England's WC campaign

who knows. what is certain is that the result will be completely meaningless.

and to respond to your wembley comment above - don't you think the fact that it's used for every 'big match' these days (you forgot cup semi finals) means the place has lost it's special position in english football? the only ones who look really motivated these days are england's opponents. but i must admit i'm looking forward to seeing us at the trophy final at wembley next spring!

comrade powell wrote:Germany, Spain and Italy, to name just 3, don't have a a national stadium. When Wembley was being rebuilt, England played at several club grounds. The atmosphere was a vast improvement each time and enabled fans from other areas to feel connected to their team. Of course the only thing which registers with the powers that be is to maximise earnings. England will never play away from Wembley again and I predict their appeal will continue to lessen.

Oh come on, I know that England started off in playing at your Elland Road's and your St.James Park's but the vast majority, and as time went by, of games were played at Old Trafford and if we didn't have Wembley stadium this is where our home would be now, not in different areas of the country. I also recall that when England played at Anfield once in a friendly the fans booed the Man.Utd players, so hardly a vast improvement in the deadish Wembley atmosphere.

Yes, maybe. The bottom line is that the FA sees its primary function as maximising the income streams coming into the game and that means having a stadium which is the showpiece of our game.
Frankly it's a meaningless debate as the team on the pitch is an embarrassment. I hate to think what Colombia would have done to us had we scraped a runners up spot. I preferred to watch the Italy/Uruguay battle but hear it was the usual tripe from England today. Had we won, I wanted to post that it was the 1st time we had won our final WC match since 1966. Instead, here's another damning stat - we have scored just 5 goals in our last 8 games in WC finals matches.

I always think that the trouble with England is that we try to compete in everything. Football, Rugby, Cricket, Rowing, Equestrianism, Sailing, Tennis, Athletics etc etc.

At the moment I would say our strongest team is Rugby Union but not so long ago we had the best cricket team in the world. We have the current Olympic tennis champion and several other world champions.

We can't be top in everything all the time.