British Expatriate Network

Does anybody think they will ever get the ball to rooney ??

What a boring game cant be bothred to write any more .

england 0 ecuador 0 half time

Well it was boring............but we did win :mrgreen:

I think we will need more than luck to get us any further though!

Mostly boring, I agree but lovely free kick from Beckham. I wonder though if he couldn't just have a sleeping bag set up at the edge of the pitch and take a nice rest during the open play.

Highlights of the game included

Obligatory shots of Victoria Beckham every time David was on or near the ball, after the goal - trouble was, the American commentators were oblivious to who it was and ignored her every time.

Beckham hurling on the pitch. Felt bad for him and there was no real need to show that. Fortunately, I hadn't had breakfast before I saw that.

The England fans "boo-ing" to which the American commentators pointed out that they were unhappy with England's tactics and play. However, in the British commentary, they commented that the fans were boo-ing a section of the crowd who weren't joining in with the Mexican wave that was going round the stadium during a quiet period.

I notice from talking to my sister in UK that the visual feed here is about 4-6 seconds late. Is that really all down to distance or are ESPN/ABC/Disney and whoever using a delay in case something 'naughty' happens? My sister commented that Rio Ferdinand dropped the 'F' bomb in the tunnel before the teams came out which was loud and clear on Brit TV but I did not hear it on US.

Does anybody think that Frank Lampard will learn to shoot? I really don't know why he went with a 4-5-1 formation, and even so why wasn't Crouch in against a team who tallest player is 6'0?

If its any consolation, it seems that England are having one of those 'Lucky Tournaments' that usually the likes of Germany or Brazil have where they luck their way to the final. The question is, is this really as well as England can play, or will they suddenly decide to show up against Portugal? At least Portugal have a few players out (Deco, Ronaldo?) because of the Holland game.

In case of 'wardrobe malfunction' no doubt. :roll:

I think the delay has to do with different coverage all together. Here we have HD, in England this is not an option. Certainly Americans suck a commenting a game, I absolutely think that Marcelo Balboa needs to shut the h(*& up and learn about the game before opening his mouth, he is soooo annoying.

I don't care if the game is boring at this time, I just want a clean safe game. Yes, Lampard needs to learn how to shoot a ball!

Also, as a manager, Sven has done a terrible job. Why let one of his best player, vomit 3 times and then take him out???? He doesn't seem to be in synch with the team.

Once again, Walcott is ignored.

Carrick had a good enough game for someone that is in the team to help get the best out of Gerrard and Lampard.

The Carragher subsitution was a good one, giving Hargreaves his defensive midfielder role and thickening up the back four. But why did he throw off the balance of the team by taking out LEFT sided Joe Cole for the right-back? Why did he leave Beckham on the field? He scored a great free kick but was a log jam for us on the right. All our fluidity was down the left side where Joe and Ashley Cole and Gerrard were combining well. Down the right, Beckham was stationary. You can't stroll around a pitch for 30 minutes at a time waiting for a free kick or corner. It's not like we don't have free kick or corner takers! Gerrard and Lampard are more than adequate at that, and either of them or Terry are good captain replacements. Once Beckham threw up he should have been off.

Lennon should have been given more time than just 5 minutes to bounce the ball off the corner flag, you could tell he was itching to be let loose on some visibly tiring Ecuadorians.

As that Marcello twat said, "I am afraid what England can do when they start playing well".

This would be my team for the next game against Portugal who offer a lot of attacking midfield threat

Robinson

Carragher Ferdinand Terry A.Cole
Hargreaves Carrick
Lampard Beckham Gerrard
Rooney

Then we could bring on J.Cole, Lennon or Crouch for whatever attacking options we need. Putting Beckham in a central midfield role means we could work around him to the flanks.

Possible alternative in that formation would be Gerrard on the right, J.Cole on the left, and Lampard as the sub to replace any of the midfield - he's not shone yet in this tournament, seems to lack confidence.

He must have eat to much spice :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Another awful performance really. Glad we won but not the manner in which it occured. The British press are in a huge fight over Beckham and Lampard this morning. Beckham is either so shit he can only cross once or take a free kick and puke up, or he's so great that despite being clearly unwell he scores a free kick and tackles back in the 91st minute. Lampard is either playing so poorly Jose Mourinho knew and that's why he bought Ballack, or he's so great that he could have scored 15 already. For me Beckham is doing average and Lampard is sucking alot.

As for the game - Hargreaves did well at right back to my surprise. Rooney ran alot but what for - the system didn't work for me. Gerrard's touch let him down alot yesterday which was a shock. Carrick played ok (BBC thought he played fantastic which was a shock to me) and what has happened to John Terry? He's playing like Sol Campbell does for England.

The interesting thing after the game was the BBC, Radio 5 and TalkSport commentary. Nearly all said they were satisfied and finally we have a system that works. The only dissenters were Terry Venables and the Moose on TalkSport. Almost every fan that called the radio shows I listened to said it was a dire performance. And it was - I feel slightly embarresed by this and fear a real hammering once England meet a real quality side.

Graham Taylor was critical on the Beeb website. He said Carrick had an awful game. Then the other two pundits on there, Hansen and Shearer, said he was (close to) man of the match!

Mr Taylor, what did you ever do for England?

And Terry Butcher agrees with my assessment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football...116008.stm

And Butcher should know, he was in quite a few crap England teams as I remember.... :grin:

I gotta say I thought carrick didn't do better than Hargreaves or Carragher in that position. He kept bypassing the midfield and lumping it over the top.

They have the same deal in UK - standard definition broadcasts and high definition on BBC and ITV although I don't think it is quite as popular there yet, for one reason or another. The FIFA World Cup 2006 was supposed to be the launch pad for folks in UK getting high-def but I'm not sure they had the number of sets to meet the demand, judging from some trade articles I saw a few weeks ago.

Definitely a delay going on - take ESPN's coverage of Australia vs. Italy which is on now.

They show the teams coming out, forming up for national anthems, start the Italian anthem and then lose the feed.

Cut to the Adidas 'Jose's Dream Team' ad which lasts about 25 seconds. They then cut back to the feed and the game is about 20 seconds in. So apparently it is possible to complete the first stanza of the Italian national anthem AND switch to the Australian anthem and complete the first stanza AND then form up to kick off and begin playing for 20 seconds.

Love how they blamed it on the German host broadcast company too. The Germans probably do it for a laugh, to see who has the most Draconian delays in place.

Worst thing though is when a game is on here and you get the stupid bar at the top with logo, scores, flags, timer, name of competition, live tag, round tag and sponsor logo. If it's on ESPN2, you also get another bar at the bottom with a news ticker.

Talk about annoying but I suppose I'd rather have that than spotty coverage here and there or worse - Pay Per View at $20 a pop! Anyone in an area where an ABC affiliate put a 2006 World Cup game on tape delay because they reserve the right to do so?

No, the worst thing is when they put up the starting lineups across half the screen just as a team is attacking, and pull them when the ball goes out of play or a player is injured.