England play Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica, in that order.
The first tie is a very difficult tie. Whatever you have to say about either teams, they are both good and I'd say Italy are better than England. Uruguay is on par and have a better set of strikers than we do. Costa Rica seems to the only formality, so we should be looking at at least 3 points on the table.
Question is, are England good enough to qualify from the group stages?
Personally, I don't think so.
The England team still has players past it or not good enough. Sadly, it's because there aren't many options around. Lampard should have joined Cole and Carrick out of the team. I understand Gerrard being in it as he is captain and has come off a good season. He does have experience.
I will not be surprised to see England not go past the group stage. Italy will beat England, and Uruguay will be tricky. I know people don't rate them other than their two attackers but Muslera is a decent keeper, Cáceres and Godín are good defenders, Godin's better than any of the England CB in the team. They have Rodríguez and Ramírez on the wings and while the latter hasn't shined that much for Southampton, they are pretty good.
Then there is the attackers. Suárez and Cavani may be the jewels of the attack but they also have Hernández and Forlán. Compare those 4 with England's and their attack comes out on top.
And to top it off, they will be more use to the climate than the English players, who have been training in coats and jackets to prepare them for the heat. England plays more with energy than being a slow paced team, so that will count against them too.
How do you feel England will do in the group stages and the World Cup as a whole?
Will England Go Pass Group Stage?
posted on 26/5/14
Have a look at Portugal's tournament record Robb. They usually go pretty far, regardless of the strength of their team. But I can't see a stand out team in this tournament tbh
posted on 26/5/14
Certainly wouldn't rule out Argentine.
Agüero, Di Maria, Lavezzi is scary with Messi with a point to prove after being outshone by Ronaldo all season.
Garay and Mascherano isn't an awful central defensive partnership either I think they'll do well this year.
posted on 26/5/14
2004 - at home and lost Greece in the final.
2006 - Semis.
2008 - Quarters.
2010 - Second Round.
2012 - Semis.
They do okay but in all their knock out games post-2004 they've played 7 games and scored 4 goals.
IMO they just don't have enough goals to succeed in South America.
posted on 26/5/14
Agreed on that. They're very reliant on one player to score all their goals - Helder Postiga
posted on 26/5/14
posted on 26/5/14
Mascherano is a world class defensive midfielder. I was absolutely gutted when he went to LFC and with goid reason. He performs that role so well. But I don't rate him as a CB (don't rate Pique either) and I don't rate Argentina as a defensive unit either. They are going to neef to discover some serious mental strength and togetherness in the next few weeks for me to even cinsifer them a threat.
posted on 26/5/14
Ps get on Switzerland to make it ti tge knockout phase
posted on 26/5/14
http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/270300
posted on 26/5/14
Yes they will
posted on 26/5/14
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
Argentina's defence is being massively under-rated. They are an attacking team, but only conceded in qualifying when they were guaranteed top spot and started making lots of changes.
Against some very good attacks in South America they only conceded 15 in 16, and 6 of those were in the last 3 games with experiments taking place in line ups.
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Wow how do you remember all this?