Rio Ferdinand Injured, Dawson called up

[Mr. Gayle]

Baff with Fabio took him TBH, was obv he wouldnt last

[Guest Wheres Wally]

yeah but it aint his knee, its a new groin injury... could of happened to anyone....

[Mr. Gayle]

More than likely him though as he barely trains, body aint built for it TBH

[Guest Wheres Wally]

hes only missing the algeria match anyway.

not serious, just a little strain.

[Rsonist]

More than likely him though as he barely trains, body aint built for it TBH

Ledley pushes himself over what his body can actually take.

The guy is a playing/walking miracle.

And to barely train and still give the kind of commitment and performances he has been showing for the last few seasons, last one in particular is nothing short of special.

He deserved to go and went, we all knew he wouldnt play 3/3 group games so there is nothing new here.

Supposedly Spurs wanted to send the medical team that care for him here out to the WC but Fabio and England were having none of it, so this was bound to happen.

[Lieutenant]

Bruv he injured his groin in the 3rd minute

[n/a]

lol at relying on king

carragher / terry against decent pace movement will get murked

[Mame Biram Diouf]

terry & carragher vs villa & torres

loool

[TF S4DK]

Still bruised from their brush with the United States, a group of England players sat down on Sunday night and flicked on the television for a bit of light relief. Then on came Germany.

In hindsight, it is a surprise that Fabio Capello’s resident psychologist did not rush into the TV room and flick the off-switch before any harm could befall the players. Too late, with Germany’s 4-0 thrashing of (an admittedly woeful) Australia impressing as much as England’s 1-1 draw against the US had left Capello’s men feeling a little tender.

“Typically German,” Jamie Carragher said yesterday when the England defender was asked what he had thought of the performance. “Maybe sometimes on paper you don’t expect too much from them, but somehow they are there in the end. What they have is the belief they are going to do it.”

How typically English to say so. But then, perhaps, this is how it goes on; the self-fulfilling stereotypes and psyches that contribute to one country’s record being something to brag about and the other’s being a millstone that weighs so heavily.

Perhaps this is how we fall back into a familiar sense of foreboding should England collide with the old foe in the round of 16, even though, a month ago, a roomful of experts would have backed England to fare better than Germany in South Africa. And with sound reason.

So many little things make up this picture of Anglo fragility and Teutonic accomplishment (Germany seven-times finalists, 21 successive converted penalties in leading tournaments, let’s leave it there), but perhaps the contrast that struck most on Sunday was watching Mesut Özil.

In Sweden last summer, Özil shared a pitch with Theo Walcott when Germany met England in the European Under-21 Championship final, and came out very much on top, leading his side to a 4-0 triumph. Now he is a vital, creative force in Joachim Löw’s youthful side while Walcott watches from afar, rejected.

It is a tale of two players, but also two cultures: the German a highly technical footballer, the Englishman an athlete;

Özil a regular for his club, Werder Bremen, Walcott seeking to nail down his place among Arsenal’s foreign legion.

We can broaden this out. Six members of the Germany Under-21 squad are at the World Cup, including another starter, Manuel Neuer, in goal. Of the English there are two: James Milner and Joe Hart, who is deemed not ready.

Franz Beckenbauer’s remarks yesterday about too many overseas players in the Premier League is a simplistic analysis, but we may well return to it before this tournament is finished.

Now, it may yet work out that Germany’s opening victory was extremely flattering and that Löw’s squad — the youngest Nationalmannschaft to go to a World Cup since 1934, with an average age below 26 — is too raw to progress far.

But it is easy to see why their performance might nag at a watching Englishman, stirring familiar feelings that Germany have potential to overachieve while the Three Lions wilt.

The pattern is already established with England’s “golden generation” reaching two quarter-finals while little-fancied Germany sides have marched to the World Cup final in 2002 and a semi-final in 2006.

In the circumstances, it is understandable if the England players watched and wondered how the Germans could play with such vibrancy and aggression, yet also control, when that is precisely what is expected from a Capello team whose spine has seen it all in the Champions League.

And how when Michael Ballack, the captain, dropped out through injury, Löw could simply draft in Sami Khedira, a 23-year-old from Stuttgart with a handful of caps, while England changed their whole system in the absence of Gareth Barry.

It is easy to slip into this age-old sense of inferiority, but Carragher got one thing wrong when he used the phrase “typically German”, because Löw’s side break many national stereotypes in their daring and artistry.

If only we can stop being typically English — although that’s why we hired a gang of Italians on £6 million a year.

[Wavant]

LOL Esssh.

[Jigga] VULGAR [/Joe Camel]

Who wrote that?

[Agony]

Matt d*ckinson spittin' that ether that sh*t that make your soul burn slow

[Black Ant]

It is a tale of two players, but also two cultures: the German a highly technical footballer, the Englishman an athlete

oh garsh