The Euro 2016 Thread

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Who will win Euro 2016?

  • Total voters
    104
spacedsaint said:
I just think the answer is supposed to prove something. Real fans support their teams. Plastics support England. Bla bla bla.

The truth is my team's players have no loyalty to my home town. They are loyal to their wallets. It doesn't mean I don't love them while they are here, but it also means so little in reality. The guys playing for England do it for pride, and that should mean more, really - but I haven't built a love for them like my team in the red and white... These things are different but fairly equal.

Supporting any team is, of course, a bizarre and arbitrary action. We have less control over it than a gam of Pooh sticks.
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Great fun Pooh sticks. :emoticon-0103-cool:
 
Why did play restart with a Spain free kick..? Turkey had the ball, 2 Spain players clashed together so the ref stopped it, then gave them a free kick <confused> and now it's 2-0
 
Spain. ****ing hell. Different gravy tonight, back to their imperious best. Pass move pass move, always options, always finding space, always movement in front of the ball, and when they lost it, which wasn't very often, Turkey were so befuddled they didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know what to do without it either. Anyone who wants to have a chance against Spain will need a plan.
 
fran-MLs little camera said:
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/145...fans_avoid_jail_over_Euro_attack/?ref=mr&lp=6

Two Southampton men travelling with tickets for the England/Wales game get suspended sentences and deported after attacking a passenger on a bus in France. Very smart.
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This is what I mean about ordinary people having to put up with noisy, disruptive football supporters. And that's even before things turn nasty. Non-football supporters don't want to put up with this stuff, and they shouldn't have to, but they often do just so as not to make a fuss or because they're outnumbered. Well I'm afraid fans need to learn a lesson. Make all the noise within the stadium, fine. But they have no extra rights to civil disobedience just because they follow a football team, and they should learn to behave yourselves.
 
TheSecondStain said:
Not a bad point you make, but although we might take a shine to our local team's players, we are actually supporting the shirt, not the men wearing it, so that is where the pride lays for the club. In terms of the national side, I think England, as a nation, get it wrong.

There is often a call that England, the nation, doesn't have an identity. Scotland, Wales, and the rest of the British Isles know exactly who and what they are, but the English don't really. Now, speaking entirely personally here, I know in my heart why that is for me. It's because the nation's citizens are told to celebrate the head of state rather than the country and citizens. This is bound up in the national anthem. Most other countries celebrate their nation and citizens, and that's why they have more national fervour, I think. So, for example, in my case, the Italian national anthem makes me feel proud to be Italian. The English national anthem doesn't make me proud to be English, because it's not about me or my country. But, as I say, that's the way it affects me.

Anyway, I've digressed more than I intended. Club easily before country for me because I feel represented.
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That's because it's not an ENGLISH national anthem...it's a BRITISH national anthem. (Which is why Northern Ireland use it as well). Jerusalem is a better tune, less subservient and more aspirational.

As for identity, the Scots and Welsh think they know who they are (they're usually wrong)...but it's mainly summed up by being "NOT English" The English are trained from an early age to be BRITISH (which isn't a national identity but a political convenience....like "European"). It's all rather ironic seeing as the English were pre-eminent in establishing a nation state (begun by Ælfred and completed, in 927 AD, by Æthelstan). This was long before many more "patriotic" nations existed. (950 years before Germany).

Scottish patriotism has long been celebrated and indulged by a British establishment (especially royalty).This was seen as a way of diffusing separatist tendencies.
Of course, the dubious "Celtic" identity, starting in the 19th century, gave a romantic edge to those Angle, Norse, Pict, Scot, Briton dwellers beyond the wall.

English patriotism is seen as a threat to the Union, because demographically it's the English who count. It has been suppressed for generations, leading to the situation where it was seen as not respectable and only football fans were allowed(and often ridiculed) to express it.
 
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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36565641
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Funny thing is that, to me, in the recent era, nothing beats the 26 pass move Saints made against Boro in the Championship. The reason being was that there was hardly a pass made that wasn't being contested. There were no, or very few dead passes

Of course the greatest goal of all time happened in the early 1980's, also by Saints. Thankfully there is video around to prove it. Not the maximum moves in passing, but the quality was fantastic. :)
 
TheSecondStain said:
Funny thing is that, to me, in the recent era, nothing beats the 26 pass move Saints made against Boro in the Championship. The reason being was that there was hardly a pass made that wasn't being contested. There were no, or very few dead passes

Of course the greatest goal of all time happened in the early 1980's, also by Saints. Thankfully there is video around to prove it. Not the maximum moves in passing, but the quality was fantastic. :)
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There were two goals of equal quality in that era. Both by Saints. Both against the same opposition.
 
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