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Fifa World Cup Russia 2018

Y'know in previous years we'd have conspired to lose that match.
 
Groundhog said:
Not sure if you English guys will be aware of this, but did you know you won the World Cup in 1966?
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Well aware. It's one of those burned in the memory. Still, not many sane England fan is deluded that we're gonna to win this. We'll be bleating about 1966 for the next 52 years until England can produce a generation who can play international tournament football and the FA stand up to the Premiership (hmmm sounds familiar).

Both goals today were again scored from a corner. England have only been able to score from set pieces in the big tournaments in recent memory. A lack of creativity in midfield is blindingly obvious and Delli Ali and Lindgard are sub par; the less said about Sterling the better.

This England team are going to come unstuck if they play any decent team - probably Belgium or any other decent team in the knock out stages who able to shut up shop because we lack a true world class number 10 to open up the best sides and score goals from open play.

Still improved performance compared to the last 4 tournaments is a bonus. It could not get any worse than in South Africa, which was by far the worst i've seen England perform at the WC under Capello.
 
It must be hard being an English fan, you make every tournament and are disappointed every time! In contrast, as long as we draw one of our first two matches we have a great time - we also have a winning record against England in finals tournaments which is the real and thinly veiled point of this post!

#Russiaisnofun #NopartyNoIreland #WelettheDaneswin
 
It definitely seems like everyone else has a far higher opinion of the English than the English do.
I've not come across a single person who thinks England have a chance of winning the world cup, yet the straw man is that we all think we're gonna cruise it.
Revelling in our disappointment, but we're disappointed by what?
 
TRF_Olyy said:
It definitely seems like everyone else has a far higher opinion of the English than the English do.
I've not come across a single person who thinks England have a chance of winning the world cup, yet the straw man is that we all think we're gonna cruise it.
Revelling in our disappointment, but we're disappointed by what?
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Yeah I think the general consesus is anything beyond the round of 16 is a win for this side.
 
Well to be fair if Ireland had made the World Cup I would have no expectations, but still be optimistic, so I don't know why English fans shouldn't be either. You have the most fun when you're exceeding expectations. Football is so low scoring that a bit of luck or one big performance can propel a team into knockouts, just like we and Iceland had in the Euros. Obviously to win the thing you need to be consistently class, but there's definitely some room for upsets in the World Cup, which is one of the reasons it's such a spectacle in my opinion. In rugby the greatest upset of all time is 13th ranked Japan beating South Africa. Could probably point to a hundred more prominent upsets in football. Something very entertaining about bad luck screwing a team.
 
TRF_Olyy said:
It definitely seems like everyone else has a far higher opinion of the English than the English do.
I've not come across a single person who thinks England have a chance of winning the world cup, yet the straw man is that we all think we're gonna cruise it.
Revelling in our disappointment, but we're disappointed by what?
Click to expand...
I wasn't really saying that you expect to win it, most people take the videos like the one posted yesterday as that but it's clearly meant to be humorous even though it's about as funny as a natural disasters. My point is more that if we get to a tournament and get a result in a single game it'll be remembered fantastically whereas I think England really need to reach a semi for it to be remembered as a great tournament.
 
Rankings come a lot into it currently England are ranked 12th in world with an average of 10th and 9th in UEFA. By that thinking we should be qyalifying for most tournaments and at least going beyond the groups stage.

Ireland are ranked 31st (average 32) and 20th in Europe, just qualifying for the tournament should be a thing for them as they already excceeded their ranking expectations.
 
ncurd said:
Rankings come a lot into it currently England are ranked 12th in world with an average of 10th and 9th in UEFA. By that thinking we should be qyalifying for most tournaments and at least going beyond the groups stage.

Ireland are ranked 31st (average 32) and 20th in Europe, just qualifying for the tournament should be a thing for them as they already excceeded their ranking expectations.
Click to expand...
Well yeah that's the difference, we're barely disappointed not to make the tournament but when we do it's great and it's party mode here, qualifying hardly registers for you!

If I was a real football fan I'm sure England would be better to follow but as a bandwagon supporter I'd definitely rather be this side of the Irish sea! Even the failed attempt to qualify for this cup had a great moment when we knocked the Welsh out in Cardiff for example! I'm not making any ground breaking points here just riffing on Blindside's bleak post and pointing out that it's preferable for a fans point of view to be just short of the level of the likes of Switzerland who are tournament regulars rather than short of the level of contenders. Football not being the national sport also makes a big difference as well as the fact that everyone here supports English clubs if they support anyone at all so it's the only time they are actually in any way represented by who is playing.
 
FFS England played well and didn't choke.

Everyone harping on it's only Tunisia but England have choked against far worse opposition.
 
TGx5Eep.png
 
I've watched the FAH video 10 times and i laugh out lout every time i hear the "Ashely not so young anymore".

Regarding people being critical, pretty sure it's everywhere. In Argentina the press and the fans are incredibly intolerant.
Argentina's coach job is a very, very difficult one. One of the reasons Sampaoli got the job is because nobody else wanted it. And it's not like we lack quality coaches. We're the team with most coaches in the WC (Colombia, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). Just noticed they all lost their opening game, haha.

Still, we've got people like Simeone (overrated imo but very highly rated by most), Bielsa and Pekerman who wouldn't touch the national team with a pole. Unmanageable. Just the thought of having to deal with them gives me the creeps
It's 1% booking flights/hotels and 99% babysitting 23 spoiled brats.

And no, it's not the same everywhere. France and Germany come to mind.
 
Tigs Man said:
FFS England played well and didn't choke.

Everyone harping on it's only Tunisia but England have choked against far worse opposition.
Click to expand...

Yep best start to a tournament in ages. Usually draw the opening game. As we saw with Argentina, Germany they struggled in their opening games.

It was a much better performance compared to recent tournaments.

Groundhog said:
Well to be fair if Ireland had made the World Cup I would have no expectations, but still be optimistic, so I don't know why English fans shouldn't be either. You have the most fun when you're exceeding expectations. Football is so low scoring that a bit of luck or one big performance can propel a team into knockouts, just like we and Iceland had in the Euros. Obviously to win the thing you need to be consistently class, but there's definitely some room for upsets in the World Cup, which is one of the reasons it's such a spectacle in my opinion. In rugby the greatest upset of all time is 13th ranked Japan beating South Africa. Could probably point to a hundred more prominent upsets in football. Something very entertaining about bad luck screwing a team.
Click to expand...

I think the frustrating thing for me as a fan is not so much the expectation of winning anything, but the performance of the team. As the saying goes England have often looked less than the sum of their parts. They have looked like a collection of individuals who are paid millions to perform, but often are clueless how to play. That goes for the managers we've had. Hopefully Southgate changes this, but I've long suspected that the system is rotten and the manager is an easy scapegoat.
 
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