Antidote NZ

What a bizarre article. Sort of about the Football World Cup... but lets also add rugby, cricket and league to the mix. Not quite sure why. Will there be similar articles about other countries? Or do most other countries win every world cup they compete in?

Well as Scotland is part of Great Britain its not really a claim, more of a fact?

The England squad visited an orphanage in Russia yesterday. Its heartbreaking to see their little faces with no hope said Vladimir, aged 6.

and thats simply not 1, he was never claimed as being English. Only British and its the way that tennis players countries are categorised that deems he plays for Britain, not Scotland. There are essentially no scottish, welsh or english players in the association, only British. And that reminds me, there is also no such thing as a British accent, only english, scottish or welsh

Will there be similar articles about other countries?No.

I lived there for 10 years and you are completely wrong.Your first mistake is referring to respected pundits ... thats not where most Poms get their news.Top 3 English daily papers - the Sun, Metro and the Daily Mail.Hell the Mirror is one of the top 4 Sunday papers with the Sun no 1 by a distance. Google England can win world cup and youll find many many results!E.g. The Express ran an article 4 days ago - with Jose Mourihno talking about how England can win Theres an independent.co.uk article from 7 hours ago stating that more and more people now believe England can win.The Sun - by far the biggest UK paper ran an article recently where Harry Redknapp (if you want a respected pundit) stated that England will WIN the World CupSo before you call something a myth perhaps take 5 minutes to do a bit of research. Even in the BBC article you cite - Chris Sutton states We should be excited because England have a chance of winning the World CupSo pretty easy to prove this myth is indeed the reality.

Will there be similar articles about other countries?

Again; citation pleaseName one single pundit, broadcaster or ex-player who has said England will likely win this World Cup

The general consensus based on what? At the time, England had a superior win/loss record to almost every nation on the planet. They still do against all but 4-5 countries.

The old the English always say theyre going to win cliche is a total myth. Name me ONE respected pundit or former footballer who has said that England are likely to win this World Cup. Tell me where I can find one of these number of articlesFive days ago, the BBC asked 10 of their pundits for predictions and NOT ONE picked England (5 picked Germany, 2 picked Brazil, 2 picked Spain and 1 picked France). I havent heard a single journalist or expert pick England.

Reminds me of Suzie poisoning the All Blacks in 1995, or the Forward Pass of 2007!

You may find that it is not the English public that state the national team is going to win a given tournament. It is the media that make these statements in the hope that if they can appeal to the base nationalistic flag waving they will sell a few more papers or advertising. Bit like this article really. Happy mindless flag-waving.

Leading up to this WC there were a number of articles in England suggesting that they had every chance of winning,Really? Where? Can you provide any examples of this? I hear this sort of thing said a lot, but then when actually read the English Press, I never see anything of the sort. English fans are - by and large - notoriously fatalistic. We know our level - and yes last 16/quarters would be a decent result. We most likely run in to either Columbia or Poland if we make it out of the group, dont fancy us against Colombia but would give us a 50:50 shot against POland. The Mexico result makes things very interesting for the tournament as a whole though - highly possibly Germany and Brasil could meet in the last 16!!

I dont think they will be concerned considering they are still the no1 ranked ICC one day side, and are currently 2-0 up in a one day series against Australia...

No. Only the English cop this sort of gloating, sneering coverage.

For no one to care that would require no one to turn up and watch. Last time i checked both rugbys were able to draw good crowds for mayor matches.

When trying to tell a joke the most important part to get right is the punchline....eh Mike? lol

Id worry more about the fact that NZ are not there as they failed to qualify before mocking other countries

My point exactly. When I scroll through the hundreds of comments on various websites, the average English fan seems incredibly pessimistic - often hyperbolically so. Often theyll say that their team is a B-grade pub team, which blatantly isnt 1. Or theyll say things like when we only beat Malta 2-0, a team like Germany or Brazil will thrash us. Yet, when England do play Brazil, Germany, etc, they generally dont get thrashed, even if they lose On their day, England can beat anyone, on an off day, they can lose to Iceland (just as Holland did, and Argentina nearly did), and anything better than a quarter-final would be an unexpected bonus.

ok well maybe you forgot about the 4-1 series victory in australia?