FIFA World Cup 2014

[The Masked Unit]

Incidentally, has anyone heard if they are doing a podcast this year? Skinner was due to play Sheffield City Hall at the end of the month and it's been postponed due to unforseen scheduling conflicts - any chance he didn't realise he'd be flying out to Brazil? Maybe he's just putting off coming to Sheffield for as long as he can.

If they do I really hope it isn't though Absolute like it was last time. The constant, incredible loud and annoying idents and ads, and background music that appeared throughout them really spoilt it, not to mention that roving reporter student cunt who nobody asked for. I must have listened to the 2006 ones ten times or more over the years but wouldn't listen to all that shit again if you paid me. The Times again, please.

[doppelkorn]

Sounds like I should check the 2006 ones out. I wondered how I missed them but then I remembered I wasn't living in the UK

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Best bit of that World Cup was Switzerland v Ukraine, almost zenlike in it's dullness. 120 minutes at 0-0, then the worst shootout of all time as Ukraine prevailed 3-0.

[the midnight watch baboon]

No Spurs players in the squad, German kit, I didn't even make the standby list... worst WC EVER

[Beagle 2]

Great news that Barkley's in there. Cleverley's really fucked it this season, he'd have been a dead cert this time last year.

[the midnight watch baboon]

Pretty good choices by Roy, good to see it packed with midfield dashers and energons; not full of stiflers and crunchers. GO STERLING AND BARKLEY AND SHAW & LALLALA

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I like that squad, and it seems like everyone else does too.

Good work, Royston.

[thraxx]

I like that squad, and it seems like everyone else does too.

Good work, Royston.

I know that Hodgson has a paucity of people to choose from, but I think that he's made a mistake not taking Carrick and Cole, and picking players made of glass like Wilshere and Ox.

Who cares if they are old, I'd much rather have Cole as a back-up that Shaw – you've got to choose your best team.  It looks like he's going to try and give youth a chance, but there's a distinct lack of stodge in the midfield.  I'd like to think that it's because he's going to play a fast rangey attacking style of football, but Woy's never going to do that.  You know that in spite of all the youngsters, he's going to start with the midfield of, Lampard, Gerrard and Milner and Welback out wide, bore the shit out of EVERYONE watching, then bring on the pacey young whippersnappers after the starting players' hearts have exploded, or as Roy would say, feed the monkey, if they have monkeys in Brazil.

In any case it's all academic.  I for one am backing England to go all the way to the second round.

And where did Andros Townsend go to???  Is he injured?

[Ignatius_S]

...And where did Andros Townsend go to???  Is he injured?

Yes, ankle injury - IIRC, surgery was being talked up.

[Blinder Data]

POOOST DA SQUAAAD, YOOOOU NATTAHS

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Fraser Forster (Celtic).

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Attackers: Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United).

Standby: John Ruddy (Norwich City), Jon Flanagan (Liverpool), John Stones (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Andy Carroll (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC).

[Unoriginal]

Andros Townsend is injured but even if he wasn't he shouldn't near the squad. Really average player. Cole has barely played this season so doesn't deserve to go. Baines is good enough to be first choice and Shaw is a far better option to bring on against tiring defences than a past it Ashley Cole.

I'm not sure why Carrick deserves to go either. He was rubbish this season even though he was their best player last season. I don't think he adds enough to be worth picking over Gerrard or even Lampard. As a neutral, I can't think of many players left out who should be in the squad apart from Flanagan. Having him and John Stones as backups at least shows Hodgson was thinking about picking both of them. Good on him.

[Eis Nein]

Johnson at full back. Just no.

We didn't win the league because of our deficiencies in that position. If you want England to win, you'd hope for a niggle.

[monkfromhavana]

I like that squad, but tbh I think it picks itself really.

I don't think that we'll do anything but it may serve the players in good stead for the Euros and next WC

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Carrick, 32, who has won 31 caps and last featured for his country against Poland in October, said on Twitter: "Disappointed to be left out of the squad, World Cups are special and to miss out hurts. Want to wish the boys the very best of luck."

Translation:

Phew.

[thraxx]

Translation:  Phew

Corrected Geordie Translation:  Too Radge.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

We need youth, and pace for this tournament, and if that's not working, a couple of people who can deliver and finish off a set piece. Roydgson seems to have recognised that.

We're still utterly doomed but at least we'll have the knowledge of knowing we didn't just take the same old utter shit heads.

[biggytitbo]

Can't believe they're taking Rooney to a major tournament again. That's like having Ortis Dealey as the guest of honour at a TV sports presenter conference.


Will enjoy watching him wheeze about like a zombie missing the ball by a metre with every kick.

[Squink]

The hype about England being unhyped is already in overdrive. It will be deafening by the time we get to June.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

The hype about England being unhyped is already in overdrive. It will be deafening by the time we get to June.

ENGLAND WILL LOSE EVERY GAME 8-0 say all the papers. In an advert, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain trips over his Nike shoelaces. Sky Sports News runs a report questioning wether Ross Barkley is actually a real footballer.

[Unoriginal]

Not everyone in Scotland and Wales thinks that English people think they will win the WC. Always some but most of us don't really care these days. It's still funny when England fuck up but that's mainly because your exits are invariably comical.

In fact, quite a lot of people end up supporting England and then attack those who don't. I don't understand really. I'm not English. Also, if England did win, the media here would be intolerable. It was bad enough when a lot of English people pretended to give a shit about rugby in 2003 but I can't even imagine the scenes if England won the football world cup.

[biggytitbo]

I can't even imagine the scenes if England won the football world cup.

Thankfully all you will ever need to do is imagine it.

[buttgammon]

During the 2002 World Cup, there was a big dispute in my primary school about whether it was proper for our (entirely Welsh) class to support England or not. The teacher (also Welsh) lobbied for England and encouraged for us to all cheer them on when we watched them play Argentina but there were a few dissenters who all got shouted at a lot. The ridiculousness of the situation is so obvious to me now. For the record, I supported them then but don't now, even though I'm very anglicised, half-English and I spend most of my time in England surrounded by English people. I was particularly pleased to see Germany beat England last time but it was as much because I have a soft spot for the German team as anything else.

[Unoriginal]

I went to an Irish Catholic school and in 2002, the school put on the England games in the main hall because the kickoffs were early. Despite the school's expectations, virtually everyone supported the opposition and when Brazil knocked them out, the English kids were bullied so mercilessly that one of them took the rest of the week off. Not sure if that was just a Catholic thing or a general attitude in South Wales but I always got the feeling that we were the worst because most of us were brought up Irish pretty much.

My English heritage is tiny if it even exists. Annoyingly, my second country, Malta, are even worse than Wales so i'll be a neutral watcher for a long time yet

[DrGreggles]

I'm Irish, but the wanting England to fail at major tournaments is a relatively new thing for me.
Once we got knocked out in 1990, I still recall cheering on England*.
I may have even wanted them to win Euro 96.

But something happened between then and 1998 which meant that I took great pleasure from England's exit, but I can't think what it was.
Is that when the media saturation began?
Is that when the players began to be dislikeable?
Is it just because Glenn Hoddle is a fuckwit?

No idea. But something became ingrained in my brainspace at that point and has remained there ever since.
Come on, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica!




*In the semi-final anyway. Like most sensible people I obviously wanted Cameroon to beat them.

[Nobody Soup]

I used to be much more against the english football team than I am now. I'm not sure whether that's because the media I tend to read and follow is a little more restrained or just the media on the whole is a bit more restrained but it's a lot easier not to hate them when there's not a TV segement every 5 minutes. That said we still have a month for this to get silly and maybe that's not even a bad thing as England usually do make their own demise quite hilarious.

I think it's funny though how the the FA and EPL is getting in a state about young players and the future and all that. Bale and Ramsey, came through the english footballing system in a way pretty much indistinguishable from an english player, you chuck them in that team and I'd say anything less than a semi-final is disappointing.

[thepuffpastryhangman]

I used to be much more against the english football team than I am now. I'm not sure whether that's because the media I tend to read and follow is a little more restrained or just the media on the whole is a bit more restrained but it's a lot easier not to hate them when there's not a TV segement every 5 minutes.

It is, at least partly, because of a lack of familiarity. When the biggest names were the biggest names full stop, then yes, easier to dislike them. But now England players are have relatively minor roles in domestic football seeing them in the spotlight (a few obvious exceptions aside) actually makes a change. Every cloud and all that.

[BlodwynPig]

Having England in the World Cup is always torture for an Anglophobe Angle like myself. It was never about the team in the past, I could suffer a team full of wilkinses, robsonses, samsonses, but now the jeckyll and Hyde pomp and teeth gnashing runs right through the nation

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The romanticised images of True Grit Lions like Ince and Butcher, even Terry for his insane block in the last tournament makes you realise that a lot of England fans consider the team inferior, and can live with defeat in the knowledge that blood was spilled for the cause.

[thraxx]

English football has changed so much in the last 25 years.  The teams that I remember fondly are the ones from the 80s and 90s.  I find it very hard to root for any of the modern players, it was easier to do that with your Psychos and your Adamses and what not because you knew they had the passion that you did.  Even players like Hodge, Cowans, Fenwick et al you could cheer on because of that, even though they were donkeys. 

Much harder to do that with pricks like Rio, Terry and well, the list is endless.  I suppose that youth and nostalgia also plays a part in that, but the team was had a different ethic and the media attitude was different – I'm generalising, but it was was all the spirit of the blitz and war analogies, and that suited the team that was full of honest pros that put themselves about for blighty, but were cloggers.  I'm generalising, but it was pretty much the case.  It's easier to take defeat when the team has put in a shift and tried.  Also; we generally did better in those days, didn't we?  Having said that we also had lower lows – The Euros of 1988 and 1992 spring to mind.  Some of my most vivid memories of my youth are the monumental matches against Argentina and Germany in 1986 and 1990.  The last time that I really remember that we had a team that you could really get behind was in 1998.

[doppelkorn]

I never really got behind England. The first tournament I can remember them being in was Euro '96.

What struck me was how you were supposed to hate Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler and Steve MacManaman (for example) for 9 months, then get behind them for three weeks in June, while the opposite applied for Cantona, Schmeichel and Kanchelskis.

A lot of Utd fans also had this chip on their shoulder about England as well, stemming from Steve Bruce not getting a look in in the 80s or something so I think that rubbed off on me.

I also remember how Beckham was universally hated post '98 and Utd fans were the only ones who stuck by him.

The hypocrisy of that, plus the fawning over Diana the year before were seminal moments for me as a kid, because I realised that adults could be wrong about things. The first shards of cynical lights began shining through my skull.