World Cup Prediction

Disclaimer for the new guys - I am an English Cardiff City fan, and in their thread I will be discussing England. Alternative nationality threads are available.

So...the commentary team have done it again. Neymar has a bad game, and straight away they are saying 'Neymar can't score against England'. You know the last man they said that about? Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and I can assure you most England fans are still attending counciling to come to grips with his brutal rape of us only a few months ago.

So, at some point I reckon England are going to collide with brazil in the World Cup. And then Neymar will probably tear us a new one. But by how many? Two? Three? Twenty Seven?


Please trust me when I say this - most England fans aren't that arrogant and don't think we're now going to win the World Cup because of one friendly. Most of the blame for that prejudice lies squarely in the hands of Adrian Chiles and other commentating cronies.

Well I have always been of the view that Neymar is extremely overrated and made to look better than he is by his team mates, a la Torres of old.

Ah Red, forever the voice of reason in amongst the madness.

Sadly, there does tend to be a tendancy for the English media (with Chiles being one of the biggest culprits) to look desperately for the next England Bandwagon to jump on. The most recent being "Wilshere - saviour of the World Cup Dreams" and there is nothing to indicate that England won't come unstuck again after the Group Stage.

Personally though, I think England SHOULD be doing better than they have done for the last 50 odd years. There are often complaints that the players aren't good enough since the influx of foreign players and the formation of the Premiership but that only happened in the 90s - what about the previous 25 years? It's a collective mental failure by English players at international level that let them down, not the quality of the indivduals (or even in some cases, the quality of the manager).

I always think that if Greece can win a Euro trophy and countries like Portugal and the Netherlands reach a final and Uruguay, South Korea, Turkey, Croatia a semi, then England SHOULD be achieving the same - maybe not every time - but certainly once every dozen or so years.

Chances are though, that despite Hodgson defensive organisation, man-management skills and preparation - Neymar or some other technically gifted player will tear you a new one and success will come to England only when everyone doesn't expect it.

I love it when Engerland lose at football, I couldn't care less if they lose at rugby and I like to see them do well at cricket so I have no gripe with England. However I do have a major problem with the facking media, particularly the EBC.

This is how tomorrows sports reports will go on EBC Breakfast, EBC Radio 5 Live etc

1. England's historic win over the mighty Brazil showing all the goals, interviews with players and management followed by a guest pundit in the studio to chew over the aftermath of a famous victory that surely means that England are almost certainly going to win the World Cup in Brazil.

2. Scotland's lucky win over an understrength Estonia, showing the goal, maybe a very brief word from Strachan.

3. Wales and Northern Ireland also played, Wales beat some team and I think the Norn Irish might have got a draw.

4. For no apparent reason they will also mention the Republics of Ireland's win as if that is of any more importance to a UK audience than Japan's result.

Happy Days wrote:I love it when Engerland lose at football, I couldn't care less if they lose at rugby and I like to see them do well at cricket so I have no gripe with England. However I do have a major problem with the facking media, particularly the EBC.

This is how tomorrows sports reports will go on EBC Breakfast, EBC Radio 5 Live etc

1. England's historic win over the mighty Brazil showing all the goals, interviews with players and management followed by a guest pundit in the studio to chew over the aftermath of a famous victory that surely means that England are almost certainly going to win the World Cup in Brazil.

2. Scotland's lucky win over an understrength Estonia, showing the goal, maybe a very brief word from Strachan.

3. Wales and Northern Ireland also played, Wales beat some team and I think the Norn Irish might have got a draw.

4. For no apparent reason they will also mention the Republics of Ireland's win as if that is of any more importance to a UK audience than Japan's result.

Have to say, that's pretty spot on

One of my favorite parts of any Tournament is to watch an England team get built up by the media only to inevitably fail at the knockout stages or quarter or semi final

I am actually starting to feel sorry for some of the English players and their supporters because the media and pundits never seem to learn their lesson but in the absence of Wales qualifying for any major tournament being very likely then i'm afraid i will have to continue to wallow in England's misery

blueheaven1927 wrote:One of my favorite parts of any Tournament is to watch an England team get built up by the media only to inevitably fail at the knockout stages or quarter or semi final

I am actually starting to feel sorry for some of the English players and their supporters because the media and pundits never seem to learn their lesson but in the absence of Wales qualifying for any major tournament being very likely then i'm afraid i will have to continue to wallow in England's misery

Forgiven because if be a hipocrit otherwise. One of my recent favourite sights in sport is to see the Welsh rugby team lose. They'll deny it, but a hell of a lot of arrogance has appeared around it since their World Cup and six nations performances. I've tried pointing out that it's very hipocritical to critiscise the English media for being confident about the football team yet somehow believe the same doesn't apply to your own media and their rugby team. They didn't like that, obviously.

I watch most rugby games in pubs, where I regularly hear 'Wales are the best team in the world', 'if it wasnt for that referee we'd of won the world cup', or most hilariously of all as I hear it just before the match Saturday 'Ireland are rubbish we'll destroy them'. Nearly my favourite moment that day, but just popped by the whole pub declaring England are overrated and Scotland will beat them. And then seeing England steamroller them and the sudden panicked realisation England are a real threat.

Red that is absolutely spot on. As another English Cardiff fan I agree that most English fans know how good our national side is. We are a quarter final at best side which is reflected in our FIFA ranking.

The welsh viewpoint about the english media arrogance is of course correct but the welsh media is no better with their constant harping back to the 70's rugby team, its as bad/embarrassing as the English media and 1966!

It makes me smile as well listening to the eggers analysing defeats. It is never down to playing a better side but always down to refereeing decisions, wrong selection, tactical inadequacy etc etc

We're as bad as each other!!

Can't argue with that tbf

Yup! You called it correct. I went to a school that massively favoured rugby (to the detriment of every other sport) too and got sick of all the "Wales is a rugby nation" stuff well before I was even in my teens.

I think Argentina will win the World Cup in 2014, Messi to have best player of the tournament and cement himself as one of the best ever!

They probably could have won in 2010 had they not had Maradona in charge!

KJGCCFC wrote:I think Argentina will win the World Cup in 2014, Messi to have best player of the tournament and cement himself as one of the best ever!

They probably could have won in 2010 had they not had Maradona in charge!

An Argentine victory on their own patch would be difficult for Brazil to take.

Spain will still be the team to beat I reckon.

Brazil have so many good players to pick from but haven't been able to build a team for a while now.
Neymar is good but nowhere near Messi, and never will be.

KJGCCFC wrote:I think Argentina will win the World Cup in 2014, Messi to have best player of the tournament and cement himself as one of the best ever!

They probably could have won in 2010 had they not had Maradona in charge!

Messi can't carry the team alone. In fact he's regularly disappointed at international level and that's been used as the main criticism against him - it definetely looks like without the magic of Xavi and Iniesta he struggles to truly dominate. Don't get me wrong I'm not a critic, but the rest of the Argentinian team are too weak to truly exploit him. He can't win them the World Cup on his own just like he couldn't win us the premiership alone either. If you're listening though Leo, I'm willing to give that second one a try if you are.

Spain are really the team to beat. It worries me just how good they would be if they had someone like Messi, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo or Van Persie up front and not Torres. Maybe that's the only true gap in their armor, not that it's bothered them before. Expect another strong German showing too, they are the fastest growing football nation going right now and they probably got a real kick up the a**e after the euro's that may of worked.

As an American I think you play with the wrong shaped football. That is all.

Wales will win beating England 4-0 in the final