Wake up you footy fans!!!

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 6:34 pm

I'm cheering for England here. Great job. (I broke a glass in my hand when you lost to France.) Beckham and especially Owen could have played a little better, but I think most superstars have disappointed so far in this championship.

Us Swedes have done surprisingly well despite crappy defense and today a largely non-exitent midfield, and I really hope we'll meet Germany on Saturday and win because I utterly hate their boring tactics. If it's Holland I'm afraid we're doomed. I almost hope we'll lose soon, so that the Swedish TV "journalists" realize they're full of it, expecting this team to make it all the way. We have some promising players, sure, but the coaching is totally misguided. But in the words of the Oysterband: if you can't be good, be lucky. Until we meet England.

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:57 pm

Never have I had to sit through such pure agony excruciatingly drawn out not only by a disallowed perfectly valid goal but also extra time and penalty shoot outs but sudden death as well. It was akin to having teeth pulled with no anaesthetic.

I am retiring to bed now feeling queasy and dumbstruck vowing never to put myself through this again......til next time!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:59 pm

Totally devastating. I could handle the feeling that they were the better side and ulitmately deserved it (though if only Rooney had stayed on it might have been a different story), I could even handle the cruelty of the penalty shoot-out, but no-one can handle seeing the ref disallow a perfectly sound goal. (And, not that it's top of the agenda right now, that that goal would have made me bang on in the predictions competition and Sol is in my fantasy team... )

The injustice, the cruelty.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:07 pm

Ah Gilli, writing the same thoughts at the same time! No sudden death, mind, silver goal only (which is quite good, I think). Absurd to have a shoot-out with a dodgy penalty spot! They are totally draining, but so compelling. Justice could only have been delivered by us winning the penalties and returning us our rightful win. As for the humiliation of seeing Ricardo save against poor Vassell and then score his own...

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:07 pm

Beckham's penalty ball is still floating somewhere between the troposphere and the mesosphere.

Terrible disallowed goal decision.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:10 pm

I think we can forgive him that due to that clump of floating grass on quicksand.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:15 pm

The other's seemed to place the ball in the vicinity of the goal ok. Except that Portugal player.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:18 pm

Yeah, that goal should have stood, bad ref all round really, and a very dodgy beard thing going on there....What I found annoying was the fact that ROONEY was mentioned every 5 minutes after he'd gone off, ok hemade a bit of a difference in terms of Owen getting the ball, and Vasseline did nowt, but why keep banging on about him Motty! (and from a totally biased point of view of course, Motty did mention England being in the finals and semi-finals about 20 times throughout the first half!...the man counted his chickens too soon).

Hard luck guys, I hope none of you are too desolate!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:14 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:I think we can forgive him that due to that clump of floating grass on quicksand.

Yes, but can you forgive him the rest of his performance? He was arguably England's worst player, though Vassell and Terry have a claim on that title too.

The only ones who played their hearts out were (and it pains me to say it) Campbell and Ashley Cole. Campbell was immense.

England played so much of the match in their own half. You just knew that they were eventually going to crack.

I'll be interested to see what Robben does for Holland. He has been outstanding in the last two matches. The prospect of Robben and Duff on the wings for Chelsea is making my mouth water.

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:30 pm

A propos Robben
I've said it before: we're doomed.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:24 am

Awful decision for the disallowed goal. The ref bottled it. It was like being at Old Trafford. But Portugal going out as the host nation would have been a bad result for their economy...

I think David Beckham has been shown to be the overhyped player he is. He's had an terrible tournament. Funny how the ankle injury's come to the fore isn't it?

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:34 am

Why does the media now tear Beckham, Erikkson, Owen, Gerarrd, etc to shreds....OK they're out...but they were f**king unlucky to lose to france, smashed croatia, played average but beat Suisse well, and underperformed against Portugal, but should have won save a dodgy decision. This tournament has been the best Ive seen england play since euro96...I find it so odd that the media hype up england to the extent that you'd think they were the world's greatest and it was their god given right to claim the tournament, then as soon as they're out its 'Beckham shouldnt have started', 'Owen is overrated', 'Beckhams marital problems lost England the cup' and 'If we hadn't have lost an 18yr old boy then we'd have won'...it's just crackers.

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:39 am

Well feeling no better this morning and dreamt about football all night! Seems Rooney has broken a bone in his foot so he wouldn't have been in any more games had we gone any further in the tournament anyway.

What is it with England? We never have any luck. In the penalty shoot outs - history repeats itself again and again, we get our star player carted off with a broken foot, and one of our best up and coming defenders Ledley King's wife decided to have her baby 2 months prematurely so he has to go home! Only England could score a perfectly good goal in the closing minutes of the game and have it disallowed - couldnt happen to France could it?

To quote Dr Smith from Lost In space "Oh the pain dear boy.....the pain........"

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:32 am

LC - it's the tabloids' way. Build 'em up and knock 'em back down again. Yes we lost to a dodgy decision but had we got through then it would have been all "We played badly but won". I genuinely thought we had a good chance of winning this tournament. Now we're out I need to find a scapegoat.

On this board

The thing is, why should we think the tabloids will treat young Wayne any differently?

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:50 am

I had my football agony cherry popped last night. It was nearly like being a Red Sox fan.

A couple of thoughts -

As a fairly novice fan to the game, it's tough to get a balanced view of the match listening to the English announcers; they are unabashed homers. Not always a bad thing - but I didn't believe England was robbed on the goal call until about the third replay.

Beckham looked terrible out there - winded even. I think he really choked on the penalty shot (even though the ground was atrocious and he went first.)

Everybody I ran into today were adults about the loss - not nearly as much anger as I had anticipated.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:30 am

beckham looked real good on the cover of Vanity Fair.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:02 pm

Nce comment Moody.

I don't get nearly as passionate about internationals as club matches and so I was not as fraught as Gilly sounds.
England did not deserve to win the game. The disallowed goal was one of those things, you get some & you get some against you. I didn't think it was that bad a decision as Terry was close to the goalie and goalies are generally well protected by refs.
Beckham was pretty dire throughout the tournement, me thinks his fitness level is not as high as when he was at the manc club.
If Gerrard is worth £35m so am I!! He has never done it consistently for England and his Liverpool form has been patchy (admittadly he is class when he is on form).
Lampard is worth having for his scoring ability but his over all contributions were poor.
Scholes looks good in patches but it seems his fitness limitations (he's asthmatic) prevent him from putting a string of matches together at tournement level.
All the defence did okay especially Cole who has hopefully now silenced his critics.
Owen and Rooney could form a dynamic partnership for the next 6-8 years.

Sam, rumour has it that Chelsea are offering Duff & Parker & £20m for Gerrard so may not get your wish!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:03 pm

so lacklustre wrote:Sam, rumour has it that Chelsea are offering Duff & Parker & £20m for Gerrard so may not get your wish!

That has been officially denied by Chelsea. I've heard it's a straight cash deal. I do not want to see Duff leave and don't think we give him up so quickly. Joe Cole is another story. Gerrard can be great. Would certainly be an improvement on Petit, Veron.

What about the Greeks knocking out the Froggies? Greece were the better team - very well-organized defensively. France looked uninterested. One of my friends had the good sense to place a sizable wager on the Greeks at 7-1. Needless to say, he's buying the ouzo the next time I see him!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:36 pm

Quite incredible. Now if England could play with that discipline...

An amazing tournament for the unexpected. At least we're all fairly even in our predictions competition as we all predicted England and France to win, apart from an Anglo-Greek who will never predict against her team! Fair dues to her.

Now we've got the emotion out of the way, we can settle back and enjoy the rest. It's so open. I favour Netherlands + Czechs in the next two, but it could easily go the other way.

Of course what I really want is glory for the marvellous Ruud. That will set him up for a return to club form as Henry goes off the boil after the trauma of failure...

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:41 pm

Yeah good to see the Arsenal players will be getting a bit more rest than expected.

+ I've got Greece in the office sweepstake, but I'm not holding my breath.

So is Makele going to make way for Gerrard? I didn't think the Lampard/Gerrard axis worked for england as they are too similar, both are better going forward. Makele/Petit/Parker make a better partner for either of them, and I've always rated Geremi who could do better than Lampard imo if he were given a decent run in the team.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:09 pm

I heard in the rumour mill up here that the Rangers are keen on Petit...but will they have the money for him?

I think Gerard will be going to.....shock, horror, Man United! Sorry PoP. No room for him at the bridge in my humble, and man yoo will wanna replace keane as the brazilian and french blokes they brought in have looked distinctly average.

What do you guys reckon....Czech verus Portugal final...or will it be Czech vs Holland?

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:48 pm

Petit will be free probably, he's old and half crocked these days.

Greece v Portugal final, they're the best at diving and refs seem to be ignoring dives this year (why do the commetators call it simulation?).

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:14 pm

So when England players do it, it doesnt sound so bad....

probably a) because it's now so commonplace that it's a TACTIC, or b) because it makes all the people who are yet to get sucked in to the football-money monster cynical about the game if they're watching for the first time, and all they hear is 'cheat' 'cheat' 'cheat'......but look who's being cynical now!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:31 pm

so lacklustre wrote:So is Makele going to make way for Gerrard? I didn't think the Lampard/Gerrard axis worked for england as they are too similar, both are better going forward. Makele/Petit/Parker make a better partner for either of them, and I've always rated Geremi who could do better than Lampard imo if he were given a decent run in the team.

I think Gerrard/Lampard could work, with Robben and Duff. It's hard for me to judge what Gerrard and Lampard could do together. Until recently, Lampard was a peripheral figure for England, and Gerrard was injured earlier in the season. I thought Geremi was poor on the few occasions I saw him play for Chelsea (as was Joe Cole). Even with Veron and Petit gone, we still have too many midfielders, so I would expect one or two to be gone this summer. Mourinho has said he wants a smaller squad, which is a good thing IMHO.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:56 pm

Anyone see the old firm game today....Celtic, er I mean Sweden were unlucky I thought...Holland break the hoodoo! Cracking game though!

Portugal vs Holland is gonna be some game....