I was 15 and as soon as the referee called the free kick that led to the goal, I looked at the time (only a minute remaining) and thought: “I have a bad feeling about this”. Indeed. The Belgian commentator was silent for what seemed like for ever and then whispered: “This is unfair”.
I think we all agreed that it was a nice goal but given the way the match had been, we felt stolen.
And yes, it was more or less the same team that had reached the semi-finals in 1986, finishing fourth. That match spelled the end of our first golden generation (1980-1990). It was the last competition where we could have gotten really far until 2014.
Standard UK usage. “England” in this context relates to a collection of people and is short for “The England Team”.
e.g.
England (the country) is having a torrid time politically at the moment
England (the team) are widely regarded as being a bunch of show-pony fucknuts that lack balls, brains or ability.
Just have to note that in 1996 England didn’t knock out the Netherlands, we still qualified for the quarters, where France beat us on penalties (Seedorf missing the crucial one).
England did kick our ass though, I think that was the first international match I attended live… just great.
We were 4-0 up, and Scotland were 1-0 against Switzerland. If it had stayed that way the Netherlands would have gone out and Scotland would have gone through.
Kluivert’s goal was the only time I’ve ever celebrated a goal against England.
You have a far better memory than me - and I was looking up some of the stuff I wrote up earlier, so no real excuse.
That Netherlands game in Euro 96 is probably the best England performance at a finals of my life time. The only other game that comes close overall is the 5-1 spanking we gave Germany in Munich in 2001 - but that was in qualifying (where we still needed a last minute David Beckham free kick in the final round of matches - against Greece - to qualify for Japan/South Korea 2002). Slim pickings otherwise. We had a good game against Croatia in 2004, I seem to remember.
It was many Scottish people’s first (and likely only) experience of cheering on England. Kluivert’s ball sliding between that pony-tailed twat Seaman’s legs was a sickener right enough.
On the other hand, a Polish player got called for a foul for having CR kick him in the foot (after the Polish player got the ball), CR could have easily been yellow-carded for diving several times, AND Poland wasn’t given a PK for a blindingly obvious grab and hold in the box. Portugal has zero cause for complaining about officiating.
Did’nt see said grab and hold, could you tell me the who and the when? Thanks
As it is I think CR7 actually dives a lot less than merited; considering the amount of (sometimes very cynical) fouls that are committed against him (not just in the last game). Same with Messi.
Ooh, I can’t go back and look unfortunately. I think on Lewandowski, some time in the second half of regular time?
Now, could be the referee saw it, but decided to play advantage, given that it wasn’t a complete takedown and Lewandowski did end up getting a shot off (though not a very good one). But if not really affecting the play is a reason not to call it, then the push on Ronaldo shouldn’t be called either – there was no way Ronaldo was reaching the ball.
I honestly think the Ronaldo push is a tough call for the referee. Clearly a mostly-intentional and gratuitous shove. But not hard enough to injure (Ronaldo fell over mostly because he was off-balance at the moment of the shove), and the ball was unreachable anyway. Is an extra little shove in course of play (that didn’t affect anything) worth a penalty kick? I mean, every single corner kick has the same level of shoving happen. Tough decision, I think.
Example: the current coverage on BBC1 of the quarter-final Wales vs. Belgium game. At half time in a pretty damn good game there’s an post-mortem segment - featuring Frank Lampard on tape, and the studio panel live - about England. C’mon.
It was many Scottish people’s first (and likely only) experience of cheering on England. Kluivert’s ball sliding between that pony-tailed twat Seaman’s legs was a sickener right enough.