Northern Ireland 1:0 England!

[Jdvn1]

But international games happen fairly often anyway.

 

[Dimwhit]

Especially during World Cup qualifying.

Man, I can't wait for the Cup next year...

 

[Upper_Krust]

The press here in Northern Ireland has been going ape this past 24 hours. The entire match has already been replayed on television, and I think I have seen David Healy's goal about 50 times now...and I never get tired of seeing it.

There were Northern Ireland fans still in the stadium an hour after the match! That shows the dedication and passion.

Hey Russ!

Freaky. Wasn't expecting that. For England to qualify, I think they have to win the next two games now.

I don't think they will win the group on this form, but even if they lose their last two games they are still going to be in 2nd place in the group which is elligible for the play offs...of course you could end up meeting some one like France in the play-offs!

It's weird. It's a good team, but Sven is coming up with some really odd strategies. He had a bunch of people playing in positions they're not used to. Did the same with the Denmark game, and England lost that, too.

Yes, its bewildering how he can get it so wrong with so many world class players.

I'm all for experimentation, but only in friendlies. If the match actually matters, he should stick to what he knows works. He got a lot of heat for the Denmark fiasco, and I imagine he's going to get a lot for this, too. The players all seem to be sticking behind him though.

I have to give credit to Beckham who spoke well in his post match interviews.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Ferret!

Also Northen ireland had not won a home game since 1927 (?).

Not quite, we hadn't defeated England in Belfast since 1927, although we beat them at Wembley 25 years ago (and I think had only played them twice competitively since, though I could be wrong).

I tihnk the main problem was that sven brought off Shaun Wright-Phillips when he was being put to good use, but he also played Rooney in a really aweful posistion.....

The problem is that Sven is a fairly weak character, and has always pandored to public opinion and capitulated to pressure from his own 'star' players. Thats why hes now trying to squeeze both Wright-Phillips and Beckham into the team, even though they both favour the same positions.

The England line up should be so obvious that it picks itself.

4-4-2 (with Rooney playing just off the front man Owen)

------- Owen Rooney
Cole Lampard Gerrard Beckham
Cole Terry Ferdinand Neville
--------- Robinson*

*Or any keeper except David James.

Give Beckham the nod, since his record in an England shirt is pretty good. But substitute him around the 60 minute mark to bring on Wright-Phillips whose fresh legs and pace can trouble the opponents defense who would be starting to get tired by this stage in the match.

 

[amethal]

Well done Northern Ireland

I still think England will win their group. They should beat Austria at home, and then they'll be fired up for the Poland match and should win that as well.

The world cup just wouldn't be the same without them. Ideally, they'd lose every game (so I could laugh at them) but still progress to the next round (so I could laugh when they lost again). I don't really bear them any ill will, however - its not like its rugby, after all.

Well done Northern Ireland, but it makes me even sadder that Wales were denied a draw by (another) freak deflection when we played England on Saturday.

It'd be nice if Wales could beat Azerbaijan at home in our last match, so that we get at least one win in this qualification session, but I doubt we'll manage even that.