The Football Thread.

Philly_Q

victorludorum said:

This tournament and its eventual winner will be forgotten by next year.

Are you anticipating war with Russia? 

In my experience a lot of football fans have memories like elephants.  "Remember that free kick in the 1983 FA Cup semi-final?" someone will say... and the answer will be "Yes".

TTony

victorludorum said:

This tournament and its eventual winner will be forgotten by next year.

Unless England win it.

In which case, we'll have replays of the winning penalty for the next 58 years ...

(58 years ago being 1966).

tony99

JezWynd said:

tony99 said:

mikeyrob73 said:

England are shit housing their way to the final. 

What does that actually mean though?

The Guardian to the rescue...
Shithousery is a fairly nebulous term, taking in as it does pretty much all the dark arts employed on a football pitch – everything from diving to headbutting via haranguing the referee and time-wasting. Generally, in its most simple guise, shithousery is an attempt to gain an advantage by unfair means and therefore it has existed around football for a long time.

Yeah that's what I've always sort of understood it as: basically being snides.

I wouldn't really say England are doing that though.

mikeyrob73

tony99 said:

mikeyrob73 said:

England are shit housing their way to the final. 

What does that actually mean though?

You have played some horrible to watch football , but yet your winning games 

Southgate has been absolutely slated but yet what he has done, by luck or design , has got you all the way to the semis 
As a said earlier in this thread , would you rather attractive , attacking , pleasing in the eye football or would you rather be 90/120 mins away from the final? 

I’m Scottish btw and I know I would have taken Scotland being awful to watch and winning games , as it was we were awful to watch and didn’t win games. 

Shrews

TTony said:

Shrews said:

We haven't hit top gear yet. 

Whilst that's true, it'd be nice to manage to get out of neutral and into any gear at all ...

'Nice to' yes, but definitely not a must for me.

14m watched knowing we would likely play awful. 14m didn't watch for thrilling football, they watched for the result and the drama. The result in tournament international football is all important, how you play is just a 'nice to have'.

Different in club football where for 10 months of the year you choose a team to support and hand over you hard earned. Entertainment is king, with grinding out results occasionally necessary. Nobody want to watch boring football 10 months of the year.

But for 7 games in a tournament winning is all important. 

Shrews

TTony said:

victorludorum said:

This tournament and its eventual winner will be forgotten by next year.

Unless England win it.

In which case, we'll have replays of the winning penalty for the next 58 years ...

(58 years ago being 1966).

And so it is with any other country who has won a tournament. 

guitars4you

Shrews said:

TTony said:

Shrews said:

We haven't hit top gear yet. 

Whilst that's true, it'd be nice to manage to get out of neutral and into any gear at all ...

'Nice to' yes, but definitely not a must for me.

14m watched knowing we would likely play awful. 14m didn't watch for thrilling football, they watched for the result and the drama. The result in tournament international football is all important, how you play is just a 'nice to have'.

Different in club football where for 10 months of the year you choose a team to support and hand over you hard earned. Entertainment is king, with grinding out results occasionally necessary. Nobody want to watch boring football 10 months of the year.

But for 7 games in a tournament winning is all important. 

You maybe right and maybe that is why I (like many) are club first country second 

tony99

mikeyrob73 said:

tony99 said:

mikeyrob73 said:

England are shit housing their way to the final. 

What does that actually mean though?

You have played some horrible to watch football , but yet your winning games 

Southgate has been absolutely slated but yet what he has done, by luck or design , has got you all the way to the semis 
As a said earlier in this thread , would you rather attractive , attacking , pleasing in the eye football or would you rather be 90/120 mins away from the final? 

I’m Scottish btw and I know I would have taken Scotland being awful to watch and winning games , as it was we were awful to watch and didn’t win games. 

I don't think that's shit housing though to be honest which is why I asked what it means.

 I'm no england supporter anyway; I like it when they go far into tournaments  because the inevitable fall out is hilarious. 

Southgate gets far too much stick for what he's been able to deliver with the national team though. Still unless he wins a trophy it's all moot

Creed_Clicks

The conclusion is international football is awful to watch in general. Players are getting flogged for marketing and tv viewing purposes. I'd say half of them are burned out at this stage. It's not that England, and France maybe, are "shithousing" their way through the tournament. It's that most of the games have been rubbish.

victorludorum

Creed_Clicks said:

The conclusion is international football is awful to watch in general. Players are getting flogged for marketing and tv viewing purposes. I'd say half of them are burned out at this stage. It's not that England, and France maybe, are "shithousing" their way through the tournament. It's that most of the games have been rubbish.

It's been like this for a long, long time.

vanlooy1

Creed_Clicks said:

The conclusion is international football is awful to watch in general. Players are getting flogged for marketing and tv viewing purposes. I'd say half of them are burned out at this stage. It's not that England, and France maybe, are "shithousing" their way through the tournament. It's that most of the games have been rubbish.

Most of the group games were pretty exciting IMO

Creed_Clicks

I remember Euro 88. 8 teams in it. Any one of them could have won the tournament. I think 16 teams would be enough. Go straight to last 8, maybe it would increase the quality.

Teetonetal

Creed_Clicks said:

I remember Euro 88. 8 teams in it. Any one of them could have won the tournament. I think 16 teams would be enough. Go straight to last 8, maybe it would increase the quality.

Sadly seems to be FiFa & Uefa's goal to play as many tourament games as possible..  I guess more teams = more fans = more money, but I think both WC and Euros are bloated now.

Creed_Clicks

@Teetonetal bloated is the word alright. They did the same thing with the Champions League. What was wrong with the old European Cup. League winners play each other in Europe. The rest go into what was the UEFA cup, and the Cup Winners Cup.

thecolourbox

It's just capitalism guys, it's where the money is made

victorludorum

As @Shrews has said, plenty of people are tuning in. Whether they're actively watching the games is another thing, but it keeps bringing in the money, even though the overriding opinion seems to be that the quality is poor.

Creed_Clicks

Half the time I’m tuning in because I am led to believe I am missing out otherwise.

guitars4you

So Spain to win tonight - I hope - Would like to see a good game so I'm entertained - The dream would be Spain win in style 3-0 

scrumhalf

I'm just hoping for a game that will keep me awake. The tournament so far hasn't been earth-shatteringly entertaining.

tony99

scrumhalf said:

I'm just hoping for a game that will keep me awake. The tournament so far hasn't been earth-shatteringly entertaining.

It's been a footballfest worthy of the gods!