Disappointing, given the start we had but they have exceeded all expectations by a country mile. Hope they can build on this for the European Championship in 2 years
I want to be positive, and we have exceeded expectation........but......this was such an opportunity, Croatia were far from brilliant. We got worse n worse as the game went on, when it became clear we were seeding all momentum second half, what does Southgate do? Sweet Fanny Adams, he has game changers on the bench but what does he do? takes off our biggest threat! What should he have done? Take off either Alli who has done little in the whole cup looked knackered, ffs lotus cheek has been brilliant every time he's come on! he might have wrestled back the momentum. Or, and I might get slated for this, but Kane. totally annonamous for the second game on the trot, missed big chances and the only reason I can fathom for him staying on was pennos....Or lack of options upfront. So disappointed with our performance after such a bright start. England's going to throw it away! Again On the plus side, I did have 85p on Trippier at 50-1 For first scorer. I assume Gareth will continue, he must find some open play creativity because I think we look a long long way short of the Belgians or French. F#ck all this sh!t, pre-season, another win, PL here we come. Bah!
I thought the red was shocking tonight, maybe rose tinted glasses, but a number of Croatian players should have received yellows in that first half. Rebic, Lovren for sure!
Well this world cup hasn't really progressed the England team beyond what we knew of them skill wise. They've played and beaten teams below them in rankings, and lost to sides above and now below them. They've won a penalty shootout which is new, but them making the semi says more about the draw than our current placing in the world. Tldr- we haven't played a single top side this world cup. Wierdly the Belgium 3rd place game will be the first time we see England play a top side in a real test.
Pretty accurate assessment of how far we've progressed, but at least we've done it with players who should still be available for Qatar, as opposed to using players in the twilight of their careers. You called it FML when you said that you hoped the missed chances in the first would come back to haunt us!!
Yeah. This defeat feels more logical than a final berth tbh. Had we got to the final it would have been an opportunity rather than an achievement so to speak. If we beat Belgium on Saturday I'll be impressed. The game in the group stages wasnt a real reflection of either teams personnel, skill, or indeed desire. For that reason it's hard to include it as a barometer of progress. Look at it this way. England, ranked 12th, comfortably beat Sweden and panama (ranked 23rd and 55th). England drew with Colombia, ranked 16th. (Yes we won penalties but that's 5 mins of coin flip chance, the 120mins of football preceding it is a better assessment of footballing ability) England narrowly beat Tunisia 2-1 (ranked 21st) and narrowly lost to Croatia 2-1 (ranked 20th.) The England team were written off before the cup as being no up to much. Now they are being spoken of by the UK press as if they have defied the odds and proved that they were undervalued. There's no evidence of this, in fact they have drawn and lost to teams below their already outsider ranking of 12th this tournament. Kane will get the golden boot now, and yet half his goals are from penalties and not one of his goals will make the top ten goals of the tournament. His achievements too are more a product of circumstance than prodigious talent. For me what's changed is not about showing how they are one the big teams now, but rather showing that they aren't self inflicted tragedy merchants anymore. The discipline was much better. No stupid red cards. The attitude of the players was more tempered. No arrogant crowing from the 'golden generation.' The defense looked more organised and robust under pressure than previously, with strong performances from Pickford. But think about this. England were deemed a laughing stock when they lost to Iceland. That's Iceland, currently ranked 22nd in the world. Based on this tournament, that's exactly were Englands win lose uncertainty line is still firmly drawn. We got to the semi finals. But we are not in the top four teams in the world. We arent even close. And this team are now going to be shackled with the expectation that they are a contender with the best, when theres no evidence to support this. When they fail to justify such lofty targets, it's going to be ugly.
We do like to put ourselves down, don't we. No, of course we're not up there with the best (you know, all those who went home early) but we had a great few days, and I for one enjoyed the ride, as did many thousands. Well done guys, you're ****e apparently, but I was proud of you.
They're not ****e, but they aren't great either, the results of this tournament bear that out. A cup run is exciting to watch and be a part of. But when I hear people say we have exceeded expectations that can only be if we all expected them to perform below their ability in the first place, as they've not shown anything to suggest the progress that the British sporting press are spewing in some sectors. The hyperbole of the British press will do more harm to this teams development than good I worry. We should be realistic. We are happy because the England team didn't underachieve, not because they demonstrably overachieved. That's an important part of helping the team progress.
I'm realistic, I know exactly where we are, but lighten up for God's sake. I couldn't give a toss about the press, I think this is a team that can grow, let's embrace it, and not read too much into it.
I'm not gloomy or down on the result, I too enjoyed the journey into the later stages of a tournament for the first time in a long while. I'm just putting the teams achievements into context. The press are a bunch of self serving hacks, but they do control the narrative of how many perceive the national teams ability and achievements, I'm just suggesting that when people are saying England exceeded all expectations, thats a more complicated thing than it seems. We got further in the tournament than expected, but I'd suggest we only exceeded performance expectation on the pitch if initial expectations were set well below par to start. (Which perhaps they should have been, due to us underperforming in previous engagements)
That's a fair appraisal. I've probably drunk too much to look at it objectively, as my previous posts probably bear out. Here's hoping for improvement in the Euros!