I'd have to disagree with Mah, and not just cos I'm English, the English team is a good team at the moment, much feared by the other nations, they are very strong defeinsively, very passionate, they have some creative players in Scholes, Beckham, Sheringham, Sinclair, Joe Cole(if he gets on). They also now have the tactical genius that is Sven!!!!
Any team that can beat Germany 5-1 in Germany has to be feared, and then beat Argentina, arguably the best team in the world, so does that make us the best now? and then go on to beat an inform Danish team 3-0 in one half so they can comfortably sit back and coast in the second half. Mah with all this evidence how can you suggest England are not good? What was it against Denmark, 3 lucky breakaway goals?
yup, 2 goals against denmark was luck, third not, but you really shouldn't expect anything but victory against the danish team, who have no real star-players or anything.
yes you beat argentina, but not a argentina-team in normal condition, obviously. south korea is through to the quarter-final, italy, argentina and france are not. is south korea a better team than them? not by a long-shot. england has succeede due to hard work and Sven Goran Eriksson. yes you have some good players, but so have uruguay, who's still on of the worst teams in the world.
Who the heck let the USA into this party? The Germans had better sort THAT out, damn sharp.
Anyhow, couple of echoes here, aren't there? Senegal get through to the quarters on their debut after beating the holders 1-0 in the opening mtach just as Cameroon did in 1990 (before Lineker stuffed it to them GOOD), and South Korea fight with unexpected spirit through to the quarters just as North Korea did in '66 before Portugal stopped them... ah... looks like they are ahead of the game there.
Are England any good? Well, I think they are damn solid, myself, maybe lacking brilliance by default but you don't have to be brilliant, like the Brazilians, to dominate at football, and indeed, as the Brazilians know all too well, you can't always rely on it either.
If England win the World Cup it is NOT because everyone else was crap this time, it's because they played well and held it together which is as much as you can ask from any team.
But in any case it is hard not to favour Brazil. You let your guard slip for a moment with those guys and you are sunk.
Have you heard that the Korean player who scored the golden goal yesterday has been sacked by the Italian club he plays for (seriously, this is not a joke). The manager said , 'that young man will never set foot in an Italian club again - it was an afront to our national pride and he has ruined Italian football'. Again I stress that this is not a joke.