[Archived] Group C

[jim mk2]

Greece think they have won Euro 2004 but back in the Fatherland, Rehhagel is seen as the real hero.

So there you have it: Germany have conquered Europe, again.

I agree that, as a supposed leading football nation, England have underachieved over the years.

We did not even qualify for the World Cups of 1974 and 1978, which was inexcusable considering the quality of players that were around at that time, while we also missed out on USA 94. Our record in the European Championships is lamentable.

I believe that we have had some outstanding players in England since we won the 1966 World Cup but they have been badly managed and coached. For that I blame the FA, who have made some very poor appointments for the manager's job.

They sacked Sir Alf, the only man to have won anything for England, and appointed Revie, who was a crook and a disaster as manager. Greenwood steadied the ship for a while and Robson did well to get us to the World Cup semi-finals in 1990 but since then, with the exception of Venables at Euro 96, it has been all downhill.

Next came Graham Taylor, who turned out to be an embarrassment and out of his depth at international level, and then Glenn Hoddle, of whom the least said the better, and Kevin Keegan, who admitted after he walked out on England that he "did not have a clue about tactics".

Now we have Eriksson, whose one-dimensional approach (defend deep and try to score on the counter-attack) has been exposed in Japan in 2002 and in Portugal. I do not hold out much hope for 2006, assuming we get there.

[joey_big_nose]

This just goes to show that in football there is NO preordained elite who will win games just because of their status.

Football is game played by 22 men for 90 minutes, nothing outside of that, so provided your team is well drilled and has talent you are in with a chance. I hope some of this rubs off on the premiership next season- Arsenal, Man Utd and the like have a huge psycological advantage which wins games before a ball is kicked. If mid table sides adopt an approach of believing they can compete and WIN against the big sides we will have a very interesting season.

Being "practicle" (ie. aiming merely to achieve what seems 'possible') is just negativity dressed differently. Curbishly, O'Leary and even Souness should be inspired by what the Greeks have achieved.

Fair enough, it is a lot harder to overcome bigger teams throughout a 38 game season, but it is counter productive to envisage yourself in an set order of clubs.

[philipl]

Whilst we are talking about the inexplicable, nice to see the 2004/5 season start on Saturday (Inter-Toto preliminary round) before the 2003/4 season had ended (final of Euro 2004).

The SPL showed its enormous strength in depth with Hibernians drawing at home to Vilnius.