2006 world cup was their time. lost miserably to portugal on pens in QF. fine margins. We must rememeber lampard gerrard and carragher all missed pens. Lampard unforgivable. At that point gerrard fancied himself but was nowhere near the pen taker he became later on in his career and carragher stood up and volunteered. It really was a case of what might have been Portugal lost to france In SF and france then lost to italy. Tight world cup. very much there for the taking then. the reality is......had the colombian not struck the crossbar england could well be out right now... this time england took the opportunity and progressed. 2006: Paraguagy (easy) narrow win Trinidad (league 1) comfortable win sweden 2-2 draw to top group Ecudaro last 16 Portugal in QF loss on pens. Not exactly a hard run til QF England have to stand up now and take this opportunity v croatia. Its absolutely there for the taking. Some players have stood tall and did their jobs agaisnt what is in fornt of them so croatia should hold no fears. the reality is england can scrap like dogs and go to pens if they have to in final one very tough game right at end but the rest... have not and should not stretch england.
I was going to say the same thing - without the expletive How many times do penalties get re-taken, hardly ever - and I've seen some very dodgy ones that should have been re-taken.
I guess it's easy to forget about the past draws (or try to forget). But you make some good points and it all comes down to taking your chances. The current England team have played well under a manager that has clearly got them motivated and focused. But your mention of the 2006 team makes this run even better. That team had better players from the keeper all the way to the striker, but went out in the QF's against a team they had a very good chance of a win. How did they not do better...
I can't understand how that team can bottle it when the players have played at the highest level and won the biggest trophies. A lot of blame goes on the English media for putting so much pressure on the team.
Think you just answered your own question. Fans booing them at Wembley, particular ones that don't play for the club they support, didn't help either. All adds pressure. But, like you said, they should have been used top high pressure situations. I'll always blame Sven, Capello, etc. Sticking to 442 and not having the bollox to pick a team rather than trying to fit square pegs in round holes. One of those forever debated midfielders should have been dropped for the sake of the team!
Some lunatic driving a van after England reached the semi-final blasting out Vindaloo, looks like the entire town of Leek joined in.
. Same old story and all that. Rooney got sent off due to the winker and his own stupidity. In fairness if you look at the pen shoot out the pens were fairly **** really. Long run ups and very straight on ball meant it was easier read. Imo it was just poor but inn the end every good story needs a villian. England had Ronaldo not Rooney so failed to look at the real issues
