Their (possible) saving graces from this group are that Uruguay looked awful and can Costa Rica play as well again?
Exactly what I'm thinking/hoping.
It'll be interesting to see if Roy goes balls-out next game as well - I mush have been watching a different Sterling to everyone with an English passport. After his fantastic pass which led to the goal he lit a cigar for 20 minutes then spent the rest of the game losing the ball and shanking crosses. I was sure Hodgson would bring him off - The kid was busting a gut but was flagging - but Sturridge's injury probably solved that conundrum.
I can see what you're saying about Sterling running and losing the ball, but we all know the alternative is passing the ball backwards and trying to keep not. It's what we do because, eventually, you know it's going to go Hollywood. By the end he was obviously shattered and his crossing was poor but, unlike someone like Lennon, who you're sure will shank it or run into a corner, with Sterling there's actually the possibility that he could do something. After years of 50 yard diagonal crosses that get cut out or run out of play or crosses put in for midgets and, of course, the punt up to the lone front man who has to knock the ball onto no one or hold it up for 10 seconds while the rest of the team get up to him, it's nice to have the possibility of a piece of skill and some running. The same's true of Sturridge. We'll see if we can make this work in the next two games. Get behind the defence and I'm confident we'll have some success.
If they're going to play such an attacking game from the wings England need full backs who can defend. We all know Johnson never could (and it's frightening that he would still be my first choice for the next game, but they've got no one else) and the weakest part of Baines' game was exposed time and again. Poor Cashley.
Our defence is the obvious weakness of this England team. Look at that back four. Baines is the only one who could be there with good players available. We've all dispaired at Johnson for years now, but I really don't know that we have better and, if we do, it'll be a very young and relatively inexperienced player, such as Flannagan, Jenkinson or Chambers.
England didn't run out of heart, which is a massive improvement, but they didn't have anyone on the pitch to put their foot on the ball and settle everyone down.
But England hardly ever have this and, when they do, they don't have another one to pass it to. This is why England should just play Premier League football at International level. Yes, they'll tire and we won't win anything, but we're not going to anyway and, at least this way, it'll be entertaining.
Did anyone see the Ivory Coast/Japan game? That was a good game. I think it's the best game that ITV have had and, unfortunately for them, it was on in the middle of the night. I, however, loved having live world cup football in the middle of the night. Felt really good.
It's amazing what an icon can do for a team, too. From the moment Drogba came on the pitch, IC looked a completely different team. Suddenly they looked like they thought they'd win. Not that he'd win it for them, but
they could win. That was the important bit. They weren't looking for him to win it for them, they were looking at him to inspire them to win it.
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