I have just watched SSN and an interview with an England fan,"Its hurts so much", he said, not far from tears. Then I read a few of the threads on here, not many mind but one or two, the anger, the rage. I watched the game last night, watched the penalties, thought oh well then watched Emmerdale I had recorded from earlier. A good nights sleep and now looking forward to the window opening. I simply don't get all the OTT reaction, the hurt, pain and anger. But, maybe that's just me.
I was under the opinion that the entire nation was apathetic about our chances. That was until we made it out the group stage. This is what makes it so hard to understand. Everyone knew and seemed to accept we didn't have a good team. Then as soon as it becomes make or break, everyone suddenly reckons we're the bees knees. The QFs represents a good tournament for England.
Gotta agree MON thought the QF's was a good result for England most before the tournament would have been happy with that. Now people calling for Roy's head when yesterday he was the best thing since sliced bread.
Havn't been able to watch a single Euro game....bothered. But just by reading about it, it seems the same old English press and public... No hopers over achieve initially, built up to be world beaters, they ultimately as usual they fail and the axes are out...
The tactic the media seemingly had of saying "there are no expectations on the players this time, so they will probably win the tournament" was paradoxical and self-defeating from the off. Drawing comparisons with Chelsea's Champions League win was kind of inadequate given most of the Chelsea team weren't English. The focus on grit and determination was simply a way of trying to cover over our painfully obvious lack of quality compared to the current semi-finalists. Take nothing away from Roy though, I thought he acted with real dignity throughout and said the right things. Maybe next time with Jack 'Pirlo' Colback in the squad we might make the semis.
I think that the quarter finals was a relative successful campaign for England...We are miles behind the likes of Spain and Germany, and we really need a completely different and new approach if we are ever going to catch up..
I thought that England had the rub of the green in the group stages! On the balance of play, if we had lost all 3, we would have had no complaints! Getting through the group stages was an achievement! If you put our players in their respective premier league clubs then they become excellent players because they are surrounded by excellent foreign players. Put them together in the same team then we see how good they actually are, an above average, sometimes good national side. However, I couldnt fault the work rate, especially in defence where they blocked a ridiculous amount of shots! If Rooney had scored that overhead kick near the end of 90 minutes I think I would have wet myself!!!! As I predicted though, he was poor in both games, lack of games/match fitness. Carroll played ok, he held the ball up well on occassions when he came on, maybe should have played from the start!
