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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 30, 2016 5:53:15 GMT
I have been a supporter of the England football team since World Cup 1970 and even now can remember my tears at our 3-2 defeat at the hands of West Germany in that competition. I have witnessed some poor performances down the years but nothing to compare to last night's shambles. By the end I had given up and was just numb that the team could have sunk that low. Abject, clueless, pitiful, useless, overpaid, overhyped bunch of prancing no-hopers. It was a total fiasco. Hodgson should have gone after the World Cup 2014 debacle and I thought that was the nadir, but last night was so much worse. These were our best players? Then heaven help us. Goodness knows where we go from here. Some are touting Gareth Southgate, Alan Pardue and the like...oh dear. I blame players and manager. Players are responsible for their performances and the manager for results. Once again we have flattered to deceive and failed where it really mattered. Germany, on the other hand are where they usually are at competitions, despite modest friendly/qualifications results. The truth of the matter is that there is simply not the pool of talent to choose from anymore due to the sheer number of foreign players in the premier league. We were told that bringing foreign players in would help our players improve skills but it hasn't happened. 30 years ago premier league teams were made up of mainly British players. Now count how many make up the likes of Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal etc. Whoever accepts the job of manager has a heck of a job on his hands. I say again, this was worse than Brazil 2014. Congrats to Iceland...they were the best team by a country mile and good luck against France. Also good luck to Wales. I feel your pain and your assessment is spot on. Console yourself with the knowledge that at least you have a brief interlude of expectation that you might do well. Supporting Scotland begins with bleak hopelessness and ends with crushing, predictable humiliation. There isn't even a ray of hope in between. |
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Post by ripper on Jun 30, 2016 7:20:17 GMT
Craig, Scotland are in a similar position to England with regard to foreign players. Not so long ago English 1st Division teams had a fair few talented Scots playing for them. Now, there are hardly any. In fact, thinking about it, Scotland is probably in a worse position than we are. It's a desperate situation for both teams. I've read that only group winners will automatically go to World Cup 2018 from the qualifying groups, so it is entirely possible that we shall both be watching a World Cup without England and Scotland.
What really depressed me about the Iceland game was that it wasn't as if England were bombarding the Icelandic goal with shot after shot and it was just one of those things. No, England hardly had a shot after they went 2-1 down and Iceland stood firm. I am old enough to remember the infamous 1973 England vs Poland qualifier in which England needed to score. That time they had shot after shot and the keeper played a blinder and we failed to qualify. On monday England went out with a whimper rather than a roar; the lion was toothless. And as for Joe Hart being one of the best keepers in the world...well, he made 2 dreadful mistakes, but a good England team would have had the character to have shrugged those errors off and pressed for goals, but not the current crop. Ah, well, there'll be a period of fevered excitement as to who will take over and then the inevitable hype when we get a few decent results from friendlies or qualifiers, then back to the failure at a major competition--if we are lucky enough to actually qualify.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 2, 2016 6:14:58 GMT
Magnificent, Wales! Go and win the blummin' thing!
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Post by ripper on Jul 2, 2016 9:41:14 GMT
Fantastic result for Wales. They must now fancy their chances of reaching the final. Portugal have gotten to the semi-final without playing to their abilities, so Wales have the momentum. A lesson for England: the Wales manager has taken a group of average players--excepting Bale--and turned them into a solid, hard-working team, the whole being much greater than the sum of the parts, whereas with England the reverse is true. Come on Wales!
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 2, 2016 11:21:24 GMT
Magnificent, Wales! Go and win the blummin' thing! Absolutely! I hate football (wouldn't you, if you'd been brought up in a family which supported Headington United - later to become Oxford United?), but I love the underdog. I'm still rooting for Iceland v. Wales in the final. If that happens I guess I have to go for Wales on the basis that I live only a mile from the border (when we pay our water bill, we have the option of paying in Welsh or English!). |
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 4, 2016 8:44:26 GMT
Alas, poor Iceland. 'Twas heart-breaking to see a young Icelandic lady optimistically shouting "If we beat England, we can beat France!" before the match, proving that she was as blinkered as the FA (such appropriate initials) in missing the fact that England's current position in the footballing world seems to be somewhere between Tierra Del Fuego and the Galapagos Islands (flukey win against Wales excepted). So we're left with Germany, the host nation, pantomime villain Ronaldo and plucky, passionate Wales. Arise, St David!
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Post by dem on Jul 4, 2016 9:17:03 GMT
Bollocks! Had hoped to provide insipid match reports on every game - best laid plans and all that. So sorry to see the back of Iceland after such a spirited effort. Team & fans of tournament for me. Likewise gutted the Italians paid for over-elaborate spot-kick routines vs. Germany after putting in such a magnificent performance to see off the Spanish. Both Irish sides departed with dignity in tact. England versus the viking superstars .... a rudderless performance befitting country's current status in great scheme of things, providing world with two huge guffaws in space of three days. Wales. If they can achieve what Russia, Slovakia and Iceland failed to do - i.e., lose to "us" - and still win the thing, good luck to them.
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Post by mcannon on Jul 4, 2016 12:19:06 GMT
Alas, poor Iceland. 'Twas heart-breaking to see a young Icelandic lady optimistically shouting "If we beat England, we can beat France!" before the match, proving that she was as blinkered as the FA (such appropriate initials) in missing the fact that England's current position in the footballing world seems to be somewhere between Tierra Del Fuego and the Galapagos Islands (flukey win against Wales excepted). So we're left with Germany, the host nation, pantomime villain Ronaldo and plucky, passionate Wales. Arise, St David! Had a message this morning from my son Oliver - currently driving around Iceland - who watched the game in a jam-packed community hall in a small town. Sadly, a lot of the locals left at half-time - though not surprisingly, a few French tourists were whooping it up. Still, what an effort, to make it so far! Mark |
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Post by dem on Jul 6, 2016 15:55:07 GMT
Portugal V Holland, World Cup 2006, aka 'the Battle of Nuremberg.' Four red cards, sixteen yellows - and that's a game they won. Euro 2016: 1st semi final. Portugal V WalesDiscluding the various horrifying skirmishes between rival fans and rent-a-thugs, we've not had a particularly nasty game as yet, but am thinking this could be it. No question Chris Coleman has performed miracles; the Dragons were absolutely brilliant versus a plot-free Belgian "golden generation," but the Portugeezers are crafty old campaigners, well versed in the dark arts, and rarely bow out of a tournament gracefully. Fernando Santos's boys have been incredibly spawney to get this far, but that matters not. While CR7's Euro 2016 has been a thing of fits and starts, Nani's year in Turkey looks to have worked wonders, and Pepe is still fouling everything that moves regardless of which shirt it's wearing. Portugal have not won a game inside 90 minutes but, crucially, not even the impressive Croatians found a way to beat them. The main concern for Wales is that they've already lost a game they were well up for, and that versus the tournament's laughing stocks. Can the fervid support of their extraordinary terrace choir - plus the Manic's, plus Charlotte 'modern day Boudica' Chuch, plus, for one night only, the goodwill of many England fans - take them all the way? My heart says Wales, my head says Wales, my spidey sense says red cards, I want to believe, but .... Portugal. In normal time. 
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 6, 2016 21:17:43 GMT
And lo, it came to pass.
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Post by ripper on Jul 7, 2016 8:38:10 GMT
Sad to see Wales being beaten by a not particularly good Portugal team. When that second goal went in so quickly after the first it seemed to knock the stuffing out of them, and Portugal could have had at least one more goal as Wales scrambled for a way back into the game. Still, not many would have predicted that Wales would have made it to the semi-final stage and the team can rightly expect a great welcome upon their return--on this show they are the best of the four home nation teams. If Portugal had to win I was hoping it would have been on penalties, then they would have gotten to the final without winning a game in normal time. I don't know if that has happened before but it would be quite a feat--but Ronaldo and Nani had to spoil it.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 11, 2016 19:35:55 GMT
What a crap ending.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jul 12, 2016 21:30:11 GMT
Finals nearly always seem to be crap. Mind you, I've never even experienced the second round following Scotland. |
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Post by mattofthespurs on Jul 13, 2016 8:19:02 GMT
Overall that was a pretty poor tournament.
Occasionally it gave the impression of being exciting at times through late goals but this was really just a facade.
Wales and Iceland should be commended for lifting the tournament above the dross from time to time but the big nations, Germany, Spain, Italy and, of course, England flattered to deceive.
Thankfully proper football is just a month away and my local non league team has already completed 3 friendly matches.
One to forget unfortunately.
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Post by ripper on Jul 14, 2016 7:41:48 GMT
I agree with Matt. The overall quality of the competition was disappointingly low, and England hit rock bottom with their surrender to Iceland. Qualifiers for World Cup 2018 will be starting before long--hope we can find a good manager by then, who can build a decent team from a group of very average players.
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