Five reasons England can win the World Cup including world-class pair
There’s been some England miserabilism in the build-up to this World Cup but we have some optimism because we have some great players.
Watch England v Costa Rica and send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
Why England can win the World Cup
Everyone seems to be writing England off – running around in the heat, Bellingham issues, foreigners are better, etc, etc.
Countering this…
1. We have an actual manager who has won things…and is an actual manager, not a waistcoat.
2. We will be playing players in their actual positions – although we’ll see what happens when the heat is on.
3. The players themselves are “quite good” – goalkeeper (could be worse); defense (not bad, if not injured); midfield (pretty tasty if Arteta hasn’t broken Rice, and I don’t care if it is Rogers or Bellingham); attack (Kane, a broken Saka, and bizarrely, Barca’s shiny new recruit).
4. We have at least 2 world class players (Kane and Bellingham), another 3 (James, Rice, Saka) who would be there or thereabouts, and in sheer numbers the most valuable squad by a considerable distance.
5. The team basically picks itself,and if you do a one on one comparison with the other top teams, you don’t have to squint too much to see that we’re competitive.
As for the oppo…
France – shite coach, the Mbappe curse, and not really much better than us.
Spain – Yamal if he isn’t broken, some dodgy defenders and attackers…and Rodri.
Portugal – Ronaldo circus, really shite manager, eclectic collection of players…some great, some not so much (love the midfield).
Argies – Messi tribute band?
Germans – who knows…they have Havertz at No.9 and Neuer in goal.
Brazil – gotta love a Neymar comeback, a completely unbalanced squad, more egos than you can shake a stick at, and the Don presiding. So yes, I’ve got my money on them!!
TLDR – we’ve got a shot at the title.
Matthew (ITFC)
…I don’t really have any skin in this World Cup, I began boycotted watching FIFA tournaments in 2018 and haven’t watched a WC match or qualifier since. If anything this World Cup is even worse politically, environmentally and footballery, so I’m very comfortable with my choice. I know it makes no difference, I just don’t have emotional attachment to it anymore.
However, that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what’s going on…
I’m seeing lots of people talking about England not being good enough to win it. But what is “good enough to win it”?
Last night I watched the Netflix “Untold” about Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League win. Aside from it bringing back all kinds of amazing emotions, I’d actually forgotten how bad that Liverpool team was and how poorly they played at times.
But they won the CL anyway, beating multiple teams of “who’s who in football” (Chelsea, Juve, Milan) who were managed by the best managers at the time (Ancelotti and Jose). And in all those matches, it was really only the QF win over Juve which stood out as a decent performance. The rest of the matches were defined by moments. Luis Garcia, Dudek, Shevchenko, Gerrard, Smicer, Alonso, Dida. Ultimately, when it mattered most, Dudek showed up and Dida didn’t.
England fans would do well to note: you don’t have to play well for 90+ minutes. You have to win the moments and in that squad you have many players who have proved that they can win moments.
Top of the list would be Pickford, Kane and Bellingham.
Anyway, I’m off to watch cricket and tennis for the next few weeks, see you all again in August.
Rob, Hove
England midfield never competes
In my lifetime England have usually been quite good at defending and have always had a goal in them. The problem has always been the midfield. We are outplayed by any team with one world class midfielder. The only England midfield that ever looked competent in my lifetime was the Ince/Gascoigne axis. Tuchal has his work cut out to create a midfield that can compete with the likes of Spain, France and Portugal and stop our players chasing shadows.
Ben Teacher
Giddy for the World Cup right here
Read the mailbox on Tuesday and Dave H gave a fairly negative read on the World Cup and the games to watch. So I’m going to do the opposite, because I absolutely love the World Cup. Not just for seeing France v Argentina or Brazil v Spain but for all the lesser teams and the matches they play. That for me is a huge part of what the World Cup is about.
I’m not some football hipster, but as a man who grew up on a diet of mainly Scottish football, I know that you don’t need good players to have entertaining matches. 2 bang average sides going toe to toe can be better than watching Spain 2010 stringing 200 passes together.
As I live in the UAE, I watched their qualifier for the World Cup against Qatar. It was an absolute belter. It finished 2-1 to Qatar (sadly) but it was two sides really going for it, with everything on the line.
Just look at some of the matches from the group stage of the last World Cup. There were some cracking games that no one would have circled in their Radio Times. Either unexpected shocks or 2 “minnows” putting on a great show:
Cameroon 3-3 Serbia
South Korea 2-3 Ghana
Saudi Arabia 2-1 Argentina
Senegal 2-1 Ecuador
Germany 4-2 Costa Rica
South Korea 2-1 Portugal
With the time difference the way it is (especially in the UAE) I’m watching whatever I can. USA v Paraguay? Yes please. Germany v Curaçao? Bring it on. Czechia v South Africa? Inject it into my veins. I absolutely love the World Cup, and despite all the nonsense around, I can’t wait for it to begin.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
READ: Ranking all 72(!) World Cup group-stage games by how ‘World Cup group-stage game’ they feel
If you build it, they won’t come…
Even without the concern over travelling through what is now effectively a fascist country, the idea of hosting the tournament across 3 vast countries, was always problematic. And all three that get extremely hot in the summer – yup, even Canada that can be -20c or worse in the winter will be around +30c or more in summer.
But to then have it so that the teams travel from city to city to play their games is ludicrous. England will be playing in Dallas, Boston and New Jersey. If they win the group, Atlanta. If they win that Mexico City? Most hotels, apart from jacking up prices, are demanding minimum stays of 3 or more days. Granted there will be that many days between games but the point is before any ticket costs, the internal travel and hotel costs alone will be expensive.
Which means a heavy reliance on ‘locals’ filling up the stadia. Baking in a roofless stadium, likely having to get there very early to get through the regular security and irregular ICE checks, and then forced to wait to leave late (for security and safety) with their one small, plastic water bottle.
The average attendance at any MLS game is around 23,000. While the World Cup might still be a draw card, they are mostly using larger NFL venues in cities that either have low attendance MLS teams or none at all. On the other hand, several cities with highest attended MLS teams have no World Cup games. So if they are relying on local MLS supporters to go watch random World Cup games and fill the stadium, it’s highly unlikely, before even considering the exorbitant cost of tickets.
I also wonder about all those people that volunteer to support the World Cup (In Canada there was a call for volunteers not sure about in the US or Mexico) to help guide and marshal fans to the games, for example. Doing it for free while FIFA is a corrupt and toxic organization. I imagine a lot of those do it for the experience and are not heavy football (soccer) supporters.
I should feel happy for Canada and Mexico to be getting a chance to host games – especially Canada with their first taste – but I really can’t be arsed for this one. The erosion of all that was worthy at one time has accelerated with it going from Russia to Qatar (in winter) to the current version of the USA. Not to mention the irony of the pushback on Qatar for using slave labour and the summer heat forcing a football calendar disruption – to a country that is showing equal disdain for its citizens and tourists and will be the hottest World Cup ever.
As to Johnny Nic’s point that this will be papered over by the cognoscenti, and declared, as all Olympics are, the best one ever, I think the sponsors and broadcasters will know exactly how much this World Cup will fail to deliver for them. As many of the biggest sponsors are US based businesses, the dream is a World Cup on home turf, in home time zones, to maximize attention – you know, Coca Cola based in Atlanta – and they will be tracking everything. They signed up pre-Trump but post-Infantino, so should have known better. So if there was one bright light it would be knowing they will all be giving Infantino a right bollocking as it, and he, fails to deliver.
Paul McDevitt
(Yawwwwwwwwn)
