Speaker: KICK IT! Goodbye England's Rose (Lion, whatever)
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Not to win, no, but I think they were counted upon to make the semifinal. They were the form team in the qualifications, and gave the impression of having a solid defence behind one of the talents of the tournament in Rooney. That's often a recipe for going quite deep. They must rate as a major disappoinment.
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That's often a recipe for going quite deep. They must rate as a major disappoinment.
1 minute of football less in USA's final game and they probably would have. Or had Green not fluffed it....
I don;t think they would have put away Uruguay though, on form I think they are the darkhorses, they could even push Brazil -
Yes, England should have got further, by topping their group and being in the other half of the draw. But that would only have delayed a meeting with a Big Gun (with due respect to Ghana).
As soon as they played a real contender - probably Brazil/Netherlands in that half - they were likely to come undone. That's what has happened in every World Cup since England won it. If they qualify, they always get out of their group, and never reach the final. Only the stage of elimination varies, and then not much.
Their supporters would happily swap with Italy, and alternate total rubbish with occasional trophies.
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Not to win, no, but I think they were counted upon to make the semifinal. They were the form team in the qualifications, and gave the impression of having a solid defence behind one of the talents of the tournament in Rooney. That's often a recipe for going quite deep. They must rate as a major disappoinment.
Agreed, and the question is, what the hell happened between the qualifying rounds and the finals? Where did it crap out so badly? How did they get from the Walcott hat-trick to a Jamie Carragher recall FFS?
Personally, I blame John Terry, but that's my answer for everything in life.
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Hard to fault you there. For one thing, Terry stole the leg of time.
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England's defending was ... naive. Well, that's what the commentators would have called it if they'd been an African team. They made more mistakes in three minutes than Ryan Nelsen & co in three games.
John Terry can take a large share of the blame for that.
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Their supporters would happily swap with Italy, and alternate total rubbish with occasional trophies.
Er... Italy hadn't failed to clear the first stage since 1974, boy-o. Besides winning the tournament twice since then, it lost a final on penalties and two semifinals, one of which also on penalties. Not what I'd be inclined to call rubbish.
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Heh, I thought that might rankle. ;)
At least Italy get to vary the script, anyway. England's is sadly predictable.
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<No, football England aren't like the All Blacks every four years. It's a popular view in NZ, comforting but false.>
The comparison is not necessarily winning the respective World Cups but performing well below realistic expectations. England should have topped their group and by virtue of a relatively easy draw made the semi-final.
The comparison is of top players freezing on the big stage perhaps due to fright and the overwhelming expectations of their countrymen and news media.
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The comparison is not necessarily winning the respective World Cups but performing well below realistic expectations. England should have topped their group and by virtue of a relatively easy draw made the semi-final.
The comparison is of top players freezing on the big stage perhaps due to fright and the overwhelming expectations of their countrymen and news media.
And that's the nub of the debate in England now. Top players who under-achieve, or ordinary players who look good for their clubs, surrounded by world-class foreigners?
I tend to the latter view. Of course Rooney is class, but England had to fill out their squad with technically limited players who just don't match other nations' top players for technique, but more than match them in salary.
When fans are arguing about whether to throw on Heskey or Crouch to save England, that's a pretty good indicator of a shallow talent pool.
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I was hoping for a complete homage to England's world cup performances. While the ball over the line against Germany would have been turned down, England would draw the match and then go to penalties whereupon they would actually win. The next game against Argentina would have featured a Emile Hesky hand ball into the net as England went through into the final.
It would have been so perfect...
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Stephen Fry - 'Mein Handy!'
If only there'd been a 'hand of god' moment in the match last night. But maybe it should be 'Mein handy dandy notebook' for this world cup. The Argentina Mexico game was good because there were whole minutes (minutes I tell you) when the whistle didn't blow.
And then when it mattered, they missed a glaring off-side and a blatant line crossing in consecutive matches. Still, what counts is the scoreboard, and at 3-1 and 4-1 can anyone really complain?*
* Stupid question alert.
England Robbed of 4-2 Loss to Germany, settles for 4-1 Loss to Germany.
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I watched the game, here in Germany, with a crowd of twenty or so locals. They expected victory against England, although I think they see themselves as underdogs against Argentina.
It was a great atmosphere until the Lampard 'goal', which actually silenced the audience for a while - they were rather embarrassed, and relieved to win convincingly in the end.
And it was a pleasure to watch a clean game! There was hardly any diving - I think only one yellow card?
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Just get rid of the off side rule!
Argentina are scary! But good! And Messi(ah) hasn't scored yet!
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Just get rid of the off side rule!
Yes. And make five year olds play. I mean so long as it's goals you want. (I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.)
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3410,
Just get rid of the off side rule!
Yeah, I don't think that works. Someone else can maybe give a good technical defense, but IMO, doing away with the offside rule would turn it from a game of two teams trying to score into a game of 22 (or 20, if you like) individuals trying to score. Am I right?
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Scoring would become a matter of booting the ball forward from defense and centre-forwards 'marking' the opposition goal-keeper. Even when you play socially without linesmen you have to make an agreement to enforce a loose offside or the games are just terrible.
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If you want more goals, make it 10 a side. Open it up a bit.
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Maybe he is the Messi(ah). He is being persecuted by his opponents without mercy!
MARADONA HITS OUT AT MESSI TREATMENT.
seagulling
Well, better than this approach.
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Yes. And make five year olds play. I mean so long as it's goals you want. (I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.
No off side rule seems to work in hockey-a game similar to football in a lot of ways.
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It's about time soccer adopted the best innvoations of field hockey and finally got out of its shadow!
(But seriously, field hockey remains a puzzle to me with or without offside, but ice hockey has steadfastly held on to its offside rule you'll observe. I think really if you've played soccer after toddlerhood you'll know why the rule is needed, which is why nobody is seriously talking about changing it.)
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No off side rule seems to work in hockey-a game similar to football in a lot of ways.
I think it works better partly because (speaking as someone who used to play it) the sheer speed of the game on the turf means that by the time the ball is fired down one end it will soon find itself at the other before you've got time to catch your breath.
Like Gio says, I think the offside rule in football is necessary, they do need to find out some way to incorporate the video ref for goal decisions though.
That said, the disallowed goal shouldn't brush over the fact that simply, Germany were hungrier and more ruthless for all but about 20 minutes of the match. If you look at the stats for possession, shots at goal, corners, etc, you'll see the two sides were pretty even, but for some reason England seemed to freeze and not have their defensive house in order.
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Sniff sniff Boo hoo hoo! The ref let in a goal when the guy was offside! Wahwah! Then he disallowed a goal when the guy wasn't offside at all. Cry cry cry.
Jesus for once in their life can football players stop complaining? England should fire them all and hire lawyers because it seems like the games can be won by argument alone. Screw a decent defence and striker who look like they're hungry for goals.
The best thing about football is the flow of the game. Slow it down and you may as well pick the ball up and run with it.
Harden the fuck up football
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Shall we go through the France forward pass thing again? Because I noticed it was barely discussed for several consecutive months on this very blog.
That said, whilst I'm in favour of a goalline cam for big tournaments (how many of these line calls are there likely to be - one or two per WC at the most?) I think football is fine, rules-wise and adjudication wise.
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Speaking of which... now that NZers have a new-found appreciation for technically inferior teams sticking to a limited game plan and playing out of their skins to achieve an unexpected result, will we see a bit of love for the French effort in the last RWC quarter-final?
Thought not.
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