I thought Geiger did a pretty good job and is getting stick only cause he is American. Both teams (but especially the English once they went ahead) did some Olympic level diving.
Frankly, now that I am rested, I need to reanalyze the English performance. Other teams have figured out that nullifying England’s attack is easily done, just hit Harry Kane again and again. I am pretty sure that Swedes, will be far more subtle than the Panamaians and Colombians were.
They need a second goal scoring threat and Waste-of-Sterling is not it.
He did a terrible job by not reducing Colombia to 9 men at least. They were a disgrace.
count the number of rolls Librarian and the volume of screams. Neymar is in a different orbit.
but last time I looked, set pieces are a legitimate means of scoring. I don’t think you’ll find a single England fan who thinks they are a free-flowing goal machine. They are very much a work in progress. They are trying to play a possession game with quick final third thrusts and they aren’t great at it yet but they are very well organised at the set pieces. Nothing wrong with that. Ronaldo scored two-thirds of his first game hattrick like that and fluked the last one. He’s a genius apparently.
Plus the fact that England are forcing a lot of set pieces also tells you something about attacking intent.
they lost because they played a disgraceful, spoiling, negative game. Headbutts, constant fouling, scuffing the penalty spot, hounding the ref for four minutes before the penalty. If a team decides to do that then it can be hard to play against. They got what they deserved though. Fuck all and a plane ticket home. That’s not a myopic English view, that’s the pretty universal view of the sporting the world over (outside of Colombia I’m sure)
Had they chosen to play a more expansive game they stood a decent chance of winning, they also would have opened themselves up to a counter (and you’ll notice that this is exactly what did happen in extra time).
Well they may not, but certainly their most recent game didn’t show anything to scare the horses did it?(and just how many more goals have Sweden scored from open play than England?) I suspect it’ll be a tight game just like the Colombia game but with less shitty behaviour from the Swedes.
This world cup has been full of statements like yours about teams that are currently finding themselves at a loose end and looking forlornly at the tourist tat they picked up at the airport on the way home.
In other footballing news, I found this to be particularly weird. The president of Barcelona accused of illegally buying a transplant liver for one of his defenders.
Strange indeed, though I hear that this is connected to Neymar’s departure as the team refused to buy him the pair of balls that he desperately needs.
Just catching up on this thread. I find it laughable that no one seems to be complaining about the Kane penalty. Total bullshit call. No way that’s a penalty, because he was already falling down. I feel good that England is advancing (mostly because it will be easier for Brazil if they meet) but really don’t deserve it. Colombia played the way they do (have any of you ever watched them play before?), but that was nothing compared to what they did to Brazil 4 years ago.
The referee was clearly favoring England, whether intentionally or not, but that was some of the worst officiating I have ever seen. This board obviously leans towards England and Germany (based on some nonsensical assumptions upthread about Germany’s quality), but England at least wins the acting prize. Neymar is actually bad at it (overacts) but England have mastered it.
In any case, Brazil is proving me right. Still the best in the world, about to get Number 6 (unless Neymar or Coutinho get hurt or do something stupid against Belgium). Most talented and most deserving side in the Final 8. Haven’t trailed in any game yet. And without both of their starting left and right backs. Neymar will win the first of his many Ballon D’Ors. Get used to it!
The fact Kane was giving Sanchez a piggy-back may have had something to do with him losing his balance.
The referee was favouring England because the Colombians were playing dirty and cheating as much as they could possibly get away with. Most neutrals are saying the same (I’m not neutral myself, obviously).
Man for man, Belgium should beat Brazil handily, but that’s not how it works. I’d still make Belgium slight favourites for the game, especially since they avoided an extra 30 minutes against Japan. Hopefully it will be a good game as I don’t really care who wins, both sides are comfortably better than England, if we even make it to the final.
He was being forced to the ground by the wrestling defender he’d been trying to shake off. As happened on every single corner or free kick. The defender had two arms around Kane and dragged him down, stonewall, absolute penalty. All day and everyday and just one of many.
I note you have nothing to say about the England player who got up and told the ref that his was not a penalty, what do you reckon to that?
And nothing to say about the Colombia players surrounding the referee whilst they surreptitiously (in front of 500 million people) dig and scuff the penalty spot.
The Colombians were crap, England deserved to go through morally and on the balance of play.
Well they need to do something because they’ve shown no real outstanding play as yet.
They may well get better and be worthy winners but they and Neymar have got a long way to go to wipe out the memory of that 7-1 embarrassment last time and to be memorable for something more than crying, rolling around and being pissed off that other players get more glory than him (Messi and Ronaldo).
Maradona, our resident racist cokehead, claims FIFA fixed the match and it wasnt a foul on Kane. Only the most partisan couldn’t see that. Andres Cantor, who was otherwise about to stroke out at what he was seeing on the pitch, immediately agreed it was a PK. For any South American to cry like a baby about cheating is the height of hubris.
On the issue of strikers; here are a few articles from a few years ago pointing out the dearth of strikers especially for Germans. Big undercurrent of “yes, but who needs them, obsolete in the modern game”.
Yeah.:rolleyes:
Here isNiall Quinn on the issue from 6 months ago. Precient.
With the return of 3-5-2 and 4-4-2, if you are an ok striker in a league, you can look forward to transfers to top clubs and national call ups. I am a fan of Vardy, but come on, 15 years every club had a guy like him in the squad.
Lol Brazil the best. In happy to see that you are off to an early start on your 4th of July partying. They were held scoreless by the Costa Ricans until almost the 90th minute; the Mexicans until about the 70th minute. Offensively they haven’t been impressive. They do have a 1 in eight chance of winning however.
Think England will probably do better against Sweden because it’ll be more of a straight up game, less shithousing about and more in their comfort zone. The Swedes won’t be arguing with the ref for 5 minutes, their physio’s not going to be throwing sly digs at Sterling etc. Although I thought they kept composure pretty well last night, it’s not a style England are used to.
State of that English midfield though. Back five, front two - excellent. Middle four of Henderson, Alli, Young, Lingard - so pedestrian [I realise they play quite a fluent formation but those four are easy to identify]. Parachute just one ball-playing midfielder into that side and it’s transformed.
It’s moon on a stick, unfortunately. Wanted, one ball-playing, creative midfielder who can carry a threat from deep and operate at World level. They hardly grow on trees, England don’t have one, so that’s that.
Every side in this World Cup is missing at least one optimal part. That’s why this WC has been so much fun for neutrals. Sweden has been excellent defensively since the play in games against Italy. They could use a prolific striker however…if only they had one.
The Germans and Spanish made such amazing and beautiful passes. So many of them? WHere are they now? Oh not in the Quarter Finals. Back home.
Defences world over know how to deal with “creative” midfielders. The game has changed again. Southgate seems to have recognized it and if he is braver he’ll play more than the lone CF in future games. The Swedish coach also seems to perfer a classic 4-4-2.
The penalty: It was a penalty, but it wasn’t as obvious a one as many thought. It wasn’t a penalty until Sanchez actually gets on top of Kane’s back late in the sequence. Kane tried to go low around Sanchez, and quite amazingly, Sanchez didn’t hold him directly, but instead just tried to force him wide. But once Kane was past, stooping still, Sanchez got up on his back. At that point, Kane is taken down. That’s a foul every single day, and only the most ardent Colombia/South America supporters who see things through properly tinted glasses would disagree.
The referee did a poor job, not because he was particularly biased, but because he didn’t clamp down on the poor behavior until it was too late. The game got out of hand, as evidenced by the multiple fouls, the endless whining, the scuffing of the penalty spot (that’s clearly a cautionary offense if seen, but he had much to handle at that point), the increasing numbers of physical disputes between players of the two teams, etc. It got a bit better after he tossed some cards around, which shows that it could have been handled much better by doing that at the start.
England are a team that seem to be less than the sum of the parts. Not sure why that is. Clearly, they have plenty of talent on the field. But it doesn’t seem to achieve what it should (let alone over-achieving). It’s a really, really bad day at the office when your main scoring threat spends most of his day playing as if he were an advanced midfielder, rather than latching onto the ball in scoring areas.
I wouldn’t agree that that they are less than the sum of their parts given that, compared to the big name, turbo-cunt (copyright Baron Greenback) days, these are modest “stars” indeed. To me this was always a learning tournament, character building, shape and strategy building. We all had modest hopes and a quarter-final is counted as a good achievement.
You are right though that it isn’t properly “clicking”, it is far from perfect but I’m happy that they are sticking at it and trying hone a way of playing that works for them. I get the feeling that if it does come together we could do some damage but that may be a couple of years off yet.
