England v Ukraine

Here’s a start to your list of foreigners then:
The Turkish surgeon who botched your tit job
Thomas Muller - for missing that equaliser
Ryan Fraser

 

I'm at a bloody wedding reception.

Plan is to turn the phone off and then watch on iPlayer at first opportunity.

Any idea how long it takes for iPlayer to kick in?

 

You can watch IPlayer 'live'...or rather it has a delay of two to three minutes. Loading it is quick, you will have to navigate a few screens but that should only take a minute. I would put my phone on the table, I'm sure there will be others doing the same. In fact, they've probs got an outdoor screen. Forget the wedding mate (even if it is yours). Some things are more important

 

Unfortunately it's the wedding of a scotsman, and there will only be about a dozen of us at the table...

Hoping to just watch the match 2 hours late.

 

I'm not sure how long after the match has finished they show short and extended highlights and the full match. Probs straight away

 

Good luck trying to avoid hearing the score!
It'll be like that episode of the Likely Lads when Terry and Bob try to go all day without hearing the result (England v Bulgaria)

 

I'll have a gander at the Spain game tonight and see when it's available.

 

I’m in a similar situation going to a 40th birthday party which will be lovely but I demanded the football be on or it’s adios at 7pm.

It’s an outdoor bbq aswell and it’s forecast to lash it down. I’m actually taking my own gazebo. Not kidding either!

 

Most of the guests will be dressed in Ukraine shirts then.

 

Starting to get the buzz for this now. We went into full lockdown today so will be watching at home. Its a 2.00am kick off here anyway but most Indonesians will be up watching - mad on football here.

Think if we win I might bring forward my trip home so I can watch the semi at a decent time. There's something special about watching your country play, even if they fail to live up to expectations most of the time.

 

Why would you do that? Unless you are not English of course.

 

Just like all Manchester United fans

 

So what you are saying is he is an International Plastic?

 

Trying to figure out whether thats a subtle dig at me.

 

I like football more than my place of birth.

I just don't seem to care about England tbh I can't help it because it's just not there.

 

So why support Newcastle then - we haven’t been proponents of the beautiful game for quite a few years now? ​

 

I just do care like I say I can't help it I just don't like my country.

I see boring negative football creeping in at the highest level and its a war on football.

If italy win it tears down this notion that's creeping in that negative boring football wins competitions and attacking doesn't.

I'm looking at my long term interests

 

No it was a dig at @Roy Munson

 

So is it a dislike of the country or a dislike of the way we play football? I seem to remember you wanting Australia to win the Ashes last time they were on suggesting its more country related than swpecific sports related.

Football goes through cycles - I would suspect that these current Euro's have seen more goals scored than most others. Italy were probably regarded as one of the most defensive sides in the world 20-30years ago so they don't really support your theory that a notion is creeping in that negative boring football wins competitions, as they have changed their philosophy significantly. I think the notion that you build a winning team around a strong defence is a valid one and the extent to which defences have dominated through time has varied.

A lot of the excitement in football comes when players take risks, and they come off, but obviously its easier to do that if a) you have nothing to lose and there's no pressure on you, or b) if you have a defence that you can trust to clear up any mistakes you make in midfield.

I think that England have an issue with both of these - there is a lot of pressure on both players and managers as there is a huge expectation from the fans/media and our defence is probably the weakest part of our set-up. We could have loaded the team with attacking midfield players but it would have exposed our defence. The two best players for me against Germany were Rice and Phillips, as they broke up play and won the ball back and protected our defence. I thought it was a fascinating game of football to watch and a great result for us.

As Pouchy says I think the game against Ukraine may be somewhat more boring than the Germany game but I have been impressed with how Southgate has set the team up to counter the opposition and so I hope we might see a more attacking line up tonight.