Posted on 10/14/2013 3:11:50 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
England, the country that gives so many of the world’s top players employment and huge salaries in its Premier League, remains tenuously on the brink of the World Cup.
A 4-1 home win over Montenegro at Wembley Stadium on Friday looked comprehensive, but on a raw, wet and windy night, it took an own goal, a penalty, a predatory strike from Wayne Rooney and a fabulous debut goal from the Tottenham winger Andros Townsend to subdue Montenegro. England’s passage to Brazil for the finals next year is not yet assured.
England still needs to beat Poland at Wembley on Tuesday because Ukraine, now just one point behind, is all but certain to defeat San Marino.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland all field separate national teams for World Cup competition.
NORTHERN IRELAND
I don’t think players don’t want to play for their country – absolutely not – it’s just that maybe club football, what with the national side not going anywhere, might be more important.
SCOTLAND
Bosman stunted the flow of players. The club chairmen went for getting players from abroad for a bit more in wages but on free transfers instead of having your own players coming through. It meant there were less players available for the national team.
WALES
A lot of our players aren’t ready yet, but they will be in a few years.
Captain Jakub Blaszczykowski and star striker Robert Lewandowski have both made a point of saying they are coming to Wembley to give England a bloody nose. They will be backed by more than 18,000 partisan Poles.
At least, GO HONDURAS!, so Mexico has to at least play NZ in the playoff.
Yep, this is basically Poland’s World Cup.
and Poland will have 18,000+ fans there. This will be a real match.
Germany [is] unbeaten in their last 31 qualification matches for either a World Cup or European Championships dating back to their 3-0 defeat to the Czech Republic in October 2007.
Is there any chance that there will ever be a united UK team? It’s a shame that England.never goes.very far.
I think absolutely not but maybe a UK person knows better. I would like to see England in the WC. I don’t really care about Wales (no offense).
The headline and exerpt are misleading. Even if England loses to Poland and finishes 2nd place in their group, they can still go the Brazil 2014 by winning a playoff between 2nd place teams.
England defender Gary Cahill has admitted that he does not know what to expect of Poland when the two sides meet in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium.
"It's a bit nervy in the sense that we don't know what to expect,"
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