Just reading about the England squad it seems the preparation is spot on. In earlier tournaments there was indiscipline and wags etc. Then it went the other way in south Africa were the players were locked up and went stir crazy. By all accounts Roy’s preparations have been perfect with the players having some leeway and freedom but in no doubt of what is expected of them. And they have responded and responded well.

Whatever the result tomorrow night Roy can come back with his head held high he has done a great job. The players he has got are ok but nothing special but he has made best use of them and they seem to know what their role is. He is in my view a solid manager and I think he will do well for England for once the FA seem to have got it right.

When he was appointed Liverpool manager I thought it was a good move then 6 months into his reign I thought we had made a mistake. Then came the Dalglish era and worse was to follow and money not spent wisely as well. Looking back now I do feel Roy was treated harshly by us fans and I feel a bit ashamed collectively.

Had Roy stayed with us I think we at least would be where we are now and we certainly would have spent better and you never know he might have taken us forward.

I am happy with Brendan Rogers and in the circumstances think we have done the right thing but I feel we are no further on from when Benitez left in fact probably a bit worse. Two wasted years in my book.

But as a Liverpool fan I wish Roy well for England post the euro’s.

Well play roy

yes without a doubt roy has done great and does not deserve the stick he gets .

Think Roy has done well given its such a poison chalice of a job.

he's a good manager, and if he had time,money and sane fans ,he would have been alright for us. wrong man at the wrong club, at the wrong time.

still not sure on the ferdinand issue and if england had been hammerred he would have been over that.

Collated stats around the web tell me that France were very unlucky against us; ditto Ukraine; - Sweden was more 50:50. Either way we need to improve. If you analysed Italian performances against ours we should get beat (but lets keep our fingers crossed). Thanking Roy? He says all the right things but ultimately he is limited by the restrictions he puts on his teams. He's someone that doesn't play football until we fall behind. Harry would have been far more fun and would have also had a happy England camp.

For LFC Roy is a big fat NO. He can get limited players working better as a unit. He does the same thing if he has world class players.

Against France.

Shots on Target: France 7 England 1
Shots off Target France 2 England 2
Corners France 11 England 4
Passing success rate France 91.7% England 83.2%
Possession France 65% England 35%
Total Passes France 654 England 345

Against Sweden

Shots on Target: Sweden 9 England 8
Shots off Target Sweden 3 England 6
Corners Sweden 3 England 3
Passing success rate France 80% England 83%
Possession France 50% England 50%

Against Ukraine

Shots on Target: Ukraine 5 England 4
Shots off Target Ukraine 11 England 5
Corners Ukraine 10 England 6
Possession Ukraine 58% England 42%

I hope England win it out, sadly I think Italy will beat them, I like Roy but Ithink he is very limited as a coach, as time goes by I think his deficiencies as a coach wiill show and the pressure could be a real factor.

No actually - just wrong man at Liverpool. No need to wax lyrical about a man who was hopelessly out of his depth and understood nothing about this football club.

I also hardly think that England reaching the quarter finals at the Euros is an achievement. They won a group consisting of France, Sweden, and the Ukraine, none of whom are especially good at football at the moment, but all of whom threatened to outplay 10-men-behind the ball England. Come now.

I agree with Rafarendum - if they get past Italy they will have achieved the minimum requirement for a manager of England. If they get past Germany as well, only then Roy will have justified some of the plaudits in this thread.

I dont think he was hoplessly out of his depth at Liverpool as much as Dalglish was myself, that was the most desperate and embarrassing appointment in over 50 years.

Facts prove Dalglish was the worst, Lowest goals, lowest points tally, lowest home wins in a season and poorest run of consecutive losses, there for all to see.

As well as considerably more money Dalglish also had goodwill (sadly lacking with Roy from day one) stable board, and time he had three times as long as Hodgson.

He earned 3 times as long because he didn't butcher the job the moment he stepped in the door. Isn't it funny how people get job extensions when they excel in the first six months, compared with those who get the boot for under-performing over the same period. Can we grow up a bit? Benitez underperformed in his 6th season and got sacked at season's end. Hodgson underperformed in his 6 months and got sacked to save the club. It took a year before Dalglish started to under-perform, and he got sacked at season's end. Had Hodgson been less of a disaster he would have seen the season out, but would still have been sacked.

he was too pratical and normal for liverpool. he came into a mess, had nothing to spend and a crappy squad that had its 2 best players injured,the other one wanting a move and one on strike. We were all looking for a saviour cause of the mess we were in but Roy is too normal and old in the tooth for saviour idea's . was just a bad match, if he came in when kenny came in with, and had a massive budget like kenny then he would probably still be here.

ah the two faced modern fan, one day you slate him the other day you show appreciation...

never slated hodgson. don't think he is world class but defo a decent manager and probably exactly what england needed after employing super-ego's the last few times.

I agree with Martinez had Hodgson had the resources and backing he would still be here. And as for Dalglish saving the club what nonesense that is. The club was close to administration because Gillet and Hicks could not refinance the RBS loan. How anyone can think Dalglish rectified that I don't know. As for him coming in to rescue us on the field. Laughable we give him £9m over 18 months for his golf course fund to take the club to 6th place. What a personal sacrifice that was can I have some of that please?
What a joke he probably could not believe his luck.

we should stop taking pot shots at former managers, they all tried their best for the club, it also takes away from the current manager who needs support not bickering about Kenny,Rafa or Roy.

Well what else have we to do?

I am going to take up wicker weaving.

I have done that Wakka its good fun but don't go on wicker world website they are always arguing on their forums.

Enjoy

Hodgson is utter garbage. England were poorer than Sweden, France, Ukraine and Italy and were somehow only defeated once.

I am glad our players can get some rest now ahead of the new season. We were horrible to watch throughout and lucky. A bit like Chelsea in Europe. Unlike Chelsea we got what we deserved. You cannot play like that and not expect to get beaten. You need to press in the modern game. You need to work harder than that. No team should EVER play that deep.

dont agree that he is garbage, disagree with his post match conference where he says england came close to beating a top team, they didn't they came close to not losing to a top team, still, he has brought himself 2 more years in the job

Young, Milner, Rooney and Welback were awful throughout the games, and yet Roy started them every game. Carroll didn't have anyone to pass to whenever he took down the ball. Thought Gerrard was rubbish agaisnt Italy too. If they're going to lose, they might as well loose playing attavking football, not hoping for a penalty shoot out.

We were utterly sh1te. No attacking threat until AC came on and then virtually nothing. How poor were Young, Welbeck, Rooney et al. Only SG and AC and JT looked better than pub players. Worst England performance for years. Glad we didn't win, that would have been so cruel in Italy who came to play football. We parked the bus and got exactly what we deserved.

I hope I am wrong but I think that could be Roy Hodgson's last game in charge at a major tournament, penalties are cruel but Italy shaded what was a poor game overall, maybe more time and things will improve, might have been a bit to soon for this team as a unit.

Thought Glen Johnson was excellent tonight.

It was hard to watch after the first 20, we arent good enough and thats fair enough, one positive note in Roys favour is he got the guys to relax and they seemed more together, it wins you nothing though.

Roy Hodgson did a great job but england were found out tonight. Nothing to do with Roy's selection or tactics we were simply not good enough. Roy Hodgson got the best from what he had. Winning the group and getting to the quarter final was a respectable achievement considering he has only just taken the job on. The english press is very unforgiving but I predict he will read well for Roy tommorrow. The problem we have is our youth and coaching systems we simply don't have enough quality and that goes for Ireland, Wales and Scotland too.

Well, given that the FA like boring predictable managers i dont think so. I think he will take them to the next world cup (assuming we qualify) Given his defensive tactics thats not certain.When you get 3 points for a win. Overall i think RH done as well as any other manager would have done. I dont think he should have relied on rooney so much

Yep I am not convinced they will qualify, I could be way off the mark though.

the most likely case scenario is that england are stuttering in 3rd place and rh starts having a go at the fans , and the fans turn on him then the fa might be under pressure to pick yet again a second ditch candidate probably martinez or some other non entity

Pearce

[/quote]I dont think he was hoplessly out of his depth at Liverpool as much as Dalglish was myself, that was the most desperate and embarrassing appointment in over 50 years. [/quote]

Never one to miss an opportunity. Wonder what his username will be next, I think it will have Souness in it.

We won the group, didn't play too well, but it was a poor group and then we're straight into the QF. Very poor tournament you have to say. Roy's not a top coach but I thought the togetherness would see us do well. End of the day, look at the team he had to choose from. Young, Welbeck, Milner, Rooney were awful. Gerrard was nowhere tonight.
We don't seem to have decent wingers or a coheisve strike pair (England that is).

We'll never win a tournament without addressing the issues. When Germany hit a low level 10-12 years ago, they devised a long-term plan to develop better younger players and it's paying dividends.

we have good youngn players emerging and i think long term it will get better, i think while RH is in charge england will go backwards, although i think he did a pretty good job at euros he needs to be replaced with a progressive manager

in fairness every england manager has failed recently and most with better squads..what is it with england, rooney never plays like that for utd. seriously embarrassing to be out passed like and have 30% possession.

just hope bredan rogers sticks to his spanish way guns ..and hopefully that means we get rid of the 3 non amigos ,carroll,hendo and downing. has to be done no matter what.

Should of got Harry in LOL

Hodgson must go

not a chance, england in brazil , they don't do heat.

redknapp's england , i dunno, stevie g and parker were knackered , would that have been different under harry. plus the injuries and rooney suspension. there's just not the players to pick from. young hasn't got the bottle, walcott is a fairy. milner all effort no quality. who could harry have picked that would have changed things. maybe he would have got scholes or carrick in and played 5 in the middle ,try to keep the ball. thats what other teams do.cappello was no different.

its another winter world cup with parts of brazil hot and parts very cold

Staging a World Cup in a country the size of a continent is not easy, and Brazil in June/July offers a specific challenge - winter bites hard in the south and barely touches the north.

One of the big headaches in drawing up the match schedule must have been the question of how to deal with the southern host cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba, where temperatures can drop to freezing.

I thought Glen Johnson was the outstanding player for England throughout.

And much as I hate Terry he had a good game against Italy. Boy, it hurt to say that.

Wellbeck, Young, Milner, Cashley - their clubs can keep them; what utter [oops]. Carroll was hardly great against Italy, as not once did his knockdowns find a white shirt and his distribution was poor in general. But he was ten times the player Wellback was and seemed to close down opponents with greater vigour despite his relative lack of pace. Rooney was rubbish in both games he played as well - he's becoming as overrated as Lampard, though I guess he still does the business at club level.

And if anyone was expecting positive endeavour from a club under Hodgson's charge, well hopefully now you fully understand why he would never have been successful with Liverpool. The studio presenters on my local channel (which included John Barnes until this week, replaced by Terry Paine) kept saying the same thing: "I'm concerned about England playing such a flat back 4".

England should try everything to get Guus Hiddink

he making national teams overachieve

i though Ashley young was overrated and a massive let down and his pen summed it up for me

He tried to hard and nothing paid off and i also though Rooney was rubbish as well and couldn't keep the ball at all

I actually though England looked better when Rooney didn't play

I like Roy, and I respect him, but he should never have been given the Liverpool job in the first place, let alone keep it any longer than he did. He was well out of his depth and wasn't suited to the club at all. The football we played under him was by far the worst and most ugly football I've ever seen us play.

i totally agree bar it was awful

Roy will beats the small teams but against any big nations he will always struggle as he doesn't have any other way apart from 442

Roy did a good job at short notice with a poor squad. No manager in the world can work wonders if the players are no good.

i think that's all he can do

To beat the best you need to pack the midfield like the Spanish or the Italians

Have to agree that,a reflection of the lack of real quality this country produces.

Roy is OK at average teams and we get us to competitions but wont get us much further

442 doesn't work against big teams but roy doesn't play anything but

Completely disagree. He did a poor job with a poor squad - a poor squad which included Fernando Torres, by the way.

EDIT: If you're talking about England, then apologies. THAT, I agree with.

How is being outplayed by Italy, France, and the Ukraine "a good job" for the manager of England? No, mate - the talent England has at it's disposal deserved a semi-final showdown with Germany at least. Lose to a good side at that late stage is "a good job" and heads held high all round; reach the final and Roy can be manager forever.

But stutter around like a team of strangers with 32% possession against a defensive team? Midfield diamond = play it wide against them, but did they even try? No, all they did was cut inside, straight into traffic. Sorry, but that's just sh!te. That quarter final performance was abysmal, and summed up the technical know-how of this squad and this manager. Real deer-in-the-headlights stuff.

difficult to agree with anyone in this forum anymore but i will agree with this.

Hodgson strikes me as very similar to trappatoni on his stubbornness to adapt and continuing use of 442. He will qualify for brazil because England will beat all the minnows but using that formation against good teams will get them no further than a quarter final at a world cup

At the start of every tournament I expect us to get knocked out at the quarter final stages, simply because we just don't have the players to compete with the top teams in the world. Roy did what was expected albeit with the kind of tedious football we have come to expect from him. That said, our squad was sh!t!! When you are relying on a strikeforce of danny welbeck and andy carroll you know you've got big problems!

Have to disagree with the anti hodgson (for england ) lfc fans here. Hodgson did a good job, with what he was given and how long he was given to do the job. This has no bearing on what he did at lfc,where as everyone with eyes can see he was a shambolic disaster.
Everyone knew it was gonna be a nil nil bore draw at best for us. IF people want scapegoats for the england exit then blame young and rooney and possibly milner (elthough you could b lame RH for using milner more than walcott). England players did their best and at least combatted to stay in the tournament.

I think RH is still not the man for the england job and he will turn on the england fans , when england start drawing at home 0-0 to the likes of aberbajazhan, after which he will have to emmigrate to sweden having turned on england fans for not being loyal, and not really wanting him

What Irish fans on here said differently, Armi? I agreed that he did a good enough job on such short notice as he had, but that he was absolutely awful with Liverpool. Haven't noticed any Irish fans saying any differently?

Well 'good job' is subjective, but when it comes to english national team what a lot of people don't realise is taht we KNOW we are rubbish compared to Germany/Spain and the teams that regularly win cup finals.

If you go by what you read in tabloid media you would be forgiven for thinking that in all tournaments after one win, every england fan thinks that england will 'stuff the germans' and win the final.

Getting out of the group was a good result only 8 teams did it out of how many teams at start of tournament? 53 /54?

so England is top group out of 7 in europe. or in the top 15percent of groups that entered the tournament.

The rankings were based on Capello. And rankings are not predictions. If football were as boring as you suggest I wouldnt watch it.

Beeating teams that are better than England? England do it all the time. San marino play better football than England. If you rely on opta stats for football, and national football at that , you will always see your team under achieving. Holland do it all the time. France do it.

The other thing is England are unbeatean in normal play W2 drawn 2 and w ent out on penalties. Slagging the England team when you know hodgson is at the helm is a bit unfair, the players did their best, and lfc fans knew what to expect from RH before the tournament.

Hodgson's tactics were quite terrible if you ask me.

England looked mediocre on the pitch. Much like KK's liverpool against lesser teams. Yes the players are happy with more freedom but so what? It didn't translate to better performance on the pitch.

If they had wanted effective football focused on results, might as well hire rafa benitez. He'll bring you results with ugly football.

my posting in this thread has absolutely nothing to do with "appreciation"

what if italy win the tornament?
Effectively if spain meet germany in final, all the other 50 odd teams had a bad euro2012? As they didn't get to final by beating teams better than themselves? bit harsh that.

England don't like to lose, they make up for technical definciency (see wayne rooney) by teamwork & commitment. Noone wants to lose on pens.

correction, the ashley brothers WANT to lose on pens.

Ashley young = euros waste

Requires massive bail out

Bit out of order that. IF beckham golden balls had missed a pen it would have been bad luck, Ashley coles was awful true, but so what he had a good tournament

Say Arm, which page are yer on

WHAT //!! ROONEY??
Gifted?? Totaly disagree. His 'gift' depended on him being full of pace and strength and having good balance to bully his way in the premiership. IF if remember rightly ROONEY THE THATCHED ROOF LABOURERS ASSISTANT has been at 3 world cups, Goal tally ZERO IREPEAT ZERO . Now Gary Linekar that is a talented footballer.

ANDY CARROL is better on the ball than rooney, rooney is slightly better (but not much) at timing runs

PS ENgland under rh liked to win on penalties not lose on them

aaah, we are back on the same page

i have no issue with Rooney's talent just his effort or seem lack of when it comes to England

RAfa, i didnt say andy carrol is more technically gifted than rooney, he has better control imo than rooney, especially in an england shirt, in fact i said he is better on the ball(carrol).


You said yourself 25 june ie yesterday that rooney isnt good enough i will quote the thread if you want!

As a centre forward he is far more useful for england than rooney. Rooneys first touch has been appalling htis tournament. No way can you be up there as one of hte most technically gifted players of the world if you cannot control the ball well. Rooney is flattered at manure he is in a team that is dominating opponents so he gets more space and time than other premiership players, I think he sucks technically.

The reason why he is pretty much past his best at 26 is his game is limited: and the big tournament failures just goes to show that his game is (was) based on pace and power and little else. His control has always let him down. At least we know AC is a bit of a donkey . The biggest fabrication ever by the british media is to say rooney is comparable to messi y. In the next few years i expect to see rooney getting a stack of red cards as he realises he is past it and never was really as good as the media said he was.

Regarding linekar well linkear got those goals when there was no backpass rule, and you remember the violent tackles and man marking in the 80s. roonney is not fit to lace linekar's boots. Technically gifted players imo . Henri, Berkamp, Rooney = 2nd best.
How would you compare Robbie Keane to Rooney. Who is 'best'as a striker? I daresay R Keane would have got more goals than rooney if he had played his career at manure although ferguson wouldnt have him i guess.

I remember Gary Lineker playing for both spurs and everton. He was around at the time of ian rush. To be honest you could not put a cigarrete paper between them they were both the best six yard box finishers I have ever seen. Rooney is a different player he is more an all rounded player more suited to the modern game. I would say though Rooney is in their class but he had a bad euros and has not come close to lineker for england.

might be cause he's really irish

Chelsea have a better team than england and certainly better attackers. They didn't have an excuse if you ask me. England played the same way against inferior oposition to italy and won. Why the big problem cos they went out at QF stage? And eriksons england played well against brazil in the QF of the world cup?

So what is the alternative? Free flowing football like ireland v spain?

to be honest the more i see of England the more i respect Ericksons team

They played not to concede first then worry about everything else later

A lot like Liverpool at home some games last season just with out the nice passing

are you suprised though rafa? - its hodgson! - he does not know how to win games. I didn't expect england to get out of group when his name wa announced. 7 points in group stage is a result, nonetheless. Only 1 team can win the tournament. Yes England went for it, BUT its hodgson, going for it means soaking up pressure and 'nicking' a goal, he is proud of it. The truth is, his tactics work for mediocre teams , which is why opinion was split on him getting the job, not many lfc fans really wanted him to be in charge of the national team, but there are a lot of people who would say england are not good enough so why not have mediocre man hodgson in charge. I think venebles disproved this myth personally. England can play football but not with a new manager 3 weeks before a tournament.England would get swept aside like against germany in 2010.

Given that the FA yet again created a pantomine with rio and cappello, it was looking to be a disaster this tourney for us. Even if redkcap was selected he wouldnt have had enough time to instill his style on the team, and it would be very likely that an england team unprepared would be swept aside if they started trying to play tottenham style football.
There are many ways to win a game chelsea this year proves that.

Hodgson was last of the last choices but he did better than i thought he would so i won't knock what he did. The commitment of the english players is unquestionable.

I just don't think he is the future more of a stop gap

So now Euros = World Cup? Fail.

Roy doesn't a job but you cannot say he has had a successful career in the big leagues

meant does a job

Didn't understand the sentence , but no need for the melodrama! Yes the two are big tournaments, and the teams that are left in the knockout stages of the european cup are generally pretty good. Italy have won the world cup 4 times. So are you saying 4 times winners of the world cup and regular finalists italy are not to be respected this time because this time its the european championships?

the mention of brazil was because if i remember rightly england were largely outplayed as you might expect throughout that game. Italy are as succesful as brazil I think its 4 wins to 5 in the world cup. So why the spanish inquistion when we get beat by a team thats better ? We may have individuals on higher salaries in ashley cole and rooney but are they so much better than what italy have individually?

The italians often come good in the tournaments at the end. I think there attack is the weakest i have seen for years (balliotelli being picked is proof) The italians and germans have always known how to mix different styles of play - us no- the only time we did it was under venebles when we played (imo) a game very similar to the germans.

The fa is to blame for all this and like all football associations they would rather have an old duffer in charge . England was doomed because of lack of preperation time. Now we have to wait 2 years for the fa to run out of excuses for keeping him.

Anyway yes i think the italians are a lot better than we credit them for . I think spain would outdo germany and i was hoping for a spain germany semi, but i have a feeling that this italian team might be the only one that can stop the spaniards.
The germans have a ropey defence in my view and the spaniards would be able to exploit it. If the italians recover from the qf i see no reason why they can't outdo the germans tomorrow, ihope they do as well

But its not just that look at the midfield
if gerrard hadnt exceeded expectation (i think he did cos he is semi crocked) we would have been struggling parker did alright but who not exactly the best midfield on earth is it. Then who else - lampard? Then of course there is rooney who was cos of his name destined to play in all games possible. Who else carrol? Or defoe (dunno like him but we didnt see him) england defence yes world class cole jonshon lescot and terry and the gk the rest no way

I honestly don't think giving Hodgson more time would improve England's performance.

no i don't think Roy can chance at his age now

There's nothing wrong with strengthening the defense and becoming harder to beat - and perhaps that was all Hodgson could achieve in so short a time. But Hodgson will fail just like all the others if he persists with his out-dated and rigid two banks of four - or persists with most of these players. Of course he has to speak encouragingly of the squad but he must know that Rooney is not world class- nor should he be England's lynchpin. He must know that Gerrard, who will always be England's best player in any position, is not a deep lying playmaker and never will be. He must know that Young and Milner were absolutely abysmal throughout the whole tournament - and Wellbeck looked naive.

Hodgson has to change the shape and find a playmaker comfortable on the ball. He has to find better wide players who can keep possession on the break. He also has to stop thinking that Rooney is an automatic first-teamer.

I hope Roy learns the lessons and makes the changes - but I fear he'll just persist with the same mentality and fail like all the others.

kop prophet have you forgotten the 6 mths of the terror regime of hodgson at lfc? He cannot change and will not change. He hasnt learned anything since 1975

No I haven't forgotten. And at another club he might have been given longer and turned it around (or got relegated). But if you're going to dredge up the past you have to be fair and account for his two successful spells with Switzerland and Finland. I do think Roy has a lot of nous for international football but he might prove to be too inflexible as you say. Of course he's going to defend the current players after just getting knocked out... but he has to be thinking there's players that can come in and do a bit better than Young and Milner surely. He's admitted that Rooney was a disappointment.... and the sooner we drop the Rooney is world-class bit the better. I also think he has to stop wasting Gerrard. Hopefully Rodgers will use Gerrard properly next season and show Roy the way!

i still think its a short term fix

i shall be interesting how Roy doesn't in qualifying knowing if he doesn't he will be gone

Technically Hodgson is still unbeaten as England's manager. Capello may have qualified in style but his management of the WC finals was woeful.

It's simple - Hodgson can be a good England manager if he adapts and doesn't keep repeating the same old mistakes. But I fear that he is just as stubborn as the rest.

Sorry mate ukraine or poland in summer is not the same as england.
KopPrphet you clearly havent learned anything yourself if you thinkn hodgson deserves to take england to the world cup

I think Hodgson will win the world cup in 2014 for England and then return as Liverpool manager.

You heard it here first.

England "blew up" in s africa and got hammered by a german side (also not aqauainted with south african weather funnily enough), don' t think cappello was a good choice for england although i do think he's a great manager. The fa didn't learn from erikson that foreign managers doesnt work for the english national team. Even if Ferguson wanted the chalice, which he never would i wouldnt want him near the england job.

Typical european climate doesnt exist. It was probably hotter in ukraine than S.A anyway. Weathers no excuse for being beaten in south africa by germany we were rubbish and still are as a team

nothing new there liverpool fans like to re-appointting ex failed manager .

pair of old blue rinses!

Perhaps. England are supposedly in the top handful of footballing countries in the world, and they should be able to struggle past powerhouses like Montenegro and Luxembourg regardless of who is in charge. If England under Capello can reach the quarter finals of a World Cup, then England under anyone at the European championships (where strictly better sides like Uruguay, Brasil and Argentina cannot compete) to go out at the same stage can only be viewed as a failure.

And how about South Africa then? having a go at England !!

How dare you!

You never even qualified for the Euros how bad is that?

I dont buy this argument abou QF at world cup is better than QF at euros. Outside argentina uragauay and brazil there are no other teams that i can think of (outside of europe) who would 'expect' to beat england. So how much more difficult is the competition at the world cup than the euros?

Apart from that the risk of meeting one or more of these 3 south american eams is spread as more teams are entered into the world cup competition ( at the finals stage) Cappello failed at only getting to the QF of the world cup he had enough ttime if i remember rightly to plan for 2010 , hodgson didnt .

LOL! +1 Stan, had a good chortle at that.

Sadly, South African football is rubbish and outside a brief showing at the World Cup in France (96?) always was. Maybe if they finally appoint Ingesund as our coach we may get somewhere, but outside Steven Pienaar they are a talentless bunch of prima donnas. We couldn't even qualify for the African Cup of Nations because the geniuses in charge of our football couldn't work out how ties in the qualifiers were decided, and everyone ran around celebrating after drawing our last game on purpose - only to realise much later that we had to win it. It's no disgrace to lose to Egypt, Ivory Coast, or Nigeria, but we couldn't even find our way past nations I didn't know had football teams.

Still the only nation to host the world cup and not reach the knockout stage, and will most likely remain such after the next WC. And all our magnificent stadia? Well I went to the Moses Madiba stadium about 2 weeks ago, and it is fantastic. I went to see the Top Gear road show, not football of course, because no local club can get 1000 supporters never mind 85k or whatever the capacity is. It's probably the largest structure in the entire city after one or two shopping malls - total white elephant. What were they thinking?