The World Cup Thread (4 Viewers)

[SkyblueBazza]

The pundits went ott because of the media hassle he gets.

But you could see the difference it made when he went off...or maybe I am seeing something you didn't? Hallucinating or something?

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[CJ_covblaze]

Gutted. Better team won though. Bring on Saturday.

 

[Westendlad]

Gutted. Better team won though. Bring on Saturday.

Noticed another Cov flag to the right of your's CJ..

 

[wingy]

The contrast in the two halves was Huge
We were utterly dominant, controlled and Nervelesss until around 42nd minute
Then we beqcame tentative at the back with little lapses and poor touches.
At stages in recent games we looked to be running through treacle, Neville addressed this saying the weight of the expectation and realisation drained their resources through nervous energy .

 

[Otis]

Gutted. Better team won though. Bring on Saturday.

What time's kick off, CJ?

 

[CJ_covblaze]

Noticed another Cov flag to the right of your's CJ..

That’s Dan’s. It’s been at every game too.

 

[CJ_covblaze]

What time's kick off, CJ?

9pm.

 

[Sky Blue Spud]

Oh right, so nothing.

Doh

 

[wingy]

One Conclusion I've drawn from this WC is that ET Is fairly pointless with all the shinanigans and breaks in play.
It equates to around 3 opportunities per team per half.

 

[dutchman]

One Conclusion I've drawn from this WC is that ET Is fairly pointless with all the shinanigans and breaks in play.
It equates to around 3 opportunities per team per half.

Agreed, they should go straight to penalties after 90 mins.

 

[Westendlad]

I don't know if it's just me but this was my observation: First half he was getting in behind, giving them plenty to think about. His pace had them frightened, bit like the Sweden game. Second half he seemed to start coming deeper again, which completely negated his pace.

I liked him in the Sweden game but tonight he did nothing as did Rashford. Very disappointed in both of them.

 

[Westendlad]

He was good for first half like ecery1 else

Let this be a lesson to the football chavs. Careful what you wish for

Football chavs ???

 

[dutchman]

I'll hazard a guess that France v. Croatia is not the World Cup final tie that the organisers would have hoped for?

 

[Gazolba]

I'll hazard a guess that France v. Croatia is not the World Cup final tie that the organisers would have hoped for?

I don't think they care; they've already sold the tickets.
It's better than Senegal vs Japan.

 

[Otis]

I don't think they care; they've already sold the tickets.
It's better than Senegal vs Japan.

Personally, I would much rather watch Senegal v Japan.

 

[Otis]

Nicely written piece here by Tom Fordyce at the Beeb.

- England beaten by Croatia at World Cup: 'It's the what-ifs that hurt the most'

 

[Macca]

And this comment sums it up 100%


Luck of the draw. Hard group in 2014 and everyone says they're useless. Easy group and route to SF in 2018 and suddenly they're the best! A bit of realism and honestly would be nice. England are still where they've been for the past forty years, one of the top 20 teams in the world but not one of the top 10.

 

[shmmeee]

And this comment sums it up 100%


Luck of the draw. Hard group in 2014 and everyone says they're useless. Easy group and route to SF in 2018 and suddenly they're the best! A bit of realism and honestly would be nice. England are still where they've been for the past forty years, one of the top 20 teams in the world but not one of the top 10.

I think that ignores the clear change in ethos and team spirit.

 

[Covstu]

Chose not to post an emotional response last night after a few jars but still very gutted! A game which we as a team imploded and only have ourselves to blame for losing that one. First half we should have had three and the game put to bed, it was like a friendly. Second half they got hold of the midfield and that’s where they started carving out chances with a lot of joy down the right.
When the inevitable goal come, there was only one team to win it and we were lucky to get into extra time.

First time in a long while that I have fell back in love with the national team and that’s thanks to Southgate and the team.

Sad but a good ride, we were probably lucky in the run we had but you can only beat what’s in front of us. Bring on the euros!

 

[Macca]

I think that ignores the clear change in ethos and team spirit.

I'd definitely agree with that. I've balanced that over and again with the fact I love the team and manager. Plus we've stopped trying to play the tippy tappy shit that we are no good at. However I agree with the general assessment

 

[Otis]

Chose not to post an emotional response last night after a few jars but still very gutted! A game which we as a team imploded and only have ourselves to blame for losing that one. First half we should have had three and the game put to bed, it was like a friendly. Second half they got hold of the midfield and that’s where they started carving out chances with a lot of joy down the right.
When the inevitable goal come, there was only one team to win it and we were lucky to get into extra time.

First time in a long while that I have fell back in love with the national team and that’s thanks to Southgate and the team.

Sad but a good ride, we were probably lucky in the run we had but you can only beat what’s in front of us. Bring on the euros!

We are leaving Europe, so it will still always been the pound, stu.

 

[hotrod]

Chose not to post an emotional response last night after a few jars but still very gutted! A game which we as a team imploded and only have ourselves to blame for losing that one. First half we should have had three and the game put to bed, it was like a friendly. Second half they got hold of the midfield and that’s where they started carving out chances with a lot of joy down the right.
When the inevitable goal come, there was only one team to win it and we were lucky to get into extra time.

First time in a long while that I have fell back in love with the national team and that’s thanks to Southgate and the team.

Sad but a good ride, we were probably lucky in the run we had but you can only beat what’s in front of us. Bring on the euros!

As you say we could and should have been three up at half-time and out of sight,we just seem to lose our way in the second half,whether it was nerves or the occasion which got to the players we will never know.
Although in previous matches I thought Sterling cost us possible goals by not passing to better positioned players, I do think the timing of his substitution last night was the wrong decision.

I suspect most of us overlooked the fact that most of Croatia's players played for Real Madrid,Barcelona ,Juventus,Inter-Milan or Bayern Munich so they were no mugs.

Regards.

 

[SIR ERNIE]

All a load of nonsense really.

Most teams don’t win world cups very often and many none at all. In the end the team remained until virtually the end of the tournament and provide entertainment and excitement. That’s all that’s needed.

The manager managed the situation well. He worked the media far better than the previous managers and achieved also to get the players into the media and portray them as likeable guys - so removed from the dire years of McLaren and Cappello.

It’s better than 1990 as that was a pre premier league era and our players were big experienced names - some players had and went on to play in other leagues around the world as did the manager.

The premier league hugely limits options. Many of the players are not big names and not always first names on team sheets.

Lots of big teams fell by the wayside early in the competition and no one thought they’d get this far.

So people should not be carping about easy groups easy teams crap opposition.

We’ve finished in the top 4 and it’s been s pretty good adventure.

Spot on, nail on the head.

My friends in Munich called at half time to say how impressed they were with England. Said we looked so controlled and very dangerous going forward. An Italian friend texted something very similar.

At half time I’d say France must have been praying that Croatia somehow could get back in the game. We looked very good and were growing game by game into a very impressive unit. We looked like we'd give France a real game.

The two things that cost us were firstly the fact that we didn’t put those chances away in the first half and secondly our inability to change our plan to counter the way that Croatia flooded the midfield and flanks after half time.

All in all a great WC for us and an exciting journey.

The squad and management should feel rightly proud of their performance.

Very well done.

 

[The Lurker]

I love how England are all of sudden great again.

We were lucky.

90th winner against Tunisia when we didn’t play well

Belgium scoring a wondergoal Giving us such a an easy route to the following

Worse Columbia side I’ve seen who were more interested in cheating than playing football

Sweden were England 2 years ago. Useless.

This was the best chance in our generation to get to a final and they flapped it.

Remind me of Leicester the other year. The fancied teams failed and underdogs came through. We flattered to deceive and our build up in open play was shocking throughout most of the tournament

 

[ajsccfc]

Strange how the harder you work the luckier you get.

 

[The Lurker]

Strange how the harder you work the luckier you get.

so you believe we had a hard route to the semi’s? we were 45 mins away from a final but poor in play management by both Southgate and the players messed it up. how did Croatia look fitter and hungrier in extra time considering they’ve played more minutes and older?

 

[ajsccfc]

Croatia have a wealth of experience and know how to both chase a game down and close one out, we don't yet. Colombia were quarter-finalists last time and tipped as dark horses, Sweden saw their way past Holland, Italy and Germany to get as far as they did. It wasn't as daunting as facing Brazil and France but it wasn't some kind of bye.

 

[tigersb]

We only came up against one decent side in 1990

Yeah Cameroon

 

[Captain Dart]

Today's mood.

 

[tigersb]

Nope. Linesman has missed two clearly over the line too.

Is he Russian???

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

We lost with sterling off pitch..

Look, I've been his biggest critic but even I said his first half performance yesterday was better. Certainly in comparison to Alli and Lingard.

That said, he faded and started playing like he had for the rest of the tournament, which was really rubbish. We were struggling before he went off and he was rightly substituted.

He had an awful tournament and as I warned, if we didn't take our chances we would get punished. That isn't exclusive to Sterling last night, but he was certainly a part of it.

 

[Grendel]

Nope Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland

Given that we’ve established Sweden are rubbish would we have qualified in a group of them, Korea and Mexico?

 

[CCFC88]

Look, I've been his biggest critic but even I said his first half performance yesterday was better. Certainly in comparison to Alli and Lingard.

That said, he faded and started playing like he had for the rest of the tournament, which was really rubbish. We were struggling before he went off and he was rightly substituted.

He had an awful tournament and as I warned, if we didn't take our chances we would get punished. That isn't exclusive to Sterling last night, but he was certainly a part of it.

We lost all outlet when Sterling went off, the Croats had a right go for the first 20 mins of the second half but it was a storm that could have been weathered, Rashford for Sterling was the wrong sub to make as Rashford simply doesn't posses the threat of Sterling, they were able to defend higher up the pitch when he went off and we were penned into our own half with no threat of a counter.

We didn't use Kane properly as a target man, when we had the lead against Sweden the ball was going into him he was holding it up and winning free kicks easily allowing us to dictate the pace of the game and break up any momentum Sweden were threating to build.

Pulling Alli or Lingard for Dier or RLC when the Sterling sub happened should have been the way to go in my opinion, we lost the midfield, momentum and any threat of a counter.

If Kane had picked his head up and played in Sterling instead of having his one on one shot saved......... Sterling would probably still have missed.

 

[oldskyblue58]

I think England did the themselves, the fans and the tournament proud. Well done them but please keep it up, do not be side tracked from what you have just learnt and started.

The first half last night was really good to watch and just lacked that 2nd or 3rd goal to seal it. Had England been 2 or 3 up no one could have complained and the energy would have drained from Croatia. The pace of Sterling stretched the game, took us high up the pitch quickly and provided space for our midfield runners. We can not just rely on Kane for goals though

I think you have to credit the Croatian Coach with changing the fortunes of his team. In the second half they played a lot of long diagonal balls in to our full back positions. That forced Trippier & Young back leaving our midfield 3 stretched and exposed against their 4. That allowed Modric (pretty anonymous first half) to start influencing the game because he had time and space to operate in. It meant our front two no longer had the support and runners they need. We failed to adapt, possibly we should have reverted to a 4 4 2 whilst we were ahead but struggling.

I am sure that the team and Southgate will have learnt much by this positive experience, certainly I feel England now has a brighter future

 

[Captain Dart]

We lost all outlet when Sterling went off, the Croats had a right go for the first 20 mins of the second half but it was a storm that could have been weathered, Rashford for Sterling was the wrong sub to make as Rashford simply doesn't posses the threat of Sterling, they were able to defend higher up the pitch when he went off and we were penned into our own half with no threat of a counter.

We didn't use Kane properly as a target man, when we had the lead against Sweden the ball was going into him he was holding it up and winning free kicks easily allowing us to dictate the pace of the game and break up any momentum Sweden were threating to build.

Pulling Alli or Lingard for Dier or RLC when the Sterling sub happened should have been the way to go in my opinion, we lost the midfield, momentum and any threat of a counter.

If Kane had picked his head up and played in Sterling instead of having his one on one shot saved......... Sterling would probably still have missed.

A lot of people are saying that now. Easy to say in hindsight,
I certainly didn't anticipate the detrimental effect taking Sterling off would have.
Probably England need to find a more like for like replacement.