He lasted about a minute last night...i was actually surprised he lasted even that long. But he played superb until the moment he went down injured...

So, Michael Owen has finally gone back to the place he should never have travelled to Germany from, and i for one am relieved. It was a thoroughly selfish decision to accept his selection into the England squad and he knew very well he was not in the right condition to be of any use to England at the World Cup. He should have recommended to Sven that he take Jermain Defoe intead - it would have been the decent thing to do.

I actually believe England now have a far greater chance of winning the World Cup now that we have shed Owen...sorry, been forced to shed Owen.

Reason: We can focus on fielding a more effective starting eleven, and due to lack of options we may have to start playing the same team, game after game, starting with Ecuador...and we'll see how it goes from there...

Owen's game is far too predictable and most decent international defenders have him sussed out, whereas with Wayne Rooney and even Peter Crouch it's a different proposition altogether - with those two, you kind of realize what you're going to be up against but any attempt to thwart the threat which they pose is never going to be an easy task.

Penny for yer thoughts...

I have opted not to vote for any of the above as I think there is as much chance of England winning as there is of me suddenly liking liver. It simply won't happen. No matter how many convoluted combinations you concoct.

I think we would have stood a chance with Jermaine Defoe but Sven sent him home. Now we only really have Walcott as a back up for the front line.

I have opted not to vote for any of the above as I think there is as much chance of England winning as there is of me suddenly liking liver. It simply won't happen. No matter how many convoluted combinations you concoct.

I agree. Liver is yuck!:sick:

...and I agree about England too. I was just concocting the convoluted combinations out of sheer boredom.:sad:

I think we would have stood a chance with Jermaine Defoe but Sven sent him home. Now we only really have Walcott as a back up for the front line.

Stood a chance - yeah probably, but it wouldn't have made a hell of a lot of difference in the G.S.O.T. I think we'd struggle to beat a select team of baboons the way we're playing at the moment...

G.S.O.T. Greenwich Senile Otters' Trust?

G.S.O.T. Greenwich Senile Otters' Trust?

:laugh:...close, but no Cuban!

...Glasgow School of Trespassing...god, don't you know anything??

I would like to say that if England could play all there remaining matches with a standard of and above that of there first half match against Sweden they might get through to the quarter finals. After that they'd have no choice but to mark there game up.

However the second half of Englands Match with Sweden was not so hot, they'd lost there momentum. With or without Owen they could play well and do it. Sven just has to get it right. Very worrying also about playing all those strikers with yellow cards. I hope he gets it right. Otherwise it will be Argentina, Brazil or Italy taking the cup.

Away the lads.

Vindaloo, vindaloo vindaloo vindaloo.vindaloo... Emm can anyone tell me what his has to do with footie?

Do you think Owen's career is finished?

Maureen
Northern angel.

I really like owen and am sad to see him go...

I would like to see young Lennon given more of a chance to stretch his legs afterall...it has been the youngest, new players that have made some of the biggest impacts in international tournaments past...Owen world cup, Rooney Europeans...Lennon World cup???

I personally think Owen has become a bit of an obsession with Sven - much like Beckham.

He's not fit, he's not firing on all cylinders. The argument for him is '...but he's always likely to get you goals'. Yeah...true...but most strikers are likely to get you goals - Jermain Defoe can get you goals. So can Darren Bent. And they're both fit.

His recent arrogant response to the suggestion that he might have to change his game to fit into the team had nothing to do with being stubborn. It's simply because he's not able to alter his game. His game is based on an ability to outpace (when he's fully fit) the last defender. He's useless when running directly at a defender as we've seen so often before (Argentina goal at France '98 the one exception), as nine times out of ten a top class international defender will tackle him and turn possession around.

Jermain Defoe is far less predictable - Darren Bent too. Much more to their games. Bad decision.

As for Theo Walcott...well, maybe that will one day be explained.:bored:

Rather than start up a new thread i thought it'd be a better idea to just pick a random thread in this World Cup section. :nerd: <--- a random smiley

Just been downstairs watching the reply (replay even) of tonight's match and stroking the cat (...not the type of pussy i wish to be stroking at this hour of a Saturday night...i prefer Persians), and I spotted the Daily Mirror lying around with the headline 'Chocalert'...which i thought was rather clever. Anyway, having noticed that i then quickly rotated the paper 180 degrees (as any normal football enthusiast would do) and spotted the usual 'rampant nationalism'-type headline concerning England and their World Cup odyssey - it read as follows...

SEVEN REASONS WHY WE'LL WIN THE WORLD CUP...
...and those reasons were

1. It's our 7th finals appearance since 1966. We have to win 7 games to win the trophy

...okay, fair dinkum - first bit is true enough. But er...doesn't every team at the World Cup need to win 7 games??:huh:

2. The words 'winners', 'England', 'captain', and 'Beckham' all have 7 letters

...again, this is quite true...but then so do the words 'tossers', 'useless'. 'dreamer', and 'pillock':bored:

3. The final's on Sunday, the 7th day of the week, in July, the 7th month of the year

...and??:unsure:

4. England topped their group with 7 points, to set up a clash with Ecuador, which has 7 letters

...we really are scraping the barrel here aren't we

5. England have had 7 full-time managers who have failed to win the World Cup

...yeah...and it'll soon be 8

6. Sven Goran Eriksson has a 7-strong backroom staff. His full first name is Svennis, which has seven letters

...okay leave the barrel well alone now, there's nothing left in there, you'll just get splinters

7. And of course England captain David Beckham will (their word not mine) lift the trophy wearing the No.7 shirt

...okay fair dinkum, but i think Juan Riquelme is No.10 for Argentina - can you now do the same with him?...it's very clever.

Woodstock's Bonus reason as to why England might win the World Cup...

My birthday is on the 7th December - which indeed is the 7th day in December...:wacko: