England v Croatia

[Argylegames]

Onward and upward! Helston and Tavvy on Saturday. COYG! Football is already (at) Home (Park)

 

[Cobi Budge]

This is a young, inexperienced team but they’ve given us our best tournament in a generation. In two years time, they’ll be better individually and collectively, I’m absolutely devastated, but it’s kind of nice for once to be devastated about England, but positive about the future.

 

[with menace]

Simply lost to a better side. I can live with that. Unlike Germany 28 years ago no tears, just acceptance. After so many gut wrenching stabs to the heart all I feel is a numb acceptance of familiar , comfortable pain and disappointment. Honestly anything else would’ve felt so foreign we’d of had an allergic reaction to it.
Quite interesting to see the peculiar frothing vitriol from certain quarters though especially considering pre tournament expectations. Yeah what a bunch of *****s losers getting further than Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina etc.

 

[Ham Green]

It's like improvised Macbeth. The actors change, the story may veer slightly from the script, but must it always be the same outcome?

Aye, it must. Wouldn't be a tragedy otherwise.

 

[Argylegames]

Brian Stimpson: It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

Clockwise (film) starring John Cleese.

Sums up watching England for me since 1966 - which is why I don't watch them any more.

 

[monkeywrench]

Simply lost to a better side. I can live with that. Unlike Germany 28 years ago no tears, just acceptance. After so many gut wrenching stabs to the heart all I feel is a numb acceptance of familiar , comfortable pain and disappointment. Honestly anything else would’ve felt so foreign we’d of had an allergic reaction to it.
Quite interesting to see the peculiar frothing vitriol from certain quarters though especially considering pre tournament expectations. Yeah what a bunch of *****s losers getting further than Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina etc.

Completely agree with your first paragraph WM.

 

[Emu]

Brian Stimpson: It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

Clockwise (film) starring John Cleese.

Sums up watching England for me since 1966 - which is why I don't watch them any more.

There is always hope kev. We won't get anywhere with a defeatist attitude.

 

[Emu]

I'm surprised Maguire didn't go up front for the last 10 minutes and hit the ball long. We still played three centre-backs late in the game when there was no need.

The ref was poor and the linesman on the far side missed an obvious corner and throw in for us.

Kane was running on fumes over the last two games.

Oh well, we had a great tournament and the players and Southgate have got the public liking England again.

Agreed re Kane Posty.

 

[Balham Green]

First half was excellent. It was looking great.

Then second half they just disappeared. The passing was horrendous. The gap between the forwards to defence and us pinging long balls was mind boggling.

Croatia got stronger. They started to control the midfield. Instead of playing around with the ball, England lost the balance of their side. As much as we say this player didnt do this, and that, you have to look at Southgate too. Unfortuately, it tactically needed changing in terms of the system we used and instead all we did was replace one player for another.

Croatia deserved to win in the end. Yet it feels like a massive chance missed because how many times will we ever get a draw like this?

It feels like a mentality thing. Maybe we just have to accept we dont have that strong, mental approach that other nations seems to display in games like these. To play well, dominate and then just totally lose the physical control of a match against a side who played two extra time games in the last two rounds seems abit strange.

Lets hope we can build on from this and not look back in 10 years on YouTube as one of those great "glorious failures".

'Mentality thing'. Or could it just be they had better players than us.?Simple as that. They had 3 or 4 world class players. How many did we have?

 

[Balham Green]

Brian Stimpson: It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

Clockwise (film) starring John Cleese.

Sums up watching England for me since 1966 - which is why I don't watch them any more.

You don't watch them because they may lose? Wow bet you don't get to many Argyle games then.

 

[Fat_green_belly]

Very disappointing. 532 back to being the effing useless formation i love to hate. Old school crap.
They outfought us and wanted it more in the end too tbh.
I thought the croats were saving/pacing themselves first half as they gave us plenty of time and space on the ball.
So we had a nice and easy first 45 playing with our WBs up high. which we need them to be, for us to perform well.
Brilliant free kick by trippier gave us a deserved lead. Kane missing a clear chance afterwards unfortunately.
In hindsight now we really needed that one to go in.
Second half they pressed high and tbf to them put in a great team effort to do so. 352 then became this deep 532 that
it always becomes when opponents press high and wide. Similar to the colombia/belgium games.
Croatia tonight were much more effective than them from wide positions. Working lots of crossing opportunities.
From all this came their 2 goals and other chances created. Both goals conceded saw some poor defending.
Walker a CB? Not convinced. Stones good on the ball? Maybe but defensively. Was ball watching for the winner.
Offensively tonight, and in the tournament overall, we havnt been effective enough in open play. Especially on the counter.
Should have been looking for a second killer goal in that second half as they pushed men forward but we created very little.
So i am still unsure about southgate. Need to see how he responds tactically against belgium and especially in the 2 nations
cup "revenge" games against croatia coming up soon in the autumn.
Chance to see if he does thing differently. Playing against spain twice as well in this new competitive competition a good test
for the manager and team.
The young players should be better for the experience so not all bad. Maguire and pickford have done really well and
we finally won a pen shootout "woo hoo" which lifted the country for a while. Set pieces another plus for southgate and this team.
A great chance of a WC final missed though.
France to be world champions imho but good luck to tiny croatia. They deserved the chance to have a go at them more
than us in the end.

 

[with menace]

First half was excellent. It was looking great.

Then second half they just disappeared. The passing was horrendous. The gap between the forwards to defence and us pinging long balls was mind boggling.

Croatia got stronger. They started to control the midfield. Instead of playing around with the ball, England lost the balance of their side. As much as we say this player didnt do this, and that, you have to look at Southgate too. Unfortuately, it tactically needed changing in terms of the system we used and instead all we did was replace one player for another.

Croatia deserved to win in the end. Yet it feels like a massive chance missed because how many times will we ever get a draw like this?

It feels like a mentality thing. Maybe we just have to accept we dont have that strong, mental approach that other nations seems to display in games like these. To play well, dominate and then just totally lose the physical control of a match against a side who played two extra time games in the last two rounds seems abit strange.

Lets hope we can build on from this and not look back in 10 years on YouTube as one of those great "glorious failures".

'Mentality thing'. Or could it just be they had better players than us.?Simple as that. They had 3 or 4 world class players. How many did we have?

Not digging anyone out but Rashford, Stirling and Vardy are nowhere near world class yet the best we have. A tournament highlights video of those three wouldn’t last a minute. They did their best but woefully inadequate to compete with the best.

 

[up the line]

Very proud of the England players and the dignified Southgate, holder of the hardest job in football. After the disappointment the PREM boys won't be bothered as long as their 'adopted' side from a city they'll never visit buy the Croatia scorers.

'Ere oi loikes that lad from Lithudonia oo plaid gainst us in that frenly. Oi opes ee soins fer livverpool this seezon. Oi mean obviously oi voted brexit but oi don't fink that shud affect moi Premier league team. Oi almost went livverpool one yeer. Oi couldn't tho coz Stoke ver Swansea wuz on telli. Bud oi got the shirt tho an oi got the name of that Lithudonian player on the back'

The manager and players of England don't just compete against the opposition team but also against a 'product' and 'consumers' who align themselves with 'brands' and expect those 'brands' to serve them the best show in their living room every weekend. They don't want to hear about 'developing English talent', they want the glamour and prestige for a former industrial city they've never visited and they want it now.

 

[with menace]

Very proud of the England players and the dignified Southgate, holder of the hardest job in football. After the disappointment the PREM boys won't be bothered as long as their 'adopted' side from a city they'll never visit buy the Croatia scorers.

'Ere oi loikes that lad from Lithudonia oo plaid gainst us in that frenly. Oi opes ee soins fer livverpool this seezon. Oi mean obviously oi voted brexit but oi don't fink that shud affect moi Premier league team. Oi almost went livverpool one yeer. Oi couldn't tho coz Stoke ver Swansea wuz on telli. Bud oi got the shirt tho an oi got the name of that Lithudonian player on the back'

The manager and players of England don't just compete against the opposition team but also against a 'product' and 'consumers' who align themselves with 'brands' and expect those 'brands' to serve them the best show in their living room every weekend. They don't want to hear about 'developing English talent', they want the glamour and prestige for a former industrial city they've never visited and they want it now.

I’ll never forget how they sold the premier league as the biggest boon to English football since Bobby Charlton, what a massive pile of old pony that transpired to be. Much like this winter break bollo now.

 

[PL2 3DQ]

Yep. The Premier League juggernaut will start again next month. Sky have been shut out of the World Cup and will do their best to show that the PL is the only football competition that counts and that football was invented in 1993.