The Japanese men's national team scored all three goals in its friendly vs. England on Sunday. Unfortunately for the World Cup-bound Asian squad, two of those goals were scored for England.
The English overcame a first-half deficit, and a missed Frank Lampard penalty kick, as two own goals by Japan gave England a less-than-inspiring 2-1 exhibition win in Graz, Austria.
What did you think of England's performance? Starting to like the United States' chances of getting at least a point from their June 12th World Cup opener?
Share your thoughts below.
I like your predictions-very possible, but I can easily see Mexico not winning one single game. That’s right. They will not be playing Gambia, Senegal and Angola in their first three games. That home crowned, in the first game, might just be too much for Mexico. Remember, they will not be playing an away game in Houston.
If Dempsey scores a goal or 2 or 3 and plays well and if the USA goes to the round of 16 or hey maybe the quarters, his transfer from Fulham will be huge. Probablly 5 million or 6million pounds. Pretty huge for Fulham. Their record buy was AJ in 08 and he cost 10 million pounds and their record sale was Louis Saha and he was like 16million pounds.
what do you guys think?
Spain will win the World Cup and Villa as Top scorer with 7 goals.
Torres, Messi, Rooney among the next top scorers with 4,5 goals.
I’m betting on Dempsey to score 3 goals this WC.
Here’s what I see in my crystal ball
1. Mexico will win Group A followed by Uruguay. Despite some amazing help from the refs and an emotional victory over France, the Bafana Bafana will make history by failing to advance.
2. Only Ivory Coast will show for Africa (but lose in the 2d Round) as Cameroon and Ghana also stumble in Group play.
3. Netherlands will eliminate Brazil and lose to Spain in the final
4. US will beat Germany in Round 2 but lose to Argentina on a controversial call in the quarterfinals.
We tied Italy in group stage last time, 1:1. We beat Spain in the Conf Cup. Why is a positive result against England so hard to believe? A draw should be within the realm of possibility; a win just on the outside edge of it.
1. From your mouth to God’s ears
2. Possibly. They collapsed in 2002 with a better team than they have now.
3. One could hope, but I expect them to escape from their group.
4. Uruguay maybe. Is Serbia that good? I see an African side going to the Q’s.
5. Spain v Brazil is my guess. Love it if Spain won over Brazil.
6. Good to know.
History is on Joe D’s side: no host team has ever failed to escape from the group stage.
After watching that game I have a sneaky suspicion that we will see a lot of cards against england. I’m thinking 4 yellows and one red. Both teams play agressive and England loves to slide tackle.
haha, so you have Uruguay and South Africa making out of their group? Haha, no way bro. Not gonna happen.
My bet is France and Mexico.
You heard it here first:
1. The United States will defeat England, rather badly, because England is not nearly as good as people believe.
2. Neither is France, which won’t even make the Round of 16.
3. Mexico might not make it out of its group, either, because many of their key offensive players are too young and inexperienced.
4. Uruguay will advance to the quarterfinals. So will Serbia. None of the African teams will do anything special.
5. Spain will win it all.
6. I am not on drugs.
Of course England, like ALL teams, are beatable. But they’re still heavily favored-and rightfully so.
they didn’t call in bobby zamora,
they have crouch, owen, heskey, defoe, bent and others who play top level in the premier league… if they lose rooney, they lost their super star, not the only capable player. If we lose Altidore as well as davies…… well, some would say owen and crouch are a notch above them as well… you see what I’m getting at?
Oh and by the way the next England generation just won the U17 Euro. So yeah, they are going down hill.
On the ball and in movement on and off the ball, Japan is still better than the US…
Japan is a very capable. Granted, England should have beaten them without trouble but Japan is not anything to sneeze at.
Really… ever again. You are that confident. And Alitodre is far from being unsptoppable. Just saying. Lets see what we do in this world cup and a few others before we proclaim ourselves better than england. Just saying we should be level headed.
US fans, don’t be over confident now. England still has a squad capable of kicking our butts.
Speaking of butts, is Hans-Jörg Butt suppose to be Germany’s first choice goalkeeper?
Does anyone recommend a good English blog that covers their National Team? I wonder what their fans are saying about us.
Pete, there’s no need to bash USMNT for not winning the Confederations Cup. England did not even qualify for the Confederations Cup and the USMTN beat the team that qualified – the European Champion, Spain. England is certainly the favorite in the group, but they are beatable. You have a valid point that USMNT team could advance even if they lost to England, but people are focused upon the game against England because it is the first game the USMNT is to play.
Did you watch the game?
i wish we (the US) had some of Japan defenders as our strikers… beautiful goals
I absolutely agree. I think Crouch is England’s most dangerous player against the US. He will give our defenders all kinds of problems.
They have an Italian coach, how much he can bare to share with the English is unknown, which is like being a goal up. How much the players choose to ignore the coaches instruction will benefit the U.S. a lot.
and they wear red…
USMNT fans need to stop wearing red…
all the red in the stands during the Turkey game as stoopid…. TURKEY was wearing RED!
BTW if England keeps playing kick and run soccer, they will never win a world cup ever again. The US will match or beat their 1966 WC. I guarantee it. Just look no further than Altidore to realize that the next generation of US players will be unstoppable. Red Bulls academy etc. will sooon be on par with the English academy’s (already beat inter 3-1 last year u16s)
Seriously, it is all because Peter Crouch wasn’t playing. I’m routing for the US and was standing with Sam’s Army when all the smoke bombs were thrown, but I also love Peter Crouch and the numbers don’t lie. If you do your research, he has the best goal/minutes played ratio in recent English soccer history (at least the last 20 years). Watch out for England if Crouch starts, especially given Demerit and Gooch and Goodson etc. who are not looking up to par, but GO USA
Japan is not a pretty good team. They got hammered 3-0 against a B Serbia Team in Japan! The fact that England played so poorly against this team is ridiculous, especially considering that Shunsuke Namkamura didn’t play.
Historically, it’s our team that’s put european teams on a pedestal by losing to them with regularity. We bucked that trend famously at Confeds Cup, and I’d love to see a repeat (or three or four) at The Big Show.
But so revered is my analysis on this board that I am loath to raise fellow fans expectations unnecessarily, when like the rest of you I don’t know what the F is going to happen.
Leslie,
Corned beef is better. And don’t call me Shirley.
I was being a bit extreme for effect. I think we can tie and god I’d love it if we were to win. I just think drawing much from these friendlies is pointless. The England that played japan won’t be the England that shows up to the wc. Let’s just hope our 1st half turkey selves don’t show up as well. Go us!
Don’t underestimate England.
England were crap against two pretty good teams yet won comfortably. The experts will tell you this is the sign of a very good team.
I’ve followed England for many years and they always have trouble with unfamiliar, lower ranked, teams. Whether this is due to their inflexibility or because they are arrogant, I couldn’t tell you. You’d think Capello would have cured them of that but maybe England are finally reverting back to their normal selves. We can only hope.
The trouble is they are familiar with our players and we play a familiar style. Still I’m hoping they are like Spain,who, even though they were very gracious publicly, thought they were playing the junior reserve team and it showed. We have a shot at getting a result because Bradley has been targeting all three teams since the brackets came out and, based on the last few games, may finally have a few pieces to put in play. Most of you think BB is a retard but the truth is he is excellent at prepping a team for a particular game and now maybe his his players have caught up with what he has been tryng to teach them.
They are now more capable, mature and confident than they were in the Confederations Cup. I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost to England but I think we’ll do well and get out of the group.
The US has looked pretty so-so since the end of the Confederations Cup but now it is apparent Bradleys’s new team is getting ready to emerge at just the right time.
hahahahaha.
His name is “Original Gangsta” and he sometimes comes in for Man United when Berbatov is having a bad game. His number is “187” and his main attribute is his Strength of Street Knowledge.
Bring on those Red Coats, that Cornwalis really gets my blood boiling…
I think that’s partly why they chose Japan as a final friendly, japan, like the US has a lot more energy and teamwork than skill.
Also i think Capello still has no idea what to do in the midfield and who to play with Rooney. Gerrand and Lampard are soft defensively without Barry, Lennon is impotent on the left, Milner and Johnson havent fully broken into the first team yet, so I think they are in as bad a mess in terms of building first team chemistry as are we.
In a sense the US is playing with house money against England.
Unless we play badly and get blown out, losing confidence and maybe having some guys hurt or red carded,and I don’t believe this will happen,we have nothing to lose.
Losing while playing well makes us more motivated against the other two, a tie would give us a point and boost our confidence and then piss off England so they will blow out the other two.
A win would worry me because then we risk letting down against the other two ( see 2002 World Cup, Poland game).
So my ideal result is a 3-3 tie, with Bornstein coming in for a last minute equalizing header just to piss everyone off. actually I wanted Ching to do that but BB cut him.
The US just has to keep this guy, OG, from scoring.
What team does he play for? Man. U.?
I didn’t notice him on the 30 man roster.
I bet if you look up some stats, the team who wins their first group game tends to get out of the group, not the other way around.
Does it ever stop raining in England I mean come on a dry africa pitch where the ball doesnt move as fast is going hurt these guy. Did everyone forget that we play 3 groups games to determine if we progress not one? I mean we can beat england and lose the other too games or we can be blown out of the stadium a win the other games and advance.
wouldnt quite call that an A-Serbia team. No Krasic, Stankovic, Jovanovic or Lukovic.
+4564394
I watched this game. I would not read too much into it. It was a friendly. Plus, Japan actually played pretty well; their passing out of the back and in the middle was quick, crisp and superb. So, attributing the result only to England’s supposedly poor play does injustice to the Japanese team.
I think US team can compete against England, and getting a point isn’t out of the question. But it will be pretty much a tough game for us. As excited as I was yesterday with the US win, Japanese team today looked a lot more organized in the back and confident in possession.
how do you figure? evidence please…
Wait, what happened to my Union Jack, megadittoes?
Spectra, whoever those guys are, they evidently won’t see the field in South Africa.
Okay. That’s fine. Tiger Woods also DID manage to not sleep with someone besides his wife one night.
Body of work.
(And his World Cup in 2006 was also filled with him attempting to knock people’s teeth out in row X behind the opposing goal. I’ve never seen so many skied long-range efforts.)
Anyway.
Glass half full my friend. Japan has a nose for the goal. They are converting the centerbacks to strikers as we speak.
Is there a story here about New Zealand’s win over an A-Serbia team?
After reading some of these comments its apparent that it’s not only the mexicans who believe they are better than what they really are, i guess its an inferiority complex that one gets being part of Concacaf, and before anyone brings up Brazil and spain in the confed cup, yes those were some good games, but in the end, you didn’t win anything. A point against England would be great, but England isn’t the issue, i believe the real issue is winning against the other two teams.
Yeah bro really…but you knew that…now go wave your Union Jack….your in their back pocket you know…they love guys like you..:)
None of teh UK made it to Euro 2008….:)