Well the Argentinians have definitely picked it up a gear - three or four chances in the last five minutes.

Nigeria are very close to being a decent side by the look of it - just not making the right decisions when it matters. I reckon Nigeria vs South Korea could be a good game and they should beat Greece.

Koli Im not sure what you were expecting. 32 teams that all play like Barcelona?

I've just worked out who Diego reminds me of, he's the South American version of Swiss Toni:

Maybe he wants them to play as well as they did in the friendlies seeing as they're such a good gauge of World Cup performance....

"Playing footbal is like making love to a beautiful woman"

"you may make think it's about a great pass or an impressive tackle, but at the end of the day, it's getting in the box that counts".

Yeah, I'm really impressed by them.

They came close to equalising a couple of times, too.

I think they definitely have a chance to get through the group.

I expect accurate passes, good defending, strikers hitting the target and desire to win. That is what I am used to from 90% of team in EPL.

I like WC because you get a mixture of styles and tactics but on its own it is all useless if player can't find each other and they are shooting from impossible positions and hoping for the best.

Speaking of friendlies and qualifiers, France, Mexico and Argentina performed so far as they did before the tournament. They've all been rubbish, Argentina is not rubbish but def. not good enough, in line with just about scrapping through into the final stage. Lets see if England can muster something better than those poor performances it showed so far...

I think you are being a little harsh on Argentina - they could have won this game 5-0 if the goalkeeper wasn't having such a good game.

I reckon a fair result would have been 3-1, perhaps 2-1.

90%? All that? So Wolves vs Hull was full of 'accurate passes, good defending, strikers hitting the target and desire to win' was it? Not in this dimension. Nigeria would I suspect comfortably beat the bottom half of the prem. Perish the thought, an Arsenal fan being snobbish about football...

Woah, woah, woah!

Less of that please!

Nigeria had only ONE shoot on target and 10 shots off target. For me that is pathetic.

Admittedly, being an Arsenal fan I demand more than most from a football game. But I have seen approx 80% of games during Euro '08 and I don't remember many poor games. The majority of them have been excellent so I don't think it is me being snobbish.

But it is too early, I have seen 3 out of 4 so far, I've deliberately missed the Greece game. I am not giving up yet.

EDIT: Jon, just count Hull and Wolves as 10% that I don't rate

Aside from France the desire appears to be there and they are all getting used to a new ball at altitude remember.


The win is important, the performance secondary. There isn't a Professional that would suggest otherwise.

True, I don't dispute that. However when England lines up against a good team in later stages of the tournament, they will need to be confident in their ability to win. If they keep "just scraping wins" in the group, confidence just won't be there and I don't care what any of them says in front of cameras. I don't see the confidence from England team, especially not on the pitch.

I hope they will prove me wrong though.

True.

My main concern for tonight is the referee, Carlos Simon quote from The Guardian:



Hardly fills me with confidence.

Edit: England squad for tonight:

England: Green, Johnson, Terry, King, Ashley Cole, Lennon, Lampard, Gerrard, Milner, Heskey, Rooney.
Subs: James, Barry, Carragher, Carrick, Joe Cole, Crouch, Dawson, Defoe, Upson, Warnock, Wright-Phillips, Hart.

Glad to see Milner in there and I hope Joe Cole gets some time on the pitch.