Schraubertipps » fastest time in the second run on a cool,

It shouldnt come as a disappointment anymore for England supporters. They are used to this. Losing. It isnt underachieving when the team isnt good enough. This is as good as it gets. Whenever Englands Brazilian journey comes to an end (they havent been eliminated, yet) the diehard support and those responsible for overseeing English football will hold on to the positive moments. Flashes of ability and promise are what constitute hope. "They werent that bad" is excused as progress. The play of the likes of Sturridge and Sterling, and the futures of Barkley and Shaw will be used as evidence brighter days ahead. Yawn. Weve heard this before. Weve done this song and dance. The days of a semi-final shoot-out loss in Italia 90 are long gone. Lets not go back to 1966. The failures have piled on, one less painful than the next. Success would be a surprise. Losses to more intelligent and superior football nations are the expectation. The English should be immune from the feeling of devastation or outrage. From a Golden Generation not good enough, to the likes of Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard who have failed to capture the imagination. Its a vicious cycle of mediocrity. A 2-1 loss to Uruguay is just the latest chapter. England was poor. Nothing new. The how it happened is what drives home the obvious. Too weak in too many areas and lacking true top talent to break down their competition. Out-managed. Out-witted. Out-classed. Uruguay only completed a pathetic 64 per cent of passes. The South Americans struggled in build up and were content to sit back. It was an astute page out of Italys book from Englands opening match; sit-back and force England to break you down. Dont get beat for speed. And counter-attack. Thats what Uruguay did, and credit for executing. They got stuck in and remained organized. Forget basic statistics telling you England dominated possession with Uruguay on the back-foot. It was calculated. It worked to perfection. A basic approach against a basic team. Simple. The game winning goal incredibly came directly from the Uruguayan goalkeeper Fernando Muslera. A ball put on the ground and a long ball played out. Simple to defend, right? Apparently not. Edinson Cavani dropped deep all match to expose long-in-the-tooth Steven Gerrard sitting on top of the England backline. For what the England captain has in experience, he lacks in legs because of the kilometers accumulated. Cavanis aerial challenge of Gerrard forced a wayward header backwards from the England midfielder. Luis Suarez, as proper poachers do, tucked in behind the backline looking for an advantage. He gambled and he won, as Gary Cahill got caught. Suarez was clinical in finish and again showed his special talent. A game breaker and match winner, something England doesnt have. Likewise on Suarez opener, he exposed Englands backline. The Uruguayan number nine did well to create the needed space on the far post behind Phil Jagielka. The ball played to Suarez by Cavani was all-world. But it was two Uruguayan players on six England defenders. Nobody put pressure on the ball. And to leave Suarez lurking on the far post wasnt good enough. Not to mention is was a missed tackle by Gerrard in the midfield, leading to the attack. Two England centre-backs and two mistakes leading to goals conceded. Cahill and Jagielka are experienced at the position, at least at the club level. They are the best in the country at the position and they were exposed. The best England has at an all-important position and not good enough. Its the same story at the other end of the field. Not good enough. Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge are more than fine players. They are very good. But they are not at the same levels of other top forwards in this tournament, let alone not the top forwards on their own club teams. Therein is the difference. The likes of Rooney and Sturridge require real substance around them to be at their best, and thats fine. They are better the complimentary piece rather than the focus at this level. When played appropriately, they can shine. In this England team, their play often times is representative of the whole. These are the best England has and they are not good enough. The midfield, a make-shift, comprised of decent parts with no direction on how its supposed to work. Jordan Henderson had a fine season on a good attacking Liverpool team. Yet something suggests he has the makings of becoming the next Sinclair, Wright-Phillips, Mills, or Parker – take your pick of the long list of players youll ask, "Did he really play for England?" Is he really the best England really has? The rest of the midfield is all over the place. The left-side exposed defensively and the movement in attack not creative or consistent. Passing the ball around without purpose wont break down a back line. Its no surprise this area of the field is stagnant and lacks influence. And the manager, oh the manager. Roy Hodgson saw fit to keep Englands double-pivot of Gerrard and Henderson on the field in a game begging for attacking players to breakdown the Uruguayan defensive wall. Comically, two holding players were preferable to keeping on Sterling or Welbeck, or even throwing on a Rickie Lambert until after England went down. The options at Hodgson arent flattering. But neither were the tactics. The very least Hodgson could have done was shuffle the deck. Bring off a defensive midfielder or ineffective wing-back in preference of another attacking player. Change the shape. Instead, the end result of a cautious approach was not good enough. Some will suggest Ashley Cole and Jermain Defoe should have been in the England set-up. Leighton Baines has struggled and another forward option off the bench could have proved decisive. Arguments can be made but how much of a difference they would have made most likely would have been negligible. It made more sense to include Michael Carrick in the squad as a holding midfielder able to provide distribution. But then again, this is a country deeming Paul Scholes not a proper fit to be an England regular over the course of his career. The best England had, but not good enough? Theres a pattern here. Selection issues are nothing new. But no matter who dons the England kit, are they ever good enough? There have been phenomenal performances over the course of the first week of the World Cup, both by individuals and team. Honest assessment would tell the standard of football played by the true top football nations is a step beyond England. Its all very disturbing considering important players for the likes of Chile and Colombia (etc…) are buried in the League Championship, or in some cases not deemed good enough for even that. This should trouble the English to the core. But it wont. Overrating their own talent has become a past-time and feeds the beast. Criticism and finding scapegoats has become a past time. In reality, these are the best players they have. And they are not good enough. The Premier League is the most entertaining league in the world and the most popular. It is not the best. Englands best players are not even the top talent in their own domestic league. Taking a look in the mirror doesnt always cast a pretty reflection. But the look in the mirror is necessary. Acceptance is needed. This was a day England will never have a better context to beat a Uruguay team as such on a stage made for a statement performance. The weather was an ideal 14 degrees Celsius for the hardened English. The opponent was missing two of their preferred back-four. The star player was not 100 per cent. And Uruguays confidence was shaky coming off a shock 3-1 loss. England didnt let it slip away. They were incapable of seizing the moment. It is possible England can still advance from the group stage, even though a team losing their first two games at a World Cup has never done so. Italy must beat Costa Rica then Uruguay, and England will need a comprehensive victory over the Ticos to have superior goal differential. But really, would that constitute success? Squeaking by would be as good as it gets for a team not good enough. Air Jordan Retro 11 Wholesale . Chelsea took until the second half to trouble the leagues bottom team, but Schuerrle then ripped through the defence with ease at Craven Cottage to keep Jose Mourinhos side on track for the title. Jordan Retro 11 Canada . -- During a players meeting following the All-Star break, Jermaine ONeal promised his teammates to play the rest of the regular season like he would never play again -- because he very well might not. http://www.cheapairjordan11canada.com/ . Both had to wait out a rain interruption lasting nearly five hours before taking comprehensive third-round victories to join Carling Bassett-Seguso (1983, 1986), Patricia Hy-Boulais (1996-97) and Daniel Nestor (1999) as Canadians who made it into the second week of a major. Air Jordan 11 Retro Canada . David Perron had a career high four-point night with two goals and two assists as the Oilers experienced an offensive explosion, blasting the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-0 to record a rare home win for their second victory in a row. Cheap Jordan 11 Canada . And former Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson certainly knows his pain. "Its pretty hard to coach there without allowing some of these things to kind of affect you," Wilson told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in his ESPN. CALGARY -- First they smashed the start record, then they broke it again. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse also set a new Canadian track record while they were at it, emphatically showing to the rest of the womens bobsled field that the Olympic champions are back and better than ever. The Canadian duo won gold in their first World Cup race together in over two years Saturday, blazing down the Canada Olympic Park track in 55.89 seconds to seal the victory and trim nearly a quarter-second off the previous record in the process. "It just felt comfortable right from Day 1 as soon as Heather came back in the summer," Humphries said. "Being with her again, everything kind of came back and it just fit." Humphries, from Calgary, and Moyse, from Summerside, P.E.I., posted a two-run time of one minute 52.77 seconds to finish over a half-second ahead of Americans Elana Meyers and Aja Evans, who took silver in 1:53.33. Another American duo, Jamie Greubel and Katie Eberling, took the bronze in 1:53.62. Earlier, American Steven Holcomb completed a sweep of the mens races with a victory in the four-man event while Canadian Chris Spring just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. Humphries won a world title last year with Chelsea Valois and has reached the podium at 14 straight events. Moyse, who competed in track cycling and rugby while taking a break from bobsled, has returned in top condition after undergoing hip surgery a year ago. The Canadians didnt wait long to display the form that led them to gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Moyse, who won a push competition here last weekend, helped power the Canada 1 sled to a start record of 5.48 seconds. Another three-100ths of a second was trimmed off the mark in the second run. It was the kind of performance Moyse had in mind over the last year as she underwent a gruelling training schedule and rehabilitation to get back to her previous level after surgery. "Just determination and the sheer red-headed willpower and stubbornness of wanting to prove to myself that I can do it," Moyse said of her motivation. The Canadians first started sliding together in 2009. Off and on, they have spent about 2 1/2 years together as a duo. They beat the previous Canadian track record of 56.06, which was set by Lesa Mayes-Stringer and Jamie Cruickshank in 2005. Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming of the United States set the all-time womens track mark of 55.dddddddddddd44 that same year. Its early in the season, but Humphries and Moyse are already the clear favourites to return to the top of the podium in Sochi this February. "I think we take the pressure off of each other ... were doing this because we want to do it, not because we have to do it," Moyse said. "And I think that when we keep reminding ourselves that were here because we want to be here, then it helps to melt away all the outside stresses. "I think thats how we did it in Vancouver and hopefully we can just keep doing that this year." Edmontons Jennifer Ciochetti and Valois, from Zenon Park, Sask., were ninth. Holcomb, the reigning Olympic gold medallist, guided his team of Curt Tomasevicz, Steven Langton and Chris Fogt to a two-run time of 1:48.56. Germanys Maximilian Arndt and Russias Alexander Zubkov finished tied for second place in 1:48.65. Spring, from Calgary, was fourth in 1:48.67. "Were a little off the podium, its not what we wanted but there are lots of positives to come out of this," he said. "Well leave here pretty happy and moving on to the next stop, weve got some good momentum coming our way." Spring was eighth after the first run but had the fastest time in the second run on a cool, overcast afternoon. Holcomb and Langton won gold in the two-man race on Friday at the season-opening event. "For us to have this first World Cup under our belts with a new team and new equipment, its kind of like having a monkey off our back," Langton said. "It gives us that confidence moving forward." Spring and Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., won bronze in the two-man race. They were joined by Cody Sorensen of Ottawa and Saskatoons Ben Coakwell for the four-man competition. The other Canadian mens sleds also cracked the top 10 on Saturday. Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., was sixth in 1:48.88 and Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., was ninth in 1:49.02. Rush was joined by David Bissett and Neville Wright, both of Edmonton, and Calgarys Lascelles Brown. Kripps piloted James MacNaughton of Newmarket, Ont., Torontos Tim Randall and Graeme Rinholm of Medicine Hat, Alta. The World Cup season continues next weekend with an event in Park City, Utah. ' ' '