I feel quite positively about England (well most people would we just qualified for the world cup) now and in a different way.
It feels like we can go to Brazil 2014 fearless with less expectation and more of an attacking attitude. We may produce a more convincing style of play generated from a few of our more confident youngsters. Yes inevitably us England fans see a light then to only get knocked out on pens in the 2nd round or QF....but actually...this time, I think it might just be something that we can't predict....
Still feet on the ground nothing to suggest we SHOULD get carried away. It just seems quite fresh.
Sounds cheesy but we have a bit of soul back which nearly completely died over the last decade.
In my book it comes down to:
1. English manager....which has successfully got us to a finals tournament.
2. No John Terry involved...and bringing the baggage of disruptive unprofessional scandels (a good player he might be)
3. Fresh faces...manager not afraid to promote certain players...which have proven him right. Doesn't play by the book of automatic starts for players like lampard.
4. Less of Ashley Cole. Well hasn't featured in our last two due to injury and he's a great left back but people don't like him and find it hard to actually support the guy wearing the England shirt. He hasn't been missed I hope Baines keeps his place and we move on.
5. It's competitive out there for places in the starting 11. The team plays to how it suits...not on individual quality.
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All in all I think QFs will be good for England. Anymore and you're essentially saying England are amongst the top four/five teams in the world and I just don't think anybody can seriously argue that.
Obviously depending on the draw, England will be lucky to get out of the Group stages. The football played will be boring. Rooney, Gerrard etc will have another poor tournament. It will be balmed on the number of foreigners in the Premier etc etc etc.......we all know the story already.
Agree with some of what you are saying but some is pure nonsense. England are not terrible. They are team who have qualified in a poor group however there were some tricky away days that had to be negotiated and england are not the only teams to struggle against these sides Though it is easier that they are.
Don't know who you support but you sound like a bitter old jock or a jealous paddy.
Personally, I am encouraged by the current mix of youth and experience, which I think is the best for some time. We have forwards with pace and movement but I do worry about our defence at the highest level.
when teams come to England and play at Wembley 9 times out of 10 the come not to lose which then brings its own problems in how we approach the games
but the post from man about town sums up the biggest problem, that there is an unrealistic view from football fans in this country on their own teams and national teams that gives of this perception that all fans expect QF/SF minimum and that qualifying is a matter of time not effort and guile
If we get to the QFs we will have done well. I'm just glad that being abroad I won't have to face most of the tabloid inspired hysteria whereby we persuade ourselves we can really win if we show that bulldog spirit, and then crucify a decent man when we don't, and bemoan the fact we didn't instead choose Redknapp.
We never seem to cope when playing in hot conditions either , so i'd say Brazil for me are the team to beat, really depends who we get in the group.
My 'getting to the World Cup ' bubble burst this morning when i heard that Poland were ranked 65th in the World.
I'm just going to try and enjoy the World Cup as a footballing tiurnament , if England do well then thats a bonus, but as soon as the first English national anthem is sung in Brazil , i'll be a bag of nerves like the rest of the country.
It may come as a shock but you are not "everyone" - you have an opinion which you have every right to hold, but you are not the spokesperson for a nation.
Incidentally, how many of the other nations games were you able to watch at the same time as watching England?
The people on the phone-ins do wind me right up. Its not just jocks or paddies, but half of England seem to be in this mode of still trying to moan and criticize the national team with things like "oh, but wait til we get to the tournament and we'll balls it right up".
Yes. Let's actually worry about that when it comes to the tournament. For now, lets just give some praise to Roy and England on a VERY good qualification campaign.
There will be some groups a lot harder than others, due to seeding, so i think we need to see who we get first. Could be that if we get out of a difficult group, the Last 16 game could be easier than expected.
Yes, so they have players like Falcao and Hazard. We've seen time and time again how lack of tournament experience can count against top players. Those teams will also be looking at England and thinking "we don't want to play against Rooney, Gerrard, Sturridge etc", even if we as Englishmen know that we aren't world beaters.
And as for Holland and France, both teams have shown in recent times that they have a knack for ballsing it up in even more spectacular fashion than England.
Drew with Italy at the Euro's, drew in Brazil in the summer, beat Belgium at wembley last year, Uruguay are poor apart from Suarez and Cavani. Portugal and/or France might not even be there. Mexico are awful.
On our day, not many sides will beat us. We hardly ever lose and aside from 2010 we nearly always go out on penalties. As poor as everyone says we are, if we were good at penalties we'd have reached a world cup final, a Euro final and 2-3 semi finals since 1990.
Spain, Argentina and Germany are the only sides i'd say would comfortably beat us.
This. Our defence might not be world class on paper but we are hard to beat. We pick up draws when playing badly or under par. An important asset to have.
Italy can't feel great at the moment they drew 2-2 at home last night to Armenia.
Drew with Italy at the Euro's, drew in Brazil in the summer, beat Belgium at wembley last year, Uruguay are poor apart from Suarez and Cavani. Portugal and/or France might not even be there. Mexico are awful.
On our day, not many sides will beat us. We hardly ever lose and aside from 2010 we nearly always go out on penalties. As poor as everyone says we are, if we were good at penalties we'd have reached a world cup final, a Euro final and 2-3 semi finals since 1990.
Spain, Argentina and Germany are the only sides i'd say would comfortably beat us.
& Argentina.
Plenty of time for press-inspired manic self-delusion to set in.
Enjoyed last night and support Roy's approach but we have nothing like the quality needed to be a World Cup winning side and don't forget that at least 3-4 of last night's 11 will be injured or knackered by the end of the EPL season.
Does my head in when people say "well, we aren't going to win it", as if for some reason we should be discussing the possibilities of us winning it.
Mid level sides in the Champions League or FA Cup don't go around disregarding the competition simply because they can't win it. I genuinely think that England would need to get to the Semi Finals for the mass public to see it as any kind of success. If we go out at the Quarter Finals it will be the same old whinging about "we can't pass the ball, kids in Spain play in small pitches, we're inept wah wah wahh"