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Nigel Wrote:Crikey - maybe I'll even have to think about running tonight ...

Now let's not panic Nigel. There's always Scrabble or Monopoly...

...come to think of it, where are my running shoes?

That dreadful thought occurred to me Nigel -
happily my west coast agent arrived in town last night and we're off out to eat too much and drink vast quantities of obscenely-priced wine on his expense account as we disucss the early demise of Team America . . .

C'est la vie

I see that Graham Poll has announced his retirement from international football refereeing...

Puts me in mind of that scene from the Commitments, when the two blokes tell Jimmy Rabitte that they've left the three piece band they were in.

"The other fella said he was going solo anyway..."

"He hasn't got much f****ing choice now..."

Since winning in 1966, England have only been eliminated in the knock-out stages of the World Cup by former world champions.

:zzz:

Seafront Plodder Wrote:Since winning in 1966, England have only been eliminated in the knock-out stages of the World Cup by former world champions.

:zzz:

As one of our great football coaches here says, "There's no such thing as a past champion. You're either the reigning champ or you're nothing."

Bad luck to Argentina, punished for an Erikssonesque lack of attacking ambition.
As for the post-match scenes on the pitch . . .

[SIZE="4"]Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha . . . [/SIZE]

How reassuring for this MU Rowdies fan to see the Voice Of Reason Gabriel Heinze trying to bring order to the melee with his hands around the throat of a FIFA official When Argentina are not thrown out of world football for two years this will prove that Sepp Blatter is, in fact, Scottish

I read a report that the ref had ordered a re-take of the last pen as Leaman came off his line too far to save it, but by that time the goalmouth was swamped with celebrating Germans.

Dunno how true that is, perhaps Mick (word-on-the-street) Collins knows more.

The only reason I know the word on the streets is because if I was any less important, I'd be sleeping on them...!

I just think it's a pity Graham Poll wasn't in charge, in light of the post match punch up. Given his keeness for cards, and given the extent of the ruck, he'd have sent so many people off, whoever won wouldn't have had enough players left to contest a semi-final.

Oh yes, six bookings and off you go, as Graham likes to say....

To be honest, I didn't think it was a 'moving off the line' sort of save. It wasn't in the corner and it wasn't hit too hard, so there was no need to narrow the angle, and it was a nice height for a 'keeper to reach. Once he went the right way, he was odds on to stop it. Intriguing to see him trying to be modest and calm afterwards. Given that nobody in football has a higher opinion of themselves that our Jens, that must have taken a quite amazing effort of will...

Anyone for an England v Germany final? I believe we may have some headlines ready and waiting...!

I felt cheated, Mick.
I'd hoped Germany would take the lead with Argentina equalising in the last minute through a horrible Lehman error - NOT as Andy would suggest because as a MU Rowdy I hate all things Arse (mostly true) but just to see the Neanderthal Khan jumping up and down on the bench, shoving his finger up his arse and eating a banana. The resulting punch-up between the two stoppers would have graced Madison Square Gardens, producing a thunder flash as giant ego's came crashing together . . .

T'was not to be.
But I like the idea of an England/ Germany final.
Keep an eye on the Eyeties . . . sneaking through despite all manner of distractions. I got a bad feelin' about this . . .

STOP PRESS:

Fred Trueman has died.

A fan of TMS in its pomp (circa Jonners, Trevor bailey et al) I adored Trueman for his gnarled dismissals of England’s bowling attack. 'Fiery' Fred was the nemesis of many an ambitious batsman, bowling with genuine pace and hostility at a time when most county cricketers were little more than fast-medium by today's standards. He certainly didn't suffer fools (or anyone else, really) gladly.

'In ma day . . . line n length . . .' I can hear his grumpy, grumbling voice as I type. God bless you Fred.

I'll be raising a glass of Spitfire to you this afternoon, old boy.

And it was bad luck really, in the end. Penalty shoot-outs are awful things, and England were better and stronger without doubt. Rooney should not have been sent off, and England wouldn't have lost with 11 men. And I really can't see Portugal winning a smei-final...

Never mind. Perhaps now you can get back to concentrating on the cricket. And you've still got a couple of lads in the tennis, not to mention David Millar's return to the Tour de France...

Chins up, lads.

Well, that's over for another four years.
The English Sporting Psyche is satisfied - glorious failure once again.

So, who's to blame?
Let the inquisition commence, but lets not lose sight of one or two simple truths.

England were never the sum of their regal parts.
Of all those out there today, only the keeper (during the match), the back four and Owen Hargreaves - yes, Owen Hargreaves, ladies and gentlemen - deserve our admiration for their resilience, guts and refusal to lose on the field of play.

I was upset to see Christiano Ronaldo appear to head-butt Rooney in the back of the head before kick-off - one only hopes that FIFA get to see that video tape and this time, with no sanction taken on the pitch, he will receive due punishment. Not rocket science to forecast Rooney's demise for petulance, but like a nasty pile-up in terrible weather it's sometimes nigh on impossible to avoid.

Did Rooney deserve to go?
Would he have played in the tournament had we gone through once FIFA reviewed his well-aimed, ill-advised stamp on his opponents' gonads?
Probably irrelevent as we played with a good deal more verve once down to ten men.

Unlucky in the penalty shoot-out?
Hmm, not sure - Ricardo was magnificent, Robinson ordinary at best.
Our boys all hit the target but there was a weary acceptance of the inevitable in the run-ups and strikes.

The debates will rage on but in truth we weren't good enough.
Get over it and enjoy what will surely be devine retribution in the Semi Finals.

Germany to win?
If playing with passion, as a team, counts for anything they'll lift the trophy.

I'm looking forward to pre-season training at the MU Rowdies.

Heinze, Ronaldo, Rooney . . .
they should invite Graham Poll up and have a tackle-fest.
Get your tenner on Christano Ronaldo changing hands for less than a princely sum in the weeks ahead.

Looks like instead of staying up until 4 a.m. to watch the very dull England - Portugal game I should have got up early (4:30 a.m.) to watch what sounds like was a crackjack Brazil - France game. Yeah, like that was going to happen

OK well Sweder we have to have our first disagreement at this juncture. I thought your goalkeeper was awful. Rarely took anything cleanly that I saw, and took some unnecessary risks, whereas the Portugese keeper was great.

Anyway it's all for nothing now, you lost again.

And it looks as though your cricketers were watching too much football as well; thrashed 5 - 0 by Sri Lanka in England! Matey, what were your guys doing over there? Poor old Fred Trueman will be rolling in his grave. Well, OK technically he's probably not in a grave yet, but you know what I mean.

Thank goodness for Andy Murray's great win at Wombledin, otherwise I think the suicide toll could have been a little higher than usual in England today.

At least you've got some sport in your part of the world. It's dead as a dodo over here.

And bloody cold too.

Maybe I should go for a run.

The reason I included Robinson for praise during the game was he took a number of low shots well without spilling them. We'll agree on one thing - he was poor in the shoot-out. What on Earth was he doing for their penultimate spot-kick? Looked like he was working through his Salsa steps . . . or at the last moment had forgotten to close the door on the left side of his goal.

Cricket? I fear Aussie preparations for gloating in early '07 are for nought.
We're back to square one, old boy; no contest. Flintoff, Pieterson, Jones (S), Vaughan, the King of Sp(a)in . . . sounds like the first names down on the team sheet, but it's the medium to long-term injury list. God help us.

Murray's a Scot, MLCMan - there's no succur in those bones.

Sweder Wrote:Murray's a Scot, MLCMan - there's no succur in those bones.

Oh great - so you really do have nothing to cheer about. Bad luck cobber. At least you still have some great beers to drown your sorrows with.

Rooney was sent off for pushing the Portugese equivalent of Greg Louganis, not for stamping on the other guy's nuts.

I must admit to being conned into believing that Sven knew what he was on about. I was prepared to give Engerland the benefit of the doubt and really thought that the system (which none was used to) would pay off against better quality opposion. The team, with few exceptions just didn't deliver throughout the whole tournament. IMO that is as much as anything down to the (lone striker) system and for that Sven takes the blame.

Great that Owen Hargreaves has arrived on the world stage. The germans raved about him, and now we know why. The best player we had yesterday, he was FIFA man of the match and was the only one to score from the spot. Roll on McLaren...

p.s.

Thank god the tennis is on. Murray played a superb game and had the result of his life beating Roddick in straight sets. Shame Hewitt is playing so well at the moment as they are in the same 1/4 of the draw.

I'm not comfortable with blamefests, but we can at least make some observations about how things might have been done differently, and more effectively.

It seems to me that the key to our failure is in our inability/reluctance to change things around when they are clearly not working. Beckham was never going to be dropped, despite his anonymity. Every time Lennon came on, the game woke up, yet Sven didn't consider playing him from the start in place of Beckham.

Lampard is (I'm told) a great player, but he was badly off-form through this tournament. He could have been dropped from that midfield without subtracting anything from its effectiveness.

Like Beckham in 2002, Rooney was considered a talisman, someone who had to be there to give us any chance at all. The truth is that apart from occasional flashes of skill (none of which led to anything) Rooney was a disappointment. This wasn't his fault. He could still have contributed a lot to this team, but, recovering from a long lay-off, it was too much to expect him to play on his own up front. He was starved of opportunities, and when he did get the ball, he seemed to have no options.

I've never liked the lone-striker option unless it's forced on you by having a player sent off, or late on in a game if you're defending a lead. To start with one up front is negative, and deeply frustrating to see in a cup game where you have to win.

With the luxury of someone who can pontificate without having to take responsibility, it seems obvious to me that we should have played a more aggressive 4-4-2 with Crouch and Rooney up front, Lampard on the bench and Lennon on for Beckham. Against an ordinary Portugal side, we could have won convincingly in normal time.

With Rooney sent off and Beckham injured, we started to play our best football of the tournament, so I don't have much patience with the view that Rooney's sending off was to blame for our defeat. What's interesting is that we played with a different spirit after the dismissal. It was as if the red card galvanised the side. Quite apart from the personnel changes, it makes you realise just how timid England had been up till then. What a difference it would have made to have had a side pumped up from the start. This is where you have to wonder whether Sven was just too limp for this job. Imagine a Martin O'Neill or a Scolari or a Ferguson there. What was shocking about this England performance through the tournament was the seeming lack of confidence of the players. A more assertive manager would surely have produced a more assertive side.

The tragedy is that these are great players. I'm not sitting here this morning bemoaning the lack of talent in the side. We had a playing squad capable of winning the World Cup, but we evidently didn't have a management capable of winning it. It turned out that a piece of flimsy red cardboard actually did a better motivational job than they did.

andy Wrote:I'm not comfortable with blamefests ...

Well I'm sorry, but that's entirely your own fault...

andy Wrote:He could still have contributed a lot to this team, but, recovering from a long lay-off, it was too much to expect him to play on his own up front.

The words of a certain puce-faced, irascible Scot spring to mind.
To place the weight of a nation’s expectations in the (admittedly broad) shoulders of a 20-year-old was always madness. The terrible thing about all this is the time-honoured curse of the football fan . . . where logic screamed we could not prevail we held on to hope.

MLCman is right . . .we have a wonderful range of beers with which to drown our sorrows. (heads off into the night wailing & gnashing his teeth).

‘When you have lost your inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’

Hilaire Belloc

'Disgraceful. Preposterous. Disastrous.'

So writes James Lawton in today's Independent.

To which perhaps a few more choice adjectives spring to mind:

Unimaginative.
Disappointing.
And yet somehow still characteristically and all too wretchedly heroic.

'The great delusion,' is Lawton's quote of Eriksson, summing up the tournament's outcome. Of course he meant 'disillusionment,' but simultaneously managed to hit it just perfectly.


I'm on a post- World Cup tour this week. Aberdeen today, Rotterdam tomorrow. The Scots were taking England's defeat manfully, with their Brazil shirts still in pleasing abundance. The alcoholic Scotsman begging by the station on Guild Street had only attracted 2p of donations into his own yellow and blue hat as I walked by, and he got no more support from me.

'The Nation Unites Behind Murray', screamed The Herald. Hmmmm.


Holland tomorrow. At least we are united in our vanquishment with the Clog-Boys (to quote Sweder). And we finished our game against Portugal with one more player than they did. Even if with a whole lot less credit and rather more worldwide derision of our smug underachievement.

'We've got to play for penalties, now,' said Lawro after Rooney was sent off. 'Yes, indeed,' agreed Screaming Lord Motson of Rumpledsheepskin.


'Die Englaender sind kaputt,' murmured the German breeze, blowing England's deluded dream into the Gelsenkirchen gutter.

I'll just have to stick to supporting West Ham from now on. At least we know we're crap. Doomed heroism with no delusions - and that's the football life I choose.

Omigod.