If you managed to overcome your inferiority complex you­ will one day realise that ironically this is an­ argument that you could never win. The facts don't­ lie.

(Part 2 of 2)

Some more facts...
.
England:
World Cup­ : 1966 Champions, 1970 Quarter Finals, 1986 Quarter­ Finals, 1990 Fourth Place, 2002 Quarter Finals, 2006­ Quarter Finals
European Championship: 1968 Third Place,­ 1996 Semi Finals, 2004 Quarter Finals
.
Republic of­ Ireland:
World Cup: 1990 Quarter Finals
(And that is­ it)

(Part 1 of 2)

Well anthony l, you would like me to­ stick to facts. Here is fact 1 – a random Irish person­ goes on an article regarding a victory for England­ football club and writes prolonged messages criticising­ the entire English nation. Fact 2 – Ireland are­ statistically a far inferior team to England, as is the­ worldwide perceived view. Fact 3 – I chose to infer­ from that that you are bitter and jealous and resent­ the optimism and quality of the English fans/team.­ Whether you are actually bitter or jealous is­ irrelevant, based on the FACTS it is a totally logical­ perception and one which I’m sure is shared by many­ others.
The actual reason you said ‘stringing 2 games­ together’ is because the FACTS which show 7 games in a­ row worked directly against your point. You then say­ England is not a world class football team, and that is­ is ‘blind arrogance’ to think they are? Statistically,­ they are the 6th best team in the world (FACT), and you­ think they got there through being average? The mistake­ you make is in assuming that only one international­ side can be world class, or that by describing our­ national team as world class we think they are the­ best. If England were a hopeless football team they­ would be as far down as 27 or 34, I’ll let you guess­ which awful teams reside in those spots (even though­ nobody cares).

We beat Andorra. Wow! How impressive. Not. Let's­ see how we play when we actually get a REAL team to­ play against. We haven't done much so far, despite­ the 100% statistic in the WC group.

Andorra must be just awful if Jug Ears, Lump o'Lard­ and the Pregnant Stork all scored.

Let's look to reality here, okay England have won 7­ out of 7, but lets look at the group- a bunch of travel­ agents, farmers etc and they were a walkover, not a­ proper team, also Kazakstan are not exactly a­ footballing power and in both games we didn't play­ that well, Belarus and Ukraine we didn't play that­ well but pocketed the points, Croatia win we did very­ play well but when we played a real proper team for­ only the second time under Capello's reign, Spain­ played the team totally off the park. It's teams­ like this England need to perform against, and need to­ if they want to do well at this world cup. I'm just­ being realistic, not looking at things through rose­ tinted specs, thinking we're some amazing­ indestructible team like some people tend­ to.

Don't get me wrong, it would be great if­ England did win the world cup, but they need to start­ performing a lot more bette.

EASYRIDER - alongside Gazza, I think you forgot about­ Terry "rab C Nesbit" Butcher, with the­ blood-soaked head bandage! There's committment!!

Ade P! Nope! Probably thought they were funny! Singing­ Ginger! Paul Gascoigne was probably the last England­ Player to show some emotion whilst wearing the England­ Shirt!
Thing is the English Public is led by nose by­ the Media in particular the Press! I think they are­ practically told what to feel, and this also applies to­ the players in some degree! Bobby Charlton types don`t­ exist anymore, players who get a glow when they pull on­ an England Shirt! Maybe Becks is one, I am not really­ sure! Why? because in a small way I too have been­ infected by the media/Press and don`t trust my own­ feelings to be my own feelings if you can catch my­ drift! Its called Saturation, like wwater on the brain!

Can anybody out there tell me why the England fans were­ booing Beckham last night.

I dont think teams like Andorra and San Marino should­ be in WCQ's it just brings crazy scorelines making­ teams think there world beaters.

I felt sorry for­ R.Green he didnt have to make a save throughout the­ game, i hope he brought his copy of puzzler with him,­ or the lastest suduku book

176 - glad to see there's at least one other person­ on here who doesn't wacth England games wearing­ rose-tinted specs! The problem is that ENGLAND EXPECTS­ (to win the World Cup, etc), then when they get humbled­ by perceived "weaker" teams, the media­ question the ability of the manager and the players.­ There is no pride or passion in the England team at­ present.. They present themselves to the world as a­ bunch of mercenaries! Take as an example, Scotland.­ They had a tough European qualifying group last year,­ and bar from the Italy result, they to a man, fought­ well above their weight. That's because they see it­ as an honour to pull on a Scotland shirt! I'd love­ to see an England player "chuck a wobbly" in­ public because he was NOT selected as 1 of the 22­ players in the squad. That would at least display some­ kind of pride and passion. Some guys seem to be­ deluding themselves on this site if they think England­ will get through to the 2nd round of the 2010 World­ Cup. If they do, then it will be through sheer good­ fortune, not effort! You can only hope you don't­ get a tough group next year!!

Johnny W, its typically a sign of someone in an­ argument who has no idea what he's talking about ­ when he just spouts out any old rubbish. There's­ nothing in my post screaming of bitterness or­ jealously. I would ask you to reread my post and try­ and stick to facts, but clearly you're another one­ of those hapless English fans where facts aren't­ really all that important.
The reason I said­ stringing 2 games together, and not 7, was because I­ was talking generally about the unrealistic hype about­ the English soccer team over many years, and not just­ in this tournament. This continual "claim"­ that England is a world class football team is not­ backed up by anything other then sheer blind arrogance.­ Here are some facts, the one and only time when England­ won the World Cup was back in 1966, and since then what­ has been their crowning achievement in this­ tournament?? A single semi-final place. That's 40­ years, 10 World cups, and the best England could manage­ since the good old days of previous generations is a­ semi-final placing.

I accept yours and others comments­ about fans being optimistic and wanting the best for­ their team. I think what amazes most non-English people­ looking in, is not so much that your fans seems­ optimistic, but that their is an air of genuine­ expectation permeating throughout your media, and­ passed on by the fans in forums like this. Again,­ flying in the face of what everyone else has seen of­ your teams over the last few decades.

On the face of­ things, England *should* indeed by a far superior­ football side than Ireland. So why is our team able to­ beat yours?? Why isn't the English team hammering­ the Irish side everytime we meet?? A "hopeless­ football team" against "one of the top­ international teams in the world"!! Any bells­ ringing yet??

This is not an argument you can win.­ Either come down off your high horse, or continue to­ show your ignorance; even call it optimism if it makes­ y

Capello can motivate a team irrespective of their so­ called class! Why is it that England had to bring in an­ Italian to get more out of the England Team? Why do the­ likes of the Top EPL Teams pick their Managers from­ abroad? Well even Scotland is abroad, for some of us­ anyways, sorry Fergie! Is it that the English, I repeat­ English, not British, mentality does NOT allow an­ English Manager to properly motivate a Team? Do they­ live by the motto "Englands Expects"? You­ know what I mean, I get the feeling that some Managers­ feel that: well they are paid to play, so they should­ play, they are paid very well so they should play very­ well, etc etc!

In the past EM and WC qualis it was always countries­ like Germany or France, Italy or Spain that seemed to­ get fairly easy groupings! England & Holland on the­ other hand got some right stinkers! What goes around­ comes around! Oh by the way England DID manage to beat­ Germany with their B/C Team and I was in germany to see­ it done!

its not england fault that they are not playing higher­ standard of teams. just because we havent player a­ better team doesnt mean that we cant beat them. alot of­ teams are in the same situation as us aslong as we are­ winning by 2 or 3 goals vs these lesser standard teams­ you cant really critsize the team. wait till we do play­ the likes of spain, brazil and germany if we fail then­ ok maybe we can say that we are not good enough but­ lets give the lads a chance and hopefully we can­ achieve something in south africa.

I hope people dont get too carried away with the­ result, just remember who Andora actually is in­ relation to International football. lets see how we get­ on against the big boys , ie germany argentina brazil­ and even the snail eating froggies. only when we can­ consistantly play well and win against those teams will­ we be truely candidates to hold up the world cup

south africa is gonna be a whole different story,­ struggle through the group ,1/4 final against a weak­ team lose on penalties in semi- final against whoever ­ we meet..
ups and downs and round abouts.
team needs to­ play together every month of the year against the­ best!! allow fans to see them more often and build the­ team as one not 11 strangers...
im a huge ,huge huge­ fan and watch every high and every low , but more­ england games please.
capello, should choose good­ players from championship to play against a side from­ the premiership,i wonder who would have more heart and­ passion to get to the ball???

cos France are doing really well at the moment
played­ 5 won 3 lost 1 drawn 1 !!

excellent!