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World Cup 2014
- Thread starter Withnail
- Start date
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
Which really tells you all you need to know.
England have no truly world class players. Madrid were quick enough to come calling for Bale - can you see them wanting anyone in the current England team? Nor me.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
We invented it but are crap at it, almost the mantra of the UK.
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
How good is this World Cup? The whole England thing notwithstanding, i can't remember one i have enjoyed more.
Argentina v. Iran! You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be willing Iran to win. You'd need an even harder heart to deny the brilliance of the goal. See that Irani who dropped to his knees as he saw the ball hit the net? That was me, in some sort of crazy trans-substantiation, dropping to my knees - gutted for him.
Ghana v. Germany! As my old Fishmonger friend would say upon unexpected events - "Well f*ck my old boots!"
Must go - Bosnia v. Nigeria has just restarted!
Argentina v. Iran! You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be willing Iran to win. You'd need an even harder heart to deny the brilliance of the goal. See that Irani who dropped to his knees as he saw the ball hit the net? That was me, in some sort of crazy trans-substantiation, dropping to my knees - gutted for him.
Ghana v. Germany! As my old Fishmonger friend would say upon unexpected events - "Well f*ck my old boots!"
Must go - Bosnia v. Nigeria has just restarted!
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I don't pay a great deal of attention to it, but I have a German on FB and I became genuinely concerned that she was going to have a stroke today - I nearly rang 999 as a precaution, but they finally equalised and the danger seemed to pass...
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
I sincerely fecking hope so...
Glam
Mad Cat Woman
My boys (said in best Barbara Windsor accent) prefer the F1. Neither are footy fans.
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
There are two things in this thread that i find myself unable to 'let lie' -
Firstly
Secondly
But you are certainly right that it had, and still has, nothing to do with any sort of 'quota' of foreign players - more so that it has nothing to do with 'facilities'. Lucas is right, too.
What is the one thing that England players, at least the bunch on this bench (coz it should be a bench of players should it not?) in Brasil, lack?
Firstly
What people tend to forget is that there is a rather gruelling elimination process before 'we' get anywhere near the finals. This is why Scotland, for example, aren't in Brazil and 'we' are. This, truth be told, feeds in to a third thing that i am unable to 'let lie' but will in this instance do so because, well, feck it, sort of thing.
Secondly
At the risk of picking proverbial nits, none of those years were actually World Cup years. To answer the question, '86 and '90, yes 'we' did - within reason.
But you are certainly right that it had, and still has, nothing to do with any sort of 'quota' of foreign players - more so that it has nothing to do with 'facilities'. Lucas is right, too.
What is the one thing that England players, at least the bunch on this bench (coz it should be a bench of players should it not?) in Brasil, lack?
age'd parent
50,000th poster!
Make it three households, in fact I wouldn't miss the Tv if it disappeared.
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
Sorry, and your right, someohow I added 4 to 66 and got 72. I then just added on 4 and 4 and so on! Always thought I was quite good at maths too
English footballers lack guts, and real desire to fight, run until they can no longer run. Furthermore, bar Lambert, all of them have been cosseted away in academies of various clubs their whole footballing lives. they don't know hardship, they've never had it tough. Look at Luis Suarez; at the age when the England players were getting treated like royalty in their club academies, Luis was unable to attend the club he was invited to try out with as he didn't have any boots because his parents didn't have the money for a pair. That's the difference, on a fundamental level for me. I never see an England team prepared to 'die', so to speak, for the cause.
It's not about talent, look at Chile, players from Notts Forest, Cardiff (just relegated) and Wigan, yet 2 wins from 2 in the group so far. England should be so much better than they are.
My final point is how the players are picked, certain players, Gerrard, Rooney & Johnson stand out, no matter how they play, they get picked, they don;t seem to have to earn their place, they are just there, and no matter how shit they play, they'll get picked for any meaningful game. Meritocracy is dead in English football.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
That's a national trait that involves far more than just football, or even sport in general...
cometcycle
Well-Known Forumite
Didn't the England U17's recently win something? That said of the previous England Youth side to Win anything only Ross Barkley is now playing at the Top Level of English Football. Perhaps more needs to be done to ensure that "Winners" stay involved and have a chance to develop?
What seems to have been overlooked is that all the European Teams (with the exception of France) seem to be struggling to some degree. More than anything this World Cup is showing how the game has developed around the Globe, perhaps even surpassing the best of Europe?
What seems to have been overlooked is that all the European Teams (with the exception of France) seem to be struggling to some degree. More than anything this World Cup is showing how the game has developed around the Globe, perhaps even surpassing the best of Europe?
Trumpet
Well-Known Forumite
Not done us a lot of good though.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
Either at the last World Cup or some sort of Euro-thing, I heard two dealers at the boot sale talking about one of their colleagues, who had been to the warehouse and bought a load of cheap red and white flags with crosses on - unfortunately for him, they turned out to be white crosses on a red background....