England v Russia

[baboon2004]

in five years time no-one will quite remember how or to whom we went out of euro 2008, but that weird distant afternoon in russia was it.

But we're not going out! Tel Aviv is a mighty difficult game to play, and against an Israeli team determined to come fourth in group E, Russia will surely drop points.

And then all England have to do is to beat Cro-

Shit.

 

[IdleRich]

"Rooney does neither. Rooney is a hindrance."

Wrong wrong wrong. He should be the first name on the team sheet. Creative players are at a premium for England and he is one of the few who can make things happen.

"I'm off in a few minutes to do the same - possibly against Idle Rich, who knows?"

Where do you play Hucks? As in which pitch not which position.

"But I watched the Georgia Scotland game,"

I saw some of it until my girlfriend turned up. Georgia were totally dominant and looked slick and classy. Sometimes teams turn it on when the pressure is off I guess.

"maybe semi-final level, would that make you happy?"

Well it ought to but we're never happy.

"in five years time no-one will quite remember how or to whom we went out of euro 2008, but that weird distant afternoon in russia was it."

I dunno I think it was the home draw with Macedonia that's cost us. It was a stinker of a result (and performance) at the time and it's had us chasing the leaders ever since and it looks like being the margin by which we will fail.

"please tell me this will be getting a theatre release"

Who knows, I lost touch with the bloke who thought it up a couple of years back but I can only assume it will be the big summer blockbuster next year.

 

[baboon2004]

Who would play Heskey though?

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Wrong wrong wrong. He [Rooney] should be the first name on the team sheet. Creative players are at a premium for England and he is one of the few who can make things happen.

England have had better results with Owen and Heskey playing together - it is undeniable Heskey is a far better foil for Owen than Rooney is.

Put Rooney on the left.

 

[hucks]

Where do you play Hucks? As in which pitch not which position.

6-a-side in Brixton. Won 7-1 last night. McClaren knows where to find me...

 

[redcrescent]

Re. Russia v England. Have a look at the statistics -
possession RUS 62 ENG 38
shots (on goal) RUS 16(10), ENG 10(5)
Russia also made many more good passes

FWIW, no way that Rooney goal was offside: he cleverly takes a step back and is onside when the pass is made (Inzaghi style). No idea what he was doing with that attempted tackle a yard outside the box, however.

I think there are systemic issues with England's game that go beyond "put x in that position" - and I'm always surprised how fault is laid at the door of individual players - it's amazing to see how England relinquish control of the ball so easily and spend most of their energy chasing down their opponents. You hardly ever see a change of pace, instead of slowing down play to break their opponents' rhythm, England tend to speed up the game (especially when they're behind) and very often end up losing the ball. Which is surprising given that England do have technically gifted passers and ball retainers :slanted: but you just have set up your game to use these skills, as opposed to playing schoolyard football (hoof it and hope).

Lastly, I honestly cannot imagine EURO 2008 without a single team from the British Isles. The tournament would be so much poorer without you.

 

[IdleRich]

"6-a-side in Brixton. Won 7-1 last night. McClaren knows where to find me"

I really thought that you were going to turn out to be the bloke who kicked me last week for a minute then... but no, I play in a five-a-side league in Finsbury Park. It is a fairly low standard but I did score four on thursday so I will also put myself forward for selection.

"FWIW, no way that Rooney goal was offside: he cleverly takes a step back and is onside when the pass is made (Inzaghi style). No idea what he was doing with that attempted tackle a yard outside the box, however."

Well, I've looked at it on youtube now and they didn't have the best angle but from what I've seen I'd have to say you're right.

"Lastly, I honestly cannot imagine EURO 2008 without a single team from the British Isles. The tournament would be so much poorer without you."

You aren't going to need to imagine it, it will be happening right in front of you I fear.

 

[crackerjack]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article2703315.ece

Steve McClaren's days are numbered, but with a dearth of quality candidates to choose from, the FA needs to act fast

No one's going to disagree with the first 5 words, i guess, or the next 10, assuming we're just talking about domestic managers. But i don't get the last 5 at all. International football works in two year cycles, and ours is effectively over until next autumn.

Moving fast is what landed us with Second Choice Steve in the first place - the FA publicly declared they'd have Sven's replacement announced. This meant Scolari had to take one country to the World Cup having already promised to go and manage a different one as soon as it was over, or turn the job down.

So what's the rush? The FA can outbid almost any country so why not sack Mac (after we're offically out, obv) then tootle along with a caretaker if necessary until the best man (who we'll already have sounded out unoffically) is available next July.

ps, interesting point below for those of us holding out hope of Israel upsetting Russia next month.

The Russians have offered, and Hiddink is inclined to accept, a new four-year contract subsidised by Roman Abramovich, whose celebrations on Wednesday eclipsed anything seen from him at Chelsea. Abramovich wants Russia to get to the finals, and usually gets what he wants.

Can he ensure it happens? For those who scorn conspiracy theories, consider that Spain needed to beat Malta by an 11-goal margin to pip Holland for a place at the 1984 European Championship. What happened? Spain won by 11 goals. When I reminded McClaren that Abramovich had interests, and influence, in Israel, he pulled a horrified face and said: “Next question.”

 

[IdleRich]

"Moving fast is what landed us with Second Choice Steve in the first place"

Very true. The problem (or at least part of it) is that the England job is very unattractive to most people because of the amount of stick you get. The best managers in England (Wenger, Ferguson etc) wouldn't want to touch it with a barge-pole (ok, we're unlikely to get an ex-scotland manager in any circumstances but you know what I mean).

"For those who scorn conspiracy theories, consider that Spain needed to beat Malta by an 11-goal margin to pip Holland for a place at the 1984 European Championship. What happened? Spain won by 11 goals."

Wooh, that's weird. Of course Malta has a population of seventeen, only eight of whom are men between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five and their team isn't the strongest so it's not impossible they could get dicked on by Spain. That article seems to be trying to make a very tenuous link, suggesting that because Spain murdered Malta suspiciously almost twenty-five years ago we need to be worried that someone who was presumably nothing to do with that at all may somehow have the power to influence a team who are nothing to do with it either. As far as I can see they are saying "there may have been a match fixed once so Abramovich might be able to fix this one. If he wants to.". For me, the main worry is that, as we saw a few weeks back, the Israel side is thoroughly mediocre and they've got nothing to play for, you don't really need to imagine a conspiracy to see Russia turning them over.

 

[baboon2004]

I think some matches during the Stalinist era were possibly rigged too.

As more than one commentator pointed out, a lot of Israelis have good reason to hate Russia, which should be enough to suggest that they will give it their all.