2014 World Cup

Plus, England has made it out of the Group stage (1st group stage in 1982) in every Cup it's qualified. Quite different than France's goalless Group-stage bouncing in 2002.

Now, penalty shootout bed-shitting...

 

For all England's failures at the highest levels, it's worth noting the relatively thin margins between them and possibly winning in both 86 and 90. Although 86 was before I knew anything about the World Cup, everything I've seen suggests that that quarterfinal matched two of the best, if not the two best, teams in that World Cup. And in 90, they were every bit the equal of West Germany and indeed hit the (inside of the) post in extra time. If they do win that game, they almost certainly beat a depleted Argentina in the final.

And of course, if that shot goes in, England don't lose on penalties, the shootout curse at least doesn't begin then and who knows what happens. (Of course you can go a long way with that -- they also qualify for 94 automatically, as the defending champ did in those days, so Graham Taylor doesn't get sacked for failing to qualify.)

 

Also, in re: bed-shitting by powerhouse teams, I'd suggest there's probably a link to the expansion to 32 teams in 1998. I'm not sure France in 2010 would have qualified for a 24-team World Cup, for example.

(And yes, there were fewer UEFA teams in 1994 -- but a large proportion of what got added in the interim was the likes of Azerbaijan and Macedonia.)

 

Gary Lineker was a bad motherfucker. While I find England easy to root against, Gary Lineker is one of my all-time favorite players.

I would, however, like to bring up something about 1990. Cameroon was better than England and had it not been for some of the dumbest defending this side of 2002 Jeff Agoos, Cameroon wins the quarterfinal and maybe the World Cup.

 

You're not wrong there. And Jesus, think how THAT might have changed things.

It's ironic that England were as close to winning that World Cup as they were, given that they won arguably the worst World Cup finals group in history (five draws out of six, and if they hadn't beaten Egypt, they'd have ended up drawing lots for third), then scraped past Belgium and were nothing but lucky to beat Cameroon.

Holland and Ireland did end up drawing lots to settle who finished second and third, but at least had the consolation of knowing that both would advance.

 

I certainly agree that we won't advance from the Uruguay/Italy/England/Costa Rica group.

 

Argentina wins it.

It's the cycle for USMNT to crash out at the group stage.

 

Franck Ribery will miss the World Cup with a back injury.

 

LeBron would have played through it.

 

And how about if that draw went the other way? Holland would have punked Romania and then played Italy (holy shit!), while Ireland would have bowed out to West Germany.

 

So if Brazil doesn't win this thing, how much worse will the rioting be?

 

Good to see Altidore get something before the big games begin.