World Cup.

[halfwayprawn]

Is it going to be a VARDAY

[marky No.1]

Is it going to be a VARDAY

Having a partttyyyyyy

[fulwoodshrimp]

The Belgium game in my opinion highlighted the weakness in goal for England. Pickford doesn't seem able to hold shots and pushes them back out. In games against the very best teams this weakness will be exploited.

[Bare Grills]

And nothing to do with the easier route to the final

[marky No.1]

One game at a time - please !!! We thought it was easy last time and look what Iceland did...

Cant see many of the 'new' team tonight claiming a place for Tuesday.

Momentum lost, but possibly happy

[Gone_Shrimping]

One game at a time - please !!! We thought it was easy last time and look what Iceland did...

Cant see many of the 'new' team tonight claiming a place for Tuesday.

Momentum lost, but possibly happy

If we beat Columbia , who have we got in the 1/4 finals ?

[black morse]

One game at a time - please !!! We thought it was easy last time and look what Iceland did...

Cant see many of the 'new' team tonight claiming a place for Tuesday.

Momentum lost, but possibly happy

If we beat Columbia , who have we got in the 1/4 finals ?

Switzerland or Sweden. Never get a better chance.

Agree with your assessment of todays players. Everything Dier did was dire. Rashford blew his chances and Vardy is NOT a Harry Kane.

[P/T Indie]

I think we are going to struggle to score against better teams. Most of our goals have come from set plays or pens and we struggled to break Tunisia down.

[marky No.1]

BUT on a positive note, Germany , Italy and the Netherlands arent in the comp ... as has been said we have weaknesses but we will never have a better chance than this for a long long time

[Ntini]

It makes me laugh when people say this is an easier route to winning the World Cup. If you want to win it, you have to beat the best teams in the competition at some point. Let's be under no illusions, Colombia are a decent side who are more than capable of dumping us out in the next round!

Personally, I'd have rather faced the 9-change Belgian side with as full-strength a side (niggles excepted) as possible and played them off the park. Confidence breeds confidence and both teams were poor IMO last night. If we'd have played our best available side, possibly Kane gets another goal under his belt, players gel more and we keep a winning mentality. Opportunity missed and I just hope it doesn't come back to bite us.

Onwards and upwards!

[black morse]

It makes me laugh when people say this is an easier route to winning the World Cup. If you want to win it, you have to beat the best teams in the competition at some point. Let's be under no illusions, Colombia are a decent side who are more than capable of dumping us out in the next round!

Personally, I'd have rather faced the 9-change Belgian side with as full-strength a side (niggles excepted) as possible and played them off the park. Confidence breeds confidence and both teams were poor IMO last night. If we'd have played our best available side, possibly Kane gets another goal under his belt, players gel more and we keep a winning mentality. Opportunity missed and I just hope it doesn't come back to bite us.

Onwards and upwards!

But it isn't quite true that we have to face the best teams in the world is it? Germany are out and either France or Argentina will be out in the next round. Agree or not Belgium are rated 3rd in the world (I think) and if we have to play them again it won't be until the final. Yes if we progress we will have to face Spain probably. Not sure whether I agree with playing the team we played last night but, if he'd played the same team as before and some had got injured or second yellows they'd have been unavailable for the first knockout game and he'd have been castigated for that. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I see your point of continuing a winning streak but it would have been risky.

[Ntini]

But it isn't quite true that we have to face the best teams in the world is it? Germany are out and either France or Argentina will be out in the next round. Agree or not Belgium are rated 3rd in the world (I think) and if we have to play them again it won't be until the final.

That's just historical though. Germany aren't the best in the world, they're out! FIFA rankings only serve to seed teams at the start of a competition, as soon as the competition starts they're out of date. I still maintain if you want to win the competition then you have to beat the best teams right now.

[black morse]

But it isn't quite true that we have to face the best teams in the world is it? Germany are out and either France or Argentina will be out in the next round. Agree or not Belgium are rated 3rd in the world (I think) and if we have to play them again it won't be until the final.

That's just historical though. Germany aren't the best in the world, they're out! FIFA rankings only serve to seed teams at the start of a competition, as soon as the competition starts they're out of date. I still maintain if you want to win the competition then you have to beat the best teams right now.

Ok. You are talking about the 'in form teams' or even 'best teams on the day' or they could even have been lucky.

[redrobo]

To date we've only played what I would call Championship teams in Tunisia and Panama and relied very much on set pieces to win the games without being totally dominant in either game. For long spells both teams were able to hold onto the ball albeit without creating much. However when it came to playing a Premiership team in Belgium we struggled even against their second team which suggest that they have a far better squad than ourselves. I can't see the game v Columbia being anything other than a hard slog which may see us exit the competition unless we control the game from the off.

[black morse]

To date we've only played what I would call Championship teams in Tunisia and Panama and relied very much on set pieces to win the games without being totally dominant in either game. For long spells both teams were able to hold onto the ball albeit without creating much. However when it came to playing a Premiership team in Belgium we struggled even against their second team which suggest that they have a far better squad than ourselves. I can't see the game v Columbia being anything other than a hard slog which may see us exit the competition unless we control the game from the off.

It certainly was poor! But it only proved to me that their 'second team' was better than our 'second team' and that none of our 'second team' warranted being included in the first team. The game proved nothing else to me.

[Ntini]

But it isn't quite true that we have to face the best teams in the world is it? Germany are out and either France or Argentina will be out in the next round. Agree or not Belgium are rated 3rd in the world (I think) and if we have to play them again it won't be until the final.

That's just historical though. Germany aren't the best in the world, they're out! FIFA rankings only serve to seed teams at the start of a competition, as soon as the competition starts they're out of date. I still maintain if you want to win the competition then you have to beat the best teams right now.

Ok. You are talking about the 'in form teams' or even 'best teams on the day' or they could even have been lucky.

How would you describe the best teams in the world ?
I'm talking about the best teams being the ones who got to the finals and the best of those got through to the last 16. You can't count the 'big' teams (Germany, the Netherlands and Italy) as the 'best' teams based on the fact they've won in the past. If you can't get to the world cup or get through the group stages then you're not the best.

[Phil Anderer]

In respect of last night, I thought even before kick-off (and not having bothered to look at the route through to the final) that it wouldn't hurt us to lose. With the squad being so young, there is always a risk of them getting too big-headed if they win every game, so a loss in a match that didn't matter that much could just be a rebalancing of the egos, ensuring that they realise they're not unbeatable. Plus, having looked this morning, I'd rather England were on the side of the draw they ended up instead of facing the prospect of Argentina, who surely must sort themselves out after the group stage, Brazil (similar but to a lesser extent), and France (ditto). Last night wasn't great to watch, but we're through to the next round with, hopefully, an easier set of matches ahead than had we won. Plus can I say good on them for the disciplinary record so far.

[black morse]

Kirsty McColl - England 2 Peru 0???????

[Keith]

Kirsty McColl - England 2 Peru 0???????

England 2 Columbia 0
From my all time favourite album, Tropical Brainstorm. Amazing to think she was killed 18 years ago

A really pained song. Hope it's the same result tonight!

[marky No.1]

Wow, that was unbearable, please play in white on Saturday, then we might not try defending a 1.0 lead with 20 minutes to go.

Globe Arena will be busy on Saturday at 3pm and 7pm

[captain sparkle]

Nice to see a Morecambe flag up there! (don't really know what I'm doing here, but I'll give it a try!!)



there we go!

[P/T Indie]

I think we are going to struggle to score against better teams. Most of our goals have come from set plays or pens and we struggled to break Tunisia down.

Still couldn't score from open play how on earth will we break sweeden down who will sit back deep. I would make some changes for the sweeden game and try to improve the quality in the final third.

Maybe another penalty shootout

[Freez]

Surely Sterling will not start after yet another disappointing show?

[bill ding]

Wow, that was unbearable, please play in white on Saturday, then we might not try defending a 1.0 lead with 20 minutes to go.

Globe Arena will be busy on Saturday at 3pm and 7pm

Why are you actually going to go Marky ??

[redrobo]

Surely Sterling will not start after yet another disappointing show?

Shouldn't have started the game as his contribution to date has been minimal. Unfortunately I suspect he will be in the starting 11 v Sweden. Surely there are better players going forward on the bench than him. Glad we won the pen shoot out but we have to start putting the opposition goalkeeper under pressure in normal game time. Can't recall too many attempts on goal yet again.