BS: England through to World Cup 2006

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 08:24 PM

Kevin McCarra, in today's Sports section of The Guardian, summed up what happened pretty well : A performance of outstanding character swept England through to the World Cup finals. It was given by Holland during their 2-0 win in the Czech Republic on Saturday evening, some hours after Sven-Goran Eriksonn's team had meandered to victory over Austria.

Still, the qualification rounds never actually seem to give much indication of how well teams will play when the real thing starts. Either way, if England hadn't got through the amount of TV time given on UK TV to the competition next year would have been cut to a fraction, so well done Holland.

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: Arnie
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 04:57 PM

Well, we'll be praying for rain and a first round draw against either Ivory Coast, Togo or Angola......that should give us a chance of grabbing a draw with only 10 men as either Rooney and Beckham will be sent off for brawling before half time.....

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: alanabit
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 02:15 PM

England were actually quite appalling on Saturday. They managed to make Austria look like a class side - and that takes some doing. With around eight players on the pitch, whom the German manager would give his eye teeth for, England played defensive football at home, against a team which is nowhere near the best twenty in the world.
I guess England could get their act together and do a lot better than this. However, unless they improve a very great deal, they will have a very short visit to Germany next June. If the temperature goes much above 25°C, they will not have a prayer against Brazil or Argentina anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: The Shambles
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 01:24 PM

England did actually win the World Cup in 1966.
(Just in case anyone did not know this)

Qualifing from the European section is not all that easy. You can tell that by the fine teams that will have been eliminated from it and that we will not be seeing in the finals.

It would be interesting to see how well some of the teams that have qualified from the other sections (apart perhaps from the South American one) would have fared in the European section.

Perhaps it would be more fair to have the qualifiers from these other sections play-off against against the European and South Amrican non-qualifiers? Although it would not make the finals so much fun or as interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:13 AM

Oh yes, the US team qualified a few weeks ago for World Cup 2006.   Glad to see that England managed to squeak in to join us this time. It has been awhile since the England visited the Cup hasn't it? I hope you guys stay around for awhile.

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:11 AM

I don't think England has ever beaten the Womens team. The last time we faced England we won 6-0, a game back in 2003.

The Mens team has not faired as well. Aside from 1950 the only other memorable win was back in 1993. We've held our own a couple of times after that, but we lost again to England earlier this year.

Subject: RE: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: Splott Man
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 10:40 AM

1776

Subject: BS: England through to World Cup 2006
From: Arnie
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 10:31 AM

Well, at least I think it' worth noting that England have made it to the World Cup in Germany in 2006. It hasn't always been pretty but at least we qualified, unlike the Scots, N. Ireland and Wales. RoI is still in with a mathematical chance. I'm not gloating over the rest of the home teams not making it, but when Scotland go down 1-0 to Belarus then they've got real team problems!! Ok, we lost 1-0 to N Ireland but I wouldn't take that victory away from NI - they played their socks off and deserved to win - they were unlucky to lose to Wales at the weekend having come back from a 2 goal deficit (nice one Gigsy). And just in case our friends over the pond are wondering, the good old US of A are leading their group and may be joining us in Germany next year. In fact didn't they beat England somewhere back in the mists of time??