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"Brazil"

England can't really lose on Friday, whatever the result of the match.

Beat Brazil and it will be fantastic for the team, English football, and the nation in general.

Lose, and it won't really matter - because there's no shame in losing to Brazil. I don't think anyone would be overly disappointed - certainly nowhere near as much as they would have if we had lost to Argentina.

I think Brazil are almost unique in the world of football, in that they have immense talent and practically no arrogance.

They have nothing but respect for their opponents, whoever they play. All the comments I've read from them in the media have been extremely fair and level-headed, particularly those comments about the upcoming game against England.

"Beat us and you win the cup," Ronaldo has said. And surely that's what we all think, too? I know I do. Were we playing Argentina at this stage, I'm sure it would be, "You'll never beat us - you're not good enough."

They're expecting a decent game, and are themselves calling it "the game of the tournament". Despite their collective ability, they don't give off any impression that they expect to win, no matter what.

There's none of this petty name-calling like you get from the Argentinians, Germans... or even Denmark, who made some comment about England thinking that all Danish players were "Bolton reserves".

And despite Rivaldo letting the team down recently, there usually isn't any diving or cheating involved in their game.

Others think the England team are arrogant. Arrogant! That's a joke! I ask you, what the hell has the English national team got to be arrogant about?!

But there's none of that with Brazil. They may be an outstanding team, but their feet are firmly on the ground. They may well be better than anyone else, but you don't get the impression that THEY think they're better than anyone.

Which in modern football, is a very good thing. If I was a journalist looking for a catchy heading, I'd probably have to call them "The Gentlemen of Football".

It's right next to their bloody country... why the fook should we have it?

That's like Argentina claiming the Shetlands Isles just because they so and landed on them in the past

The Falklands War rages on even today. Argentina has offered something like £2000 to anyone in the Falklands who gives up their British nationality and becomes Argentinian. In essence, they are trying to buy up the population, and once the majority are Argies, make a claim to the islands soveriegnty.

Unfortunately for Argentina, the inhabitants of the island are fervently patriotic, and only an insignificant handful of the islanders have taken up the offer. Unlucky...

Actually Stryke, I read this thread last night but decided not to write anything in it...

I have no views/opinion on the Falklands war...

Later on Ortega shall turn up in this thread and tell us that the Argie army was not in fact invading, but taking a nice holiday in the Falklands. It was the evil British, probably with Beckham's father in the infantry, who killed innocent Argies who were just trying to get a tan.

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> Pasta Masta wrote:
> Talking about arrogance, the most popular argentinian tabloid ran
> the
> headline: 'F\/ck You' the day after we beat them.
>
> That just shows the overwhelming peasant mentality of the nation, in
> my opinion.

----

OR maybe they're still annoyed this crap country invaded the Falklands

It doesn't matter how well we play, or how bad Brazil play this will always be a very tough match.

It doesn't matter which way you look at Brzil they will always be a very good team.

He'll be eating grass and his words when 'Teddy' plants the bal in the net from a header, Vassell weaves in through the defence and England win!



'Tally Bally Ho, Teddy!' ;)

Marcos, the Brazilian keeper, has said that beating England is a formality. He has also stated that England have only ONE good player and that is Michael Owen. He says the rest are a bunch of long ball merchants and Michael Owen is the only one that has any skill on the ball.

Brazil are real footballers.



Argentina really do not like us - they dislike us more than we supposedly 'hate' them - For them, defeat is a psychological impossibility, and against us, completely unimaginable and unacceptable (!)


I think if we lose on Friday, the press should be happy with England. If we win, then then England will expect everything - not always a good thing!

Well, I think it's as much to do with controlling the media attitude, and limiting potential backlash as it has genuine level-headedness. But regardless of the motivation, it certainly IS refreshing to have a strong side not prophesising their own glory.

As for England, I don't see where anyone gets the idea that our team is arrogant from. We half expect to lose the average game, and spend all our time looking at how strong our opponents are.

I recall Man. Utd v Porto at Old Trafford, I think it was the Euro Cup quarter final first leg. The match got hyped by the UK media to the point where we were seeing in the English press headlines like "The Match Man Utd CANNOT win".

Of course, MUFC hammered them 4-0...

As a nation, we generally hope for the best, but expect the worst. I doubt there is much genuine cause to call us arrogant.