So ... Who could England have beaten???

[pablo jaye]

Having watched all of the teams in the World Cup, I started thinking of the sides that England would have had a genuine chance of beating. To be honest, it is a pretty short list that would have produced some of the dullest football going .....

South Korea, Japan, Australia, Iran, Cameroon and Honduras.

Sadly, it shows the piss poor standard of the English side really .... are we at the top of the slide that the Scots have been hurtling down since 1982???

[last.caress]

I doubt we'd beat the Aussies, tbh.

[White Goodman]

And only Cameroon if they'd arranged to lose in advance

[last.caress]

are we at the top of the slide that the Scots have been hurtling down since 1982???

Maybe, maybe. Maybe in the not-too-distant future, the World Cup won't be our "World Cup". Our "World Cup" will be a couple of 0-0's with Poland and trying not to get too leathered by the seeded side in our qualifying group, whoever that is (it bloody won't be us).

If it's good enough for San Marino, it's good enough for us.

[Rocketron]

None of them is the simple answer.

[Puff Daddy]

I don't think we would even have beaten Cameroon, I really don't

[e17]

I think we'd have qualified if we'd got the same group as France

I don't think we'd have got past the 16 though

[simon hammer]

Possibly Honduras, maybe Ecuador too. That's about it though.

[evomutant]

I know they were friendlies, but we couldn;t even beat two of the teams people are saying (Ecuador and Honduras) less than a month ago, which is a sobering thought.

[Puff Daddy]

... and yet, over on the 'Summer transfers' thread, some people are bemoaning we are seemingly not trying to buy English players

[RyanWHUFC]

It's embarrassing when America have gone further and Australia made a much better fist of it in a far harder group.

Hodgson OUT.

[vind]

The answer is who knows, maybe russia, algeria, cameroon, south korea and japan? We lost by slim margins, we didn't get drubbed, better defensive display against uruguay and who knows. One thing is for sure there are no more easy international matches :cry:

[pablo jaye]

Fair point, we didn't get gubbed, but in none of the games did we look like winning, or even dominating the opposition - yes, the team against Costa Rica would have been different if it weren't a dead rubber.

Judging by last nights performance at least, I reckon that we would have got beaten with some ease by Algeria, and not sure about Russia either.

On the bright side though, we do have a number of youngsters who could form a good side as they get more experience - just head to unearth some decent defenders.

[vietnammer]

Anyone, like Italy or Spain could. Football's like that.

[Bend it like Repka]

I think what this world cup is showing is that the gaps in international football are getting smaller.

Germany struggled against Algeria. Argentina scraped past the Swiss. This is teh worst Brazil team i have ever seen. I think we were capable of beating them!

Lets be fair, Urguay without Suarez are ordinary. So are Argentina without Messi.

What we really lack is a world class player who can turn a game. Without that we are just ordinary.

[James P]

We'd have beaten Portugal and Spain had they played against us like they did everyone else.

[derek zoolander]

Couldn't agree more.

I've been saying all tournament that the gaps between nations are closing. The game is truly professional worldwide & it shows.

At the very least nations are full of players who are very fit & well drilled. You don't really get any gimmes now. It's like playing against a world full of Sam Allardyce teams.

I couldn't confidently say we'd beat anyone & the reason is we don't really have any stand out match winners on the global stage. Like BILR says a number of nations do & that's the difference.

[nickkarkie]

I think we could have beaten any of the remaining quarter finalists on our day apart from Brazil and france,

[Toulouse_Iron]

We were average. Not bad, not good, just average and so,on our day, we could have beaten or lost to just about anyone. The margins of defeat or victory are getting smaller and matches can turn on one lapse of concentration or one pieceof skill.
This world cup has had a lot of other average teams in it. Some of them have one "World class" player who can change a game, some don't but have an outrageous work ethic and great attitude, some are less than the sum of their parts, some are more.
England don't have a world beater and seem to drift in and out of games. If we showed the heart of the Americans or the teamwork of Chile, we would be possible quarter finalists. These 2 qualities were always our trademarks until the rise of the "Golden generation" and the sense of entitlement it brought with it. Maybe the current squad can learn from the examples being set by other countries.
Maybe.

[Clucking Bell]

I think we could have beaten any of the remaining quarter finalists on our day apart from Brazil and france,

'our' being the operative word and occurring with roughly the same frequency as appearances of Halley's Comet. Any other day, we'd be stuffed out of sight