MATCH THREAD - Costa Rica 0 vs England 0 - Group D - 5PM KO (UK TIME) - Tuesday 24th June

[jaycee]

i cannot believe Hodgson has just said that game showed what a good side England are,that was awful

 

[ultimateblue]

Costa Rica were praying Gerrard would have come on earlier to set up a few chances for them.

 

[SpeedEFC]

I actually think England played fairly well before Gerrard came on, we had good possession and were moving the ball around well but once Gerrard came on though we looked flat and devoid of ideas. I know I might be a bit biased but Gerrard is England's Phil Neville in my eyes, he licks the manager's hoop (or the manager licks his hoop, either or really) and gets on the pitch because he "has good leadership" regardless of whether he is any good at football.

 

[Rook]

I only watched some of the match (the 1st half). However am I crazy to think that Ruiz can play the Osman role in Bob's system? You see so much good stuff there and Fulham was a total mess the past 2 years that it probably wasn't a good situtaion for anyone. He still might be a 6M talent that we can perhaps pick up for 1/3-1/4 that price.

Its not just this WC too. Almost every time I saw him play for CR he did well.

 

[Blue Cheese]

Lampard thinks we played well. surely he can be honest and admit that they're shizer

 

[Matthew mcdonnell]

Why are we so bad lol? We played 'well' against Italy but they came third anyway. Can't play well vs top teams. Didn't see the full game so anyone tell me how was barkleys performance?

 

[Eggs]

....key to exit was paying two defensive central midfielders, neither of who crossed the half-way line. It invited teams on and the 2 players in question didn't offer an effective shield anyway. Today we at least played in the opponents half. Hodgson left the field like a hero, we need a visionary coach who can exploit the decent young talent we have.

 

[Toffeelover]

We played better overall than in the previous games and if Sturridge had his shooting boots on we should have won.

But there were negatives IMO. Jones I thought was rubbish, did he ever go forward and over lap, I do not think so. Smalling I thought was not that good either fair defensively but there were problems created by him. I have TBH never been that keen on Milner, afew decent runs but no game chnanger. Most of the time Strurridge was left up on his own, 1 striker against 3.

Now Hodgson has to do subs and bring on his old faves, Gerrard and Rooney. With Gerrard on we started to hang back in our half and give space to CR. Rooney supposedly came on to play on wings, what? but very soon wandered all over the middle and got in Barkley's way. In fact after Rooney came there was not one run from Barkley. The subs IMO should have been Welbeck and Lambert.

At the end like some other posters could not believe Hodgson's post match interview.

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[Woolly Blue]

My word that was a dull game.
I dropped off for 5 minutes in the first half. I won't forgive her for waking me up for a while.

 

[Toffeelover]

BBC showed the Hodgson post match interview, Shearer's reaction was disbelief okay we have some good young players coming through but England were not good enough and did not play well contrary to what Hodgson was saying.

 

[SteKelly]

Anyone notice Hodgson shaking his head because Barkley didn't sing and was just scratching his nose and that? Disgusting by Barkley!! The only people who actually want to play in that shirt are Wilshere and Luke Shaw maybe Rickie Lambert but he's just shocking

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[Elong]

This thread is sad to read. Even the trolls couldn't be bothered turning up in it.