World Cup 2018

[Audax]

Boy, I can't believe the naysayers, after 2010, 2014, 2016 Euro, hell yeah, this will be seen as a very good tournament by England.  Well done England.

[Ewood Ace]

Just now, Audax said:

Belgium get another, Belgium might even be more disappointed than England in this World Cup; this was a World Cup, they had a very good shot at. They could do nothing against France.

Belgium's biggest regret in this tournament will be beating England in the group stage, if they had not won that game I've got do doubt that they would be in tomorrows final. 

As for England they have looked toothless again from open play, only chances coming from set pieces again.

[Husky]

So. Did anyone enjoy this 3rd placed game? It's just been one bag of frustration.

3 lions and 3 defeats. Suddenly the heroes are coming home deflated.

 

[Audax]

Germany has been a good sporting team since 2006; but over all, those teams, Brazil, Argentina, Italy obviously and Germany won a lot of their World Cups by hook and by crook.  I'd almost be ashamed of the style some of these teams won by and I don't mean to be harsh. I'm not positive Brazil, Italy and Argentina will be back that strong in the future. It's changing.

France lost the 2006 final, the last Euro, so they won't want to be seen as the "challenger"....  It's hard to say about Croatia, bend don't break. They've been a great story and perhaps one can say, they haven't had the most difficult path. Again, a lot of the traditional powers, save France, didn't do that great in the tournament, who's to say what an easy path is?

 

[Audax]

Just now, Husky said:

So. Did anyone enjoy this 3rd placed game? It's just been one bag of frustration.

3 lions and 3 defeats. Suddenly the heroes are coming home deflated.

 

I usually skip the final and just watch the 3rd place game.

[Husky]

I don't want to say it again but, hell, Phil Jones . . . .I wouldn't even want him back at Rovers. He's diabolical.

What did they do to him? What have they done to Rashford (that has gone sideways at best)? Man Ure you've got a lot to answer for.

 

[roversfan99]

12 minutes ago, AdamRochina said:

4th place it is then and I agree husky kane should of been off ages ago .. he's undropable cos he's the golden boy captain lol 

Belgium picked us off then 

Golden Boy Captain? Hes our sole world class player, proven to score goal after goal. 

Granted hes not look his self these last couple of games, but no way do you drop him. Maybe the injury he rushed back from at the end of the season has affected him?

6 minutes ago, AdamRochina said:

It's not though is it mate? Truthfully? We are a very slow pedastrian team .. we created nothing against Columbia and Croatia ..Sweden yes we were great .. but I think overall weve been very poor .. look at Japan against Belgium and then look at us today .  We are slow boring and uncreative and because we got to the semi final all the media and experts are sugar coating it all

You are using massive hyperbole and exaggeration by saying very poor. Even today we had a massive spell of pressure and should have scored. Japan did well v Belgium to an extent but they lost as well, so dont wax lyrical too much. Slow and pedestrian again is incorrect, we have I think the youngest team in the tournament with plenty of energy, its been know how and intelligence for me that weve at key moments lacked.

Rashford for me has had a particularly poor tournament whenever hes been given a chance. Those suggesting that Sterling should have been dropped for him seem ignorant to that.

[AllRoverAsia]

32 minutes ago, AdamRochina said:

As proud as we can be about England we must be brutally Frank. 

We are poor .. really poor and have been extremely fortunate to get this far into the cup.. we don't create nothing from open play at all take the Panama game out and even sadia Arabia created more chances from open play then us.. we are near the bottom of that specific table 

Tunisia we started well but after it went 1-1 we barley created anything just had possession and took a set piece in the dying seconds to win.  Panama we dominated granted as they are a semi pro side. Then lost to Belgium reserved as we played ours

Then come the knock outs . We had the easiest route yes. But against Columbia we had one shot in 120 minutes of football and needed a penalty to score ..although even with that we were the better side and did deserve to go through .

Against Sweden this is the game I thought we were really good in and showed alot if promise..we were professional about the game and killed it off without having to create much 

Then come the game against Croatia and yet again a set piece goal and apart from that we created nothing for 120 minutes apart from Jones header off the line. They completely dominated us in midfield and shown up our weaknesses.

All in all I thought we were very fortunate to get to where we was in the cup as we barley had a creative force and relied heavily in set pieces or penaltys BUT it's a foundation to build on 

Actually we do, consistently, it's one of our most noticeable strengths.

(I know what you meant, and agree. Just trying to find some humour)

Why did Kane bother turning out? I suppose he hoped for a penalty or lucky deflection for his Golden Boot as he did sweet FA for 90 mins.

[Husky]

5 minutes ago, Audax said:

I usually skip the final and just watch the 3rd place game.

I usually watch cricket ?

[bazza]

I thought England would give it their best shot but they failed to do so. I'm a bit upset by that. I hope Southgate gave them a blocking at full time. I bet he didn't.

I didn't expect to win but I did expect effort.

Edited July 14, 2018 by bazza

[Husky]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

Why did Kane bother turning out? I suppose he hoped for a penalty or lucky deflection for his Golden Boot as he did sweet FA for 90 mins.

Does Kane have fitness issues? He always seems to vanish - I wasn't even sure if he'd gone off or not at one point.

There were several times when the ball flashed across the box and we had no striker there attacking it.

On the wane?

Meh! 3rd place game sucks. It's ruined the World Cup . . . .

[AllRoverAsia]

Just now, Husky said:

I usually watch cricket ?

I am. Looking quite interesting with Kholi gone

[Audax]

The wikipedia article posted seemed to say the women's World Cup has the 3rd place game in the same stadium and on the same day as the final. That would certainly make for a very, very long day. I think they said the game is viewed with more importance.  Read the article to double-check.

[Husky]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

I am. Looking quite interesting with Kholi gone

Lancashire Lightning won!

[Husky]

Well, at least we didn't end up being Serena Williams. An easy route to a final and then ultimately found out. . .??

[Rover_Shaun]

4th crap game on the run for Kane. Flat track bully?

[Husky]

40 minutes ago, Rover_Shaun said:

4th crap game on the run for Kane. Flat track bully?

He's on a par with the poor man's Heskey. ?

[Husky]

So. Does anyone think Southgate will (or can) improve tactically?

I know the usual suspects were creaming themselves over the Prem Boys (notably Hazard and DB) as usual. But for all England's failings, Belgium basically played defensively and on the break. England dominated possession and had more shots, and arguably had more chances to score. . . . Yet we still managed to 'comfortably' lose as they picked us apart on the counter.

 

 

[speeeeeeedie]

A poor game. England huffed and puffed in the first half, and played much better in the second, only to be done on the break.

There is a lot to look forward too. The foundations of a very good side is there. Very few of the squad are over 26. Sessegnon from Fulham is getting rave reviews. Hopefully he keeps his head screwed on and he can be the next long term left back. Another central defender is needed. 

Jones was once touted as an England captain. He'll never get there now.

Luke Shaw has gone the same way. He was in the 2014 squad. He'll not get a look in as long as he's at Man U.

Rashford has flashes. He and Lingard need to leave Man U so they can play consistently. I'm sure Klopp would turn Rashford into a world beater, but that will never happen.

Stones did well, but will he get a game for City? 

The successful youth team players should be looking to play abroad. Sancho has gone. Lookman at Everton wants to. 

I shall look forward to the final tomorrow, and not before long the league season will start and all will be forgotten.

 

[RevidgeBlue]

Strip away all the hype about reaching the semi final, and analyse the performances and what we've done against whom and it's a fairly ordinary set of performances really.

Nice to have a good run in the tournament for once but not sure we've made anything like the sort of progress people are talking about. You could just as easily put it down to luck of the draw and a bit of good fortune at the rightl times.

[matt83]

2 hours ago, Husky said:

So. Does anyone think Southgate will (or can) improve tactically?

 

 

 

Only a gut feeling but I think Southgate can improve you know. I seriously doubt we’ll ever get to a semi final again or have a better opportunity to get to a final but I like his passion, modesty and waistcoat. I like what he said about not being a top team and no need for a home coming parade.

I appreciated he was tactically outmanoeuvred in the 2nd half of the Croatia game and had zero answers. In fact I felt in that game with every substitution we got a little worse but I’m still interested to see what happens in the future.

He may never improve but technically he’s been better than more established names like Roy who couldn’t win a game and Capello who couldn’t beat USA or Algeria.

[bazza]

I was disappointed with England's effort. No desire. No "bottle".

I am pleased at the perceived change in attitude by the players under Southgate. To get to the semi-final was a fantastic feat considering our lack of skilful players. The whole nation was revved up for them.

And then they turn up for the "bronze" medal play-off and revert to type, showing themselves to be overpaid prima donnas. I thought Southgate had sorted out the mental side of things. Obviously he hasn't.

If, in the second half, we had made a fight of it, possibly getting one or two red cards in the process, I would have been sated. But no; we were weak.

Edited July 14, 2018 by bazza

[joey_big_nose]

To be frank Belgium are a quite a few rungs better than us with the best player at the tournament in Hazard. To lose to them is no surprise at all. People should not take it too hard.

It's been a good tournament. Semi finals is a fabulous outcome given the mediocre quality of the players available. Southgate now needs to look forward and figure out how possibly to do better. People will expect us now to make semis at least at the Euros. How he is going to manage that will take some considerable imagination and planning as we are unlikely to get as soft a draw again and we are so far behind Germany, Belgium, France, Spain in terms of quality available, and on a similar level to another 4 or 5 European teams.

He's going to either need to wring more quality out of what he has, or find some new top players from somewhere as yet unknown.

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by joey_big_nose

[Audax]

The Conspiracy theorists are out (this is all joking around of course):

From the Russian press, well, the Moscow Times:

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/conspiracy-theories-make-the-world-cup-go-round-62210

National drink of the Former Yugoslavia and similar areas, this stuff, the Croatian make, was way to harsh for me, Slivovitz:

 

 

[punerover]

Does anyone else think Harry Kane is the next Wayne Rooney? Scored bag full of goals for the country but not during crucial games. They both had to drop back to collect the ball and were extremely poor in the final third.