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March 28, 2024, 03:06:33 PM

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[Football] England Vs France

Started by mayer, June 13, 2004, 09:42:44 PM

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king mob

Quote from: "Jimmy"
Quote from: "Almost Yearly"
I waited very vocally all game for a Gerrard masterpiece, too. Sure got one.

Deep, deep miff.

He was AWFUL wasn't he? Mind you Scholes didn't fare much better and hasn't performed properly for a while now.

I think most people could easily cope with us losing to France, but its the manner of the defeat. Gutting, absolutely gutting...

I thought Gerrard only really made one mistake, a terrible one but on the whole he kept the midfield running well for England & made a good partnership with Lampard.

I actually subjected myself to the highlights on BBC1 afterwards, because I wanted to hear what Alan Hansen et al had to say.  But no, I get Ian Wright and Jaime Redknapp.  Why do they insist on getting Wright on, he just sits there tubthumping before the game, insists on calling all the players by their first names as if he's great mates with them all, and, like, says, like, "like" every other, like, word.  The man has nothing of note to say, and inists on saying it very loudly.

We should hammer the Swiss and the Croats - they were bloody awful - so I fully expect to be disappointed on Thursday.

Almost Yearly

I saw little wrong with anyone's play, save for the obvious cock-ups. We'd successfully weathered the storm, and France didn't look like scoring.


Nice return to form there, VM. We were wrong, we were wrong, but so young...

5 Knuckle Shuffle

Quote from: "Borboski"
What with it being english commentary I can't complain too much, but compared to the bbc's coverage SHITV are so partisan it starts to grate. I can't stand Desmond's knowing looks to the camera as if to say;

"Eh! All you pikeys at home! Get ready to start shouting racial slurs!"

Of course it's going to be partisan. It's a British station cheering on a British team, what do you expect you idiot! If you want complete partisan commentating listen to the Brazilian presenters, or indeed the Norwegian commentator in 1981 when they beat England 2-1. Every single country is guilty of it, and England are no exception.
Oh, by the way, your beloved Desmond is actually Irish, born in Ennis, County Clare.

Vermschneid Mehearties

On a more upbeat note, we will beat the Swiss and the Croats easily if we put in a similar performance. I was surprised how well we defended, and how little incision the french had in attack. King and Campbell worked very well together. Don't bring Terry back into the squad yet Sven...

Quote from: "Almost Yearly"I saw little wrong with anyone's play, save for the obvious cock-ups.

Agreed.  No one really stood out on either side.  Rooney looked The Man Most Likely To, and had the scored remained at 1-0 I would wager that we'd all be singing a different tune.

On a point of order, was it me, or did the ref seem to position England's wall further than 10 yards away?  Looked an awfully long distance between them and the ball.  Still, makes no difference if you leave half your goal open.

Vermschneid Mehearties

Did anyone else get a couple of those inexplicable hunches where you just *know* something is going to happen?

I had a hunch Beckham would miss the moment he started his run up, and I also had a hunch that France would score as soon as they got that freekick.

And as for France's penalty, that was a no-brainer. I've never seen such a flat-footed keeper in all my life*.

*Shilton.

Almost Yearly

Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"Did anyone else get a couple of those inexplicable hunches where you just *know* something is going to happen?
Quote from: "Almost Yearly"Everyone in my pub had been screeching "Let Scholesy take it."
Just like everyone in my pub for what seems like years has been screeching, "Don't play the donkey."

Ah shit, I could grizzle about this all day. Wimblemong calls.

Quote from: "BBC"Home Secretary David Blunkett, who was at the match, said afterwards: "Like every other supporter I am bitterly disappointed at tonight's result but I am also very proud of the good behaviour of the vast majority of England fans who are in Portugal to see the tournament."
Why was he at the game? He certainly didn't go to see the tournament.

Vermschneid Mehearties

Yeah, well like he said- the fans who went to see the tournament were well behaved. Not like those fucking blind NF hooligans.

If it's any consolation to anyone, and I know it isn't, the front of The Times' pull-out sports section The Game features Mikael Silvestre with the mongiest face I've seen since this.

MonkeyDrummer

Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"Did anyone else get a couple of those inexplicable hunches where you just *know* something is going to happen?

I had a hunch Beckham would miss the moment he started his run up, and I also had a hunch that France would score as soon as they got that freekick.

And as for France's penalty, that was a no-brainer. I've never seen such a flat-footed keeper in all my life*.

*Shilton.

Yes, when England got the penalty I just knew Beckham would miss, and France would go on to win it. In fact I knew before the match what the score would be and decided to put a wager on it with my girlfriend......

....needles to say that was one more English fan left with a bitter after-taste.

Vermschneid Mehearties

Well I did tell my mate that we'd score first and then lose 2-1, but then I've done that before and been completely wrong.

With the penalty and the free kick, I just got that horrible sinking feeling you get.

"He's going to miss."
"Oh shit, he's going to score."

Doesn't exactly cushion the blow at all though.

Regular John

Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"Bringing on Heskey was a very good idea, and he should have done it sooner. Neither Rooney or Owen were holding the ball up sufficiently. Plus, his foul was only due to the midfields complete lack of assertiveness at that point.

You can't bring on a player to hold up the ball when he isn't even capable of keeping himself upright. He looks like he should be able to keep any defender at bay but he rarely gets a second touch on the ball due to his inability to control it.

His foul was also an example of his complete inability to make decisions quickly, had he been more aware he would have noticed the two players in a far better position to block/tackle (ie. in FRONT of the attacker)

Vermschneid Mehearties

It was the midfielders who decided to flee to their own penalty area, even though all four defenders were marking tightly. They put themselves in a position that meant Heskey had to backtrack to the edge of the box to do THEIR JOB. You can't ever blame an attacker  for at least trying to put a tackle in, particularly when the midfield get backing off, and backing off, getting themselves out of position. As usual, people blame Heskey. I don't blame Heskey at all. He tried, and even though it was a bad position to give away a foul, I have much more respect for him than the cowards who let France's midfield come at them.

As for his attacking duties, the rare times he did get the ball through Ashley Coles hopeless long balls, another misplaced Scholes pass, or a lucky deflection he applied himself well. If our midfield had the backbone to hold possession, they could have then passed to Heskey, who can hold the ball well, no matter what anyone says, and put England in a positive position rather than a negative position which is what our midfield did. You can't surrender the ball in that area, at that time, leaving an attacker to do their job, particularly when it is a lumbering unskillful forward like Heskey. That's why he's not to blame, and I wish he'd stop getting the blame just so we don't have to cope with the fact that our so called golden midfield choked. Beckham and Scholes had a nightmare, Gerrard didn't quite know what he was supposed to be doing, and Lampard didn't look comfortable in his position either, and was marked out of the game.

Blame Goldenballs for his chasmically abysmal penalty, which had he converted it, I'm sure would have won us the game.

I'll echo what Uncle Bobby said with 5 minutes to play.

"I wish the game was over now."

mwude

I went out to have a piss & grab a beer just after Heskey's tackle on Zidane.  Come back to see the score is at 1 - 1 and David James scything down some frenchman.  I immediately turned around & walked out to have a ciggie because I couldn't bare to watch the penalty.  It sort of took the sting out of it because I didn't see either of the french goals.

Rooney was great (although too greedy when Vassell was unmarked) and I thought Ledley King was outstanding.  John Terry will have to be 100% fit and really impress in training if he's to get his place back.

I hope to god Sven doesn't make a habit of doing a Claudio Ranieri impression by bringing off our best players.  Owen was anonymous, but how many times have we seen him do very little all game & then stick away the one chance he gets?  Gerrard was well below par, as was Beckham.  And 1 - 0 up against a side with great attacking potential?  Bring on sodding Nicky Butt.  I don't really like the guy, but he would have been perfect in the last 20 minutes - an extra player to break up their attacks & gain a bit more control in midfield.

And I don't really agree that "we waz robbed".  Apart from the goal and the penalty I can't recall any other decent chances we had.  The same goes for France though - a draw would have been perfectly fair.  It's just a shame that they've got the best player in the world in their midfield.  The main reason for their shambolic display in the world cup was the lack of Zidane.  It wasn't his best performance last night, but he was still consistently the most potent threat.

Oh well, you tend to get a bit of good luck & a bit of bad luck in these tournaments and it all evens itself out in the end.  I should copy & paste that sentence and put it in that " tired cliches thread" shouldn't I?  Hopefully that match has left us with plenty of good luck in the bank.

MonkeyDrummer

Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"
Blame Goldenballs for his chasmically abysmal penalty, which had he converted it, I'm sure would have won us the game.

I had to laugh in the after match interview when he said. " I couldn't have struck it any better"

errr.......

5 Knuckle Shuffle

Quote from: "MonkeyDrummer"
Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"
Blame Goldenballs for his chasmically abysmal penalty, which had he converted it, I'm sure would have won us the game.

I had to laugh in the after match interview when he said. " I couldn't have struck it any better"

errr.......

What's so wrong with that? He said he struck it as well as he could, but the goal keeper guessed right and saved. At least he's being honest by saying his best wasn't good enough.

hencole

Someone else should have taken it. I'm sure Bartez (sp) has had a lot of practise at saving Beckhams penalties in training when they were at Man U.

Almost Yearly

That's what I meant about Beckham's Tony Blair impression. Yes, he struck it well, given that to "strike" something does not suggest any particular direction. He didn't slice it, pull it, stub it or poke it. He struck it well, but it hit the corner flag. He struck it well, but it went shoulder height to the goalie's right. No excuses here. To miss a penalty you have to fuck it up. No goalie can save a well VECTORED penalty, let's forget about STRUCK shall we. Cunt.

Leave it, Matt, it ain't wurf it.

5 Knuckle Shuffle

Quote from: "Almost Yearly"That's what I meant about Beckham's Tony Blair -type spin. Yes, he struck it well, given that to "strike" something does not suggest any particular direction. He didn't slice it, pull it, stub it or poke it. He struck it well, but it hit the corner flag. He struck it well, but it went shoulder height to the goalie's right. No excuses here. To miss a penalty you have to fuck it up. No goalie can save a well VECTORED penalty, let's forget about STRUCK shall we. Cunt.

And yes, if the goalie had dived to his left, everybody would've said what a great penalty it was because it would have gone in. Players can strick the ball poorly, in fact, straight down the middle, and score from these strikes. Some do exactly the same and the goalie saves it. If I'm going to stick my neck out, I'd say that most goalies are capable of saving the majority of penalties if they guess the right way.
Yours truly, Alistair Campbell

swinny

The big test is going to be how the comeback from this...play like that against Croatia and Switzerland and I think we'll be OK...but of course, its just as likely to put them all on a downer and we'll get nothing.

I was amazed by the Rooney/Heskey swap...I would have much preffered to see Nicky Butt come on and help out defensly considering the pressure we seemed to be inviting on to us, just leaving the lone striker - think anyone could see our attacking options were limited in the second half, so why waste 2 players on pointless long balls? As soon as Owen's pace and Rooney's trickery and "cleverness" went (no matter how poor/tired they might have been - they clearly saw them as a threat and kept a good few players back with them), the French were able to push up even more and put us under yet more pressure...a problem not helped by the fact that one of our strikers saw fit to try his hand at defending.

On a lighter note...I did piss myself laughing when that Vasell shot bounced up and twatted Barthez in the face.

Vermschneid Mehearties

Cheers for reminding me of that. It came just after the penalty miss. The whole pub went "aaaaaaaaaah". Infantile, but very rewarding considering everything.

hencole

Quote from: "swinny"The big test is going to be how the comeback from this...play like that against Croatia and Switzerland and I think we'll be OK

Play like that and we'll loose to most teams. Two chances is all we got in that game. No one ever made a gamble and went for a run. It was long ball stuff all game, which works when you've got a one goal lead, but is likely to come unstuck when chasing for a goal. The less said about the closing down of players outside the box the better as there was none at all.

hotvans

Quote from: "Doctor Stamen"Ah well.  That's what happens when you pick Bluenoses.
oh yeah - cos like vassell did well didnt he? not

Vermschneid Mehearties

If anyone can stomch watching the highlights of the match, you'll see than anytime the football reaches the left handside of the pitch, Gary Neville will be looking at it petrified and running in the opposite direction. He's being coached by Iannucci I tells thee.

Mediocre Rich

Quote from: "Vermschneid Mehearties"...Gary Neville will be looking at it petrified and running in the opposite direction. He's being coached by Iannucci I tells thee.

I'll pretend I didn't hear that.

I presume the Heskey substitution was down to the way the defence contniually booted the ball up the pitch.  His stature makes him a far better target than the two short arses we had to receive these randomly flung clearances.  There would have been no point in bringing on a midfielder for Owen as he would have just done what the rest did i.e. stand on the edge of the 18 yard box.

I don't think you can blame Heskey.  Funnily enough I lay the blame squarely at the feet of that pampered arse Beckunt.  We looked terrified in the second half and it needed the captain to stand up and be counted, but he couldn't because he can't, because he is perhaps starting to realise that he actually isn't as good as adiddas would have him believe.  His penalty miss sums him up footballing wise.  One trick that doesnt seem to work very well at the moment (although obviously he will score a hat trick in the final and I will be made to look a fool once again).

The real dissapointment for me was that Gerrard didn't take more responsibility.  All he seemed to do was keep fouling Zidane.  And then that awful backpass <shudder>.

I think the only thing for it is to give Gary the arm band and get Phil in the center to boss the midfield.

Vermschneid Mehearties

PHIL...

IN THE CENTRE...


AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

One word: Romania.

swinny


Mediocre Rich

Think about what your saying there VM for a minute.

Are you sure?