Even though they are friendlies, there are some intriguing games tonight. France v Spain should answer a few questions, but the best one should be Germany v Argentina.  Always a good game for those of us who aren't football purists. Will there be any "afters?" Your correspondent hopes that the Germans kick 'em off the pitch.

Only 1.5 kilofans too.

they wil be lucky to get that this time next season, although, Oxford v  Cambridge last night had over 3,000.

RIP Keith Alexander - he was a really nice bloke - met him once when he was Lincoln manager. No age at all

I've always rated Zidan, he needs to come over to England...

Carrick booked his SA ticket tonite. Gerrard and Lampard worryingly poor.

Fingers crossed its just a holiday then

Tonight showed why England under Capello will win the world cup. Shocking performance overall, even second half we improved but were no where near our best.... yet we still managed to comfortably put away a very good Egypt side who are a better side than any team we'll face in the group stage and probably the 2nd round/quarter finals.

Reminded me of Italy last time, not playing well but still managing to get the result against decent sides. This is England's time. Trust me.

Oh please don't. England will win the World Cup. Why shouldn't we? Apart from Spain, we have the best players, but even Spain defensively are probably weaker than us. So why won't we win the World Cup?

R.I.P Michael Foot
his ode to Everton FC
1935 Liverpool Daily Post March 8th 
 
when at thy call my weary feet turn
the gates of paradise opened wide
at Goodison i know a man can learn
rapture more rich than Anfield can provide 
 
in Culter's skill and Geldards subtle speed
i see displayed in all it's matchless bounty
the power of which the heavens decreed
the fall of Sunderland and Derby County 
 
the hands of Sagar, Dixie's priceless head
made smooth the path to Wembley till that day
when Bolton came, now hopes are fled
and all is sunk in bottomless dismay 
 
and so i watch with heart and temper cool
god's lesser breed of men at Liverpool 
 
great man Michael

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=750570&sec=england&cc=5739
Negotiations have started.

Strike you are talking absolute dog turd to be fair. When Terry is on form he's one of the best defenders in the world. Why would a club like Chelsea stick with him otherwise? You say Lampard and Barry will never work, but it has over the past couple of years.





Look at other international sides and you'll realise that most have inferior players to us who wouldn't get a look in ahead of most of our players. Spain being probably the only exception, but they are without doubt beatable if we play well.

There's this myth surrounding english people that all the other nations are littered with great players from 1 to 11. It's total nonsense. Who can you honestly say are better than us? Imo Spain are, but on our day we'll see them off. Other than that...

Germany... Naaah, we should comfortably beat them and did comfortably beat them with our B team the last time we faced them - this team got to the euro 2008 final remember.

Brazil... Not a great team as far as im concerned, they have a few worldies in their side, but overall our best 11 should be too strong for them.

France... very average team nowadays, don't fear them at all.

Argentina.... only just scraped through qualification, obviously have Messi but overall not good enough.

Portugal... our bogey team but a team full of inferior players to ours apart from Cristiano Ronaldo obviously.

Italy.... current world champs.... they are good at grinding out results, but against decent players they should come unstuck. Nothing special as far as im concerned.



Holland... Never do it on the big stage, some good players but a lot of poor players who could only dream about playing for the clubs that our lads play for. Despite gifting them a 2-0 lead the last time we played them, we looked a far superior side to them despite only drawing.

The African teams.... Well we comfortably beat the best African team of the last 6 years last night without even playing well.







There are a lot of very average teams in the world at the moment. Spain are the only stand out side as far as im concerned and I definitely think on our day we can get at their defence and beat them.

I honestly don't know what there is out there for people to worry about! We have the players, it's just a case of getting the best out of them in terms of their ability and effort and desire. The combination of it being a World Cup and having Capello in charge who actually knows what he's doing, should be enough for us.

On this seasons form, Hart should be the number 1 definitely. Was disappointed he wasn't given a chance last night.





These are the 3 keepers I'd take to SA... James, Robinson, Hart.

I would say it even if he wasnt from my own team, the rest have been crap imo.

Terry played fine last night.

You only need to look at the clubs that our lads play week in week out for and then look at the clubs that our group opponents' lads play for.

Fact is, our B team pissed Germany (one of the teams to beat at the WC) off the Berlin pitch not so long ago. You are totally underestimating our squad and over estimating our poor opposition. What ever team we put out should be able to destroy all 3 of our group opponents.



Upson may not be up to it when you compare him to Rio and Terry, but he'd walk into any of our group opponents starting 11, no problem at all. Baines is fine at left back. There aren't many great left backs in the world if you think about it.

Previous few tournaments, we've just about had the squad, but never had the right man in charge. Now we certainly have the squad of players and we have the right manager to get the best out of them.

that's another thing, we've got Capello four years too late imo.

It's a difficult one! Capello has  a great record so far. I thought Ericsson was a brilliant manager, but I'm not sure that he realised he would be playing against the scratter press, as well as those teams from far away lands. They've already thrown down the gauntlet with JT and AC, and I think thay may have more mileage. We musn't forget the tradditional last minute injury to one of our best players either.