Stolen by the Ref

[CAPT KAYOS]

Is it just me, or was the foul not given for Campbell's first challenge and header and not for Terry's interventions.

I haven't seen anything to contradict this nor have I seen an interview from the Ref to say what he gave it for.

[jim mk2]

Brian Clough wasn't it? Maybe it's true, but make it your own death and not someone else's.

Bill Shankley

Bill Shankly.

Coming from an era when goalkeepers were not the "untouchables" that they are today, the great man would no doubt have had a robust view of last night's events.

With regard to Swiss referee Urst Maier's performance, it is worth recalling one of his other classic quotes:

"The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game."

[1864roverite]

well you Portuguese supporters

you surely deserved that victory

now my patriotic spectacles are off and my head is totally alcohol free I have had time to reflect on last nites topsy turvey action.

Cant blame the ref although he was wrong.

Portugal played the much better football.

England looked terribly tired after they scored after 3 minutes !

The English fans were great and after all the hype about hooliganism in the country it just showed that last night we do have GREAT supporters although the country has its fair share of knobheads.

Cant blame any of the players who missed a penalty as it takes real ###### to get up there and have a go.

Cant have a go at any of the Portuguese players even though cloonaldo fall over just like vannistlediver of manure - his TEAMMATE no less.

Filling my face with my slcie of humble pie didnt taste too good with 9 pints off 4x !

FINALLY

SGE needs to take a long hard look at himself. If he seriously thinks that Phillipa Neville is an England player then we must get rid now. Playing him in an England game in a major trophy just means one thing - ELIMINATION.

Rant over

Hope the Portuguese now go onto win the competition. You deserve it.

[ABBEY]

Well ive seen it sober now and no way was it a foul!!

oklahoma....no offence meant but wtf do people expect coming on a 95% ish english message board 1/2 hr after the final whistle gloating and rubbing it in?

IMAGINE ...IF the dingles beat us and 20 mins sam dingle comes on here gloating .....what would the reaction be.

ANYWAY IVE EMAILED THE SWISS SCUMBAG...I AWAIT A REPLY!!

[greggyk]

Jimmy Hills idea

whats your thoughts?

I think the idea of 2 appeals is quite good. Its time football moved on, we have all this new technology used after games, why not during the game.

[grizfoot]

Damn

We always get cheated

[roversmum]

Just wondering - what's everyone's take on the player in the background? Is he trying to indicate (to the ref or linesman) that there is a push or is he lamenting the possibility of a goal, as he was waving his arms about before it even happened.

Personally, I'm still not convinced that the ref's decision was right, he had already got several wrong imo.

Oh well, back to the drawing board...........

[vyeo]

i'm not english, but was an english fan until hoddle dropped sutton back in the mid-90s. then, the only reason i supported england was because of rovers players (shearer, le saux, ripley, wilcox) being in the team. after the sutton saga, i never rooted for england again, but still followed your progress through the WC and EURO qualifiers. then, the jansen debacle, combined with a personal dislike of eriksson (he lied to us!), made me root for anyone against you... until the day another rovers player pulls on the english jersey that is.

but on the topic, i caught the match live on tv in the early hours of the morning (3am), and i thought that owen's goal was a classic opportunist's strike. but eriksson's tactics of defend, defend, defend was just not on. possession was about 65% to 35% in favour of portugal, and even in the first half, they looked the more probable to score, and it was really no surprise that they eventually did.

as for the substitutions, if he wanted to adopt the hoof it up option, surely heskey makes for a better choice than vassell to play as targetman? at least the size is there. at the time, i was bemused by the scholes substitution, but upon realising that it was due to an injury, fair enough. but at that stage, joe cole would have been an option too. putting phil nev in only handed the portugese the impetus to attack even more.

on this point, the contrast between last night's 2 managers cannot be more stark. put it crudely, big phil has balls. everyone has to give him that. to have the guts to pull your captain, who is arguably the biggest name in your team off, and replace him with a striker who've played sporadically, and scored only 1 league goal all season against the opponents on the day, takes guts, and big phil was proven right.

albeit hypothetically, it is fair that beckham is sven's first name on the sheet. and my money is on sven NOT having the balls to substitute goldenballs should he have been in the same situation. also, i thought your players looked much more sluggish than portugal's. this could be down to the fact that the team has not been rotated. whilst portugal has not rotated all its players as well, they have made their fair share of changes while england havent. players like bridge, joe cole etc havent had a kick all tournament! surely, it wouldnt have been impossible to rotate the players in my opinion.

therefore, i feel that ultimately, the manager (sven) has to shoulder the blame, and for you guys to move on, another manager (preferably english) would probably be the better option. maybe then, the team will feature a rover again!

[Ninjathunder]

Hope the Portuguese now go onto win the competition. You deserve it.

For reaching the semi-final with the help of the ref? Any team that wins of course will deserve it, but I just don't see why they do on the basis of what I've seen so far.

[Ninjathunder]

therefore, i feel that ultimately, the manager (sven) has to shoulder the blame, and for you guys to move on, another manager (preferably english) would probably be the better option.

[1864roverite]

tooting

the only reason I am opting for the Portuguese is NOT because they beat us, its simpler than that.

I hate the French

I hate the Dutch (not people just the fact that they have a cheat in vannistlediver)

The czechs are lovely people and have a great team but on this occasion I dont fancy them.

the danes and the swedes, well they too are great people especially liked by italians, but not good enough to win for me this time.

I have never once said anything about "that" goal as I am still seriously gutted !

[Oklahoma]

Well ive seen it sober now and no way was it a foul!!

oklahoma....no offence meant but wtf do people expect coming on a 95% ish english message board 1/2 hr after the final whistle gloating and rubbing it in?

IMAGINE ...IF the dingles beat us and 20 mins sam dingle comes on here gloating .....what would the reaction be.

ANYWAY IVE EMAILED THE SWISS SCUMBAG...I AWAIT A REPLY!!

Let me see... Maybe respect!!

Is it that hard?

Yesterday there were some english supporters in the middle of the portuguese crowd in my home town and everyone respected them.

Is that such a strange concept to you?

[ABBEY]

does respect not work both ways?i say it one more time coming on here just after the final whistle isnt showing us respect either its call taking the pish!

WE RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY ARE ANGRY AT THE OUTCOME OF EVENTS LAST NIGHT AND THEREFORE PERSONALLY DONT LIKE PEOPLE COMING AND SAYING ABOUT RESPECT.

[Glenn]

I have to agree with Oklahoma, his post were hardly the level of gloating we'd expect from the Dingles, certainly nowhere near bad enough to deserve some of the abuse heading his way last night.

Blame the ref, Beckham, Vassel, Sven, the ref (again), the penalty spot, even the entire team, but it's hardly Portugals fans fault !

Oklahoma went out of his way to make member of this board welcomed in Portugal, and were hearing so many reports of Portugese fans making the English fans welcomed, a little respect is the least he deserves.

[Ste B]

Well ive seen it sober now and no way was it a foul!!

oklahoma....no offence meant but wtf do people expect coming on a 95% ish english message board 1/2 hr after the final whistle gloating and rubbing it in?

IMAGINE ...IF the dingles beat us and 20 mins sam dingle comes on here gloating .....what would the reaction be.

ANYWAY IVE EMAILED THE SWISS SCUMBAG...I AWAIT A REPLY!!

Let me see... Maybe respect!!

Is it that hard?

Yesterday there were some english supporters in the middle of the portuguese crowd in my home town and everyone respected them.

Is that such a strange concept to you?

Appears so.. Abbey is out of order here.

This isnt an England messageboard, its a Rovers messageboard, and Oklahoma is a Rovers and Portugal Fan who was posting on here weeks before this game, and hopefully will keep on doing so.

I'd suggest that Abbey should speak to some of those Rovers fans who Oklahoma has looked after whilst visiting portugal recently.

Doesnt mean that I'm still not incredibly annoyed myself about yesterdays events, but its certainly not the fault of anybody posting on an internet messageboard.

[Oklahoma]

Sorry to tell you that I come here all the time and I even was the one who make the threads of the two first english games.

If this is an english only forum, maybe that should have been put as a warning.

According to your thoughts, if portugal had lost, we might as well expell all the english fans that are here, right?

Because they would be celebrating. What a lack of respect

p.s. after reading the previous two posts, i won't post about it anymore.

Edited June 25, 2004 by Oklahoma

[broadsword]

I blame Tony Blair myself.

[ABBEY]

hey im not falling out with anyone...i never said it was an ENGLAND MESSAGE BOARD ,just that 95 % of posters on here or English thats all.

It wasnt Oklahahoma I was peed at last night it was Velvet .Just saw a smiling face and all that and was angry big time.Still am in fact.I never have once questioned what sort of person oklahoma is ,glad had everyone was made welcome.

***ABS OFFERS HAND TO OKLAHOMA****AND EVERY NONE EGLISH DUDE OR DUDETTE ON HERE***

[Oklahoma]

hey im not falling out with anyone...i never said it was an ENGLAND MESSAGE BOARD ,just that 95 % of posters on here or English thats all.

It wasnt Oklahahoma I was peed at last night it was Velvet .Just saw a smiling face and all that and was angry big time.Still am in fact.I never have once questioned what sort of person oklahoma is ,glad had everyone was made welcome.

***ABS OFFERS HAND TO OKLAHOMA****AND EVERY NONE EGLISH DUDE OR DUDETTE ON HERE***

it's ok...

Velvet is my girlfriend

Both of us didn't want to make you angry.

[Velvet]

hey im not falling out with anyone...i never said it was an ENGLAND MESSAGE BOARD ,just that  95 % of posters on here or English thats all.

It wasnt Oklahahoma  I was peed at last night it was Velvet .Just saw a smiling face and all that and was angry big time.Still am in fact.I never have once questioned what sort of person oklahoma is ,glad had everyone was made welcome.

***ABS OFFERS HAND TO OKLAHOMA****AND EVERY NONE EGLISH DUDE OR DUDETTE ON HERE***

it's ok...

Velvet is my girlfriend

Both of us didn't want to make you angry.

I have lot respect for England didnt meant to insult anyone with my smilies, it was only a expression of joy

I know you were ###### for the game but I didnt said bad things and I didnt meant to be misunderstood. I have respect to everyone.

Hope is ok Abbey

**sorry my english is bad. Okla can explain himself better

Edited June 25, 2004 by Velvet

[AllRoverAsia]

Love Greece

[ABBEY]

Velvet ...no problem ,RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY I HATE LOSING BIG TIME ESPECIALLY AFTER REFS CHEAT.

[1864roverite]

froggies out

[Oklahoma]

froggies out

Maybe today we'll be all on the same side

[orcan]

great to see you're now handling the situation better...

think about the french!

they can't (even) blame the referee!!!

yesss...the french are out. couldn't be happier with the score hehehhe...

my only concern about this whole tournament is that defensive football is making progress. look at greece and latvia...

wonder what the future holds for us...

hope sweden wins tomorrow...