England... what a disappointment!
The English are lambasting Ericksson and the question becomes, should they?
As an impartial observer, I have to say that this England squad is one of the two or three most talented teams that I've ever seen. Look at the lineup
Paul Robinson
Ashley Cole, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville (Jamie Carragher, Sol Cambell)
Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, David Beckham (Aaron Lennon, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves)
Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen (Peter Crouch)
That is a fairly talented list and several of those players (Rooney, Gerrard, Terry, Neville) could start for almost any team in the world...
To me, looking at that list, I can only be saddened that they failed to advance farther than they did... I believe that they had a once in a generation talent pool and that things are going to be rough in the future... Yes, the Owen and Rooney injuries took their toll. But on the surface, I'd say that English fans have a very real gripe.
The future does look bright for England, however. With Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, John Terry, Paul Robinson, Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing and Aaron Lennon they have a very strong core of players to try to go into the future with... Gerrard, Ferdinand and Owen will likely remain in the mix as well. Let's hope for a better coaching regime under Steve McClaren so that future talent doesn't get wasted the way this generation of players has.
4 Comments:
I'm disappointed mostly because I am disgusted by the remaining teams. I normally wouldn't do this, but I think I have to root for France. I hate the diving, whining, and general attitudes of Italy and Portugal on the field.
I don't find Portugal particularly bad... and Italy is much, much better than the South American teams were even 4 years ago... France is old and somewhat slow... I like Zidane and Henry but the rest of their team is fairly, bleh...
I was pulling for Germany but that obviously isn't going to happen... oh well...
Maybe we'll find out that Luciano Moggi arranged for the PK against Australia and Italy will be disqualified ;)
For all the talent they're supposed to have, I think Portugal has been every bit as disappointing as England. Their efforts always seemed lackluster except for Christiano Ronaldo (as much as he irritates me). I know Pauleta has played cuz I see him get subbed out but he's been damn near invisible.
portugal is an odd case... they have ALOT of talent at certain positions but they're threadbare at others (this is typical of the smaller countries who will randomly produce world super stars but have pretty big talent gaps... Think Bulgaria in '94 with Hristo Stoichkov).
Portugal has Deco, Ronaldo, Figo, Carvalho, and an (apparently) pretty good goalie... But their other centerback is only okay... their left back is a nobody and, while Maniche and Pauleta are good... they're not world beaters...
Compare that to England... EVERY player is a great player and EVERY player would have a chance to start for a Chelsea, Real Madrid or AC Milan... As good as Deco is, for example, I don't think he could start for any of those teams... Pauleta and Maniche certainly couldn't.
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