WC 2014 Match 37 - Costa Rica vs England

[Whore Jackie]

Every bit as good as you'd imagine. Some half-decent bits, but this doesn't look like a defence that's gonna challenge for Euro 2016.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Definitely a pre-season friendly vibe about this one.
That was a bit snidey by Sturridge.

[Whore Jackie]

Can't recall one decent set piece from England this World Cup. Gerrard, Rooney, Lampard, Baines and Barkley have all failed miserably. That's one of the few things you'd have thought England could profit from.

[Silver Fox]

At least we know that playing any of this lot in the first 2 games wouldn't have made any difference at all

[No Fixed Abode]

Well, that was our first point.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Trying to just copy other people's formations with this group of players seems depressingly mental.

The players need hunger, to close down space, to pass and move, blah, blah.

Instead lots of standing around waiting for someone else to do something. That, combined with the 'far post nod back' tactic at every corner in the first game has me convinced that Roy watched a lot of Reading games last season

[No Fixed Abode]

At least we know that playing any of this lot in the first 2 games wouldn't have made any difference at all

Really? We got a point today (from the group winners) which is more than we gained from the first two games against the 2 lesser placed teams in our group.

[jd82]

At least we know that playing any of this lot in the first 2 games wouldn't have made any difference at all

Really? We got a point today (from the group winners) which is more than we gained from the first two games against the 2 lesser placed teams in our group.

What do you think the difference was today Kes?

[multisync1830]

CR weren't particularly bothered as they were saving themselves for the next stage. We on the other hand were still shite.

Woy reckons we are world champions . 70 mins in and he panics by sending on the old guard which didn't work the other two games. I thought he was ok but he's seriously deluded. A mid table manager with mid table outdated skill and ambition.

[Bandini]

The players need hunger

Too soon.

[Ian Royal]

Congratulations to Lampard, Jones, Smalling and Milner who managed to improve our results to a draw despite being shit against a team that couldn't give a shit what happened.

[Ian Royal]

The players need hunger

Too soon.

To b fair, when Lamps took his shirt off you could see he'd been on a zero food diet for a while. So he must hage been hungry

[Libertine]

Both teams looked like they would have preferred to be on a beach somewhere...

I was at least expecting to see some passion and urgency out of the kids and they never appeared to get out of first gear. Or was it just a complete lack of pace?

[Stranded]

Couldn't even win the unofficial World Cup.

http://www.ufwc.co.uk

[Man Friday]

The match confirmed what we already suspected: We simply ain't good enough. The first 15 minutes CR completely outplayed us. They then realised they didn't need to play at that level in order to get a point and relaxed their game.

How Roy can be happy with that performance, I really don't know. It was actually worse than the two other matches, performance-wise, especially against a team that didn't need to get out of second gear.

We really are woeful.

[Royalclapper]

Costa Rica only really interested in keeping us out rather than offering anything going forward.

Sturridge should have had a penalty and fluffed another decent opening, Barkley then superbly went on a burst into the box with their defence beaten all ends up only to be predictably hacked down. Navas one the best goalies in the competition.

[Man Friday]

Take the blinkers off. We may have been playing the mighty Costa Rica but our performance was woeful for most of the game with just odd glimpses of anything resembling decent football.

We have finished the tournament where we deserve to be, bottom of our group as one of the worst teams because that's what we are.

[Platypuss]

Well, that was our first point.

And first time we haven't scored

[frimmers3]

Will it make two pages?

[Maguire]

The first 15 minutes CR completely outplayed us

And the last 75 minutes we outplayed them

As ever, the result colours everything else. England were much the better side, just needed to take a chance to give the scoreline a fair reflection of the play. Not bad for a second string side, although (and this isn't Kes bait) Lampard is so obviously past it now.