EmmaMcG said:

ThatWhiteDude said:

Yes, germany was terrible. I'm still pissed at Neuer. What the fuck was he thinking??

I've seen him do similar things in the past and get away with it. At that point, a single goal for Germany wouldn't have been enough. They needed to go all out attack and if that means playing with an additional outfield player, then so be it. Besides, that second Korean goal didn't matter in the end anyway.

Yup, he was doing the right thing. Just... Not very well.

EmmaMcG said:

ThatWhiteDude said:

RodeoSchro said:

Germany got everything they deserved. Man, did they look bad. And hat's off to South Korea for giving it their all in a game that meant nothing to them.

What about Sweden? Wow, they trounced Mexico! I had completely overlooked them, but won't do that again.

Yes, germany was terrible. I'm still pissed at Neuer. What the fuck was he thinking??

.

What else is he supposed to do if you need two goals within five minutes? Sure, it was risky, but in the end, it does not matter if you're out ranked 3rd or 4th in your group.

.

They did not fail because of Neuer, but because of a totally sub-par performance in two and a half out of three games (the second half against Sweden was ok imo). Players who were very reliable in the past (Boateng, Müller, Özil) were just terrible this time.

.

Then again, four out of the five World Cup winners since 1998 did not make it to the knock-out stage at the next World Cup. It seems to be a general problem.

EmancipationLover said:

ThatWhiteDude said:

RodeoSchro said: Yes, germany was terrible. I'm still pissed at Neuer. What the fuck was he thinking??

.

What else is he supposed to do if you need two goals within five minutes? Sure, it was risky, but in the end, it does not matter if you're out ranked 3rd or 4th in your group.

.

They did not fail because of Neuer, but because of a totally sub-par performance in two and a half out of three games (the second half against Sweden was ok imo). Players who were very reliable in the past (Boateng, Müller, Özil) were just terrible this time.

.

Then again, four out of the five World Cup winners since 1998 did not make it to the knock-out stage at the next World Cup. It seems to be a general problem.

Oh I know it wasn't only Neuer's fault, the whole team was bad this time. Neuer even said it was because they've been too arrogant and thought it's going to be easy. I was just shocked at first when I saw Neuer so far from where he usually should be

I'll have you all know that during the Uruguay - Portugal match, I screamed "Diving ponce!" more than once.

My family was confused.

RodeoSchro said:

EmmaMcG said:

Germany, Argentina and Portugal. Three of the top teams in the world have already been eliminated. Italy and Holland didn't even qualify. That's 5 of the top teams gone from the tournament. Of the remaining teams, only France, Brazil and Spain would be considered to have any chance of winning under normal circumstances. However, these are not normal circumstances. Spain sacked their manager days before the tournament began and have looked shaky in their group games. Brazil, France and Belgium are all in the same side of the draw so only one of those teams can get to the final. Which leaves the way clear for England. England have only to overcome nonsense teams like Columbia, Sweden, Switzerland Denmark etc to get to the final. Therefore, anything less than a place in the final should be seen as a massive failure for them and would, in truth, be a huge shock. So that leaves us with a Brazil/France/Belgium VS England final. Given that England will have had the easier games up to that point, their players will have more energy which will allow them to get an unlikely win. And that is my prediction. England will win, Gareth Southgate will be made a Saint, Harry Kane will be knighted and we'll never hear the fucking end of it.

As anti England FC as I've been in the last few years, I'd now take that over one of the other top tier teams winning ... the diving, moaning, grabbing at corners, shirt pulling and other sh*t behaviour from them has been beyond annoying through the tournament so far. To be fair to England they're one of the few teams that haven't been playing like utter c*nts. They deserve to win on that alone in my book.

EmmaMcG said:

Germany, Argentina and Portugal. Three of the top teams in the world have already been eliminated. Italy and Holland didn't even qualify. That's 5 of the top teams gone from the tournament. Of the remaining teams, only France, Brazil and Spain would be considered to have any chance of winning under normal circumstances. However, these are not normal circumstances. Spain sacked their manager days before the tournament began and have looked shaky in their group games. Brazil, France and Belgium are all in the same side of the draw so only one of those teams can get to the final. Which leaves the way clear for England. England have only to overcome nonsense teams like Columbia, Sweden, Switzerland Denmark etc to get to the final. Therefore, anything less than a place in the final should be seen as a massive failure for them and would, in truth, be a huge shock. So that leaves us with a Brazil/France/Belgium VS England final. Given that England will have had the easier games up to that point, their players will have more energy which will allow them to get an unlikely win. And that is my prediction. England will win, Gareth Southgate will be made a Saint, Harry Kane will be knighted and we'll never hear the fucking end of it.

As an England fan, of course I'd love then to win, but I don't think they are good enough.

Before the tournament I put a bet on France. I think they'll meet Brazil in the Semi's and might make it through.

On the other side, England could make the semi's but I think they'd face Croatia, who I think have looked the best team so far.

So I'll punt of a France Vs Croatia final with France to win.

EmmaMcG said:

endymion said:

EmmaMcG said:

Germany, Argentina and Portugal. Three of the top teams in the world have already been eliminated. Italy and Holland didn't even qualify. That's 5 of the top teams gone from the tournament. Of the remaining teams, only France, Brazil and Spain would be considered to have any chance of winning under normal circumstances. However, these are not normal circumstances. Spain sacked their manager days before the tournament began and have looked shaky in their group games. Brazil, France and Belgium are all in the same side of the draw so only one of those teams can get to the final. Which leaves the way clear for England. England have only to overcome nonsense teams like Columbia, Sweden, Switzerland Denmark etc to get to the final. Therefore, anything less than a place in the final should be seen as a massive failure for them and would, in truth, be a huge shock. So that leaves us with a Brazil/France/Belgium VS England final. Given that England will have had the easier games up to that point, their players will have more energy which will allow them to get an unlikely win. And that is my prediction. England will win, Gareth Southgate will be made a Saint, Harry Kane will be knighted and we'll never hear the fucking end of it.

"It's coming home, it's coming home, football's coming home" Well......right up to the moment we lose to Sweden !!!

Least the Swedes will turn up to play football, unlike the dodgy Colombians who just tried cheating their way to victory ... so if nothing else it'll be a better game of football.

The irony is, when the Colombians actually stopped trying to cheat the ref and dig at the England players in the last ten minutes of the game, they looked a lot better ... certainly the equal of England. If they'd done that from the start rather than employ childish braindead tactics they might have won.

EmmaMcG said:

Germany, Argentina and Portugal. Three of the top teams in the world have already been eliminated. Italy and Holland didn't even qualify. That's 5 of the top teams gone from the tournament. Of the remaining teams, only France, Brazil and Spain would be considered to have any chance of winning under normal circumstances. However, these are not normal circumstances. Spain sacked their manager days before the tournament began and have looked shaky in their group games. Brazil, France and Belgium are all in the same side of the draw so only one of those teams can get to the final. Which leaves the way clear for England. England have only to overcome nonsense teams like Columbia, Sweden, Switzerland Denmark etc to get to the final. Therefore, anything less than a place in the final should be seen as a massive failure for them and would, in truth, be a huge shock. So that leaves us with a Brazil/France/Belgium VS England final. Given that England will have had the easier games up to that point, their players will have more energy which will allow them to get an unlikely win. And that is my prediction. England will win, Gareth Southgate will be made a Saint, Harry Kane will be knighted and we'll never hear the fucking end of it.

Hmmm, your just saying that just incase we do LOL, then when we don't (which as someone from England, I really don't think we will win it), you can go "ha, I was wrong! England had it easy and still lost" LOL.

We acted like we won it when we beat Columbia on penalties. Amazing feeling! When Jordan Henderson missed we all thought "here we go again" LOL.

Sweden will be tough to beat with their 4-4-2 old school tactics and hard defending and general work ethic. I think England often lost to Sweden in the past aswell LOL, but at least they will not be half as dirty as Columbia, which like DaveT said, coulda won if they actually turned up proper before the full time whistle.

[Edited 7/4/18 17:27pm]

thesexofit said:

IS IT COMING HOME?!?!?

RodeoSchro said:

EmmaMcG said:

RodeoSchro said:

IS IT COMING HOME?!?!?

No. China didn't qualify. Unfortunately though, England look like they're going to win it instead.

My daughter's new boyfriend has Croatian roots, so that's my team now. I hope Subesic's hamstring is OK!

Quite a lot of vandalism and hooliganism in the wake of England beating Sweden. IKEA trashed, ambulance and cars smashed up, etc - my favourite report from the weekend wasn when a police dog was shouted at for being German (!). I think the "it" that's coming home is the kind of hooliganism that follows England to every tournament, except seemingly this one. It's stayed here (scared of the Russian police, I expect).

EmmaMcG said:

RodeoSchro said:

IS IT COMING HOME?!?!?

No. China didn't qualify. Unfortunately though, England look like they're going to win it instead.

Yeah, China were early players of a football-like game - as were many other countries. England does have the oldest football association, but the modern game of football is Scottish.

Lianachan said:

Quite a lot of vandalism and hooliganism in the wake of England beating Sweden. IKEA trashed, ambulance and cars smashed up, etc - my favourite report from the weekend wasn when a police dog was shouted at for being German (!). I think the "it" that's coming home is the kind of hooliganism that follows England to every tournament, except seemingly this one. It's stayed here (scared of the Russian police, I expect).

The Command House pub is in my home town ... it made the national press during the Colombia match for a mass brawl that took place in the crowd, during the match! So much for the team bringing people together. Further evidence a good number of us English can't take our sun and booze.

DaveT said:

Lianachan said:

Quite a lot of vandalism and hooliganism in the wake of England beating Sweden. IKEA trashed, ambulance and cars smashed up, etc - my favourite report from the weekend wasn when a police dog was shouted at for being German (!). I think the "it" that's coming home is the kind of hooliganism that follows England to every tournament, except seemingly this one. It's stayed here (scared of the Russian police, I expect).

The Command House pub is in my home town ... it made the national press during the Colombia match for a mass brawl that took place in the crowd, during the match! So much for the team bringing people together. Further evidence a good number of us English can't take our sun and booze.

Most of you can, though - it's just those arseholes that ruin the reputation.

AWESOME "It's Coming Home" take-offs in this thread:

https://deadspin.com/gath...1827454445

Come on England!!!!

It's staying away.

But seriously - the only shot on goal England could muster was the free kick? They could not generate a single shot on goal from the pace of play?

They did not deserve to bring anything home.

RodeoSchro said:

Silvertongue7 said:

RodeoSchro said:

But seriously - the only shot on goal England could muster was the free kick? They could not generate a single shot on goal from the pace of play?

They did not deserve to bring anything home.

I didn’t watch the match, but I got regular updates from an Irish friend who is not a fan either... My understanding is that coach and players have behaved with a lot of dignity and have done their country proud, so well done to them. It’s the press and some fans I have an issue with. Anyway, the best thing is that now I don’t have to support France in the final. And even better, if Nadal makes it to the Wimbledon final I might convince someone to watch it with me!

Yes, they were mostly very well-behaved. I'm still just flabbergasted though that they could not get a single shot on goal during play. Perhaps Croatia just defended super-humanly? I don't know. England did spend a fair amount of time in the box but couldn't ever get off a shot on goal.

BTW, the Fan of the Match was a guy who was the spitting image of England's coach - right down to the blue shirt and vest. He was awesome! I wish they'd shown him more than once.

RodeoSchro said:

EmmaMcG said:

RodeoSchro said:

But seriously - the only shot on goal England could muster was the free kick? They could not generate a single shot on goal from the pace of play?

They did not deserve to bring anything home.

England are just shit. Don't get me wrong, they're better than Ireland but the difference is that we KNOW our team is shit. The English media would have you believe that England are like the second coming of Brazil. No doubt they'll celebrate getting to the semi final but you'll never hear them admit that had they not been on the same side of the draw as Columbia (who England needed penalties to beat), Sweden etc they would have struggled to get past the first knockout stage. And that kind of delusion seeps into the general public so that when England do get eliminated the hooligans come out in force because "we wuz robbed, innit". And the ones that suffer are the players and manager who tried their best but at the end of the day, they just weren't good enough. It's probably the worst England team in my lifetime and in reality, they should be happy just to qualify because there are better teams who didn't. Southgate did a decent job to even get to the world cup but immediately after the game on Sky Sports news they were acting like someone had died. Like the whole thing had been some big failure. Do they not realise just how bad their team is and how lucky they are to get so far? Anyway, despite my earlier comments in the thread, I was genuinely hoping that England would win. Ah well. Maybe next time. I doubt it. But the media are already hyping up this new generation of England "stars" as though they were Maradona, (the Brazilian) Ronaldo and Messi. So who knows.

Sorry. Disagree. England aren't shit. They were just beaten by the better team. They played well, but that doesn't win you the world cup. Just as I said further up the page, I always thought it was a France/Croatia final.

England can hold their head high.