Rooney to Play in Germany

[Josh11]

Link

[daveymck]

Thank god he is playing and also the saga is over, our press has been covering this in such detail it has been unbelievable.

Dont see him playing till the Sweden match if even then (as we may actually want to lose that) most likely see him reappear in the second round.

[Fallen Hero]

with Rooney playing I'm putting England as a big favourite to win this world cup, probably higher than Brazil (no, I'm not english).

[daveymck]

I dont see us being a big favourite or even a favourite. However on our day I dont see any reason for us to fear any team in the tournament, moreso if we can put out our top 11 players and if we can effectively switch to 4-5-1 in the appropriate matches.

Beckham looked in pretty good form in the warm up matches and in these tournaments set pieces are key, and we have the players that are effective in the box I feel that is going to be our best weapon.

[Fallen Hero]

I'd take England's midfield over Brazil, mostly because brazilains fans are a bunch of idiots and they'd rather play with 5 or 6 offensive players than have a balanced team. Gerrard and Lampard playing together is [censored] scary.

[kolotoure]

No team in the world is a big favorite to win the world cup there are about 8 teams all with a real chance of winning it

[KDawg]

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with Rooney playing I'm putting England as a big favourite to win this world cup, probably higher than Brazil (no, I'm not english).

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I fully agree with this. Rooney has been a talismanic player for england when he has played and even a 80% Rooney on the pitch is tons better then 98% of the players in the world. This is a very strong England team and they hae solved some of the problems that they had at Euro 2004 and WC2002. Paul Robinson is light years better then David James and the aging David Seamen in goal. This defensive unit is much more cohesive and the midfield may very well be one of the best in the world. They also have a strike partnership that has worked well together(Shearer and Owen never fully clicked with each other).

I don't think that brazil will win this WC, and its not due to a lack of talent. Its more on the fact that any year that they have come in as big favorites to win the WC, they haven't won it. 66, 82, 90(they weren't as massive of favorites as this year, but there was a ton of talent on that squad), and 98. I believe that a european squad will win it this year, and if not a european team, then argentina. I actually think that this may be England's or Holland's year to win it. I think that france may have made a good run until Cisse's leg break

[junglewarfare]

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Its more on the fact that any year that they have come in as big favorites to win the WC, they haven't won it.

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This logic doesn't do very much for me.

[Fallen Hero]

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Its more on the fact that any year that they have come in as big favorites to win the WC, they haven't won it.

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This logic doesn't do very much for me.

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the problem is that they're usually considered favourites because they managed to put in the same team 5 or 6 of the worlds' best players. It doesn't mean that they're actually the better team in theory.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Its more on the fact that any year that they have come in as big favorites to win the WC, they haven't won it.

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This logic doesn't do very much for me.

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as always, people want what happened 45 years ago to have some relevance to what is happening now. Brazil was favored a couple times 45 years and lost, and that matters today how????

they lost 1 game to an excellent, excellent French team in 98 (when Ronaldo had panic attack), and that is somehow proof that they were overrated or put a bad team together?

I don't get it.