World Football Thread XII

[Serb]

Originally posted by Victor Galis


No, that would have been an England-Germany final.

Unfortunately for you, Argentina thought otherwise.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Frings suspended tomorrow:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=373171&cc=5901

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Serb

Unfortunately for you, Argentina thought otherwise.

[Serb]

The referee who removed Rooney for BS reason was Argentinian.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Frings suspended tomorrow:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...373171&cc=5901

That was a joke not a punch

[Frozzy]

Fifa has suspended European champions Greece and its member clubs from international competition because of government interference in the sport.

World governing body Fifa said the Hellenic Football Federation had broken rules on "the independence of members and decision-making in each country".

It means Greek clubs and officials are banned from European competitions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/5141866.stm

[Serb]

Greece
FIFA suks.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
you need lampard to take penalties tho. he was englands best until recently.

Unfortunately that's after Rooney got the boot, so they needed to give up something.

Of course it would be better if Sven played 4-4-1-1 with Crouch up front and Rooney behind him.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

crouch is trash. if he selected theo walcott, he shoulda played him. if he didnt think he was good enough to play, then he shoulda selected someone who was.

[Thedrin]

Bent, and maybe Defoe, should have travelled as well. But I would still have picked Crouch ahead of both of these guys. He holds up the ball well, has good feet, really dsiturbs defenders with his imposing height and in doing all this creates room, and consequently chances, for others.

He's not world class by any means and not as good as, say, Koller for the Czech Republic but he is very good by the standard of center forwards available to England at the moment.

As an example, he did more playing the lone forward role for England than Rooney did (though Rooney isn't a center forward).

[alva]

I certainly would have picked Crouch but not as a starting player. He would have been great for those moments when it's time to risk all.

[Urban Ranger]

Sure, Ericsson should have picked Defoe over Walcott, but even he isn't stupid enough to play him.

Crouch does quite well to hold the ball up front to wait for support. Put him in the penalty area and you force the defenders to mark him for headers.

[Sikander]

I thought Rooney was better than Crouch alone up front, because he can break down two guys defending him pretty regularly, which means that the defense has to collapse on him even more, which means that anyone else joining the run has a better chance of getting open. Crouch seemed to be no threat holding the ball, he's way to slow to break down defenders and really requires some help to score.

[alva]

Crouch was never gonna do that - or anyone for that matter - when England was down to ten men. He was there to hopefully keep the ball a couple of seconds and give their defense a breather and time to reorganise. A succes was a getting a throw in and the big price was getting a corner out of it all.
Can't blame Crouch for not sparkling in that role, in fact he did very well.

[Thedrin]

really requires some help to score.

There's absolutely no point playing a lone striker unless you've designated two or three midfielders the task of trying to get into scoring positions.