re: Why hasn't England been better in international competitions?

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You really think England should never be considered a favorite in any tournament ever just to get to the semis?

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Unless that tournament includes only England + bunch of minnows, then yes.

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when have England ever been predicted to get to the semi-finals?

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with the semis I'm mainly talking about the Euro tournament more than WC.

with the WC I'm more thinking round of 16/quarters is what is mostly expected from most non-English media.

Since Fifa World Rankings were brought up, their average ranking ('93-Present) is 10

I could agree that England generally has the potential to reach the semis if things fall in their favor. However, I posted links to England's final World Cup games for the last four tournaments. They were knocked out by very good teams in close games -the German machine of 2010 (consider the controversy of Lampard's "it's a goal but not really" and the fashion in which the Germans knocked out the Falklands)

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And, remember, England's population is only 1/6 of America's. Even though it's the country's most popular sport, you still have a smaller talent pool.

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I don't think comparing to the U.S. is a good indication of what they are doing with their talent pool. We don't do very much with our talent pool to be fair.

Population doesn't explain why a country like the Netherlands is a power. 16 million people in comparison to England's 52 million. The Czech Republic often produce players of a superior technical quality than English players. They have a population of 10 million people. The approach the English have to teaching the game is wrong. It has little to do with their population, in my opinion.

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with the semis I'm mainly talking about the Euro tournament more than WC.

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They've only made the semi's twice in the Euros out of 7 appearances. They've actually gone out in the group stage 4 times, so I'm not sure it's accurate to say they should be expected to ever get to the semi's. The reality is that England getting to the semi's is a massive, massive, massive overachievement.

Btw are talking about the same England that didnt even qualify in 2008?

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but the point is that probably only English fans think the team "should" beat Italy.

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Case in point.

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Now, last WC when Italy was awful (for Italian standards) I would think England could have beaten Italy.

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England were extremely poor last WC. They were lucky to get out of the group. All it took was for Algeria to play 3 at the back, and they shite their pants.

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I agree. I'm the only English fan on here and at this point I wouldn't pick England over Italy. Now, last WC when Italy was awful (for Italian standards) I would think England could have beaten Italy.

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Yeah, they definitely would have been favorites over Italy in 2010.

I think England could well beat Italy this year if they match up in the first knockout round. England has a good side.

The only point I was making is that to say that England is a favorite to make the semis assumes they're clearly favored over the teams like Italy they'd likely meet in the first round.

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England were extremely poor last WC.

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so were Italy.

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Of the last 11 Euro's England has entered, they did not qualify for the final tournament 4 times. They've failed to qualify for 36% of the tournaments they entered. That's 1 in 3. That's a pretty common occurrence.

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two of those times were back to back in the 70's. Not exactly an accurate representation of the history of the team. Since the 70's they've failed to make it 2/9 times. Once in the 80's and in '08. But fair point 22% is still too high.