The actual I am watching the World Cup thread. No, non World Cup watchers please. Spoilers.
Comments
-
Allez les bleus!
ABE.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
1 -
France v Morocco will be intense.1
-
I thought England were better over the 90 mins. For all the talk about Mbappe, he was kept very quiet. I still think Griezeman is the key for them, and he needs to tread carefully and avoid a second yellow. France will surely go on and win it now. I think this was basically the final tonight, between the two best teams left in the last 8. Morocco have been entertaining but must surely have exceeded their wildest dreams and may suffer a major nosebleed at these dizzy heights. A repeat of the 2018 final is on the cards. Hope Argentina are soundly beaten by the Croatians.Bianchi ImpulsoBMC Teammachine SLR02 01Trek Domane AL3“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. “ ~H.G. Wells Edit - "Unless it's a BMX"0
-
Morocco depend on their defence and Croatia depend on penalties.crescent said:I thought England were better over the 90 mins. For all the talk about Mbappe, he was kept very quiet. I still think Griezeman is the key for them, and he needs to tread carefully and avoid a second yellow. France will surely go on and win it now. I think this was basically the final tonight, between the two best teams left in the last 8. Morocco have been entertaining but must surely have exceeded their wildest dreams and may suffer a major nosebleed at these dizzy heights. A repeat of the 2018 final is on the cards. Hope Argentina are soundly beaten by the Croatians.
Potentially the most boring final ever.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
You let him down. Hang your heads in shame.
#ABE
2 -
BBC at the moment already asking people if England can win the Euros in 18 months0
-
why do Inngggerrrrland fans think their team are European/World beaters when they have consistently shown, at every opportunity, even when its all massively fixed in their favour that they are just, well, a #bitshit?crescent said:I thought England were better over the 90 mins. For all the talk about Mbappe, he was kept very quiet. I still think Griezeman is the key for them, and he needs to tread carefully and avoid a second yellow. France will surely go on and win it now. I think this was basically the final tonight, between the two best teams left in the last 8. Morocco have been entertaining but must surely have exceeded their wildest dreams and may suffer a major nosebleed at these dizzy heights. A repeat of the 2018 final is on the cards. Hope Argentina are soundly beaten by the Croatians.
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
1 -
0 -
The media frenzy over England is what causes ABE in my opinion. Nothing to do with the actual team.Pross said:BBC at the moment already asking people if England can win the Euros in 18 months
2 -
Think on balance England were the better team and France are the better team.
Griezman was exceptional.
I do worry that the window of opportunity is closing. As great and young as the midfield is, I can’t see any obvious Kane replacement and you need a good number 9 in international tournaments0 -
Not to mention PADDINGTON and THE QUEENthegreatdivide said:
You let him down. Hang your heads in shame.
#ABE
HANG YOUR HEADS
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
1 -
At least we can relax for the rest of the tournament now. I guess we'll have to settle for being best of the home nations - again
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
As @secretsqirrel said, it is essentially The Sun and other rags that hypes England up every tournament! I didn't hear a single England fan predict England would win this WC, and no pundits picked them either. If you actually speak to any England fans, many are pessimistic and think we are cr@p (which is also wrong).
Personally, I am a huge fan of this team and Southgate. For years we were served up dross by players who didn't really care and didn't want to be there. No matter how biased non English fans are, the fact is we have a good young team, an excellent Manager and a track record over 3 tournaments which far exceeds anything during the previous 40 years. Southgate has changed the culture entirely (remember Capello, Hodgson et al) and given us a team we can actually enjoy watching and be proud of. Not a bad legacy in my book.5 -
I do worry that the window of opportunity is closing. As great and young as the midfield is, I can’t see any obvious Kane replacement
I don't think that is a worry at this stage. Most of our key players are under 25 and have 2-3 tournaments left in them yet (that's wc and euros). Agree that there is no replacement for Kane but he is only 29, Benzema and Lewandowski are both 34. I think Kane has another world cup in him at a high level.0 -
For the record, I'm Scottish, so commenting as an "outsider". I don't necessarily cheer on any of the other home nations - if it's not Scotland playing then I am generally ambivalent to the result. I don't subscribe to the ABE thing, there is genuinely quite a lot to like about the England team. It is the English media who turn the non-English UK viewers/readers off. The UK is probably somewhat unusual in this in so far as we see news (and sports news) from all over the UK no matter what part we live in. If we didn't see it reported in every national news bulletin or every episode of BBC/ITV WC coverage then it would be less of an issue.MattFalle said:
why do Inngggerrrrland fans think their team are European/World beaters when they have consistently shown, at every opportunity, even when its all massively fixed in their favour that they are just, well, a #bitshit?crescent said:I thought England were better over the 90 mins. For all the talk about Mbappe, he was kept very quiet. I still think Griezeman is the key for them, and he needs to tread carefully and avoid a second yellow. France will surely go on and win it now. I think this was basically the final tonight, between the two best teams left in the last 8. Morocco have been entertaining but must surely have exceeded their wildest dreams and may suffer a major nosebleed at these dizzy heights. A repeat of the 2018 final is on the cards. Hope Argentina are soundly beaten by the Croatians.
I think this is a massive missed opportunity for England. I can't see a player in the team who played particularly poorly during the tournament, no major tactical foul ups, no shocking performances, I just saw a good team who could give anyone a hard game. They really did very little wrong.
Bianchi ImpulsoBMC Teammachine SLR02 01Trek Domane AL3“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. “ ~H.G. Wells Edit - "Unless it's a BMX"3 -
Why would they be unambitious?Pross said:
Nice to achieve realistic if somewhat unambitious targets. Well done!Stevo_666 said:
At least we can relax for the rest of the tournament now. I guess we'll have to settle for being best of the home nations - again "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Being the best out of 4 nations when the population / player base of the other 3 combined is less than 15% of your own nation feels like an unambitious aim to me.Stevo_666 said:3 -
That's a tactful way of putting it I guess.Pross said:
Being the best out of 4 nations when the population / player base of the other 3 combined is less than 15% of your own nation feels like an unambitious aim to me.Stevo_666 said:"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I really wish that England would try and score rather than get a penalty and why had they not been optimistic and planned for taking two penalties.
The hating/gloating thing is all a bit weird, I always think it is a bit like a club hacker laughing at Rory because he did not win the Grand Slam.1 -
errr - looks like more than just the Scum serving hyperbole for the braying masses - Scum, Express, Times, Guardian, Telegraph..........MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:As @secretsqirrel said, it is essentially The Sun and other rags that hypes England up every tournament! I didn't hear a single England fan predict England would win this WC, and no pundits picked them either. If you actually speak to any England fans, many are pessimistic and think we are cr@p (which is also wrong).
whole lotneeds to get a grip and realise that England really, actually, aren't that great
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
0 -
-
I think England did an excellent tournament. Up to last night, probably the most convincing team. Last night they played well, for what I have seen (not a lot) and it could have gone either way... against what is certainly the favourite to win the World cup.
They have performed consistently above their standard since Southgate took charge of the team, so I don't see what the moaning is about...
You win some, you lose some.
Brazil did worse in my opinion, Germany did a lot worse and Italy wasn't even there, so give yourselves some credit.
left the forum March 20231 -
Says way more about them than us tbh... same with rugby.surrey_commuter said:
The hating/gloating thing is all a bit weird, I always think it is a bit like a club hacker laughing at Rory because he did not win the Grand Slam.We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver1 -
For the record I was referring the TV (BBC mostly) and radio saturation coverage as I don’t read news papers apart from the front pages that are on BBC website every morning. It’s all been a bit puke-worthy.MattFalle said:
errr - looks like more than just the Scum serving hyperbole for the braying masses - Scum, Express, Times, Guardian, Telegraph..........MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:As @secretsqirrel said, it is essentially The Sun and other rags that hypes England up every tournament! I didn't hear a single England fan predict England would win this WC, and no pundits picked them either. If you actually speak to any England fans, many are pessimistic and think we are cr@p (which is also wrong).
whole lotneeds to get a grip and realise that England really, actually, aren't that great
0 -
BBC?secretsqirrel said:
For the record I was referring the TV (BBC mostly) and radio saturation coverage as I don’t read news papers apart from the front pages that are on BBC website every morning. It’s all been a bit puke-worthy.MattFalle said:
errr - looks like more than just the Scum serving hyperbole for the braying masses - Scum, Express, Times, Guardian, Telegraph..........MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:As @secretsqirrel said, it is essentially The Sun and other rags that hypes England up every tournament! I didn't hear a single England fan predict England would win this WC, and no pundits picked them either. If you actually speak to any England fans, many are pessimistic and think we are cr@p (which is also wrong).
whole lotneeds to get a grip and realise that England really, actually, aren't that great
Its ITV that have been constently puke inducing. Totally unwatcheable in everything they commentate on for the past 20 years.
.The camera down the willy isn't anything like as bad as it sounds.
0 -
Haven’t watched ITV, BBC (5 live mostly) was bad enough for me.
0 -
There’s a reason I used the word tie rather than matchrick_chasey said:
Doesn’t Spain ‘96 count as a draw?RichN95. said:In my lifetime, and I’m 50, England have only once won a tournament knockout tie against a higher ranked team (Spain at Euro 96).
Twitter: @RichN950
