[Archived] England 4 vs 2 Croatia

[Tom Pringle]

now all those numpers who said England would not make the q'final, well you took one hell of a kicking - you were ALL SO WRONG

Mmmmm, humble pie,

Can I have some more gravy please.

I've had red sauce with mine, it's lovely.

[daviemac]

It sticks in my throat to say so................but England played well, and Rooney has been fantastic.

BUT, why has there been little ( if indeed any ) condemnation of Gerrards outragoeus dive 10 minutes or so in?

Shocking behavour

[broadsword]

Phil had hardly any time at all today, and came into a team which was becoming disjointed because of the other changes which were made. He has done very little wrong for England when he's had the chance to play.

Gary continues to get slated by people who don't understand the game. He is solid, unspectacular, doesn't hunt the limelight, is a key element in the dressing room and is the best option at right back for England.

Gabriella's OK, a solid right-back, though not exactly Josimar.

Philomena though - ouch! Are you "Romania" sure Tris? I can handle him playing for England, but not at left-back!

The Man Utd nickname for them "busy coots" (or something) is quite apt.

[Lathund]

They also 'booed' God save the Queen, so they got what they deserved by 40,000 england fans signing and booing over their anthem.

Im sure, just like in the swiss game, england would have respected their anthem if they had not booed ours!

I bet croatia dont have anything done to them by uefa but if it was england in the wrong...................well!

Boohooo

In the opening game, the Marsellaise was played first.... but I'm sure it was in fact the French booing their own national anthem? Yes, it's not like England have a history of doing that "unprovoked"...

(Note that I'm not talking about the racist abuse by Croatian fans towards both English and French players)

[Siriwan]

Hey, congratulations from a spanish guy (who's not sad at all for the Spanish failure -it was obvious it was gonna be-). Maybe it's the time for England of doing something great again!

[The Producer]

Great win and lots of good points. Apart from the Talented Mr Rooney, can't believe how many times our midfielders won back possession almost straight away. Neville and Cole both look far better defensively than before (Neville has always been very solid for 99% of games but prone to costly lapses of concentration). Really looking forward to the Portugal game, but 3 concerns:

1) Given we'll have about half the amount of possession vs Portugal, someone needs to explain to the midfielders that Owen is no longer incredibly fast, so chipping the ball through the middle at every possible occasion just gives the ball away.

2) When Scholes goes AWOL from left mid to make admittedly good runs in the centre (I guess he was AWOL for 90% of the game), someone will need to help out Cole, who was almost without fail left in a one-on-one situation with the attacking midfielder. A team with a good right-mid will cause big problems.

3) Some extremely nervous defending as a team in 2nd half, even when we still had a goal to play with. Hate to see us in a really high pressure situation.

Set piece defending also awful, but I suspect Portugal don't have the ability to exploit them as well as the Croatians.

Edited June 22, 2004 by The Producer

[ianb]

) Some extremely nervous defending as a team in 2nd half, even when we still had a goal to play with. Hate to see us in a really high pressure situation.

Quite a constrast to the France match when the defence looked solid to me all tyhe way through. Agree on your other two points Mr.Producer.

[Eddie]

The balls into Owen aren't productive, but it has nothing to do with his "lack" of pace. Through balls for him to run onto are a good idea, they simply aren't being executed particularly well at the moment.

[blue phil]

The performance - I use the word in its loosest sense - of one Engishman last night was one of the worst , most cringe making , embarrassing display of gross ineptitude and infantile incompetence that I have ever had the misfortune to behold ......

[blue phil]

I refer of course to the cretinous Mr John Motson who succeeded , unbelievably, in uniting everyone in my local in wishing that the game was being shown on ITV - adverts and all.....

[Ste B]

I refer of course to the cretinous Mr John Motson who succeeded , unbelievably, in uniting everyone in my local in wishing that the game was being shown on ITV - adverts and all.....

I thought you were referring to Joe "we need to make a few substitutions at half time" Royle, who was equally as annoying.

Shame that we couldnt get the radio 5 commentry for this game instead.

[greggyk]

I hope Barry Davis does the commentry for the QF's!

[Rover_Shaun]

I hope Barry Davis does the commentry for the QF's!

Bazza' almost as bad as Motson

Give it pougatch or whetever he's called

[Ossydave]

Felt like Motty actually WANTED the croats to score. How much better the game would have been on sky

[greggyk]

But nothing can be worse than ITV's world cup coverage. Expert opinions from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank, Garry Neville, Bobby Robson and Gazza(never knew what he was saying)

Edited June 22, 2004 by greggyk

[Oklahoma]

Here we had Mourinho commenting last Portugal game for TVI.

It was nice to hear his opinions about football and tactics.

[Kiwiwannabe]

Croatia were physically strong and always posed a threat from dead ball situations...

Did Croatia have a free kick in England's half they didnt score from?!

[joey_big_nose]

Drop Scholes for Bridge. Bit more controversial, especially as Scholes scored and played reasonably well from the left. But noticeably, in the second half, Ivica Mornar played down the right and gave Ashley Cole merry hell, providing numerous decent crosses. Where was Scholes? Galloping off into the centre as is his want being a natural centre midfielder.

Bridge will have the positional discipline to stay on the left and help out Cole.

This will be even more crucial if Cristiano Ronaldo plays on the right for Portugal.

I am majorly worried about this too. Ronaldo or Figo consistently one on one with Cole is a recipe for disaster, especially when the full back is also expected to provide all the width on the left too! I cannot see Sven dropping Scholes however, so I would expect to see Gerrard moved out to the left and Scholes shuffled into the middle.

This could work quite well as Scholes should be afforded a bit of room by the Portugese midfield. Would have to agree that Bridge deseves consideration though.

I have a feeling that this game is going to be a corker- both teams will be looking to attack as Portugal lack the defensive players to sit back and we have found our best form when going forward. Ultimately we look to have the most effective system and formation even if we lack the flair players (apart from Rooney, obviously!) our defensive superiority and versitility in midfield should make us favourites.

[The Producer]

I refer of course to the cretinous Mr John Motson who succeeded , unbelievably, in uniting everyone in my local in wishing that the game was being shown on ITV - adverts and all.....

I agree. Motson is now terrible. Really annoying voice, annoying comments and seems to believe he's as good as some people wrongly said he was. Fingers crossed Motson will be poached by ITV in the same way the Beeb got rid of Lynam before he went downhill.

Joe Royle is also an uninspired choice as co-commentator. ITV has still somehow managed to be worse though - despite his experience, Bobby Robson is the most rambling, uninsightful co-commentator I've heard in quite some time. And as for having Andy Townsend in the studio for analysis...

[FourLaneBlue]

I'm still disappointed we didn't get a drunken AESF post after the match. Hope Smithy sorts it out for Thursday!

[FourLaneBlue]

Joe Royle is also an uninspired choice as co-commentator.

Definitely, although he is quite new to it and may improve.

Mark Lawrenson seems to me the best of the co-commentators outside of Sky. Although he is a prat he does know his stuff. Bit like Big Ron before he had his funny do. Think he'll be back eventually...

One question - Why do commentators find foreign names so pant-wettingly funny? How many jokes do we have to hear about "wouldn't like to pronounce that one!?!". Why not? It's only a few syllables worth! Even now you hear some jokes about Macmanaman...although fortunately that's no longer about his name but how Keegan wasted a shedload of dosh on him...