Enjoyed England last night. We are certainly a tight unit. Thought Welbeck was excellent. Also, a large Hull City flag was visible at certain points of the match. Great stuff.
Russia not looking so clever against a very ordinary Polish team. Croatia will piss this and **** me just as I'm typing this they(Russia) go and score. I know, literally, **** all.
Russia look very tidy, there are a few good teams in this tournament am looking forward to the later stages, could be some epic games ahead. Croatia my sweepstake choice on here
I obviously meant Croatia will win the tournament and not the game between Poland and Russia, which would be highly unlikely if not impossible.
I don't think Poland are too bad, Greece seem to be the worst in the tournament to me. They are so ineffective going forward it's unreal. I don't know how they've scored a goal in both their games, they hardly had a shot in either of their games but were gifted one today by Cech's error (hilarious by the way). I honestly think a score of nil would have flattered Greece in both their games and they somehow managed to get one in both. Their defence isn't up to much either.
Why should the standard of the league matter what way you play the game? We played 90 minutes of football, why has passing sideways suddenly become 'football'. France created one clear cut chances, England created two, we was as good at creating clear cut chances as them. Another one who has put a little something on Croatia?
How good was that Poland goal?! On another note, that little petulatn kick by the Russian player would definitely have been a red card if it was Rooney.
Why do other teams get away with it? Its like if we do a pull of a shirt on the halfway line for a break away we get booked, Ashley Young and Oxlade do one foul get booked, Cabaye had 7 fouls on my counts, imagine if he was English everyone would call him a thug.
Cabaye committed three fouls( at least two if not all three were bookable) in the space of ten minutes. The ref was, putting it mildly, a completely useless, biased ****.
The ref for the France game was bad, particularly with the little pullback fouls on breakaways, in the second half someone was tugged down every time we countered. However with England it's more the high-profile decisions that annoy me. You just know that if Terry went and dived in clumsily in our area but still got a bit of the ball the ref would tend towards giving a penalty, or if Rooney kicked out at someone (or Beckham 10 years ago, basically anyone high-profile) he would be sent off, whereas for any other country common sense would prevail. It does my head in that so many decisions in England's case are biased because of the fame of the player involved. Rooney is only missing the first two games because he is Wayne Rooney. Anyone else would have just been told to calm down and not even got a yellow card, it was such a nothing incident. The fact he got a red card was silly but for UEFA to make special effort to extend the ban as if it was a really severe offence was just ridiculous.
And then for Uefa to make it only a one game ban in the finals themselves, but not for a friendly is even worse. To be fair i hate inconsistentcy with referee's most and Cabaye summed that up. Mckenna gets booked every game for one pull back France didn't once it was ridiculous. Ribery went down after a good tackle moaning and complaining wanting it kicking out, i would book him for being a ****.
Are you having a laugh? Rooney fully deserved to be sent off for lashing out like a petulant prick. I applaud you're patriotic stance but come on mate, do you honestly think what Rooney did was worthy of nothing more than a word from the ref? He booted the ****er three foot in the air.
To be honest I'd book Ribery for being a **** at the start of every game. I can't stand the guy, he's a diver and he looks like such a villain. My mate was getting well fed up of my constant predictions that Ribery would 'win' himself a penalty at some point during the France game I don't want to start a huge debate but he did not boot him up in the air at all. He kicked out but the important thing is that the ball was there, it's not like it was off the ball or anything he just swung at the leg/ball area from behind. It was clear to see he was frustrated in doing so and that's why he just needed telling to calm down and a free kick. You see much worse incidents than that every single week at home and in internationals. I remain completely convinced that there'd have been no fuss about it if it wasn't Rooney. I remember distinctly that I was watching it in the pub with no sound and no one moved a muscle when he did it, it just didn't get a reaction, and, when the ref sent him everyone was amazed. Then once the media have done their 'Rooney letting the country down' thing everyone is having a go at him. Obviously I can't gather everyone who was in the pub that night to see whose opinions have changed but it seems a massive coincidence that without commentary or anything and just looking at the incident alone, no one said anything, and then suddenly once the media had fed everyone their opinions it became a massive deal.
That's your opinion of events, mine are slightly different. As soon as it happened I winced and immediately thought he was a goner. You're the first person I know of who thinks he didn't deserve to be shown a red. You just cannot carry on like that.
[video=youtube;G1ovfmebnpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1ovfmebnpM[/video] Opinions aside, the ball is there and it's incredibly soft. If it's a player no one has heard of then nobody hears of the incident but for some reason we like to have a go at our best players so it became a big deal. You see that kind of thing all the time in football and it isn't a red card every week. For example anyone remember the other key incidents in that game? The 'victim' of this 'assault' came on at half time, got booked and should have been given a second yellow for 3 or 4 totally unfair challenges (like the France ones the other day, every time we were on a break) but somehow got away with it and then somehow survived a straight red for elbowing Welbeck in the face(the one genuine assault in the match, and to make it worse he even started holding his head as if he was the one who took an elbow). But nobody will remember that, and why is that? Because he isn't Rooney.
[video=youtube;5SLdycB5ZEg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SLdycB5ZEg&feature=related[/video] Here's another one, at WC 2006. Notice how the incident is nothing at first, then Ronaldo makes a massive fuss and gradually it becomes a massive deal and the ref realises he has an opportunity to send off a famous England player. He doesn't even see anything at first. This one was even more ridiculous because Rooney was the one being fouled by three of them and then gets sent off for walking backwards onto someone's cock. As if he somehow knew exactly where the bollock was behind him.
Are that group of Hull City fans not the same ones who go everywhere with England. ? The fiasco over the England band and there instruments was pathetic. English FA and Uefa get them in ok but then the security zealots take them away. What a joke. The band should have played on regardless, imo. Agree. Rooney is an arse at times and fully deserved his red card. But a one game ban was more than enough for that action. ffs, even the ref and the player Rooney kicked offered support in WR defence. Hopefully though one day the penny will finally drop with Rooney.
