Semi Final: Croatia vs England - Wednesday 7PM (Continued)

[Gassy]

 

[G.B]

the best fucking hell hole my dear View attachment 9108

4/10

Elbows too pointy for my tastes

 

[Dirk]

4/10

Elbows too pointy for my tastes

oh come on G.B

6/10

 

[Gassy]

Just isn't the case even if it does serve your foruming spars.

Colombia represent a stylistic nightmare for England. Tactically set out with an organised deep line but they press well before the situation threatens a goal - their better technicians in the key areas will pick off this naive England team if they meet.

Saw enough to know Southgate is doing it wrong and has no other strategy. England will play Colombia in the 1st knockout round and go out.

Ok then.

 

[valefan16]

I think now is a very crucial time in English football in that what do we do from here...

This side have given us a great base as has the manager, they've got the fans on board. The next two years will decide if we are fully back on the international stage or not.

We had a lot of positive aspects during this tournament and now Southgate and co need to look at the negative parts and improve them for Euro 2020, if we can find solutions to some of the issues such as the creativity problem and bring in some of the good kids from the Youth sides then we will have a chance of competing at the latter stages of future tournaments.

You just know we will crush Croatia in the Nations League now frustratingly!

 

[Dirk]

You just know we will crush Croatia in the Nations League now frustratingly!

I still don't have a clue about this new Nations League
Do you play them again in this new competition?

Damn, we'll face France and the Netherlands. Just a meeting between good ol' friends

 

[valefan16]

I still don't have a clue about this new Nations League
Do you play them again in this new competition?

Damn, we'll face France and the Netherlands. Just a meeting between good ol' friends

Yeah we have them and Spain... no idea exactly how this thing works as you can qualify for the Euro 2020 competition through it but seems to be a means of giving the likes of San Marino a chance to qualify as a forth seed gets a spot!

Oddly it may be better to lose and get relegated to a lower tier to give an easy qualification route to 2024!

Seems a bit of a mess to me having two qualification tournaments for the same thing.

 

[Abertawe]

Ok then.

Written when their stardust player was fit. Given how close the game was would James have been the difference? Impossible to say but undeniable it would've helped. Those posts were directed at Southgate too - his tactics hindered England. England utilised to their best beat Colombia & Croatia.

 

[Gassy]

Written when their stardust player was fit. Given how close the game was would James have been the difference? Impossible to say but undeniable it would've helped. Those posts were directed at Southgate too - his tactics hindered England. England utilised to their best beat Colombia & Croatia.

I don't disagree.

I'm just saying that Colombia were considered a top team by 99% of people & media - even yourself thought we'd lose. Then we beat them and now it's considered like they're a poor team.

 

[Gassy]

Yeah we have them and Spain... no idea exactly how this thing works as you can qualify for the Euro 2020 competition through it but seems to be a means of giving the likes of San Marino a chance to qualify as a forth seed gets a spot!

Oddly it may be better to lose and get relegated to a lower tier to give an easy qualification route to 2024!

Seems a bit of a mess to me having two qualification tournaments for the same thing.

I've tried watching so many of these videos explaining it all and I still get confused.

The way I think (probably totally wrong) is that you can qualify (maybe) from this weird group of Spain, England and Croatia. Each 'league' a team will go through (again I'm probably totally wrong). If you don't go through that then you go to normal qualifying against other teams

Fuck reading that I am not even sure I have a clue

 

[St. Juste]

This has definitely been Englands best tournament since 1990 and indeed, quite possibly since 1966 given some of the caveats around 1990.

However, scratch the surface and two key themes emerged:

1) England fans and pundits were talking about winning it since the first knockout round. Modric alluded that this was extra motivation to the Croatia.

2) Their performances, and results, were not even particularly good. They played 6 games, won three, drew one (Colombia went to penalties) and lost two. The side that knocked them out is a nation less a tenth of their size and, when the same nation knocked them out of Euros qualifying ten years ago, was hailed as a watershed moment in the failure of English football.

Point 1 was expected, and will never change.

Point 2 has gone through a metamorphosis and the English FA and Media are pulling a PR trick Martin Sorrell would blush at. You can only beat what you are in front, of course, but nobody seems concerned they lost to a side they absolutely should be beating. Croatia finished below Iceland in WC Qualifying which included a draw at home to Finland. Unheralded nations such as Denmark and Russia took them to penalties. Their backup left back looked particularly terrible whenever he came on. Their star player has been charged with Perjury and is hated by many in Croatia.

And, before anyone else brings up Scotland, we have never lost in 5 games to Croatia and beat them home and away in competitive matches in 2013. They are not very good, and will presumably be brushed aside by an awesome French side.

How the hell did England lose when everything was going so clearly in their favour? But this isn't being addressed, merely reaching the Semi Final is being hailed as an astonishing achievement.

I had imagined the England route to the final would pan out much like Liverpools route to the CL final. An average team (complete with high scoring forward) fluke way to final by playing inferior sides before being brushed aside, with ease, by the first team of any real competence or pedigree. However, in Liverpool terms, they were dumped out by Roma.

Positivity has returned, sanity has not.

Good to see the one player I did think was underrated, Trippier, have great tournament whilst the hideously overrated Walker was exposed time and again.

Maguire and Pickford might have had reasonably good tournaments, but neither are particularly good players. Indeed, the latter seems to have fully transformed into the new Joe Hart. Hyped beyond belief but will consistently under deliver.

Embarrassed by the hype in the past few weeks? They don't even know the word.

 

[Abertawe]

I don't disagree.

I'm just saying that Colombia were considered a top team by 99% of people & media - even yourself thought we'd lose. Then we beat them and now it's considered like they're a poor team.

Under the leadership of Southgate and prior to James getting injured I thought they could lose but I don't see what was wrong with that - England came close to losing the game. This tournament could've & should've been so much more but for poor footballing management.

 

[Dirk]

Fuck reading that I am not even sure I have a clue

, same here, Gassy. But in time (we face France on Sept 6th for the 1st match) I think I will have a clue about this new comp.

 

[Abertawe]

This has definitely been Englands best tournament since 1990 and indeed, quite possibly since 1966 given some of the caveats around 1990.

However, scratch the surface and two key themes emerged:

1) England fans and pundits were talking about winning it since the first knockout round. Modric alluded that this was extra motivation to the Croatia.

2) Their performances, and results, were not even particularly good. They played 6 games, won three, drew one (Colombia went to penalties) and lost two. The side that knocked them out is a nation less a tenth of their size and, when the same nation knocked them out of Euros qualifying ten years ago, was hailed as a watershed moment in the failure of English football.

Point 1 was expected, and will never change.

Point 2 has gone through a metamorphosis and the English FA and Media are pulling a PR trick Martin Sorrell would blush at. You can only beat what you are in front, of course, but nobody seems concerned they lost to a side they absolutely should be beating. Croatia finished below Iceland in WC Qualifying which included a draw at home to Finland. Unheralded nations such as Denmark and Russia took them to penalties. Their backup left back looked particularly terrible whenever he came on. Their star player has been charged with Perjury and is hated by many in Croatia.

And, before anyone else brings up Scotland, we have never lost in 5 games to Croatia and beat them home and away in competitive matches in 2013. They are not very good, and will presumably be brushed aside by an awesome French side.

How the hell did England lose when everything was going so clearly in their favour? But this isn't being addressed, merely reaching the Semi Final is being hailed as an astonishing achievement.

I had imagined the England route to the final would pan out much like Liverpools route to the CL final. An average team (complete with high scoring forward) fluke way to final by playing inferior sides before being brushed aside, with ease, by the first team of any real competence or pedigree. However, in Liverpool terms, they were dumped out by Roma.

Positivity has returned, sanity has not.

Good to see the one player I did think was underrated, Trippier, have great tournament whilst the hideously overrated Walker was exposed time and again.

Maguire and Pickford might have had reasonably good tournaments, but neither are particularly good players. Indeed, the latter seems to have fully transformed into the new Joe Hart. Hyped beyond belief but will consistently under deliver.

Embarrassed by the hype in the past few weeks? They don't even know the word.

Some good correct points made within this post. The FA have been very savvy with the media. They've managed to work with them to engineer perception - very impressive. In reality England did standard but they've convinced many to cling onto the delusion that all semi final qualifications are made equal. Southgate as expected held the team back because of his limitations.

 

[Gassy]

Shocker it took all of St Juste 7 sentences to bring up population

1. Scotland can't take a joke, we thought we were going to win it from the 1st game?
2. They don't hate Modric you bellend, he's their fucking god. Trust me, I have a much better idea than you
3. Scotland beat Croatia in 2013? Yep, makes you world beaters/Croatia shit
4. After not making the Euro's we went and won 5-1 and 4-1 or something vs Croatia.
5. Losing to Croatia wasn't considered the worst thing in English football. Not qualifying was
6. Scotland are still shit (when you qualify for a world cup please drop me a message)
7. Croatia is smaller than Scotland
8. Croatia not very good?
9. Their LB is their scapegoat and has had an excellent World Cup actually (stop googling stuff and trying to sound smart)

Keep googling things fella, but they'll all be put to bed (as usual) because you're talking out of your arse.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

I've tried watching so many of these videos explaining it all and I still get confused.

The way I think (probably totally wrong) is that you can qualify (maybe) from this weird group of Spain, England and Croatia. Each 'league' a team will go through (again I'm probably totally wrong). If you don't go through that then you go to normal qualifying against other teams

Fuck reading that I am not even sure I have a clue

Hopefully you win a trophy, give Southgate a chance to put something in that new trophy cabinet he got from IKEA.

I'm not sure even the players or managers know how it works.

 

[Gassy]

Hopefully you win a trophy, give Southgate a chance to put something in that new trophy cabinet he got from IKEA.

I'm not sure even the players or managers know how it works.

I reckon it's one of those things where you just wait for Gary Linekar to say "Win this and we've qualified"

 

[Carver]

I used to like the song "Footballs coming home" but after the way it has been overly used this last week or so I'm bloody sick of it now, especially with it not coming home.

Fuck off stupid fucking moronic public and media.

 

[St. Juste]

Shocker it took all of St Juste 7 sentences to bring up population

1. Scotland can't take a joke, we thought we were going to win it from the 1st game?
2. They don't hate Modric you bellend, he's their fucking god. Trust me, I have a much better idea than you
3. Scotland beat Croatia in 2013? Yep, makes you world beaters/Croatia shit
4. After not making the Euro's we went and won 5-1 and 4-1 or something vs Croatia.
5. Losing to Croatia wasn't considered the worst thing in English football. Not qualifying was
6. Scotland are still shit (when you qualify for a world cup please drop me a message)
7. Croatia is smaller than Scotland
8. Croatia not very good?
9. Their LB is their scapegoat and has had an excellent World Cup actually (stop googling stuff and trying to sound smart)

Keep googling things fella, but they'll all be put to bed (as usual) because you're talking out of your arse.

Not sure the numbers are terribly necessary, but yes they absolutely did believe they would be winning it from the first knockout round.

Er, right, apart from all those articles in Croatia about how hated Modric is for cow towing to a corrupt official.

And yes, Croatia aren't very good, why did you lose to them, then? And why aren't you bothered by it? You said yourself you beat them 5-1 and 4-1 recently.

As to the LB being their scapegoat, you are referring to their first choice LB Strinic, not their backup. He came on and gave away a completely ridiculous free kick that Russia equalised from. Pub league stuff.

Strange post - I really don't get the repeated google references.

You can tell England fans would say "baseball is coming home" "tennis is coming home" "NASA is coming home" without any sense of irony. It's not about any historical context, they would claim anything no matter how ridiculous. That's how arrogance works.

 

[Gassy]

England players trying to score while Croatia celebrate the goal.

https://imgur.com/oy0eBzI

It's so weird that teams suddenly thought this was a thing this year.

Was just chatting to a colleague about this and apparently they changed the rules that if 10 of the players are off the pitch, the referee can start the game again.

Apparently by the time this happened, they were mostly making their way back though or something

 

[Gassy]

Not sure the numbers are terribly necessary, but yes they absolutely did believe they would be winning it from the first knockout round.

Er, right, apart from all those articles in Croatia about how hated Modric is for cow towing to a corrupt official.

And yes, Croatia aren't very good, why did you lose to them, then? And why aren't you bothered by it? You said yourself you beat them 5-1 and 4-1 recently.

As to the LB being their scapegoat, you are referring to their first choice LB Strinic, not their backup. He came on and gave away a completely ridiculous free kick that Russia equalised from. Pub league stuff.

Strange post - I really don't get the repeated google references.

You can tell England fans would say "baseball is coming home" "tennis is coming home" "NASA is coming home" without any sense of irony. It's not about any historical context, they would claim anything no matter how ridiculous. That's how arrogance works.

You reckon you can talk on behalf of all England fans? Please find me 1 serious England fan on this forum who genuinely said after the Tunisia game that they believe we would win the World Cup.

Again, article headlines mean nothing - one paper one day tells you in the UK that England are crap. The other tells you they're heroes. What do you do then? You speak to the people and get a true sense.

Another point you've misunderstood is that I am not calling Croatia shit. Re read my point and maybe you'll get it.

On a separate note, I can't actually believe you think that Croatia are a bad team/Scotland are a good team because you beat them in 2013

 

[mente captus]

Was just chatting to a colleague about this and apparently they changed the rules that if 10 of the players are off the pitch, the referee can start the game again.

Apparently by the time this happened, they were mostly making their way back though or something

All the players have to be in their own half at kickoff expect of the guy who kicks off. never changed

 

[Abertawe]

"what happened in 2018 dad?"

"well son, most of the good teams went out and the draw opened up so that England would play inferior nations up until the semi finals. This resulted in 90% of the English declaring it was coming home - they then had to play a team that could fight back and they went out. When they were reminded of their it's coming home declarations they sheepishly played it off as just banter"

"that seems silly dad"

"that's the English for you son"

 

[TomPNE94]

This has definitely been Englands best tournament since 1990 and indeed, quite possibly since 1966 given some of the caveats around 1990.

However, scratch the surface and two key themes emerged:

1) England fans and pundits were talking about winning it since the first knockout round. Modric alluded that this was extra motivation to the Croatia.

It was all ironic you absolute moron. I reckon maybe 5% max of England fans thought that we would win it from the first knockout round. The further we got the higher that number rose, as you would expect.

2) Their performances, and results, were not even particularly good. They played 6 games, won three, drew one (Colombia went to penalties) and lost two. The side that knocked them out is a nation less a tenth of their size and, when the same nation knocked them out of Euros qualifying ten years ago, was hailed as a watershed moment in the failure of English football.

As already posted by someone earlier, this is nonsense. We played well in the first half of every game except the Belgium reserve match. Our inability to take our many chances is what killed us. Not even gonna go into the population debate as it's pointless.

Point 1 was expected, and will never change.

Point 2 has gone through a metamorphosis and the English FA and Media are pulling a PR trick Martin Sorrell would blush at. You can only beat what you are in front, of course, but nobody seems concerned they lost to a side they absolutely should be beating. Croatia finished below Iceland in WC Qualifying which included a draw at home to Finland. Unheralded nations such as Denmark and Russia took them to penalties. Their backup left back looked particularly terrible whenever he came on. Their star player has been charged with Perjury and is hated by many in Croatia.

What exactly is the relevance of this? Because he's been charged with perjury that means we should be beating them? I don't understand, he's still probably in the top 5 CM's in world football, perjury charge or not.

And, before anyone else brings up Scotland, we have never lost in 5 games to Croatia and beat them home and away in competitive matches in 2013. They are not very good, and will presumably be brushed aside by an awesome French side.

As yes because results 5 years ago mean so much.

How the hell did England lose when everything was going so clearly in their favour? But this isn't being addressed, merely reaching the Semi Final is being hailed as an astonishing achievement.

Plenty of people on here, twitter and in the media have said it was a poor performance and the inexperience in the squad showed. Thought you would have seen this given you can't escape the English news.

I had imagined the England route to the final would pan out much like Liverpools route to the CL final. An average team (complete with high scoring forward) fluke way to final by playing inferior sides before being brushed aside, with ease, by the first team of any real competence or pedigree. However, in Liverpool terms, they were dumped out by Roma.

Positivity has returned, sanity has not.

Good to see the one player I did think was underrated, Trippier, have great tournament whilst the hideously overrated Walker was exposed time and again.

Maguire and Pickford might have had reasonably good tournaments, but neither are particularly good players. Indeed, the latter seems to have fully transformed into the new Joe Hart. Hyped beyond belief but will consistently under deliver.

You're embarrassing yourself at this point comparing Pickford to Hart. Give it up.

Embarrassed by the hype in the past few weeks? They don't even know the word.

Honestly some of the most ridiculous shite I've ever seen on this forum and that is really saying something.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

This has definitely been Englands best tournament since 1990 and indeed, quite possibly since 1966 given some of the caveats around 1990.

However, scratch the surface and two key themes emerged:

1) England fans and pundits were talking about winning it since the first knockout round. Modric alluded that this was extra motivation to the Croatia.

2) Their performances, and results, were not even particularly good. They played 6 games, won three, drew one (Colombia went to penalties) and lost two. The side that knocked them out is a nation less a tenth of their size and, when the same nation knocked them out of Euros qualifying ten years ago, was hailed as a watershed moment in the failure of English football.

Point 1 was expected, and will never change.

Point 2 has gone through a metamorphosis and the English FA and Media are pulling a PR trick Martin Sorrell would blush at. You can only beat what you are in front, of course, but nobody seems concerned they lost to a side they absolutely should be beating. Croatia finished below Iceland in WC Qualifying which included a draw at home to Finland. Unheralded nations such as Denmark and Russia took them to penalties. Their backup left back looked particularly terrible whenever he came on. Their star player has been charged with Perjury and is hated by many in Croatia.

And, before anyone else brings up Scotland, we have never lost in 5 games to Croatia and beat them home and away in competitive matches in 2013. They are not very good, and will presumably be brushed aside by an awesome French side.

How the hell did England lose when everything was going so clearly in their favour? But this isn't being addressed, merely reaching the Semi Final is being hailed as an astonishing achievement.

I had imagined the England route to the final would pan out much like Liverpools route to the CL final. An average team (complete with high scoring forward) fluke way to final by playing inferior sides before being brushed aside, with ease, by the first team of any real competence or pedigree. However, in Liverpool terms, they were dumped out by Roma.

Positivity has returned, sanity has not.

Good to see the one player I did think was underrated, Trippier, have great tournament whilst the hideously overrated Walker was exposed time and again.

Maguire and Pickford might have had reasonably good tournaments, but neither are particularly good players. Indeed, the latter seems to have fully transformed into the new Joe Hart. Hyped beyond belief but will consistently under deliver.

Embarrassed by the hype in the past few weeks? They don't even know the word.

Regarding 1) and winning it, I assume you mean winning the whole tournament? It's hard to have a serious conversation when you assert something that patently isn't true.

Now if we could modify that slightly to take your exaggeration out of it, if you'd said 'England fans and pundits were talking about the possible route to the final since the first knockout round (or before even)' - and that was getting ahead of ourselves too early.

Then I could consider that and indeed agree to an extent.

Then you yourself seem to have imagined out our possible route to the final earlier in the tournament. So it seems fair actual England supporters might do likewise with varying degrees of optimism or pessimism.

 

[TomPNE94]

All the players have to be in their own half at kickoff expect of the guy who kicks off. never changed

Not true. If all 10 outfield players are outside the boundaries of the pitch then the opposing team can restart play.

 

[Gassy]

Not true. If all 10 outfield players are outside the boundaries of the pitch then the opposing team can restart play.

Assuming the ref allows it?

I've tried a quick google but couldn't find anything

 

[Renegade]

Not true. If all 10 outfield players are outside the boundaries of the pitch then the opposing team can restart play.

I heard Jonathan Wilson a few weeks ago state this is a myth.

 

[mente captus]

Not true. If all 10 outfield players are outside the boundaries of the pitch then the opposing team can restart play.

from the IFAB board about kick-off:

• after a team scores a goal, the kick-off is taken by their opponents

For every kick-off:

• all players, except the player taking the kick-off, must be in their own half of the field of play
• the opponents of the team taking the kick-off must be at least 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball until it is in play
• the ball must be stationary on the centre mark
• the referee gives a signal
• the ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves

 

[TomPNE94]

Yeah fair enough just googled it. There were loads of articles about it a couple of weeks ago, didn't realise it wasn't true. Apologies Mente