So who thinks Spain will go out today?

Not me, I think they have played well both games, just unlucky against the swiss.


Bendtner is , claiming he could be one of the best players in the world

Given the Swiss should beat Hoindurus comfortably, it could be calculator time at the end of the games then if Spain are winning

Just had a look, didn't realize how tight that group is

Maybe it doesn't depend on what Spain can do today, Chile could still go out despite winning their first 2 games, looking forward to that now.

Daily Mirror: "Fabio knows the order of his penalty takers and where they are going to put the ball"

Given he is the boss of the team, I should hope he does know, god our press are numpties at times

On the penalty spot?

i think for penalties, England, for once have good takers

Wayne Rooney
James Milner
Steven Gerrard
Frank Lampard
Gareth Barry

all are quality penalty takers who take penalties for their clubs when called upon. These are the first five I think that will get chosen.

Don't think its about ability, Its about bottle. In training all the squad (Except Heskey) would be able to hit the corners each time. Its the pressure that makes people miss, not the act of kicking the ball towards the goal

In the back of the net?

Have you actually read the article? In it Stuart Pearce talks about how in previous tournaments the manager would simply leave it until full time to decide who was taking the penalties and based the decision on who fancied it. This time there is actual statistical analysis done to determine the best 5 to take penalties.

Considering that as a nation we've got a history of losing in shoot outs I'd say it's a quite appropriate piece.

I bloody hope so

You need to have all those five players on the pitch at the end of extra time though, else you're back to making it up on the hoof again.

I'd hope if he's gone to the trouble of having the entire squad practice to ensure he picks his best 5 he'll also have an idea of who is next in line.

That'll be the five. And I'd imagine it'd be in this order should we come to it.

Lampard
Gerrard
Rooney
Milner
Barry

Defoe.

Quarter Finals (in semi final set up also) will be:

QF1: Uruguay/South Korea VS United States of America/Ghana
QF2: Netherlands/Slovakia VS Brazil/Chile

QF3: Germany/England VS Argentina/Mexico
QF4: Paraguay/Japan VS Spain/Portugal

That may get rid of a few ghosts.

Sh-tting myself.

That's how it should be.

You can't name your 5 strongest takers and leave it at that. A player may get injured or sent off. More importantly, a player may miss a simple chance to win the game which f*cks his head up.

Only 16 of us left now.

It wont go to penalties.

It'll be such a cliche if it does. That's sooooo 1990.

England squad is fully fit, including Ledley King and Wayne Rooney.

Germany are without striker Cacau, and have major injury doubts to Bastian Schweinsteiger and Jerome Boateng.

Good. The team won't change though. And that too is also very much v.good.

[size=200=#0000FFCome on USA we can win this soccerball match[/size