Thursday, June 22, 2006

The Football World Cup


Although football is not my most favourite of games, we are in the midst of a football and beer drinking fest, of which the England Football team are taking part (they are playing football, I'm drinking the beer!).

We have just completed the group stage which consists of a round-robin of matches with three other teams, - the top two going through to the knock-out stage. We have, so far, failed to have been fully convincing, but the important thing to remember is that we have come top of our group; we haven't lost a match; we've scored 5 goals with only 2 against. Although it has been frustrating, we are in the best position we could ever hope to be in at this stage.

Who said, supporting England would be easy!

Let's hope they are working hard as I type. On the whole, our defense and mid-field would seem to be pretty solid and with the possibility of Ferdinand and Neville coming back niggles and knocks, some of the indecision in defense is likely to be eliminated. Ferdinand and Terry are true World class.

Mid field, Gerrard seems to be firing on all cylinders, and Lampard is getting into shooting positions - eventually one will go in! My only doubts are up front. Crouch, at this level, looks a little off the pace, but he does hold the ball up well, Rooney is not yet fully match fit, but I'm sure he will start to make a real impression. What we need is to start playing as a team. We have the players, we just need the team-work.

Time to get behind them, and the beer in for Sunday's match against Ecuador. Well done England so far.

2 comments:

Eddie said...

Hi Mark,
I'm truly sorry, but if you truly think that Ferdinand is world class, then you must be imbibing far too much of the beer!
I've never understood why Sir Alex paid so much for him, nor why he's a regular for England. Make a point of lookikng for him just after an opponent has scored. His impersonation of a bewildered stork, arms flapping like under-developed wings is truly amusing!
Also, a small correction, England have only actually scored 4 goals, Paraguay kindly scored on for us!
Enjoy the beer!
Eddie

Mark said...

Thanks Eddie. I disagree (and coming from a life-long Man United hater), but Ferdinand, on his day, compares favourably with the best defenders in the world. Generally his timing and positionig are good, and so far, he has been solid in England's campaign so far. Between him and Campbell, Ferdinand will always get the nod from me.