A little blip.

We draw with Germany.

Australia beat Ghana.

We beat Australia.

Germany beat Ghana.

Simples.

Current Mini League Standings:

Pos - Name -Team Name - Overall Position - Points
1 Mr Lawrie Lee Deportivo Wanka 17908 421
2 Mr Jordan Walker Inter Yermum 25203 394
3 Mr Paul Beckwith Best England Xl 26835 389
4 Mr Adam Anderson Colonel Messi and Co 43722 349
5 Mr bang arang Obi 1 Kenobi 0 53834 330
6 Mr Ben Featherstone Nemanja oooooooh 64116 313
7 Mr Paul Beckwith USA USA USA 69843 304
8 Mr Simon Kendall Sam Buca 76576 294
9 Mr Simon Kendall Glass Coffee Tables 91060 273
10 Mr Ryan Jowett Jokers Jesters 107329 251
11 Ms Andrea Hetherington Wooden Spooners 114903 241
12 Mr Paul Beckwith LFCRhinos 128800 222
13 Mr Gary Fiddes 1966 133243 216
14 Mr Simon Kendall Auto Select XV 148292 195
15 Mr Simon Kendall Swarcliffe Stallions 151036 191
16 Mr Scott Redhead Playmakers 153782 187
17 Mrs L Gilhespy maybe this time 167781 165
18 Mr Paul Beckwith Auto select 2nd team 170865 160
19 Mr Barrie Traynor Multiple Scorgasms 171355 159
20 Mr Simon Kendall Rafa Out 187970 124
21 Mr Asim Ahmed Amedicis Army 194975 104
22 Mr Paul Beckwith Norfolk N Chance 203105 66

Just so you know, half my players haven't played yet

And we should do.

Did you see algeria v slovenia? absolutely appalling teams. We should win both those games and top the group.

Thought we were solid against the USA. People should remember they are a decent team. They knocked argentina out of the CC and went 2-0 up against brazil. Don't think we'll see much change to the llineup except cole on the left instead of milner.

In fabio we trust.

Heskey had a good game.

By now you must surely realise he is not in the team to score goals. What he was there to do he did very well.

Need to improve 100%......right

So last night we were playing at 0% were we? USA are a good team and we were comfortable most of the game. They had one decent chance in the second half. If we we top the group and play like that we will most likely get past the 2nd round because we'll have more sharpness in the final 3rd to take advantage of the positions we created against USA.

Mine neither apart from my England and USA teams obviously

Heskey had a decent game. Most people can't get beyond the fact that his job is to work hard, and lay chances on for other people. Most of the good stuff which England did against the US came through him.

Shame he couldn't finish the one on one though

If Heskey had put in the same ineffectual performance that Rooney did, he'd have been crucified in the media and there would have been calls for him to be dropped.

Can anyone remember the last outstanding performance our supposedly world-class Scouse friend put in for England in a competitive game?

It's time the media and fans in this country faced up to the realisation that this England side is average at best, and the only reason the Premier League is so highly rated is due to its ability to attract top players from around Europe.

Lot's of keep ball and neat passing from holland so far.

But no end product in the final third.

Englands long balls up to heskey are more effective.

lol.

We've been a cats whisker from making the semis in the last 2 tournaments we've played.

Just because our style isn't flowing football like a spain or argentina or brazil doesn't mean we aren't a decent team.

Average at best? You should be executed for treason!

I know geography (along with forming a coherent argument) isn't one of your strong points Damo, but you do know what season it is in South Africa right now, don't you?

So we've been knocked out in the quarters then?

That's a pretty average return, wouldn't you say?

In the qualifiers he scored 9 goals, more than double the amount of any other english player.

In the major tournaments the great players are remembered for what they do in the knockout stages more than anything else. The big games. Rooney was poor, but that doesn't mean he won't produce the goods when it matters.

In the quarter finals theres 8 teams left. 8th from 32 teams in the world cup is above average. Losing in the 2nd round would be average.

The worrying thing about the england game for me, has to be the team selection. I didn't expect fabio to turn into gregg abbott mid tournament!

He played swp, who can't cross the ball on his normal flank, on the other side. He played a defender he knew wasn't fully fit. He played a striker who has scored less goals than a paraguay goalkeeper from a similar sort of caps!

Surely he knows he got it badly wrong?!

The only mistake he made was milner on the left instead of cole.

Everything to do with the England national team is an extremity, If we had won 1-0 the press would be saying we are gonna walk the world cup, we draw 1-1 and its all doom and gloom.

We played ok-ish but didn't bring our shooting boots, USA didn't trouble us too much and only scored through a keeper cock up, heads up and onto the next match.

Didn't Italy draw with USA before going on to win the last world cup.

Milner has had a far better season than Cole, harsh to call it a mistake.

He'd also had three days of not being able to train fully due to a virus in the week before the game.

It was possibly a mistake to gamble on his fitness, but we don't want to open the whole 2005 Challenge Cup Final debate up again.

100% agree. It's also a fact that our 2 most successful world cup campaigns started with a draw. 1966 and 1990.

And both of them teams would d*ck all over the current crop of $hite.

Rooney needs to be played up top. He's bagged 30-odd goals for man u in that role. Hopefully if Barry is fit for Friday we'll see Gerrard pushed upto just behind Rooney in attack.

The problem we have is centre half. King's WC could be over so who goes into that role now? No pace and a lack of time to build a partnership is extremely worrying for me.

Green should keep his place. Ok he cocked up with the goal, that happens and rather him get it out of the way in game 1 rather than the knockout stages. Let's not forget the world class save he pulled off in the second half, that showed character.

I laugh at all the people who say we should go back to James, as if he has some great blemish-free record. I'd stick with Green too.

Re the world class save, we was about an inch from getting beaten at his near post, and a double slating, and a bigger post mortem. Not sure it was a world class save, it would have been poor to concede from there.

I'd agree on both, not sure what dropping Green would achieve and the save was not what I would bracket as world class, I think it was the commentator trying to redeem a bit of cred for Green.

Putting Wright-Phillips on the left was an even bigger mistake! Unless Cole wasn't 100% there was no reason to play SWP down the left hand side, he's proven that he can't cross the ball from the right hand side, so to ask him to do it from the left is stupid, it was never going to happen.

Green had already anticipated Altidore (?) going across him and had begun to move to dive that way (A mistake in it's own right). That meant he had to stop, change direction and make the save from close range. A top class stop IMO.