It shouldnt come as a disappointment anymore for England supporters. Hydro Flask Standard Mouth Flex Cap . 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. Hydro Flask Wide Mouth Flex Cap . -- Brendan Leipsic had two goals and an assist and Nicolas Petan extended his point streak to 11 games as the Portland Winterhawks slipped past the Red Deer Rebels 5-4 on Saturday in Western Hockey League action. Hydro Flask Wine Tumbler Sale . Cory Batey and Brandon Vandenburg were each convicted on four charges of aggravated rape, one of attempted aggravated rape and two for aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg was also found guilty of tampering with evidence as well as an unlawful photography charge. http://www.hydroflask32oz.com/coffee-flasks.html . The hard-serving 22-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., became the first Canadian to be ranked in the Top 10 on the ATP World Tour thanks to his runner-up performance at Rogers Cup in Montreal.The Oklahoma City Thunder will try to make it a competitive series against the San Antonio Spurs Sunday night when Game 3 of the Western Conference finals shifts to Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder badly need a lift and they may get one in the return of Serge Ibaka. Ibaka, who missed the first two games and was expected to miss the entire postseason with a calf strain, improved significantly and will return. Watch the game on TSN starting at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt. "The abundance of blood and therefore swelling in Serges calf has reduced substantially and unexpectedly, allowing a level of movement and stability not thought possible after the initial diagnosis," OKC general manager Sam Presti said in a release earlier on Sunday before Ibakas return was confirmed. "With this new information, and in an effort to keep his status current, we are now listing him as day-to-day with the understanding that there is a possibility for him to play in this series." "Im waiting what the doctor going to tell me and how my body going to feel," Ibaka said after Saturdays practice, acknowledging pain is more of a concern than further injury. Oklahoma City desperately needs him. The Spurs marched to a 2-0 series lead and have done so in convincing fashion. San Antonio has won the two games by an average of 26 points, thanks in large part to Wednesdays 112-77 drubbing in Game 2. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili made history on Wednesday night and led the Spurs to another win. San Antonios Big 3 combined for 47 points and the trio passed Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper as the all-time winningest trio in NBA playoff history, winning their 111th postseason game together. Parker scored a game-high 22 points, Duncan went for 14 with 12 rebounds and Ginobili added 11 points off the bench in the blowout, as the Spurs leave the comfy confines of AT&T Center for Oklahoma City. In league history, 94 percent of teams to open a seven-game set 2-0 have gone on to advance. The Spurs sadly know all about the six percent. San Antonio held this exxact margin in the 2012 Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City, only to lose the next four and watch the Thunder lose to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Hydro Flask 40 Oz Wide Mouth. "We know what were walking into," Duncan said. "Theyre so much better at home. Theyre going to have a lot of days to let it all fester." Duncan also racked up just under 29 minutes, passing Abdul-Jabbar for second most playoff minutes in league history in the process. Duncan is just 27 minutes back of Kobe Bryants all-time mark of 8,641 and barring injury will pass him later in this series. Danny Green made 7-of-10 from 3-point range for the Spurs, who won Mondays Game 1, 122-105. He finished with 21 and Boris Diaw was the other San Antonio player in double figures with 11. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook didnt do nearly enough to make up for Ibakas absence. The MVP and his electric point guard netted just 15 points apiece on 16 and 24 shots, respectively. The other three OKC starters only scored four points between them. "Were disappointed in our performance. We have to make a few adjustments and come back better," Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said. "We will continue to figure things out as a group like we always have done and come back Sunday and play a much better basketball game." The Thunder led 26-24 after the first quarter but were outscored 88-51 the rest of the way. The poor play has led to some blowups on the floor for OKC. At the end of the first half, when the game started getting out of hand for the Thunder, prior to a timeout, Westbrook and Durant got into a heated exchange. "I was just getting on Kevin about some stuff and he got on me right back," explained Westbrook. "And thats what teammates do. Thats what leaders do. We get on each other, we come back and we talk about it, and then we come out like nothing ever happened." The two have combined to shoot 35-for-80 from the field in the first two games. Westbrook has taken 10 more shots than the league MVP. Game 4 will be Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. ' ' '