Russia World Cup 18

[moof]

It's probably worth a doff of the cap to a nation of 4 million people which has only been a nation for about 5 weeks and which is now in the World Cup Final.

 

I really hope that Indy article accusing the players of singing Nazi songs is overblown, misguided and incorrect.

It might be a fascist/Croatian nationalist war song, but have you heard how fucking catchy it is? I’ve been spontaneously singing it every few hours for the last fortnight. With that, and how fresh in the memory the war still is, I don’t know that I can hold it against them tbh...

[Guest]

One shot on goal in 120 minutes.  Led the game for an hour and spent maybe ten minutes of them looking interested in scoring another.  That's it really.  Croatia are a good side but they're not some unbeatable force of nature - England looked well on top for the first half hour but just didn't do enough with it - they had chances to kill that game off.  As soon as they let Croatia start to play the midfield was under pressure and that's where they lost it.

 

Oh and Saint Harry Kane was a complete waste of space.  Seeing him playing in midfield when England were chasing a goal being a particular highlight, but he might as well not have been on the pitch for over half of that game.

 

For all I've said about him, I would have left Sterling on tonight and yanked Kane for Rashford.  Sterling was scaring the shit out of the defence, get Rashford's pace in there too and it might have shook things up.  As it was you could feel that game going away from England with every sub, other than Rose who I though made as good a job of things as he could.

 

Summary of that game for me is that England spent half of the last five minutes of a World Cup semi final passing the ball sideways in midfield.  That's no time to be worrying about perfect goals unless you have Messi or Ronaldo in the team.  Otherwise, get it in the fucking box.

 

Fair fucks to Croatia, they didn't panic, played their way into the game and were dominating by the end.  They have a great mix of styles, equally comfortable with one touch passing through the midfield or hitting runners with accurate long balls and they're a very intelligent side.

England couldn't keep their intensity up so the scary elements of their team ran out of steam after perhaps 40 minutes, then they relied on set pieces for their hopes. Hardly surprising to see it happen again tonight as it's happened pretty much all tournament except Belgium when they clearly did not want to win the match.

[BCM]

Raheem Sterling knocks 20 3 yard tap ins for Man City this season and gets his ability blown out of all proportion.

No surprise at all he is nearly always the first one hooked, all pace and no end product.

[Aventus]

Load of shite.

 

Scored the early goal and then the players got cocky/greedy passing up brilliant chances to kill the game.

 

Second half they had us sussed out, and we either didn't have a plan B, or our plan B was so blatantly unoriginal. By making the same subs we always do, it was easy for Croatia to predict us.

 

The game yesterday when Belgium were chasing it, Hazard was the only one who looked like he was going to pull something out the bag. Inspirational captain type stuff.

 

Our game was like that except nobody ever looked like making something happen. At the beginning of the tournament these shite pundits were tossing each other off about how it was such an incredible decision to make Kane captain. Talking about how it doesn't matter that he can barely form sentences but when the chips are down you need somebody who can pull off some magic and give the players/fans a lift, though actions rather than words.

 

Well where was he? Dossing about hiding near the fucking centre circle dribbling down his shirt is where he was.

 

 

Happy for Trent more than anything really, young lad with fuck knows how much potential being able to experience this.

It's only going to make him a better player. He might not have played much, and generally England haven't been anything special but 2018 has been a massive year for him and just being around the team is going to be a bonus.

 

Hopefully him and Hendo have picked up a fair few tips and ideas about set pieces, England seems to be quite good at them, and Liverpool are generally shite with them.

[Pidge]

One shot on goal in 120 minutes.  Led the game for an hour and spent maybe ten minutes of them looking interested in scoring another.  That's it really.  Croatia are a good side but they're not some unbeatable force of nature - England looked well on top for the first half hour but just didn't do enough with it - they had chances to kill that game off.  As soon as they let Croatia start to play the midfield was under pressure and that's where they lost it.

 

Oh and Saint Harry Kane was a complete waste of space.  Seeing him playing in midfield when England were chasing a goal being a particular highlight, but he might as well not have been on the pitch for over half of that game.

 

For all I've said about him, I would have left Sterling on tonight and yanked Kane for Rashford.  Sterling was scaring the shit out of the defence, get Rashford's pace in there too and it might have shook things up.  As it was you could feel that game going away from England with every sub, other than Rose who I though made as good a job of things as he could.

 

Summary of that game for me is that England spent half of the last five minutes of a World Cup semi final passing the ball sideways in midfield.  That's no time to be worrying about perfect goals unless you have Messi or Ronaldo in the team.  Otherwise, get it in the fucking box.

 

Fair fucks to Croatia, they didn't panic, played their way into the game and were dominating by the end.  They have a great mix of styles, equally comfortable with one touch passing through the midfield or hitting runners with accurate long balls and they're a very intelligent side.

 

Spot on.  Also astonishing how Lingard lasted the 120, one of his worst games of the championship.  Actually reversal of his usual form, been pretty good until we needed him then disappeared.  For Utd he's usually shite until the big games.

 

Also shout out to Maguire, all his good work undone by not telling Stones he was passing over Mandzukic.  Basic stuff.

 

That said, wouldn't want to be too scathing about any of them.  They were very naïve while in front (our play in the final third was good, everywhere else it was panic stations), with Henderson mainly looking after Modric we needed another body in the middle and should have had Delph or Loftus-Cheek in there early on second half.  We played ourselves into pressure and it told in the end. 

 

Overall they've outdone expectations all ends up and are well set to drop a few of the older names and move forward as a team, it will be infuriating to see the usual knives out in the press.

 

Plus, at least we get to see Trent on Saturday.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Happy for you, mate. Just looking forward to the behind-the-scenes cam in the SBS studio for the winner. Lucy celebrating is a beautiful thing!

Who is Lucy and where are the pics?

 

(Seriously, I'm choking. It could be Linus Van Pelt's big sister or it could be the cro-magnon fossilised skeleton - I'd still find a way of belting one out.)

[an tha]

That stupid beer throwing lark has been sorted thanks to Perisic.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/ballsdotie/status/1017129955409481730/video/1

[dockers_strike]

Hahaha. Someone talking about moral high ground while ignoring one team allegedly been singing nazi songs. Perhaps the arse wipe would like to do some research on the balkans. Probably not eh. Cue his qim giff of him sticking his fingers up his arse.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I don't think the knives will be out in the press if anything one of Southgates best strengths has been how he's dealt with the media.

[an tha]

I might not have any love for Ingerlund but Southgate is a very decent lad....

[RoboRiise]

Fucking Tyldesley wanking off over the great future this team has.

 

No chance this team get close in the future

 

They'll be OK for another couple of years, all they'll be playing is that arsepiss UEFA League that nobody gives a shit about and the Euro 2020 qualifiers which will have everybody jizzing when they stick 17 past a team of postmen from San Marino and battle to a hard-fought 2-1 away win in Andorra.

 

Then at the tournament they'll get drawn in a group of death with Croatia (because UEFA like their little jokes) France and Portugal and everybody will go back to England matches being a bit meh.

 

Has Roy Keane been on the poppers or what, his big glowing red face is scaring me.

[Anubis]

Anyway, by tomorrow morning I'm sure it'll all be Henderson's fault.

[Bjornebye]

Southgate deserves to stay on and the England team deserve credit. They got to the semi final , might come 3rd. 1st half they were class and players like McGuire, Henderson , Maybe Lingarrd come away looking like top class players. I've enjoyed their journey and I find it hard to dislike the team.

[Pidge]

I don't think the knives will be out in the press if anything one of Southgates best strengths has been how he's dealt with the media.

 

I certainly hope not.

[Bjornebye]

Oh Pickford and Trippier too.

[Trumo]

England fell into the trap of doing the same things they always do in the knockout stage against technically stronger opponents. They don't take care of the ball well enough and knacker themselves out chasing it when their opponents pass it about. If you're going to play without possession, your defence and midfield have to be rock solid and water-tight, and not prone to brainfarts and switching off. You also have to take your chances at the other end, and not just rely on set-pieces. When you're up against a side that has played to penalties in both their previous games, you should be looking to wrestle the initiative and make them chase the ball.

 

England didn't have enough dead-ball situations from the second half onwards to offer a real threat. I think there was a Stones header cleared off the line by Vrsalkjo, but that's it. Rashford was a headless chicken, Kane was drifting out of the game in that stupid Rooney position of the last few years, doing fuck all in attack and offering nothing in midfield, and he looked like Euro 2016 Kane out there with his off-target finishing as well as missing a great chance. Lingard and Alli couldn't offer any support because they spent all game chasing shadows in midfield.

 

You could see how much the Spurs players in particular didn't know how to get on the ball, by difficult to shrug off it, and dictate play. They all looked like they were waiting for someone to do those jobs for them. Those players play for Belgium (Dembele) and Denmark (Eriksen) so couldn't help them here. It was a decent free kick goal from Trippier mind you.

 

The defenders switched off regularly and got caught out on 3 or 4 occasions, with two of those resulting in goals. They were also getting pushed too deep whenever Croatia decided to press from the front. Indeed, it was Croatia's coach who was adapting to the situation and trying to affect it, whereas Southgate was still working to Plan A.

 

The commentators and pundits throughout the first half and half time were saying Croatia are shit, and that Lovren and Vida were all over the place. They were trying to suggest that Lovren was having a meltdown of the sort he had at Wembley last season. I actually thought he was doing OK (every defender fouls at least once in a game, even the best ones, but these commentators think that any defender who gives free kicks away is shit). From the second half onwards, he and Vida dominated England's attack.

 

So Croatia reach their first ever final while England will scratch their heads as they prepare for a nothing game against the Belgians in St Petersburg.

[Hand Shandy]

Anyway, by tomorrow morning I'm sure it'll all be Henderson's fault.

Went tits up after he went off.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Anyway, by tomorrow morning I'm sure it'll all be Henderson's fault.

Absolutely.

We were doing alright until the lazy twat fucked off early.

[clangers]

Bottom line is this a very average England squad and team. Semi-final's however they got there is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

They would have benefited from a fully fit Lallana (wouldn't we all) and AOC tonight but even that highlights the paucity of talent available. I just don't see Sterling or Lindgard ever developing into that really top flight attacking midfielder.

[joe_fishfish]

The best thing about this world cup is that we only had two players who played any serious minutes and they're both in positions we have good cover for.

 

Imagine if Egypt and Senegal had got to the quarters, we'd be fucked.

[Captain Turdseye]

Hahaha. Someone talking about moral high ground while ignoring one team allegedly been singing nazi songs. Perhaps the arse wipe would like to do some research on the balkans. Probably not eh. Cue his qim giff of him sticking his fingers up his arse.

Allegedly, yeah. Show me the part of the song they sung with Nazi lyrics then, gimpo. I’ll wait patiently for you to completely ignore my request for clarity as usual. Also, talk to me about the research you’ve done on the Balkans and the song in question.

 

I’m made up that your boys lost. Now we can move on to the football that actually means something to the majority of people on here.

[an tha]

Gonna be some fucked players come start of season.

 

3 weeks off seems to be the norm once they are done over there so you are looking at 1 week of pre season before it all starts.

 

Be a few like Kane missing early games i would imagine...

[Mr T]

I'd rather England lost like that in a semi rather than the embarrassment that was Liverpool in the CL final. No English player bottled it like Karius did. Just beaten by a better team.

 

Also you can build on a semi final. But losing a final, no good can come from.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I don't think the knives will be out in the press if anything one of Southgates best strengths has been how he's dealt with the media.

Agreed. He's managed expectations very well.

 

I think he'll still be in charge of much the same squad for 2020 and 2022.

[s(k)aturation]

It might be a fascist/Croatian nationalist war song, but have you heard how fucking catchy it is? I’ve been spontaneously singing it every few hours for the last fortnight. With that, and how fresh in the memory the war still is, I don’t know that I can hold it against them tbh...

 

 

It's a nationalist song.

 

And you're right, the singing of it is based on a people fighting for their independence from a totalitarian regime in the early 90s... not the early 40s.

 

Kids like Lovren - whose family fled Croatia as refugees in the 90s - are, I doubt, celebrating old fascist ties.

 

There are some bad cunts in Croatia - but I'd say a bunch of 20 and 30-something footballers earning their keep in Madrid, Liverpool, Milan etc and playing for their country probably aren't the bad cunts in question.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong.  Who knows what's in someone's heart.