International Football thread

[yuppie]

[sussexpob]

worse...... it was an entirely predictable performance against a footballing powerhouse like Slovenia

The days of huge gaps between International teams have sailed. Nowadays any team with 11 professionals will mean you are playing a team that is at the very least fit, and if you add a measure of organisation or incredible lack of ambition, then its like a training drill of one team trying to score against 10 defensive minded defenders.

Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Belgium.... all of these teams have suffered bad results in the past 1 or 2 years against poor opposition.

[sussexpob]

One of England's major problems has always been the respect that teams give them. Nothing illustrates that better than in 2010 World Cup where we had a very easy group, but every single team they played went 9-1-0 formations and didnt leave their own half. People see England in a group and think "Ill take a point".

England go away to Germany in a friendly, played in a very competitive spirit, and beat them...... Germany played to win.

Probably the last good game we had, and the last time we played a team who were willing to go toe to toe with us.

[Gingerfinch]

Slovenia didn't put a wall up though. You could argue that they deserved to win, and I thought they harried us pretty well from what I saw. I certainly wouldn't say they are a bad team. Not that you have!

[Durhamfootman]

Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Belgium.... all of these teams have suffered bad results in the past 1 or 2 years against poor opposition.

how about 4 bad results in as many months

didn't beat Russia
didn't beat Slovakia
lost to Iceland
didn't beat Slovenia

even a 2-0 win against Malta is a pretty shocking result

Scotland next.... and they will park the bus, and probably be inspired by the prospect of becoming legends in their own lifetime for nicking a win against the hated old enemy. I certainly wouldn't rule it out

and if you were a mid table international side, why wouldn't you play 9-1-0 against a team that have over recent years proved completely ineffectual at breaking defensive teams down, whilst also generously presenting 2 sloppy backpasses for your 1 midfielder to run onto, and maybe even score from?

[yuppie]

I actually thought England played really well at the Euros, other than the second half against Iceland. They just could not score, but they played some nice football. Im pretty sure if they had some strikers on their game they would have been a force.

For me they have got further playing worse in the past.

Last night though, they were really poor. With the obvious exception of Hart. Maybe playing in Europe agrees with him.

[Durhamfootman]

I actually thought England played really well at the Euros, other than the second half against Iceland. They just could not score, but they played some nice football. Im pretty sure if they had some strikers on their game they would have been a force.

I would agree with you.

If such a beautiful flowing game didn't have to be sullied by something as coarse and distasteful as goals, England would be fine

[yuppie]

I actually thought England played really well at the Euros, other than the second half against Iceland. They just could not score, but they played some nice football. Im pretty sure if they had some strikers on their game they would have been a force.

I would agree with you.

If such a beautiful flowing game didn't have to be sullied by something as coarse and distasteful as goals, England would be fine

For once England were nice to watch. An Owen or a Shearer up front would have probably got them a lot further along. Instead they had tired spurs players who really were off their best game.

But i reckon England supporters will never be happy.

[sussexpob]

Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Belgium.... all of these teams have suffered bad results in the past 1 or 2 years against poor opposition.

how about 4 bad results in as many months

didn't beat Russia
didn't beat Slovakia
lost to Iceland
didn't beat Slovenia

The winning team of the tournament won as many games as England did in normal time... one..... against Wales, the same team we beat.

In the month of the tournament, Portugal lost to Bulgaria, then lost to England, then failed to beat Hungary, Iceland and Austria, were outplayed by a Croatian team with a centre back who refused to score three headers from 6 yards, they then got outplayed by Poland and managed somehow to hold on for penalties, and then were outclassed by France but again got hugely lucky and scored a blast from 20 yards.

So what? England have 20 shots and 80% possession and are sh*t, but Portugal fluke 7 games in a row and win the tournament and that makes them a good team?

Had it not been for the utterly stupid tournament format, Portugal wouldnt have even made the knockouts!!!!

[sussexpob]

Slovenia didn't put a wall up though

They put one person forward, its just England gave so about 4 suicidal balls in defence that created them chances. They put everyone apart from Icevivc? behind the ball and punted it up to him at every opportunity.

[Durhamfootman]

So what? England have 20 shots and 80% possession and are sh*t, but Portugal fluke 7 games in a row and win the tournament and that makes them a good team?

Had it not been for the utterly stupid tournament format, Portugal wouldnt have even made the knockouts!!!!

Portugal were awful.... their star man was awful. About as far from being a good team as Greece were the year they won it

England will stop being sh1t when they find a player who doesn't balloon the ball over the bar every time the goal is wide open, and find 11 players who don't run around like headless chickens whenever things aren't going quite the way they'd like

it's not *modded* rocket science

[Aidan11]

Yes we seem to have a big problem with players unable to stick it in the onion bag.

You can dominate the game as much as you want but the most important stat is the goals.

[The Professor]

Ozil has been rested from an International game.

Don't recollect that having happened before.

[Durhamfootman]

apologies if this has been discussed somewhere else, but I'm slightly puzzled by the furore over the poppy thing for the Eng/Scot international coming up. Despite the FA's stance, despite the PM wading in at PMQ's, I have no problem with FIFA's rules (apart from the occasions of inconsistency, where their rules were not implemented and should have been)

It strikes me that asking the fans to wear poppies on match night (crikey, the FA could buy a sh1tload and hand them out at the turnstiles if they wanted to), and observing a 2 minute silence before the match, would be an entirely appropriate way to show respect to the fallen.

There is no need for the FA to start sabre rattling, and no reason for Theresa May to stick her nose in, IMO.

[mikesiva]

I agree. Theresa may and the FA seem to be trying to provoke a fight over a long standing rule in order to distract from the real bad news in their respective camps.

More let's hate the foreigners paranoia.