NPR

C69 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:26 pm Well that was brutal. What a totally inept display.
Very flattering score towards Wales. Could easily have been six or seven. Goodbye Bale and Ramsay you have been good servants but your last game is England.

Lobby wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:42 pm Looking on the bright side, a good Welsh performance at the Football World Cup would have been disastrous for Welsh Rugby. At least now the Welsh Rugby team aren’t the worst national team in Wales (as long as we ignore the Georgia result).

Jim Lahey wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:26 pm Written in the stars for a glorious win against the English on Tuesday, although Iran's 2nd goal could be a problem.

Need England to hammer the gringos tonight, Wales to beat England reserves on Tuesday and the gringos to beat Iran by a goal.

Not likely, but not out of the realms of possibility. Although the Welsh need to start playing decent football in the first half, which will present the biggest challenge . . .

sturginho wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:32 pm

C69 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:26 pm Well that was brutal. What a totally inept display.
Very flattering score towards Wales. Could easily have been six or seven. Goodbye Bale and Ramsay you have been good servants but your last game is England.

not sure their clubs would agree?

robmatic wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:34 pm I'm enjoying watching it with Turkish language commentary. Don't have to put up with the inane co-commentators English TV always has.

Blackmac wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:25 pm England getting totally outplayed here so far.

Blackmac wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:25 pm England getting totally outplayed here so far.

Tichtheid wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:20 pm ♫ Boston Shitbenders, Boston Shitbenders, we'll support you evermore
We''ll support yoo eh vah mo"♫

chants - "oh to, oh to be, oh to be a , Shitbender"

Slick wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:52 pm Iran v USA will be a cracker!

Sandstorm wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:59 pm 6-2 was an outlier. 0-0 and shithouse is the standard of this England squad.

Sandstorm wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:59 pm 6-2 was an outlier. 0-0 and shithouse is the standard of this England squad.

Paddington Bear wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 9:12 pm That reminded me why I prefer rugby

fishfoodie wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 9:30 pm

Sandstorm wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:59 pm 6-2 was an outlier. 0-0 and shithouse is the standard of this England squad.

Patriotically doing their best to avoid blackouts at home, by forcing fans to turn off their TVs in disgust

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:55 pm Top of the group mind you. We got to the final of the euros after a similarly soporific draw against Scotland, and it's not like we lost to Iran or Japan or something.

We seem a worse team than the last two tournaments and I'd really like it if Harry Kane's shit twin would stop turning up at major tournaments. England really missed James on the right and Foden will probably spend too much time kicking his heels. Fuck knows what Jordan Henderson is supposed to bring to the party at this stage as well.

Paddington Bear wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:23 pm England pretty assured tonight and march on to play Senegal. Fire up the bandwagon

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:55 pm Top of the group mind you. We got to the final of the euros after a similarly soporific draw against Scotland, and it's not like we lost to Iran or Japan or something.

We seem a worse team than the last two tournaments and I'd really like it if Harry Kane's shit twin would stop turning up at major tournaments. England really missed James on the right and Foden will probably spend too much time kicking his heels. Fuck knows what Jordan Henderson is supposed to bring to the party at this stage as well.

JM2K6 wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:07 pm I missed the first 30 which was pretty leaden footed by all accounts, but what I saw was a shift towards using pace and giving Rashford the opportunity to actually be a striker while Kane jogged around a bit and generally couldn't be arsed to try and get on the end of things. England looked decent.

9 goals in the group stage and top of the group, not as bad as feared pre-tournament.

I like neeps wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:36 am

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:55 pm Top of the group mind you. We got to the final of the euros after a similarly soporific draw against Scotland, and it's not like we lost to Iran or Japan or something.

We seem a worse team than the last two tournaments and I'd really like it if Harry Kane's shit twin would stop turning up at major tournaments. England really missed James on the right and Foden will probably spend too much time kicking his heels. Fuck knows what Jordan Henderson is supposed to bring to the party at this stage as well.

I'd say England are better than the last two tournaments. World cup 2018 they didn't beat anyone half decent and were ultimately poor Vs Croatia, Belgium and Colombia. I think people remember them as good because they were young and lacking expectations so it was fun. The Euros they were far too defence focused which kind of works but at international level teams often underperform their xG as they don't have time to work on patterns in attack and individual brilliant strikers are lacking at this level. Let Saka, Rashford, Foden, Grealish, Sterling run at people rather than have 5 at the back and Rice/Phillips in midfield. If you think about the Italy and Croatia games they attacked and scored early then sat back and allowed elite midfielders on the other team to control the game and the more focus that is on defending the more your weak defence are involved and the more chances are there for them to make mistakes which they will eventually. Vs France for instance you can't play on a defensive masterclass Vs Mbappe you have to plan on stressing France"s weak midfield and fullbacks - I also think Upamecano is a bit suspect at best so there's goals to be scored there too. Win a 3-2 rather than lose a 2-1 by playing 8 defensive players. I'd be quietly confident in the "we have better attacker's than you" strategy but Kane does need to pick it up.

Calculon wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:54 am All female on-field referee team taking charge of the crucial Germany - Costa Rica match. Not something that's ever going to happen in rugby, lol

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63801583

Lobby wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:29 am

Calculon wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:54 am All female on-field referee team taking charge of the crucial Germany - Costa Rica match. Not something that's ever going to happen in rugby, lol

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63801583

Except it’s already happened in Rugby. Earlier this year the match between Italy and Portugal had an all female referee team. Hollie Davidson was the referee, Sara Cox and Aurélie Groizeleau were the assistant referees and Claire Hodnett was the Television Match Official.

JM2K6 wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:12 am

I like neeps wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:36 am

JM2K6 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:55 pm Top of the group mind you. We got to the final of the euros after a similarly soporific draw against Scotland, and it's not like we lost to Iran or Japan or something.

We seem a worse team than the last two tournaments and I'd really like it if Harry Kane's shit twin would stop turning up at major tournaments. England really missed James on the right and Foden will probably spend too much time kicking his heels. Fuck knows what Jordan Henderson is supposed to bring to the party at this stage as well.

I'd say England are better than the last two tournaments. World cup 2018 they didn't beat anyone half decent and were ultimately poor Vs Croatia, Belgium and Colombia. I think people remember them as good because they were young and lacking expectations so it was fun. The Euros they were far too defence focused which kind of works but at international level teams often underperform their xG as they don't have time to work on patterns in attack and individual brilliant strikers are lacking at this level. Let Saka, Rashford, Foden, Grealish, Sterling run at people rather than have 5 at the back and Rice/Phillips in midfield. If you think about the Italy and Croatia games they attacked and scored early then sat back and allowed elite midfielders on the other team to control the game and the more focus that is on defending the more your weak defence are involved and the more chances are there for them to make mistakes which they will eventually. Vs France for instance you can't play on a defensive masterclass Vs Mbappe you have to plan on stressing France"s weak midfield and fullbacks - I also think Upamecano is a bit suspect at best so there's goals to be scored there too. Win a 3-2 rather than lose a 2-1 by playing 8 defensive players. I'd be quietly confident in the "we have better attacker's than you" strategy but Kane does need to pick it up.

England were better organised at WC2018 and people underrate any team England beats at football. The half decent teams were the ones that got to the knockout stages. What you really mean is we didn't beat any of the recognised major teams in a run of form. Which is fair, but ultimately irrelevant.

So we comfortably beat Sweden (who thumped Germany and beat South Korea), beat Colombia on pens (a huge problem for England - and given the reaction to Italy beating us on pens it means we were far superior to them), lost in extra time against Croatia who were worthy finalists (remember they absolutely thumped Argentina in the groups.) Yeah, we lost to Belgium. They beat Brazil, who beat Mexico, etc.

That's just international football these days. It's much closer and anyone can lose to anyone. It's great, frankly. Especially as we do still get the one or two outstanding teams at every tournament. These teams don't get to the business end of the tournament by accident, England included.