Comments on: Joe Cole Can’t Save England Blushes

By: patrick

patrick — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:10:01 +0000

It irks me that I pay 15 bucks a month for Setanta, and they pull this PPV crap with England.

By: Kartik Krishnaiyer

Kartik Krishnaiyer — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:45:28 +0000

I think it was a good performance from England. Nothing spectacular but certainly not as dire as Spain, the US or France today.

By: Johnathan Starling

Johnathan Starling — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:53:41 +0000

Richard, you don’t know me very well.

France and Italy deserve to be thrashed for their pitiful performances as well.

Quite frankly I could give a toss either way with England. The way I saw it, they were pathetic. With the number of chances England had, they should have won AT LEAST 3-0 MOST LIKELY 4-0.

By: Richard Whittall

Richard Whittall — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:18:08 +0000

England won two nil. They parked eleven men in front of net, Joe found a way through, the end. I’m no Ingerland apologist, but if it had been Italy or France, none of this would have even been talked about. At all. Period.

The longer England fans expect to see Brazil-like performances, including ten-nil scorelines against the minnows, the heavier the cross self-hating England fans seem to want to bear.

By: Jeff Hash

Jeff Hash — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:21:44 +0000

Kartik, we can go back and forth on the form England had for the win. It was a poor first half, better second, which may have been a function of the team Fabio trotted out to start and the halftime subs. The tactics worked, but thankfully they still have time before going to Croatia. That said, you shouldn’t be caught looking ahead anyway.

But you are going to argue Andorra is underrated?

Here’s something for you to chew on: these are results of the last 5 international qualifying campaigns for Andorra-

Euro 2000: 0 points, -25 GD
World Cup 2002: 0 points, -31 GD
Euro 2004: 0 points, -17 GD
World Cup 2006: 5 points (4 of which came against one team, Macedonia), -30 GD
Euro 2008: 0 points, -40 GD

A total of 1 win and 2 draws over 52 matches (not counting the two they have already played for World Cup 2010). They lost more matches by four or more goals during Euro 2008 qualifying (4) then the number they lost by one (2).

Want to defend an average performance out of England? I have no problem with that. You want to make Andorra out to be anything other than an UEFA bottom feeder? I’m sorry, but I have to wonder if your seeing the same game everybody else sees.