Pub-based punditry on the beautiful game.
The Football Pubcast is a podcast featuring four (or more) blokes, in a pub, talking football.
Shows are recorded every week from our local pub in Canary Wharf, London.
We’d hoped to be doing this sort of show a bit deeper into the tournament, but after Fabio Capello’s England produced a wretched performance against Germany on Sunday, we had to record the “England’s out” show today.
What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? What should happen to prevent it happening again? We address all these questions and more in this week’s show as we dissect the problems with England’s national team.
World Cup Pubcast #4: June 28, 2010
England’s World Cup came to a crashing end on Sunday when they were beaten, sorry thrashed, by Germany in Bloemfontain in their Round of 16 match.
I’d predicted a 2-0 England win. I was confident because I felt that England had better players, with more big-game experience, than their German counterparts. I expected the fact that they were playing Germany to really focus our players and see England finally hit their stride after three performances that could be described as stuttering at best.
How wrong could I be?
When the time came for them to stand up and be counted England, and their team of highly-paid, much-hyped, players demonstrated everything that is currently wrong with our national team.
They played with no organisation, no energy, no passion, no teamwork and no skill.
Being a Gillingham fan, it was a stark reminder of our final game of last season, only this time the players were supposedly the best this country has to offer.
Yes, Frank Lampard’s goal should have stood and yes, that would have brought it back to 2-2. But let’s not delude ourselves. Germany were light-years better in every department. They were better organised, better conditioned, better motivated and better tactically. As individuals, they played for the benefit of the team and knew their roles. England’s back four looked like they’d never met before.
Of England’s big-name players, only Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole can come home from South Africa with any pride in their performances in the tournament.
Gerrard wasn’t anywhere near his mercurial best, but that’s hardly surprising. Our best midfielder was reduced to a tournament playing out of position wide on the left. But he did a job for the team and gave it his all. As did Cole, who was arguably the only England defender to come out of the tournament with any credit whatsoever. Between the sticks David James, who should have started from day one, brought more stability to the side against Slovenia and against Germany stopped a thrashing becoming a complete humiliation.
We were told that, player-for-player, we were better than Germany. Based on club performances, that’s probably true. But if those players can’t play as a team, they won’t last long in tournament football, as Sunday proved in emphatic fashion.
It’s the first time that England has gone out of a World Cup without putting up anything resembling a fight or a performance, and that, more than our exit itself, is what makes Sunday’s game so galling.
We’re out of the tournament because we simply weren’t good enough. Unlike past tournaments, where we’ve gone out on our shield, there are no excuses this time. No turning points, no sendings off, no unlucky breaks, no penalty shoot-outs.
We are out because we came up against a group of players who did what we couldn’t. Play as a team.
In our latest World Cup Pubcast, sadly not in the pub this week, the two Simons, Dan and Stuart recap England’s win against Slovenia, assess the prospects for their Round of 16 match with Germany and discuss the debacle that is the French side.
World Cup Pubcast #3: June 24, 2010
Every time a major tournament rolls around you get a plethora of home-made unofficial World Cup songs. Most are pretty dreadful, but this week we did come across a good one.
Featuring the lyrical skills of Colonel Weng-Wah and his producer Hans Freekit (great name), World Cup (I’m a believer) features a great little video of the duo’s trip to South Africa for England’s opening match of South Africa 2010, and even has a cameo from none other than ITV pundit and former Spurs manager David Pleat.
Football songs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but we found this one pretty catchy.
The World Cup Pubcast boys return with their review of the tournament so far.
Simon, Jim, Simon, Stuart and Tom take a look back at the opening matches of the tournament, assess the performance of England against the USA and, thanks to Stuart, discuss Spain’s performance in the tournament so far (!)
World Cup Pubcast #2: June 14, 2010
Introducing the World Cup Pubcast, a special show running throughout this summer’s World Cup, where our panel of fans from various teams will share their views on the world’s greatest sporting event throughout the tournament.
In our three-part preview show, Arsenal fan Dan Ferdinand, Everton fan Simon Pitney and QPR fan Stuart Hoare join Gillingham fans Jim Staples and Simon Head to discuss the World Cup.
They preview each of the eight groups and share their predictions, including who’s going through the group stages, the shock first-round exits, the top scorer and the overall tournament winner.
World Cup Pubcast #1: Preview Show
