The World cup draw could have been kinder to England but is it all gloom?

Like Newcastle, England tend to play better against better sides and I believe they are perfectly cabable of qualifying from this group.

The sad thing is that both of the teams that go out from this group will be better than some of those remaining (excelent Seeding System) IMHO Almost every other group in fact will produce a team in the next round who are inferior to those eliminated from group F.

Will we be one of those to go beyond the first group stage?

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

Answers

It couldn't have been tougher for England, bob. However, on reflection it seems to me that if we can't beat Sweden and Nigeria then we've got no chance of getting the the last 4 anyway so, let's just bloody go for it.

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2001

I honestly don't think it's that bad.

We are capable of beating Sweden, it just needs a bit of motivation - a friendly isn't the right place to judge.

Nigeria aren't a brilliant team - capable of pulling off a shock but we have enough quality to beat them.

Argentina, a class side, probably better players than us, but their defence attacks with the rest of the team, with Michael Owen breaking on them we have a real chance of beating them. We effectively beat them in 98, hitting a post and a few shots coming very close, they weren't really in it for a lot of the game, and all this was with 10 men.

The draw could be a blessing in disguise. If we qualified from this group, confidence would be sky high.

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2001

It's a great time to play the Argies & I assume we wouldn't meet them again until teh final itself, if we both make it. The Argies will be trying a new system involving 7 attackers, two petch 7 carriers & 2 goalies (or something like that), it's a new system that is better tested in the early rounds.

If we can't beat Nigeria & Sweden (despite the former's class) we don't deserve anything.

The good thing is we're likely to get knocked out by the winners (Argentina or France)

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2001