rooney captain.says it all.scouse blue thief

Sirenetta gave a good overview. Players worked hard but­ England lacked penetration in attack. Wide players do­ not seem capable of taking on thier opponents. The­ service to the front players was very poor in both­ quality and invention. Brazil played good technical­ football going forward but looked a little less­ confident defending. A good effort from an­ understrength England , top 8 in the summer would not­ dissapoint, semi final would be a good effort.

How come that this forum is so full of Idiots ? , you­ either can't spell , have no knowledge of what­ punctuation is , or you're totally devoid of­ constructive criticism.....Adults here get fed up of­ seeing "playground" remarks all the­ time....so please the "Plant life" among you­ try to do better or get your Mummies to type for you.

So happy 4 brazil

Excellent performance from a second string team to lose­ only 1-0 to the best in the world. Defence was­ surprisingly good throughout the game. Hardly a team­ in the world could have kept out that one goal. Mid­ field was creative but lacked the inspiration that­ missing players would have provided. Real problem is­ up front. Rooney is the best supporting striker in the­ world but no leader and we don't have a modern (ie­ fast) Shearer...

If we make the semi-finals we shall­ have done well. If we make the final I shall be­ amazed, but that will require no injuries and everyone­ playing out of their skins. Still, let's keep a­ sense of proportion. Without the best players in the­ world we can't have the best team in the world!

I'm sorry to say that the past relative lack of­ success at WC & Euro finals seems to be the cause­ for the accute pessimism displayed by some English­ fans, and not the current team's performance. Does­ anyone believe that the 2002 German team would be­ better than the English one who just lost against­ Brazil? BTW, how many people could name 3 Germans who­ played the 2002 final (ok, other than Kahn who had his­ share of guilt at both goals)? How come that that was a­ closer game than the result would suggest, even though­ most, if not all the Brazilians probably were actual­ geniuses?

Let's just be humble and humbled by this­ performance and be happy to be part of such a wonderful­ occasion in the summer, without expecting too much-­ being realistic helps avoid disappointment when things­ don't work out our way and not totally­ unexpectedly. Let us enjoy it and not expect to bring­ the cup back to its homeland... we will be lucky to get­ through the group stage, if you ask me, the level of­ football there will be much higher and the stakes as­ well

we have the qualityin england but the employment of our­ quality has to change if we have to win some body sit­ down and watch last nights game and analyse it
it was­ all about possesion positioning it does not matter how­ fast u play the brazilians will bring u back tyoi their­ pace so we have the talent lets play them at their game­ then we may have an element of surprise one way­ football doesnt work it may work when u are playing­ sanmarino but not with the top teams we are big enough­ to be there we have enough talent to whip brazil­ argentina and the rest of them but we play the wrong­ gameplay total footballif u have a free player in the­ back pass it to them but the way england played last­ night was like we were playing afire ball burning us­ pass it anywhere come on it can be done

We would struggle against teams who are hungry for­ success, who need to shine individually. I'd say­ that any half-decent team has an upper hand on England,­ unfortunately. The manager can only do as much,­ it's up to the players to take it in. His job is to­ find the best formation/squad and play them to the­ maximum of their ability in THAT formation, let alone­ finding Plan B...so difficult

PART2:
I don't think England have a bad team...BUT­ I do think that some other countries simply have more­ talent and better TEAMS. I think we could compete with­ some European countries- Germany, Italy and maybe­ France. But teams who are more technical- Spain,­ Netherlands, Portugal- will always give us problems. We­ can only play one way, and it's HOOK the FREAKING­ BALL FORWARD and let the forwards chase them. We need­ more than 1 or 2 players who can keep the ball at their­ feet, dribble through when it's necessary, pass it­ to someone nearby and the ball will stick to their­ foot, rather than bounce back as if from the wall.

PART1:
There are some good comments here. Most people­ realise that supporting a team and being impartial are­ 2 different things. Yes, I do support England and wish­ we could win the WC 2010. But, there is a COLD SHOWER­ which thankfully was poured over in a friendly! That­ HASSLE guy who mentioned that if Terry and Co. played­ the score could have been worse is right in a way.­ Brasil were a pleasure to watch and made it look SOOO­ SIMPLE, that one was wondering whether the teams were­ from different planets: passing, movement, control of­ the ball by ALL the Brasil players was first class.­ Even some unknown left back would make sure that he­ drew some England players towards him before passing. I­ honestly can't say how enjoyable it is to watch­ some world class teams play.

cristian j montgomery does not sound like a brazilian­ name to me,anyway no matter the people who say our­ 'first team' would have done it are­ deluded,they had players missing,but its the way they­ play,it is far superior to our way,lets face it, we are­ good,they are the best and to watch is fantastic,the­ way football should be.

If the score of every game would only depend of the­ absolute technical quality of the players involved,­ Brazil would win all their games by at least 3 goals.­ if so, the Brazilians shouldn't have been beaten by­ France in '86, '98 and in '06, should have­ scored in regulation against Italy in '94 and­ should not have been beaten by Argentina in '90 or­ by Italy in '82. Oh yes, and Italy should not have­ made the final in '96, much less win it.
FYI ref 99­ - I'm a Canadian.

Considering Capello chose B team players who are­ getting older mostly and will not improve, the result­ was OK. I say choose players from the under 21 squad to­ find out how the future England team may look, you may­ never know what talent is there unless you throw them­ in the deep end. The result of this friendly was­ completely unimportant. Pele was 17 years old in the­ World Cup team of 1958.
Wingsy

Ref comment 98 are you related to Mr. Capello.

I'm a fan of Italian football, but I thought­ England played a good game against arguably the best­ bunch of players at the moment. Even the much-maligned­ defence (and none of its components would normally­ start the games a year from now) only received 1 goal­ and gave out 1 penalty. Lampard and Gerrard were sorely­ missed, but what team wouldn't miss them. All in­ all, a very good test, and if the 2 teams will meet in­ South Africa and all the players will be available, I­ would put my money on England.