World Cup 2018

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
all this talk on ITV about 'building for the future' is intolerable. that's not how international football works - you get your chance, you have to take it, there and then.
 
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luka

Well-known member
we wont get another chance like that but semi finals is a decent effort for a comparatively likeable but basically not all that good team. we all had a laugh and smashed an ikea up at the end of the day
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
but it's a side full of quality from front to back. England had no game management when faced with pressure from a good team, and as such, France would've annihilated them. Let's hope they do the same to the Croatians....
 

luka

Well-known member
SHAPARAK
‏ @SHEKOFEHH
1m1 minute ago

This perhaps reminds U of fallen of western men . White European men turned gays mostly or have perhaps not the same energy vitality strength and stamina as the dark ones , otherwise they wouldn’t handed their very national team to others to gain goals !!!!
 

droid

Well-known member
They were a likeable team, except for Maguire and Kane, who I just wanted to punch everytime I saw their stupid faces.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
'building for the future' is intolerable
building for the future is wrong, but most of your core - Sterling, both Harrys, Pickford, etc - will still be in their prime in 2022. should have one more shot with that group.

granted this team probably overachieved and definitely lucked into a weak knockout bracket, but should still be good enough to be favored to make it out of group stage.

you guys really need some playmaking talent to emerge. the finishing is mostly there if you can get them the ball more often.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
you need better, more creative midfielders, which I guess is a traditional English weakness tho right? dodgy foreigners and their overly dramatic passing, or whatever
 

luka

Well-known member
Ian Wright Retweeted
Lewis Hamilton
‏Verified account @LewisHamilton
20m20 minutes ago

I’m so proud of our Boys & to be honest, the whole country. I’ve been inspired by the spirit of our people all coming together during this time. It’s what makes me so proud to be British. Let’s hold on to that fighting spirit & stand tall & United. It will come home one day! 🙌🏾
270 replies 1,173 retweets 7,132 likes
Funk Butcher Retweeted
Daniel Sturridge
‏Verified account @DanielSturridge
1h1 hour ago

If anyone has anything negative to say about this @England team or individuals keep your tweets to yourself. Nobody would have thoughts they'd be where they are or achieved what they have and they've made everyone proud so get behind them and show love not hate #threelions ❤️
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
What a weird affair
well ya MLS is weird, Texas is weird, Houston is a weird (probably underrated tho) city in a different way from Texas

MLS is like, why would I follow European basketball instead of the NBA, which is at such a vastly superior level? the whole thing smacks of trying way too hard

I only really pay attention every 4 years - Zinedane singlehandedly beating Brazil in 06 infected me w/the magic of the WC - but if I followed soccer it'd definitely be Premier League.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I do admit no other sport or sporting event even begins to approach the World Cup for national tragedy, anguish, pathos, whatever. It's almost incomprehensible.

Of course the real winner is Putin et al. I was pretty impressed by the consistency/volume of the whistling at the Croatian guy who said this is for Ukraine.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
all this talk on ITV about 'building for the future' is intolerable. that's not how international football works - you get your chance, you have to take it, there and then.

Dunno about that. France should have won in 2016, fucked it up, and here they are about to win the World Cup. The work Germany put in in 2006-2010 paid off in 2014.

Obviously it would be better to definitely win now than maybe win later, but, particularly with the success in the younger age groups, it's not ridiculous for England to look to the future here.
 

droid

Well-known member
Thats true, but the euros are tougher and I cant see them getting such a lucky draw with the group again.
 

luka

Well-known member
yeah the draw opening out like that was a piece of outrageous fortune. beat crotia to get to the final? thats a gift. never get a chance like that again.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Exactly - you can't talk about building for the future when you lost a world cup semi to Croatia. Germany 2006-2010 and France 2016 both beat top tier teams, and Germany lost to two extraordinary teams. For all the noise, England still haven't beaten a top team at a big tournament...since 2002, arguably.....and even then not in a knockout round. Even Wales did that in 2016. In fact, when was the last time England did that outside of penalties...1990 vs Belgium and then Cameroon? It's by some distance the worst record of a major nation, and there's no arguing against that.

I like the team and I like Southgate, but they choked.

And the point that's bound to be made over the next few days...very few of this England team know what it's like to win, due to the way the Premier League is constructed - Sterling, Stones and Walker only started winning this season, and Ashley Young has some experience....but that's kind of it. Croatia had more players with big match winning experience, which is a bit crazy.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
if youre here on the internet and not smashing fuck out of a foreigner youre not gutted enough. get out there and show us what it means to you.

I did feel like punching someone tonight but it was a posh English student on the tube who was loudly talking about his sex life to his posh student friends, and they all sang a song about Gary lineker. Fucking English cunts.
 

version

Well-known member
you need better, more creative midfielders, which I guess is a traditional English weakness tho right? dodgy foreigners and their overly dramatic passing, or whatever

We've had a few, but we never know what to do with them. Wilshere's the best we have at the moment, but he's been held back by injuries.
 

firefinga

Well-known member
Dunno about that. France should have won in 2016, fucked it up, and here they are about to win the World Cup. The work Germany put in in 2006-2010 paid off in 2014.

Obviously it would be better to definitely win now than maybe win later, but, particularly with the success in the younger age groups, it's not ridiculous for England to look to the future here.

Well yes,but they may reach their pinnacle in two years. At the next Euro which - let's not fool ourselves - is a distant second fiddle to the world cup
 

firefinga

Well-known member
This has to be won by the French.

I mean let's imagine some guy was in a coma for five years or so, wakes up and realizes: Trump is POTUS, Great Britian is out of the EU and friggin Croatia is world champion!
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I think you're underselling Croatia here, they've got two of the best midfielders in the world in Modric and Rakitic.

No intention to do that at all - in theory Modric was certainly the best player on the pitch, Rakitic arguably the second (though it was Perisic's improvisation that won it - what a player for the big moments). After that it drops off. But in the first hour Croatia had nothing at all, and the match should've been over by then. I don't want to go on about Wales (I do), but look at the 3-1 win vs Belgium in the Euros, and the way Wales kept up the intensity and took their chances against a team with superior talent was, bizarrely, the very lesson England need to absorb. Vs both Colombia and Croatia, when the intensity was ramped up, England looked like so much less than the sum of their expensive and talented parts.

And it's still Croatia in a semi-final. Not Germany, not Brazil, not France, not Spain, not Italy - none of those teams that England never, ever beat in competitive play. Croatia.

I don't want to jinx the lads, but there is an 85% probability that throughout the course of their future lives they will regularly wake up sweating and screaming "It was only fucking Croatia!"

Thoughts on how many games England have won vs the top sides in finals tournaments over the past, say, 50 years? It's pretty shocking when you can barely find....any*. For all the talk of top sports psychologists, you have to think that the same old inferiority complex remains, and the Premier League ain't helping...

* Argentina in 2002, Cameroon in 1990, and then....?
 
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