Rogorn
member
Reged: 24/03/2007
Posts: 314
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It's quite easy to find videprinters and live scoreboards for the European section of the World Cup qualifiers, but FIFA's site has got one with all the games from all over the world. As they should:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/oceania/matches/round=250488/match=300035732/index.html
Right now: 39th minute, Mauritius 1 Tanzania 4
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tko999
member
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 11
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Here's the up to date 'live' scores page for matchdays
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/matches/index.html
Deffo worth a look
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tko999
member
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 11
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It was good to see England playing with confidence last night. Too many times previously they seemed to be struck down with stagefright to use Capello's apt term. To get a 4-1 win against Croatia who had never lost at home speaks volumes for how much the team has come on.
Heskey was his usual dependable self, and balls knocked up to and into him stuck, which can't be said of other centre forwards, where they had a habit of rebounding or being mis-controlled. Rooney was happy to come deep and forage for the ball and it was pleasing to see him get a goal after a bit of a drought. Should do his confidence some good, not that he seemed preturbed by the wait.
Croatia were out to spoil the game, which was a shame as they can play good football, with the centrebacks dishing it out. One too many over the top challenges, on Joe Cole, cost them a player and possibly the match.
Theo Walcott, after a little bit of a mis-firing start, showed his emerging class. To score a hat-trick for England at 19, making him the youngest Englishman to do so, was breathtaking. Possibly a certain Mr. Eriksson may be wearing a wry smile today.
The most pleasing aspect of the performance was the fluidity in the team. It wasn't just long balls pumped hopefully forward, although when in evidence, were of the highest quality. There was building from the back, the use of the width, little one-twos, highlighted in Lampard's disallowed effort and some very penetrative and incisive passing.
It's early days in qualifying, but the portents are good and if we can keep performing like last night, we should be set fair for South Africa 2010
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rotku
member
Reged: 14/06/2007
Posts: 105
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While I must agree that England were very impressive on Wednesday (aided by a poor Croatian performance), it was only a few days ago that Capello and his team were being critised for a poor performance against Andorra and performances in recent friendlies have been far from impressive so don't start making room in the trophy cabinet just yet!!!
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tko999
member
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 11
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I agree that one swallow doesn't make a summer, and after the euphoria of England beating Germany 5-1 in Munich, we were on our way, apparently, to win the 2002 World Cup, but I get a feeling lessons have been learnt and Capello is a different kettle of fish.
There was a school of thought regarding Euro 2008 that we would have struggled if we had qualified, and watching some of the football played, this could have been the case. It is a big 'if' however, as a) we didn't qualify and b) had we been there, it would have been England playing and anything could have happened...
The current squad is made up of a mix of experience and youth. Walcott playing on the right wing seems to be a natural progression, with Beckham ceding to the younger player. If Joe Cole is given an extended run in the side, we would have two exciting, creative wingers, together with an experienced defence and a central midfield two-from-three of Lampard, Gerrard and Barry. Rooney and Heskey seemed to work, the latter as an exceptional target man, but former sitting tenant Owen would be knocking loudly on the front door.
As three of our last four qualifiers are at home next year, hopefully we will be well on our way...
With Croatia visiting Wembley on 9th.9th.9th., fingers crossed there is no element of an emergency.
And with Spain ending a 44 year wait for a trophy in 2008, there is a nice numerical similarity between 1966 and 2010...
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reddevil82
member
Reged: 27/06/2008
Posts: 67
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England have had numerous false dawns before, and while they undoubtedly have talented individual players, Spain and Italy must still be the European favourites. Also I find it disappointing that they expressed no interest in turning the new Celtic Cup tournament featuring the Republic, the North, Scotland and Wales into a Five Nations Championship. The team can hardly afford to dismiss an opportunity to success in an international competition, and interest in an England-Ireland fixture alone would surely guarantee a capacity crowd at the new Wembley.
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RichieC
member
Reged: 17/07/2006
Posts: 534
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Agreed. I long for a return of the home internationals and a tournament with all 5 of em would have been fantastic. And surely playing teams like Scotland would be better than random friendlies against places like Jamaica etc...at least the players would put some effort in for a change...
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reddevil82
member
Reged: 27/06/2008
Posts: 67
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Can't see Maradona lasting too long with Argentina, that's not say he couldn't do alright, just you suspect he'll walk as soon as they lose a competitive match. In any case, with the squad they have at the moment, you'd have to put them as favourites for 2010.
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