Just came back. Lol at the US.
Just came back. Lol at the US.
I think we'll beat Belgium with surprising ease but then fall to bits against whoever we get after them. Do a Croatia, if you will.
It's good to see that the phrase 'game management' is now being used to cover everything.
But Belgium could out kick us. Then we’d need someone to 2 foot the red or something.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Trying to game the brackets is proper small nation mentality.
Could turn into a UFC match with the 'winner' being the first down to 6 players to get the game abandoned.
Sterling has been proper bollocks so far. He's not even managed to do anything in a 6-1 humping.
Trippier on the other hand has been brilliant. Despite Kane's goalscoring antics I think Trippier has been our best player.
Yeah Sterling has to be dropped, he was our worst player today by some distance.
Sterling could finally do something.
Kane's problem has been that we've created absolutely fuck all for him in open play. It's remarkable that he has 5 goals.
No need. Hazard's bound to go down for anything.
Given how bereft of vertebrae we usually are a loss against the first team with a competent player we face may not set us up for this rampage through the 'weak ' fixtures people seem to be envisioning.
Yes, CONCACAF qualis always turn out harder than they should. Playing in swamps against fully defensive teams that hack at you all match isn't easy. Also, the players from Mexico/US can't really be arsed to be there. Finally, the likes of Panama, Honduras, etc. are no longer scared of the top CONCACAF teams, so they do a good job at whatever you want to call the way they play. In the World Cup they still get stage fright and end up like today.
Meanwhile, in the F1, some bloke is donning proceedings by chilling out on some sort of flying device...
Last edited by John Arne; 24-06-2018 at 02:09 PM.
With the 48 teams they will presumably go to a double hex or some similar format and you'll see Guatemala or whoever con their way in as well.
48 teams really is an awful idea.
Key part is the not being arsed. Imagine having to fly all the way from Europe to Mexico, and then to Panama just to play some shitkickers. They always turn into horrible, horrible games of football.
I'm listening to Three Lions, World in Motion and Vindaloo on repeat. This is it, lads.
I hate World in Motion, but Three Lions got an airing earlier. Such a great song. It'll be a real shame when Diafra Sakho ends our tournament in the last 16.
World In Motion is as bad as the rest of the New Orders output. Utter dogshit.
If you don't at least like Blue Monday you're bent.
New Order are ok but as a football tune that thing is a bollocks clinical dirge. So much emotion in Three Lions.
World in Motion is only there for nostalgia reasons. It's always going to be linked to the success of 1990.
Germany won that one mate.
Great intro riff but can't de-link it from that advert for the hatchback ford focus so it goes in the bin sadly.
He’d miss.
Three Lions or Three Lions 98 though?
I'm a twit
Original Three Lions.
Set pieces.
Three Lions for sure. Not having Jonathan Pearce on it improves any track.
Lukaku misses the game against England.
He's just scared.
Lukaku shitting his pants early I see.
Pathetic from Belgium.
It's going to be the nil-nil to end all nil-nils, with someone heroically getting themself sent off in the last minute to game the fair play table.
I hadn't actually clocked how imbalanced the two sides of the draw are. Fucking hell.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...knockout-stage
Now it's Sweden v Switzerland, we really want to start the game with three own goals and see how Belgium like that.
If Japan win their group then all bets have to be off. That bottom half of the draw would be an absolute shambles.
It's only the bottom quarter that's relatively weak, but if Japan do win their group then I hope we finish second, but I've no idea how we engineer that.
RTÉ were saying tonight that Belgium are likely to make 8 changes.
Your move, Southgate. Can we play with 9?
Start Nick Pope in central midfield and get him to two-foot anyone he sees.
I suspect it's going to be a monumentally embarrassing game to be involved in and if there's any hint of either side actively trying to lose (beyond fielding shithouse teams) FIFA should kick both of them out of the tournament.
The fact that it's completely level on everything, so there is no currency in goals but only cards, gives it a unique status in all the tournaments I've seen.
In other matters, I find all the talk of finishing second in the group deliberately from the same people who think we can win the fucking thing to be pretty rofl.
Just go and try and win it, keep the momentum going. It would be so typical to successfully sabotage the game and go lose 1-0 to Japan (Okazaki 63') in the last 16.
Neither team's gonna be throwing it, and I predict a lot of goals (if you get done on the counter, who cares?). A 4-3 to Belgium or something like that
England will win easily if we try. Belgium will not try. I'm sure they have form in gaming all sorts of rankings and seedings.
Actually, scrap what I said above, I genuinely don't care where we finish. 'Best case' it'll be Japan then Sweden, which would have me thinking we could make the semi's and that sort of hope just isn't good for anyone.
Momentum is a nice thing to build and, if we're serious, we have to beat the best to succeed. It's the first opportunity for both sides to face a credible opposition.
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