maybe you could make an argument for Argentina 1986 but it was more or less a one man band.

Once you're out of the group stage anything can happen, dodgy decisions, somebody turning over one of the bigger teams in your half of the draw, injuries to key players, deflections and the inevitable penalties. Look how close we came to Turkey and south korea in the final in 2002.

England will do what they always do, i.e. make the quarter finals and lose on pens. Spain have by far the best squad on paper but there are question marks over the fitness of some of their key players, notably Torres and Iniesta. Argentina have the best player in Messi but need him to do a Maradona and carry the rest of the team, Brazil will be strong as always, Germany may not have the names that they had before but they will do well because they're Germany. Same goes for Italy. France have the players but are handicapped by an absolute tool of a coach. As for the African teams, I don't see them doing too much because the best team in Africa (Egypt) isn't even there!

Not based on performance against Japan where they needed two own goals to win the game.