hansum

The England team visited an orphanage in South Africa earlier today -

"It's so good to put a smile on the faces of people with no hope, constantly struggling and facing the impossible" said Jamal Umboto, aged 6.

Anybody here who watched the USA vs Slovenia match. 2-2 tie. Granted the Slovenians played well. But what in h_ll was the justification of the USA having their third goal disallowed. I've watched the replay 3 or 4 times...and I can't see what the reason was. Except to say the USA was hard done by the refs there. Did anyone see something I didn't see?

Even now, (I'm watching England vs Algeria now), and even now the England commentators are criticising that last USA goal (exactly what they called it) and the refs decision to disallow it.

FIFA made a huge mistake putting in an experienced ref at this level. When you get to the final 32 at world cup play it is FIFA's responsibility to bring in the world's best referees for the world's best teams. FIFA is undoubtedly aware of their mistake and has rushed their performance review of Coulibali's work in the USA Slovenia game and ruled that it was poor. They are making an announcement on it on Monday.

On the goal, I have read everything I can in the US and foreign press that is in English and having recorded the game have replayed the goal numerous times. The bottom line is that it was not a goal only because Coulibali ruled it wasn't a goal. Otherwise, it was a goal.

I look forward to FIFA's announcement on Coulibali's future at the world cup level tomorrow.

Agreed they shouldnt get referees who arent used to working in top end games.

But look on the bright side .... draw and youre through.

Why all this 'England is rubbish' and 'England is playing awfully' stuff? Algeria is a good team. Their goal keeper was amazing.

The reason why is because in 90 minutes of football they didnt have 1 shot on target against this rooky keeper who when called into action at best looked shakey.

That performance really was that bad ... the only plus point was they didnt concede.

They will be in trouble, thats for sure. Looking forward to the outcome.

Why would someone look forward to some kind of revengeful gang war involving the police?

Sounds like sour grapes from a pushy parent, in one paragraph he is comparing Ajax with a sunday morning game so why doesn't he compare Ajax with premier league academies.

Most of his argument is with kids playing on full size pitches in 11 a side games but this doesn't happen in Football academies.

Like i said to you before Whichschool if a boy is good enough he will be spotted which obviously the reporters son hasn't and you never hear the parents of a boy at a football academy complaining.

I give up if you think the way things currently are, are to the benefit of English football.

Talking crap like that you must be Whichschool in disguise, was joe cole 180cm and 85 kg then .

This person sounds like a visionary.

Anway Alfie please read this, a very good article indeed.

http://www.dailymail...and-giants.html

Like most Football Association publications, 'The Future Game' is well-packaged and glossy. It is a substantial document, too, full of good ideas. For Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA's director of football development, it is the culmination of six years in the job.

To produce it, Brooking studied technical reports of England's under 17, under 19 and under 21 teams at recent tournaments. 'They were pretty consistent,' he said. 'If a player had a weakness in our back four, it was quickly identified by the opposition, so when we won possession our better players were marked and they let our weaker ones have it, so we gave the ball away.

'In tight areas our midfielders lost possession and in the attacking third, one against one, we lacked the ability to open up defences and the final ball wasn't good. When we didn't qualify for the 2008 European Championship it triggered a debate, but then Fabio Capello came along, we had a successful couple of years and it all went on the back burner.'

Well, not here it didn't. With three boys of school age, some of us have been banging on about the parlous state of youth football since first standing on a touchline watching a son, who is now a strapping 14-year-old, playing his first game as an under eight.

The root of every problem that Brooking identified is there almost from the start, which is why there remains a gaping hole at the centre of his treatise, however well intentioned. For nowhere does the director of football development mention pitch sizes or team numbers as a factor in youth football; and this is where the rot sets in.

Back in November 2007, I challenged Brooking, and any youth football administrator who fancied it, to a game. The goals were to be 3.057metres (10.029ft) high and 9.174m (30.098ft) wide; the length of the pitch was to be 150.4m (165 yards) and the width 112.80m (124 yards), making the total playing surface 16,800m sq; the penalty area alone would stretch for 20.68m (23 yards). Despite the increased dimensions, the teams would remain 11-a-side.

Expanded by ratio, this equated to the travesty of the average 11-year-old playing on a full-sized pitch, a corruption of common sense that occurs throughout the country each weekend.

Within days, Brooking's office proposed a chat. I took along Rob, No 2 son, who was a 10-year-old goalkeeper playing for Redbridge district on a man's pitch at the time. He wished to know why so much of his goal was physically impossible to reach. It didn't seem fair.

Brooking was nice, understanding, but talked like a man who was remote from the problem, rather than poised to conquer it. He talked committees, and professional game boards, and Rob soon bore the look of a boy who couldn't believe he had skipped double geography for this.

Brooking knew something had to be done, so why didn't he do something? Now, almost three years on, he has. He has produced a booklet called 'The Future Game' that, in essence, leaves youth football mired in its past.

'Is there anything in there on pitch sizes?' I asked the gentleman at the FA. 'No,' he replied. 'That's a rather abstract concept.'

But it isn't. It becomes finite, the size of the pitch, if Brooking makes it so. Were he to instruct that it should be made relative to the size of the players, instantly we would have a better quality, more technical game.

Ever notice the size of the pitches kids mark for themselves in the playground or the park? Not big, are they? Kids don't want some gruesome slog against the odds; they want a quick, fun game with lots of action and lots of goals. The faster the better, in fact: what do you think rush goalie is all about?

What is an entirely abstract concept is the vague notion, advanced by Brooking and others, that we should play like Holland or Brazil, France or Spain, Germany, Argentina, or whoever wins the World Cup this summer.

I've heard a million of these theories and they founder at the same stage: teach the Ajax method as much as you like, but if on Sunday the wind is against you, the pitch is sodden and the halfway line is 50 yards away, your 11-year-old goalkeeper will barely be able to get the ball out of his own penalty area, so the opposing forwards will push up and camp on the edge of the box, the wide players will close down your full backs and you will be trapped.

When small boys play on an oversized pitch, an opposition goal-kick is often a better attacking tool than a corner. It is a total perversion of the way the game is meant to be played. Each one of the failings Brooking identified in the young England teams can be traced back to issues in junior football. Those vast expanses of boggy, uneven parkland are where the agricultural central defenders with scant technique are created.

If you can't get the ball out of your own half, the quickest, easiest taught solution is not to coach the kids to knock it about like Barcelona and bamboozle the opposition - because that would take years and a far superior pool of talent than is going to be available to a typical under 11 coach - it is to get your two biggest kids, stick them at the back and tell them to lump it forward.

This is how we have produced generation after generation of clumsy defenders, the type our opponents want to have the ball because they know possession will soon be conceded.

If Brooking then wonders why, one on one, English forwards lack the ability to finish or open up defences, it is because they do not have sufficient experience of this facet of play.

Manchester United, who know a thing or two about nurturing young talent, made a study in this area and reported that small-sided games in restricted space produce significantly more passes, crosses, scoring opportunities, shots, one-on-one situations and goals. The optimum game for increasing the technical ability of five to 11-year-olds is four versus four. Obviously, Sunday clubs cannot be run on that basis but there is no reason why seven and nine-a-side football should not be standard until the age of 14.

Hockey is an 11-a-side sport with many similarities to football, but the majority of games played by children of school age are seven-a-side on smaller pitches. The alternative is that technique would go out of the window and circumstances would merely reward the biggest, earliest developers, who could hit the ball farthest. Brooking told me that his generation played on full-sized pitches, too, and the experience did not harm their technique. Yet this is not entirely true. For a start, England have won a single World Cup, in 1966, so for all the talk of the superior technique of previous generations, it has remained consistently inferior to their European and South American counterparts.

Indeed, a recent interview with Brooking opened with an anecdote about a match he played for England in 1977 when Johnny Rep, the great Dutch right-sided forward, began mocking the quality of the opposition minutes into the game.

Also, Brooking's generation had more open spaces to play football in an unstructured environment: in the road, the alley, at recreation grounds that are now housing estates. This freedom developed skill in the raw.

These days kids are coached to death by the dad of either the best (if he wants the glory for his son) or the worst (if he wants to ensure his son is picked) footballer in the team, often with one eye on the league table, plus an audience of belligerent parents.

As Brooking surely accepts, there is absolutely no reason why English footballers should be inferior. There is no genetic predisposition to lack of flair, so it must be a failing in our system, in the way our game is coached and run.

Watch a group of little kids playing football anywhere in the world and they look the same. It is ridiculous to imagine our seven-year-olds have less skill than tots in Spain. It is what happens next that holds them back and while Brooking has some bright ideas, he does not go far enough.

He has the power to change youth football in this country almost overnight, yet refuses to exercise it. An edict restricting pitch sizes, goal sizes and team numbers up to the age of 14 would be a radical start.

Instead what is being proposed is a very English revolution, in that it will look nice on an occasional table and you can always serve tea off it.

Beating up a cop in Thailand......................

Brave.................Stupid....................Or high on yaa bah.

RIP to the gang.

Or maybe theyve bigger teeth then this policeman ... e.g. a higher rank

Milner was ill apparantly in his 30 minutes, id agree with what you say i know this balls meant to be bad but Rooneys touch was dreadful.

Id like to know other opinions then msg and yabaaa ... has anyone else used similar devices.

But no matter what you consider if you were born in England, raised there you are without doubt English ... though i could accept you saying im an Earthling and we're all one as opposed to English ... i could understand someone not caring about there results but prefering them to lose isnt right.

As for disliking the players rightly or wrongly most people these days think players are arrogant out of touch fools, the Irish im presuming are no better or worse then the English.

why are you so bothered?

Curious as to why someone who likes football and was born in England wishes them to lose, youre the first person like this ive ever come across.

From a personal point of view i used to like all the British Isles teams to qualify for tournaments, but then this hatred of the English in all aspects of life seemed to go to a new level .. now the only team i like to see do well are the Northern Irish.

Why bring race into this what has his race got to do with him being utter cr4p ...

Everything. He's English.

If he was from any other country he'd not be a footballer its only the English coaches that see talent in someone who you can hoof the ball up to so he can occasionally hold the ball up as he's twice the size of the kids around him.

I'd be willing to bet Messi wouldnt have made the grade as a 15 yo kid in England as he wasnt 180cm and 85kg and couldnt kick the ball as far as such people.

Agreed that generally English coaches of juveniles still live in the dark ages and are desparately bereft of knowledge of how the modern game should be played but,surely, SOMEONE would have spotted a 15 year old Messi somewhere.

But with the money in the FA surely they can fund decent coaches .. pity we spent 1 billion on a football stadium and bribing Red Kens corrupt mates instead of buying pitches and training the coaches.

Take my mates boy to football training and they all get a present at the end for trying ... i was astounded.

Heskey must be the most maligned player in the history of English international football (and the most racially abused, I read in a book somewhere)

Why bring race into this what has his race got to do with him being utter cr4p ... when they booo Lampard is that racist .... could you please tell me what im allowed to do without being racist.

Well, he's got 60 caps and has played under a succession of England managers so he can't be that bad! He was no better but certainly no worse than the maiority of the excrement on display out there.As far as the racial abuse is concerned,I read that in Dougie Brimson's book 'Kicking Off' about hooliganism and racism.I dont know if it's true or not.

Dont know who Dougie is but im taking it he didnt see what happened to John Barnes for England ... though Barnes being utter cr4p for England and seen to not have been a trier may not have helped his cause.

But ive got to disagree that he isnt any worse, granted theyre all bad for England at the moment but he;s just terrible wherever he is.

Why bring race into this what has his race got to do with him being utter cr4p ...

Everything. He's English.

If he was from any other country he'd not be a footballer its only the English coaches that see talent in someone who you can hoof the ball up to so he can occasionally hold the ball up as he's twice the size of the kids around him.

I'd be willing to bet Messi wouldnt have made the grade as a 15 yo kid in England as he wasnt 180cm and 85kg and couldnt kick the ball as far as such people.

yep, you're absolutely right. the english game prizes physique and pace over ability and technique. someone like barcelona's xavi wouldn't have made it in england either because he would have been deemed too small and didn't get stuck in enough.

I believe Souness rejected Deco for the same reason and replaced him with the one and only Mark Pembridge, now im not meaning to single out Souness but you can imagine most coaches think like Souness in Britain and it must have seen the end to many a genuine talented players potential career.

OK if in the next round of games all of the teams in Group C draw again that would leave the US & England on 3 points each. So who would go through seeing as the goal difference would be zero for both of them? Would it go on most goals scored in their respective draws? Desperate I know but it could happen!!

after goal difference it goes on goals scored, yes. so the US's 2-2 draw would then be a better result than england's 0-0 last night.

those are some straws you're clutching at though. on current form slovenia will comfortably beat england anyway.

Why would someone who was born in England more then likely travels on a passport acquired from being English, living a life benefitted from being born in England be happy about the English football team getting knocked out?

well in part because i don't consider myself 'english' despite where i coincidentally happened to be born, in part because i don't like a large number of england's players and in part because it really seems to annoy narrow-minded insecure <deleted> ing-ur-land supporters.

But no matter what you consider if you were born in England, raised there you are without doubt English ... though i could accept you saying im an Earthling and we're all one as opposed to English ... i could understand someone not caring about there results but prefering them to lose isnt right.

As for disliking the players rightly or wrongly most people these days think players are arrogant out of touch fools, the Irish im presuming are no better or worse then the English.

OK if in the next round of games all of the teams in Group C draw again that would leave the US & England on 3 points each. So who would go through seeing as the goal difference would be zero for both of them? Would it go on most goals scored in their respective draws? Desperate I know but it could happen!!

after goal difference it goes on goals scored, yes. so the US's 2-2 draw would then be a better result than england's 0-0 last night.

those are some straws you're clutching at though. on current form slovenia will comfortably beat england anyway.

Why would someone who was born in England more then likely travels on a passport acquired from being English, living a life benefitted from being born in England be happy about the English football team getting knocked out?

Why bring race into this what has his race got to do with him being utter cr4p ...

Everything. He's English.

If he was from any other country he'd not be a footballer its only the English coaches that see talent in someone who you can hoof the ball up to so he can occasionally hold the ball up as he's twice the size of the kids around him.

I'd be willing to bet Messi wouldnt have made the grade as a 15 yo kid in England as he wasnt 180cm and 85kg and couldnt kick the ball as far as such people.

Milner Gerrard Barry J Cole

Defoe Rooney

That should be the Midfield/Forward if we're going to try and get a few goals.

Lampard has proved worthless time and again for England and should be dropped, if he doesnt score goals as he does at Chelski he contributes sweet FA .... the most overated player since David Platt who he reminds me of no end.

Heskey must be the most maligned player in the history of English international football (and the most racially abused, I read in a book somewhere)

Why bring race into this what has his race got to do with him being utter cr4p ... when they booo Lampard is that racist .... could you please tell me what im allowed to do without being racist.

Means less disposable income to spend though, retail will crash.

It has crashed already you just need to walk through most town centres to see the amount of empty shops, but when the retail sector was financed by credit that was inevitable.

If they do let wage inflation go any UK competitveness left will be lost, jobs & investment will be lost at an alarming rate.

There is never a free lunch.

We are losing jobs at an alarming rate, and its about to get worse in the public sector, but sterling has already fallen on average 30% against most currencies to help with competition.

Im badly putting my point across, basically without QE /low interest rates we'd have deflation which imo would be a great thing as it'd enable property, wages to go to their natural level, thus meaning the banks assets would fall and IMO property would fall far more then wages as wages havnt rose at the same rate in the last 12 yrs ... but with QE/low interest rates, wage inflation is still rising, asset/property prices are kept artificially high and unbelievably going up, thus the govt is inflating its way out of the problem. (apologies that wording isnt the best but i hope you get my drift)

Budget 2010: Bank of England's Mervyn King gives clearest warning yet of interest rate rise - Telegraph

]]]]http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=506411&in_page_id=2&ct=5]

Few articles in the press saying UK interest rates will be going up soon, I am no expert but would this help the pound?

Yes it would but I seriously doubt that interest rates will go up sufficently, any time soon.

They wish to inflate their way out of this debt, if the BOE were doing there job properly theyd be putting interest rates up to fight inlation my take on it from listening to BOE decision makers is we're more likely to get more QE or money printing in the coming months then higher rates, as there is about to be another 500,000 on the dole thus they claim it'll bring inflation down.

Pity we didnt have the sense to do as the Americans done and just let the property market crash, there is an unhealthy obsession with people who have a self interest in keeping the prices artificially high.

You need wage inflation though.

Isnt QE going to see to wage inflation, despite the growing number of people soon to be out of work?

It'll just mean as wage inflation is lower then price inflation people will have a lower standard of living.

Wages are still rising, surely with the millions on the sick/dole this shouldnt be the case.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6446DE20100505

Budget 2010: Bank of England's Mervyn King gives clearest warning yet of interest rate rise - Telegraph

]]http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=506411&in_page_id=2&ct=5]

Few articles in the press saying UK interest rates will be going up soon, I am no expert but would this help the pound?

Yes it would but I seriously doubt that interest rates will go up sufficently, any time soon.

They wish to inflate their way out of this debt, if the BOE were doing there job properly theyd be putting interest rates up to fight inlation my take on it from listening to BOE decision makers is we're more likely to get more QE or money printing in the coming months then higher rates, as there is about to be another 500,000 on the dole thus they claim it'll bring inflation down.

Pity we didnt have the sense to do as the Americans done and just let the property market crash, there is an unhealthy obsession with people who have a self interest in keeping the prices artificially high.

How does a (presumably) OLD, WHITE, man get a 10 year old Thai girl into a guesthouse alone? And not once, but multiple times? Isn't anyone at the front desk, or a cleaning person, or another guest, or anyone else at all around who asks what their deal is? I mean, everywhere I go people ask me where I'm from, where I'm going, how long I'm staying, if I'm married, anything and everything about my business.... So how does an old white man with a little Thai girl not set of any alarms?

And where were the child's parents/caretakers? Do they normally just not know where she is for substantial periods of time?

Really strange.

I mean, if the guy nabbed the girl on her way home from school once, then maybe it's a little more likely to have gone un-noticed. But this happened multiple times. You would think someone would notice.

I see what youre getting at, but maybe he simply befriended the family.

roll on the years of when the likes of john terry, frank lampard, rio ferdinand and wayne rooney get the job.

gawd help us!

Lampards intelligent, but id prefer Ian Holloway on the telly the mans a star.

As far as the pundits and their banal pre match/half time analysis, it's just the good old boys yet again, taking the piss, not even having the professionalism to do their research before a fat pay day and some free tickets. Jobs for the boys.

How else could someone like Shearer, equiped with the personality of a baboon get the gig?

I know most Newcastle fans cringe at Shearer on TV.

It doesnt have to be that way though SkySports soccer saturday is funny as <deleted> (used to be better) and offers decent analysis, arguments etc.... though im doubting any of them have done any homework.

One thing i was surprised to see and i dont know what truth is in it, but it said that Robbie Earle was paid 150 grand a year for his role on ITV and he is rarely on ... good work if you can get it.

One last thing on the BBC is if any of you have seen the Football League Show on Saturday nights, youd agree its an utter piss take out of football and the women or politically correct w4nker who designed it should be taken out and shot with no questioned asked ... harsh but fair.

<br />Ive got a fairly good feeling about this game, just as i had a fairly bad one before the USA game ... England will win by 2 clear goals and play quite well ... you heard it here first.<br />

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Hansum, i think if you look about your post, I beat you to it.

Almost first then.