A shoe in

[AtW]

Relief the US are not in the same group?

I love English papers...

[Zippy]

Oh shit: is this kicking off again?

[Incognito]

Gatuso, a decent player except when he was at Rangers, odd for yet another thug in defense playing in Mordor.

Take your tinted glasses off son, Rino was class for us as a holding midfielder. It was Dick that played him out of position.

He was only 20 as well.

[d000hg]

England will face Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, and San Marino in their bid to qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals tournament in Brazil.

Not a shoe in

Scotland and Wales were drawn in the same group as each other, and will play Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Are you saying Scotland have a hard group because they have to play Wales? Can anyone conceive a group which is considered a shoe-in for Scotland?

[Doggy Styles]

Scotland and Wales were drawn in the same group as each other, and will play Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Three former Yugoslav states, two remote English counties, and a small part of France.

[gingerjedi]

England still won't win the World Cup

...And the Scots will take their usual stance and support the Germans, no change there then.

[Doggy Styles]

...And the Scots will take their usual stance and support the Germans, no change there then.

I thought Scotland were the blue Brazil?

[shaunbhoy]

Are you saying Scotland have a hard group because they have to play Wales? Can anyone conceive a group which is considered a shoe-in for Scotland?

I actually think that Scotland's Group is not all that bad. Better than we have had in recent times anyway.
Not long back we had both France AND Italy in our Group.
Meanwhile England had to play the combined might of Bora Bora, Sealand, Vatican City FC, and the Peggy Spencer Formation Dance Team to qualify. And even then it was a close run affair.

[PAH]

I'd piss myself if Scotland qualified and England didn't. I'm not a jock either, I'm just tired of the over-inflated opinion of the England team, followed by almost zero skill and desire when they're on the pitch.

No doubt England will struggle to qualify, then have one decent game (by England standards) and everyone (especially the press) will think they're one of the favourites to win the tournament. Come the WC they'll scrape through the group stage and get knocked out in the QF on penalties.

Then we'll have all the now cliched comments.

"It's too hot, they're wilting out there"
"They're exhausted and need a longer christmas break"
"They need to keep the ball more"
"We'll get better as the tournament progresses."
"The team are really missing x who was injured just prior to the tournament"
"There are no easy international games anymore"
"We need a root and branch change to the whole system"
"They need to re-look at introducing goal-line technology"
"Hopefully this time we'll win the penalty shoot-out"
"You can't fully prepare for a shoot-out so we didn't practice them. It just wasn't our night."

It's like groundhog day every time a major tournament comes around.

[shaunbhoy]

I'd piss myself if Scotland qualified and England didn't. I'm not a jock either, I'm just tired of the over-inflated opinion of the England team, followed by almost zero skill and desire when they're on the pitch.

No doubt England will struggle to qualify, then have one decent game (by England standards) and everyone (especially the press) will think they're one of the favourites to win the tournament. Come the WC they'll scrape through the group stage and get knocked out in the QF on penalties.

Then we'll have all the now cliched comments.

"It's too hot, they're wilting out there"
"They're exhausted and need a longer christmas break"
"They need to keep the ball more"
"We'll get better as the tournament progresses."
"The team are really missing x who was injured just prior to the tournament"
"There are no easy international games anymore"
"We need a root and branch change to the whole system"
"They need to re-look at introducing goal-line technology"
"Hopefully this time we'll win the penalty shoot-out"
"You can't fully prepare for a shoot-out so we didn't practice them. It just wasn't our night."

It's like groundhog day every time a major tournament comes around.

You forgot the "We need an English Manager, not some Foreigner"

HTH