Whatever happened to the World Cup

Last few days of football overdose has been insane, the Spanish, who were pegged as favorites struggling to get going and then the Germans, not only getting beat but missing a penalty. We have had the Argentine team being saved by a linesman error, as up to the point of that offside goal their heads were dropping. The Americans putting on a show in a game they should have won, as that third goal was fine. Some strange player antics that still have me puzzled. Some of this can be blamed on that beachball FIFA have used for the world cup but most just stupid mistakes by players, referees and the moment.
But as always you can always rely on the English team to do all they can to maintain the status quo and play like they have never touched a ball in their lives. Their second game and they crossed that white line into the bland land of what can only be described as uselessville.

They have built that team around Rooney, but seem to have no idea what to do when Rooney stops playing, and the fact he had the cheek to complain about booing fans after the performance he offered us just showed that something is not right in that camp, as he can't believe he played well. It was as if he was the twelfth man for the opposition he was giving them the ball so often, in fact  every time he touched the ball it ended at their feet.

There were three players I would have had on that field and one that claimed he was a striker in the run up to the match, I would have moved to midfield as a holding midfielder, as Emile Heskey is a striker in peril and is afraid to shoot for the goal. But he was the only player up there that could get hold of the ball and keep it. But he was afraid to go into the box and when he did eventually break into it, he was afraid to shoot and opted for pointless cross, as Rooney was probably still on the opposite wing at that time.
Jamie Carragher who will not be playing in the next game due to a second yellow was defending our box on his own at times, mainly because the Algerians had realized they could charge down that side as many times as they wanted and the England team were too dumb to notice they had a problem.
And then James kept us in the game and the competition, as our goal was under constant attack that was no easy feat.

What is wrong with the players that they can play so bad and without heart is being hidden behind the camp walls but like I said before I look at the other teams and do not see anyone that we could beat and even the so called "lesser teams" could hold us to a draw or even beat us. I have heard the pundits say that other teams have had a bad start but then gone on to win. But does anyone believe that this England team could go on to win a tiddly winks competition if they continue to play the way they are?

Now that said I will still watch them as long as they are there, as I like many others am thinking that this is just bad opposition syndrome. This is where a team struggles to play against teams they should beat, but then go on to wipe out those teams they should struggle against. Normally because teams that expect to loose will put up one hell of a defensive line up and work on stopping attackers so hard that it becomes impossible to play against them.  Hopefully they get through and prove this to be the case but if that is not the case and it really is some other problem (the beachball) that most of the seeded teams seem to be facing, then I think FIFA have to look into it and sort out the problem, as I have never seen a world cup like this one, where so many teams that we know can play have been suddenly made to look like fools. The first world cup, where qualification to the knock out stages is open to all, no matter how good they are.
But just like England playing bad we also have Brazil playing good, the divers trying to and succeeding a lot of the time to do their diving and the referee's making one bad decision after the other. (That Kaka red card springs to mind.) So not everything has changed.

And we can always console ourselves in the fact that we have yet to loose a match and we are not doing as the french team are doing and asking for a guillotine on their requirements list

This is a modern world and the FIFA World Cup is a multi-million pound business, if not billion, you think they would give the fourth official access to a TV monitor, as those offsides and handballs are shown to us in seconds. It would also be nice to have some one that actually understands what is required to create a ball for the next one, as watching the explanations of what is wrong with the ball really does make it sound like they are discussing a beachball.

Anyone recall the Penny Floater football that you bought for a day at the beach for a quid or something and it always ended up floating off to sea, after a strong breeze grabbed it while you were playing football on the sand. There must be thousands of those things someplace floating around in packs, probably awaiting the arrival of the world cup 2010 balls.

I also wonder if England are training with the new ball or with the balls they brought with them, as it really looks like they are not.

One good point is that Rooney has showed he is maturing, as Rooney of old would have been red carded after some stupid challenge, after playing so bad.

But maybe the FIFA plan is to bring in more fans from nations that would normally forget about the game five seconds after their team has gone from the world cup stage, as the rest of us will keep coming back for the torture whatever happens?

http://england.worldcupblog.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_national_football_team