England ouuuuut. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

[Captain Beefheart]

Eurucup 2008. No Ingurland........

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

Biggest underachievers in the history of football. Not even the refs can save the FA. Bravo Croatia!

PS: Wayne Bridge WORLD CLASS.

[R@H]

I know!!! woo I'm in London right now and so happy didnt go to the pub tonight!!! hah this was really good game croatia was briliant.. althought i must say the beckham - crouch goal was pretty well done......too bad Hollands through :D

[Mo]

Steve McClaren should have NEVER got the job...

[Captain Beefheart]

Blaming McLaren is short sighted, but England seems to have a history of always pegging their loses on the manager(it's not like they have a winning tradition to say "Hey, look at what "X" did and look what we have now"). There is no excuse for not producing a team that at least qualifies for a major tournament, especially given the teams in the group.

So in that sense the loss is on EVERYONE, from the FA, to the players and the manager who's supposed to field the players in the best position to win.(a backline of Richards-Campbell-Lescott-Bridge plus the incompatible duo of Gerrard/Lampard) doesn't seem like a hot prospect right?

England are massively mediocre on the wings. Joe Cole isn't really a winger and has a dribble first, pass second mentality, Aaron Lennon can't cross the ball in the air with any pace and everytime Shaun Wright Phillips runs at a defender he basically just tries to run through them and hope the ball ends up still with him on the other side.

The key player that England needs is Scholes, and in the middle, not on the left side of midfield like that genius SGE used him. The bottom line is Scholes is the most technically gifted English midfielder of his generation and England simple need someone like that. However Scholes ain't coming back so this is totally out of the question. The next player closest to Scholes is Carrick but Carrick is a class below Scholes and always will be. I'd like to see them play a 4-3-3 but even that brings up certain problems with regards to Rooney, putting him on the wings limits him and he can't play at the top of a 4-3-3 either and they need Owen in there as well, I can't really think of a solution.

Anyways.

España COOOOOOOOOOOOOON DOS COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJONES!

[Jocasta]

1. I didn't expect much else from this team, no big shock.

2. England didn't even deserve to be in the chance of qualifying, thanks only to a great win from Israel.

3. I'd have taken a win for the England rugby team over the football team qualifying. (Rugby beats football every time for me).

4. I do feel bad for Rooney, Owen, Terry, Ferdinand. (all injured)

5. Why does it make Beefy so happy (I don't really care what happens to Spain, apart from Iker) ?

6. Croatia were superb, I've always had a soft spot for them since driving through and staying in Yugoslavia (as was) back in the 70's.

7. Bilic v McClaren. No contest. I've liked Slaven Bilic from his West Ham days and what did you expect from a man who was Derby County's assistant manager a few years back!
Slaven, animated and passionate in the rain.
Stevo, flabby and lifeless under an umbrella.

'Nuff said!

[Mónica]

I just cannot believe it!!! ENGLAND! What the....??? "Three lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming. No more years of hurt - no more need for dreaming!!!" *singing* (One of my fav songs by the way...)
I couldn't believe it when my mom told it to me this morning! A cup without England - that's strange! I got already used to the English, and I want to say that I support them (well, of course, Germany is my # 1, but I like ENG as well! Quite unusual, huh?)
Gosh, I better don't ask my English friend, he's a football-fanatic and despite everything, he was so optimistic that England would make it!
Just asking: Are the English now crying for Sven? (I ask this question in a friendly way, not being mean at all. Just wondering, y'know... )

[Moshe..]

Originally Posted by Captain Beefheart

Eurucup 2008. No
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

Biggest underachievers in the history of football. N

Says the man from puerto rico. England always gets to quarters/semis whenever they have a good manager and a few players who are interested in football more than their own chav life-style utopia. But what an absurd manager this was - dropping beckham our only effective player apart from owen.

Anyway least i know who I'll be dreaming about this summer.

[Jocasta]

Thanks Moshe... footballers and homo-erotica ... what more could a girl ask for?

Try this...

[Mo]

Originally Posted by Captain Beefheart

Blaming McLaren is short sighted

It might be but when you hire ****-kickers like McLaren whos done nothing as a manager @ club level thats what happens...

He didn't know what he was doing in day-1 playing with no width best part was his goalkeeper choice when everyone was saying sack robinson he doesn't come a big game he does HAHA...

[Jocasta]

Who do you blame the incompetent man who's over his head or the committee who appointed the incompetent man?

[Mo]

God point Jo it was stupid from the get go...

[Mónica]

Originally Posted by Jocasta

ROFL, I remember I used to have a huge crush on Cristiano Ronaldo...

[Lowlander.]

Carson's blunder in the 1st half was unbelievable.

How come every time England try a new keeper he turns out to be a wuss - while Germany has lots of talented goalies? Can it be mere coincidence? I don't think so. Conclusion: there's something wrong with the goalkeepers' methods of training in England. Or there's something wrong with the methods of talent scouting.

Well done Croatia! 100% willpower = 100% fair play

[Mónica]

Hey Lowlander! Great to see you around!!!
Good points you mentioned. Your signature... hehe! I still can't believe it... the first time in 24 years that ENG won't be contestant... sounds strange.

[Captain Beefheart]

People do realize that Portugal was one goal away from missing the Euro's too right?

I didn't expect much else from this team, no big shock.

You didn't expect them to qualify? At minimun and with the resources they have, that should be a requisite. Winning the euro's of course it's another story, especially when you have two hosts countries as top seeds, plus Greece(defending champion) and Croatia. So basically due to England's poor coefficient they would be placed on a group of death well they most likely wouldn't reach the qtrs.

3. I'd have taken a win for the England rugby team over the football team qualifying. (Rugby beats football every time for me).

No. We've gone over this already. Football>Rugby. Always.

5. Why does it make Beefy so happy (I don't really care what happens to Spain, apart from Iker)

Beefheart cares about the streets of Vienna being safe this summer.

I won't gloat about Spain since we are on the same train as England when it comes to underachievement, but I really feel good about the team this year. We have arguably the best right back in the world at the moment(Ramos), one of the most dynamic midfielders in Iniesta, Fabregas has taken a step forward, Silva is the future. The only question is will we resort to a 4-5-1 with Torres/Villa alone, Silva/Iniesta on the wings, Arbeloa/Xavi orchestrating things or will we go back to the 4-3-3 which hasn't brought any results.

PS: Stick a fork in Cannavaro, he's done.

[Moshe..]

yeah you're right that at least the english fans, oh what paragons of humanity, won't be on show. Hopefully they'll be off package-holidaying in the seedier regions of spain/greece/thailand/portugal ect, and far away from the eyes of the world, and thus we can continue to happily pretend that all english people look like hugh grant and smell of freshly mown lawns.

Wow welcome back lowlander, how nostalgic! My god i remember you posting almost eight years ago - you grumpy old german man. We'll have to sort out a football forum next summer.

[Mónica]

Originally Posted by Moshe..

We'll have to sort out a football forum next summer.

Definitely!
I can remember the VERY old football-forum... the logo showed a toy-figure of ManU, if I remember right... LOL. God, that was a long time ago.

[Moshe..]

Ok i'm not that old. Almost six years ago - but it feels like decades!

[Moshe..]

Oh do you remember how we had mufcman in charge (who was actually a genuine israeli person) and we had dozens of people, lots of scandinavians, dutch, germans, scottish, english, spanish - i think maybe even a french!

Nostalgia?