No surprise for the match-riggers, if reports of Onomah bossing MF for England in that tournament in the previous games are true.
No appeal, so another Spurs player misses out on a game in this tournament following a nonsensical red. Quite odd, really. How many reds have there been and have they all been that bad?
I imagine this level is ripe for the match fixers. Just low key enough to avoid too much attention I imagine.
It's hard not to notice that the majority of the officials at this tournament weren't at the last World Cup - and (with the exception of one El Salvadorian ref) the vast majority of the officials with major tournament experience all come from the UEFA contingent, with Bjorn Kuipers, Jonas Eriksson and Cuneyt Cakar all present at the last World Cup, while Szymon Marciniak and Sergei Karasev joined Kuipers, Eriksson and Cakar at last year's Euros. In other words, most federations seem content to send their refereeing B-teams, and it's showing. It's also worth pointing out that, based on the past few World Cups, refereeing standards in the Middle East are alarmingly subpar...so it's no wonder the Saudis think that Mark Cluntenberg will improve standards there.
On the subject of ****ty refereeing at this tournament, this is how Italy's Giuseppe Pezzella received a red card against Zambia What makes it that much worse is that, after consulting the video ref, the penalty that Zambia initially won for this "foul" was cancelled...in favour of Zambia being awarded a free kick outside the box, while Pezzella's red stood. What is it with Ecuadorian referees dicking over Italy in matches played in South Korea? That's the second time it's happened!
i'm housebound at the moment so have seen a fair bit of eng in the U20 WC & Onomah has been very good as has Cork (B'Mouth) and your Walters-Peters pretty good. Today Onomah unlucky when hit the post in Englands best spell.As for the sending off but you should see the farce of the sending off decision in the Italy v Zambia game - which was a cracking game ending 3-2 to Italy. i also claim credit for Englands win with a RCL jinx strategy
Farcical. Josh had been playing brilliant in the tournament, he skins a player a gets a second yellow for it. Ref should be binned.
As an exercise physiology buff, I object to Southgate putting the players through boot camp. I was part of any experiment in which the US Olympic rowing coach* established to everyone's satisfaction that there are two kinds of useful training: interval training for cardiovascular fitness and weight training for strength--and that everything else is a load of macho bullshit.* Besides, after an extremely grueling season, wouldn't a week on the beach in a nice resort be more appropriate? *Not to imply I was on an Olympic team. I was on a college rowing team the Olympic coach also trained. *Of course, in a skill sport like football, the keys to success are talent and time spent practicing technique.
I think it's done through a misunderstanding of what that selection process delivers. Those that pass the training are bonded by having done so, and having seen others fail to achieve the same standards. It's a long and gruelling course and not something that you dip into. If you just pick and choose a couple of elements that doesn't happen particularly if some members of the squad don't do them - and the flooded tunnel thingy isn't for everyone by any means! So whilst the the whole process is extremely beneficial to create the sort of team that civilians cannot possibly imagine (which puts the expression "team player" into context when used by a civilian), I very much doubt it could achieve much in the way the England are using it, and might even be counter productive.
A "boot camp" is more of a collective psychological thing. Specifically that everyone is enduring the same thing together (no preferential treatment of individuals etc) . "I was part of any experiment in which the US Olympic rowing coach* established to everyone's satisfaction that there were two kinds of useful training: interval training for cardiovascular fitness and weight training for strength--and that everything else is a load of macho bullshit." For rowing perhaps. The above would not suffice for cycling (where "steady state" fitness is the first pre-requisite) . "Of course, in a skill sport like football, the keys to success are talent and time spent practicing technique." All sports have two primary facets : fitness and technical. The nature of the sport determines what the ratio of work on fitness:technical needs to be.
Perhaps the most impressive element of Mauricio Pochettino's management has been the creation of an incredible team spirit. Even when we lose , we never appear broken. I can't recall any serious strife or petulance between team mates in the last couple of years. Okay, Lamela shouldn't have taken the penalty against Citeh but it blew over pretty quickly in the game and afterwards there was not a sign of it. You'll never win in a team sport unless you play in a team. We all have memories of Spurs' 'big' players pointing and shrugging and sulking. Some players I can't think of without those images. England's 'so called' Golden Generation were ****ed from the off because they weren't prepared to put their club rivalries to one side. I wonder how much someone like Kyle Walker realises the debt he owes to Eric Lamela, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and the rest of the team? If he does go to Citeh and their stars don't provide the same environment, it will show.
There generally seems to be an egoless trait in the Spurs squad. Not only in who takes credit post-match (Kane being very humble in post-match interviews etc) , but I suspect also in the wage structure having quite good parity and seemingly meritocratic. Whether this is a consequence of the relative collective young age of the squad, no big age disparity in the squad etc, I know not. Long may it continue.
