Worth a tenner? Anyone?

no beckham?

Not a chance...

Good as chance as anyone.

I bet they progress futher than England.

Bit like Domenech the France coach...No Benzema or Nasri..??

They are both overrated IMO.

I'm not saying England will win the world cup..But they will progress from the group stages..

The same can't be said of Ivory Coast, Portugal and Brazil will progress from that group IMO...So i'll take that bet..

has 'hazam el' changed sports lol

Portugal are not the team they used to be IMO. IIRC Ronaldo as being one of there stand out players.

Ivory Coast have the likes or Drogba and Kalou up front with Eboue,Yaya Toure, Zokora and Keita in midifled. Also they have Kolo Toure in defence. And what about there manager?



I fancy Brazil to go threw as winners whilst Ivory Coast marginal runners up IMO.

True the Sven factor could make it interesting...

So many people talk up other nations chances and run ours down. The same people judge England on pre-Capello, which is pointless. It's like comparing us pre-Smith. If any set of fans should realise and not underestimate the importance that having a class coach can have, it's us. Same players, different results.

That's why England have a serious chance for me. Italy didn't have the best players in 2006, far from it but they found a way to win every game.

Never follow football but always watch my country, only names I remember from last time watching them are King, David James, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Walcott, SWP, Crouch, Defoe, Heskey, Rooney. Fuck, I know a lot more than I thought I would lol.

Which is exactly why international football is for part time fans with their cringeworthy face paint and car flags.

no doubt the pubs will be full to bursting when england play and i bet there will be the female wag wanna be society out nattering about corrie eastenders big brother etc whilst the game is on...why cant females stay at home when sport is on telly

Ha ha ha!

Part time fans? Lol. I don't give a flying about football, I only watch because it's my country and naturally I want them to win

If I don't follow football I'm certainly not stupid enough to go painting my face lol!

Exactly, especially the first two names you mentioned. How he can leave them out yet include the likes of Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, and Palermo is beyond me. The omission of Banega and Lucho Gonzalez is also surprising and it leaves them light in midfield.

The Brazil squad is the most boring I've ever seen from them as well, and the World Cup will be all the poorer due to the absence of the likes of Pato, Ronaldinho, Diego and Marcelo. Also there is no 'unknown' star included that could have burst on to the world stage this tournament, someone like Neymar or Ganso. Names like Kleberson, Baptista, Elano and Gilberto don't exactly excite the footballing purists. That said its harder to criticise Dunga than Maradona, simply because of the results he gets. Brazil may be more pragmatic in style this time around, but they are still among the favourites.

Not usually that bothered who wins the World Cup, I just like watching the feast of football. However this year I've got decent money on Ingerlund to win the thing, so will be getting the Bulldog tattoo done and St George's facepaint out. Got an additional small stake on Uruguay to win the competition, as I think they could surprise a few teams in South Africa. Also a couple of quid on Luis Suarez and Robin Van Persie for top goalscorer, plus Paraguay and Uruguay to win their groups.

Englands best Xl IMO is:

James, Cole, Terry, Carragher, Johnson, Milner, Gerrard, Lampard, Lennon, Crouch, Rooney.

Ivory Coast won't win it, you can forget about that silly bet. They have all of these stars but why can't they win the African Nations? Come up short against top teams from North Africa. Nevertheless with Sven I suppose quarter finals may be on the cards.

England with Capello I think will be a tougher side than we have been at recent major tournaments, and with Rooney on fire we will be a team that other sides take seriously, but we're a bit short on quality. I think we will progress fairly far through the tournament but when we come up against a side like Spain, Argentina or Brazil we will basically be hanging on trying to take them to penalties (and probably lose the shootout), we haven't got the skill levels of those sides.

I take it Lampard was warming up for the world cup with that penalty miss, that was a decent effort as for as England penalties go.

never write off the germans

I fancy holland to be up there

I can't take Argentina seriously with him in charge, I mean c'mon, he won't even give Messi the credit he deserves. Jonas Gutierrez first choice right back, jesus, and we think Johnson is a liability.

Argentina with say Capello - massive chance.

I'll be staggered if we're not semi finalists. I think we'll need some luck, folk harp back to '96 all the time, 'best chance we've had' and all that, well yeah, but the Holland performance aside in the tournament we were average, our second best performance was in defeat to the Germans. Folk brush past the QF when we stank and we're massively gateful to an appaling offside decision in extra time and David Seaman's heroics in the shootout. In fact, had McAllister scored it could have all been so different.

We'll need to eek through a round somewhere, like England have just done in the T20, they might have not got past the group, once they did they grew & grew. Ours might be a last 16, or a QF game, but if we get that stroke of luck, I think we can win this.

Very true in fact what you say is even more applicable to Italia 1990. Drew with Ireland and Holland and then sneaked 1-0 past Egypt in the final group game (a weak Egypt team, not the African Nations dominators they are now). Were 0-0 in the second phase against Belgium then Platt scored in the last minute of extra time. Took extra time to beat Cameroon in the quarters. We struggled our way through to the semi, but then were pretty much Germany's equals.

Actually in my lifetime the best chance I thought we had was France '98 because going into the tournament we had a strong and settled side, we'd won that Tournoi thing a year earlier beating Italy and France.

I think you are right, we need a stroke of luck in one game. The top teams I think we may be able to scrape a draw with and will have to hope one day we will win a penalty shoot out. You might be right about Argentina with Maradona....the team that I really struggle to see us getting past is Spain.

'90 is a great call, exactly the same. Saved their best performance for the semi, and wen't out. (Theme)

'98 again, you're dead right. We'd won Le Tournoi - had some brilliant players emerging like Scholes (who emerged at Le Tournoi), Beckham, Owen, Campbell etc and should have gone further. I think the problem was Hoddle. I've alot of time for Hoddle, thought he did well with England too, but he just handled the big situations & decisions badly, like dropping Gazza, World Cup Diaries, Eileen Drewery etc, he just took his eye off the ball. I see that as the key difference, Capello will have this lot focused, knowing their roles, believing.

We'll need some luck, England needed it in the cricket, we needed last year at Hull KR, take your pick - at 24-12 down we needed some, in extra time we needed some. I bet their was a knock on that might have been a ball steal that went our way to set up field position or something tiny like that, but you need it and when you go on & lift the trophy as we did it's consigned to history and the detail is overlooked.

In a World Cup, it might be a linesmans flag, a sitter, a save, a free kick award, a decision, a winder strike, a scuff, who knows - something small, but you'll need it. The rest of the tournament you rely on players & coach - and we've got a good squad and a manager up there with the best.