World cup England in Quarter final

[Las Palmas]

3 hours ago, First_Lexus said:

To be fair, apart from a couple of hundred morons trying to storm Wembley Stadium for the Euro final last year, there hasn’t really been ‘hooligan’ trouble at a major tournament since Euro 2000 in The Netherlands.

Isolated incidents yes, but nothing much. I’ve been all over the place watching club football in England and Wales over the past forty years and only seen trouble once, Watford vs Luton in a League Cup match about a decade ago. Trouble does happen, but it’s more a case of memory and ‘give a dog a bad name’ these days imho. There’s also a class element in this country. Bad behaviour at a football match is ‘hooliganism’ but similar behaviour at cricket or rugby is ‘high spirits.’ I’ve been to a rugby union international between Wales and England in Cardiff, and it isn’t something I’d ever want to repeat. Regardless of what the media say, I saw far more drunkenness and bad behaviour there than I see at football. And I felt far more threatened personally.

I thought England played well last night. They were the better side in the second half, but France had the better of the first half. It’s down to  fine margins as it always is in these big tournaments. One penalty miss, a couple of missed chances, and you are eliminated.

Still, seeding confirmed - England are one of the top ten teams in the world, and got to the last eight. From there on the winner has to have a combination of belief, talent and luck!

 

The people that have been having a bad time in the few incidents probably disagree with you. Alcohol is best home for people that cannot control themselves.

Overall, in the match, France did not play well, neither did England. If France plays as bad as yesterday and Morocco is having a good day and stick together, play like a team and not making stupid errors like getting a player thrown out, France cannot be sure to win.

[Las Palmas]

3 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

So lets have the next tournament in Saudi Arabia or maybe North Corea? Guaranteed no issues as you will simply disappear or get your hands chopped off.

To me a big tournament like this has to be for the people by the people, one big festive atmosphere. This worldcup should have been held in the UK. The entire Qatar/FIFA/Infantino is a total disgrace for football. Money rules.

Next European Championship is in summer of 2024. In Germany. Let the party begin!  

Do not be surprised if FIFA will give a tournament to highest bidder. That happened before, as you probably know. Party is fine. Drunk idiots fighting is not what I call party.

[ALAW]

England our boys did well you couldn't have asked anymore they did their best. Unfortunately as so happens in football you need a bit of luck and the rub of the green we didn't get it. The ref did not help i thought and neither did that Var thing for love of me I don't know why we didn't get penalty awarded when Harry was brought down. Take nothing away from France they scored in open play and the second was a fabulous goal, For the first time apparently Griezman was given a free roll i think it took us some time to realise that. Overall we did good credit to all our players they are young and can only gain with this experience. Vive le france.

[Las Palmas]

Still 4, hopefully good matches to see. Football is not just about our favourite team winning. 

I did not like football till I saw Ronaldinho play, think it was 2009 and since then I found out that some players are not just big Neanderthal’s beating each other.

[Guest]

On 12/5/2022 at 1:07 PM, Rabbers said:

As a matter of interest,  is anyone aware of Toyota or Lexus having ever sponsored a football team? 

Don’t know if it’s already be said but Toyota have sponsored the main stand (West Stand) at Derby’s Pride Park since it opened 

[Rabbers]

22 minutes ago, Derant said:

Don’t know if it’s already be said but Toyota have sponsored the main stand (West Stand) at Derby’s Pride Park since it opened 

Appears to be a heavy commitment by Toyota.  A quick online search shows not only the main stand but also suites and a restaurant with the Toyota name.  The main Derby Toyota dealership also has a Pride Park address, and must be very happy with all this local attention.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Rabbers said:

Appears to be a heavy commitment by Toyota.  A quick online search shows not only the main stand but also suites and a restaurant with the Toyota name.  The main Derby Toyota dealership also has a Pride Park address, and must be very happy with all this local attention.

The Toyota/Lexus dealership is very close to Pride Park Stadium, I am a long standing season ticket holder and remember many years ago when I bought an Avensis being allowed to park there for a few evening games. The Toyota branding has always been very prominent on the main stand, they certainly are more visible at the club than the other big Derby employers, RR and Alstom.

[First_Lexus]

https://news.sky.com/story/firm-left-with-18-000-england-world-cup-winners-t-shirts-after-gamble-backfires-12767260

😆

[rayaans]

Bit late but...

Poor effort from England. As per usual half the interesting players were on the bench or substituted with 10 mins left and Harry Kane seems to like shooting pigeons. Harry Maguire on the other hand thinks he's playing a friendly match crossing to another planet.

Saka was tactically taken down by the French that he was essentially handicapped and Bellingham is training for the Oscars. 

Overall France looked a better team. England were quite clearly hesitant in their gameplay and plan.

Let's not forget these players train for years and years and get paid millions. Harry Kane missing a vital penalty is unforgivable at this level

 

 

 

 

[royoftherovers]

38 minutes ago, rayaans said:

Bit late but...

Poor effort from England. As per usual half the interesting players were on the bench or substituted with 10 mins left and Harry Kane seems to like shooting pigeons. Harry Maguire on the other hand thinks he's playing a friendly match crossing to another planet.

Saka was tactically taken down by the French that he was essentially handicapped and Bellingham is training for the Oscars. 

Overall France looked a better team. England were quite clearly hesitant in their gameplay and plan.

Let's not forget these players train for years and years and get paid millions. Harry Kane missing a vital penalty is unforgivable at this level

 

 

 

 

Succinct and correct in my view.

Not related to Kenneth Wolstenholme by any chance are you Ray ?

[Phil xxkr]

3 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

Succinct and correct in my view.

Not related to Kenneth Wolstenholme by any chance are you Ray ?

 

3 hours ago, rayaans said:

Bit late but...

Poor effort from England. As per usual half the interesting players were on the bench or substituted with 10 mins left and Harry Kane seems to like shooting pigeons. Harry Maguire on the other hand thinks he's playing a friendly match crossing to another planet.

Saka was tactically taken down by the French that he was essentially handicapped and Bellingham is training for the Oscars. 

Overall France looked a better team. England were quite clearly hesitant in their gameplay and plan.

Let's not forget these players train for years and years and get paid millions. Harry Kane missing a vital penalty is unforgivable at this level

 

 

 

 

Had they have won, bearing in mind it was down to a penalty intriguing to note you still would be critical 🤔. And had they have gone on to win the World Cup would you still find things to find fault with? 🤔

[dutchie01]

5 hours ago, rayaans said:

 

Let's not forget these players train for years and years and get paid millions. Harry Kane missing a vital penalty is unforgivable at this level

 

 

 

 

Sorry Rayaans but i do not agree. Everyone can score a penalty on a sunday afternoon playing with friends. Now do thesame in a worldcup with the weight of the nation on your shoulders knowing billions of people are watching you and if you miss it will be the end of the tournament. It is psychology at work. Kane is a secure value in penalties and i do not hold anything against him. Nothing to do with money.

The real issue here is that the team was just average nothing more. Like Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy ( not even there!), Spain, Brazil, Belgium and so on. Why do you think Marocco, Saudi, Japan all of a sudden come to the surface? Yes incredibly hard work and the right attitude, agression all or nothing but not on rough talent. Where is argentina without messi?

anyway, looking forward to argentina vs france this sunday!

[Las Palmas]

3 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

 looking forward to argentina vs france this sunday!

Also, to 3rd place match Saturday. Moroccan players and staff did behave well after having lost. Much better than most losers so far.

[Phil xxkr]

19 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

Also, to 3rd place match Saturday. Moroccan players and staff did behave well after having lost. Much better than most losers so far.

Apart from the centre of Paris? 

[rayaans]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:07 PM, Phil xxkr said:

 

Had they have won, bearing in mind it was down to a penalty intriguing to note you still would be critical 🤔. And had they have gone on to win the World Cup would you still find things to find fault with? 🤔

Yes of course. The results matter but only so much. I didn't see enough effort from the England team or their manager.

I don't believe a team should win by flukes or luck but it does happen. I certainly don't think England deserved to go any further than they did.

 

23 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

Sorry Rayaans but i do not agree. Everyone can score a penalty on a sunday afternoon playing with friends. Now do thesame in a worldcup with the weight of the nation on your shoulders knowing billions of people are watching you and if you miss it will be the end of the tournament. It is psychology at work. Kane is a secure value in penalties and i do not hold anything against him. Nothing to do with money.

The real issue here is that the team was just average nothing more. Like Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy ( not even there!), Spain, Brazil, Belgium and so on. Why do you think Marocco, Saudi, Japan all of a sudden come to the surface? Yes incredibly hard work and the right attitude, agression all or nothing but not on rough talent. Where is argentina without messi?

anyway, looking forward to argentina vs france this sunday!

These are international players with years of training and experience. They literally don't do anything else but play football for a job. Harry Kane isn't a 21 year old playing his first world cup match and should have scored. Literally got handed to him on a gold plate.

I'd expect him to score, the same way id expect a doctor to treat me appropriately if I'm unwell

 

 

 

[Las Palmas]

40 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Apart from the centre of Paris? 

I did not know the players from Morocco were in the centre of Paris. Your news source must be better than mine.

[dutchie01]

19 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

I did not know the players from Morocco were in the centre of Paris. Your news source must be better than mine.

not the players but the supporters from moroccan origin. They created havoc in various european cities like paris brussels amsterdam madrid etc. 

[Las Palmas]

10 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

not the players but the supporters from moroccan origin. They created havoc in various european cities like paris brussels amsterdam madrid etc. 

I do not blame the players for their supporters being stupid, just like I do not blame the football players from UK as they probably did not invent hooliganism.

Idiots you find all over the world. Blame who is to blame and nobody else. What I meant about the good behaviour of the players is that they lost and behaved well, congratulated the winners and not like some other teams were blaming the referees, VAR and whatever else they could find as excuses for not winning while some of them were weeping like little children having just lost their favourite toy.

[First_Lexus]

15 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

What I meant about the good behaviour of the players is that they lost and behaved well, congratulated the winners and not like some other teams were blaming the referees, VAR and whatever else they could find as excuses for not winning while some of them were weeping like little children having just lost their favourite toy.

^^ I believe it was Alex Ferguson who said something along the lines of;

”Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”

Blaming the referee / now VAR / bad luck is part of football, and pretty much every sport. Losing well doesn’t necessarily mean no mitigating factors are considered.

Ronaldo got a lot of criticism for crying when Portugal were eliminated. To me it showed he cared. He wanted to win. Yes, the Moroccan players did act very well when they lost - perhaps because they were glad with how far they’d progressed and that they didn’t expect to win…a bit like a third division team losing to the Premier League Champions in an FA Cup tie. The phrase “…it was their final” springs to mind.

One thing being a football fan for most of my life has taught me - three people can watch the exact same game and come to entirely different conclusions. It’s what makes the game - and the post-mortem of the game - so much fun. I don’t think my brother and I have ever agreed on many things football related and yet we had the same upbringing, support the same team, and sat next to one another for over thirty years watching games!

[Las Palmas]

1 hour ago, First_Lexus said:

^^ I believe it was Alex Ferguson who said something along the lines of;

”Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”

Blaming the referee / now VAR / bad luck is part of football, and pretty much every sport. Losing well doesn’t necessarily mean no mitigating factors are considered.

Ronaldo got a lot of criticism for crying when Portugal were eliminated. To me it showed he cared. He wanted to win. Yes, the Moroccan players did act very well when they lost - perhaps because they were glad with how far they’d progressed and that they didn’t expect to win…a bit like a third division team losing to the Premier League Champions in an FA Cup tie. The phrase “…it was their final” springs to mind.

One thing being a football fan for most of my life has taught me - three people can watch the exact same game and come to entirely different conclusions. It’s what makes the game - and the post-mortem of the game - so much fun. I don’t think my brother and I have ever agreed on many things football related and yet we had the same upbringing, support the same team, and sat next to one another for over thirty years watching games!

Respect for Ferguson, what he did was fine. It does not show that a person is a genious when he says that a good loser is a loser, as nobody can be good losers if they have not lost, but then again, maybe he was just the right kind of strongman to keep good players performing best they could.

Having seen very many of the games Ronaldo plaid for Real Madrid I have a meaning of him. He is an extremely well trained and hardworking athlete and if he gets the ball in front of goal 50 times he used to make at least 20 goals the last 2 years he was there, earlier he was more lucky. He also was showing the face of a brat whenever he was not given a penalty, no matter if deserved or not; also when being brought down on field no matter if in a clean or dirty move from the player that got him down. Sure, you are right that he care, when losing; maybe mostly because his ego is hurt. He did not end up as the player that scored most goals in the competition. He always did play to show that he was best. Best athlete in football - OK with me, most hardworking athlete in football - OK with me. Best technician in football - he does not even come in top 10 maybe even 100. I have not seen football all my life, only since 2008 - 09. But level of Messi and Neymar and Ronaldinho with the impossible things they could or maybe still can do is on a different level.

[serbarry]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas said:

But level of Messi and Neymar and Ronaldinho with the impossible things they could or maybe still can do is on a different level.

And Maradona if I can add. The goal he scored to England (sorry guys) running with the ball from midfield is something unique. And also with Napoli he scored some amazing goals. 

[Las Palmas]

6 minutes ago, serbarry said:

And Maradona if I can add. The goal he scored to England (sorry guys) running with the ball from midfield is something unique. And also with Napoli he scored some amazing goals. 

Scoring goals is what wins matches. Yes. But dancing with 3 or 4 players from opposition and leaving them dumbfounded and then giving the ball to another player to make a goal or miss, is absolutely also worth watching.

[First_Lexus]

3 hours ago, serbarry said:

And Maradona if I can add. The goal he scored to England (sorry guys) running with the ball from midfield is something unique. And also with Napoli he scored some amazing goals. 

Maradona was the classic flawed genius, as so many geniuses are. George Best was another. There are so many examples, not just in sport.

The 1986 goal against England, after the infamous ‘hand of God’ showed that he truly was a genius as well as a cheat. As I said, flawed. The drugs and scandal in his later years didn’t really sully his legacy though. Greater than Messi imho. But still not as great as Pele. Pele must be the greatest ever, surely?

The greatest player I ever saw live (in person) was Dennis Bergkamp. Thierry Henry was a close second. Bergkamp was astonishing. His touch, his movement. Mesmerising.

My later Father watched Stanley Matthews live a few times. He always said he was amazing - a real magician with the football at his feet. 

[Las Palmas]

Hard to compare football 30 years ago with football now. Everything is different, equipment, playground and cameras catching everything that happens. It is fine that you think Pele is the greatest ever, but no film I have ever seen support that claim. Have seen on TV Maradona play and was impressed with the way he took it when, being thrown to the ground, just getting up and continued. Sportsman: yes. Far too many now roll 7 times round when they want the referee to give the opposition player a yellow or preferably red card.

Looking forward to the matches Saturday and more Sunday.

By the way, the Japanese players that cleaned the stadium after their game, showed something that is not seen often.

[dutchie01]

Bergkamp was ballet. Soft, almost ghost like movements. In thesame time like all greats i guess he was a real #######. I once saw a docu about his dark side and boy this was as smooth as his movements, most fauls were made when the attention was somewhere else and the ref not watching. Van Persie came close but yes maradona, ronaldinho, cruyff, messi, pele, ronaldo all hat that extra that would decide the game.

who is the star of this championship? Messi or Mbappe?