1. "It matters more when there's money on it"

    Would like to see Mexico give themselves a glimmer of hope though


  2. Don't think anyone here hates England.

    I think the reason why some people are laughing about England being out is
    a) the english yellow press
    b) the english behaviour (and here it mostly comes down to the yellow press again) after they get knocked out off a tournament. Every 4 years you can read and see that it never is due to a weak team. It always is the referee, the Fifa, the turf or general bad circumstances...
  3. I like the country, just don't like the team. It's just the players that generally annoy me.

    Mexico scored btw. Argentina 3 - 1 Mexico
  4. Originally posted by KieranU2:I like the country, just don't like the team. It's just the players that generally annoy me.

    Mexico scored btw. Argentina 3 - 1 Mexico


    Haha, there goes my bet.
  5. Originally posted by iTim:
    I personally would say that our squad selection (the chosen 23) and tactics were all wrong and this leads back to Capello. So the next question is why? Why have things gone belly up when it was oh so perfect?

    But like I said, we needed different tactics and some players shouldn't have even gone to the World Cup.


    Replace Capello with Löw and you find the same discussion in Germany.
  6. This joke was to be expected

  7. Originally posted by yeah:[..]

    Don't think anyone here hates England.

    I think the reason why some people are laughing about England being out is
    a) the english yellow press
    b) the english behaviour (and here it mostly comes down to the yellow press again) after they get knocked out off a tournament. Every 4 years you can read and see that it never is due to a weak team. It always is the referee, the Fifa, the turf or general bad circumstances...


    Oh come off it. In 2008 we didn't qaulify for Euro's. In 2006 we didn't play too well but certainly upped our game for the Portugal match when it mattered and went all the way to penalties. In Euro 2004 I thought we played pretty well, again missing out on penalties to Portugal. In 2002 we put up some admirable displays of football, losing out to a Ronaldinho free kick that bemused Seaman. We were poor at Euro 2000, nothing to hide that fact. In 1998 we again, were ok. Improved for the Argentina game when it mattered, only to lose on penalties again. Nobody can knock that perfromance in St. Etienne that night. Euro 1996, we should've won the tournament we were that good. 1994 we didn't qualify for the World Cup. Italia 90 was another tournament we could win. And so forth.

    So it's not that every 4 years we crash out due to having a weak team. Of those instances above our worst performance was Euro 2000. In 2002 we did ok. Played admirably again against Argentina, went 1-0 against Brazil in a match we dominated the first half of. In 2006 we weren't great but showed that when it mattered (Portugal) we could actually do something.

    This World Cup is only comparable to Euro 2000 in that we showed no spirit against no-one.
  8. Maybe I wasn't clear. I never meant you had a bad team. It's just that the performance wasn't always what it could have been.
    There always were better teams/teams in better form. The english media always made it sound like England deserved the cup and the team got betrayed.
  9. Its just soooo annoying that Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard and Terry would just walk into any team in the world, except Spain maybe ...
  10. The performance was dreadful from the start. It even showed as far back as the friendly games against mexico and japan. Our passing was clumsy, there was no sense of urgency in our defense or counterattacks. We looked lazy and uninspired.

    Last time I saw England play reasonably well was in 2002. Sven got a lot of bad press but the 'England' he managed back then was is far superior in my eyes to the one we have now.
  11. Originally posted by u2opra:The performance was dreadful from the start. It even showed as far back as the friendly games against mexico and japan. Our passing was clumsy, there was no sense of urgency in our defense or counterattacks. We looked lazy and uninspired.

    Last time I saw England play reasonably well was in 2002. Sven got a lot of bad press but the 'England' he managed back then was is far superior in my eyes to the one we have now.


    We miss Beckham, Owen, Joe Cole, Hargreaves and Seaman.
  12. Originally posted by yeah:Maybe I wasn't clear. I never meant you had a bad team. It's just that the performance wasn't always what it could have been.
    There always were better teams/teams in better form. The english media always made it sound like England deserved the cup and the team got betrayed.


    Then I apologise. I agree, at every tournament there are teams that are in better shape than the England side. Better players or a more fluent way of playing. But since 1966, we failed to qualify for any major tournamnet in the 1970's (except 1970 World Cup as hosts). And since then England have promised so much and ultimately failed to deliver (excpet Euro 96, maybe Italia 90) and have had some pretty harsh decisions made against them along the way. Suffered the heartbreak of penaltie on so many occasions. Been 'cheated' out of tournaments by underhand tactics of opposing players. Been cheated out of tournaments because of the pure stupidity of some of our own players (Beckham 98). And been oh so close, sometimes by a fraction of a stud.

    So eveyr year, every major tournament it boils down to it being 'our' year. Our time. On paper, we always seem to have a great squad of players and they seem to be a better squad of players each tournament. So I think the public and media have a reason to have high expectations. But it often ends in tears, so to say.