C'mon Iceland!!!

UnclePsychosis

ewal;1128888" said:

According to Glenn it's got something to do with Iceland's football being stuck in the 80's!

I do hope the England team haven't taken a win for granted, the way the commentators obviously have...

The pundits were a disgrace. Discussing how they should play against France before the game and spent half time talking about whether Hart should be dropped for the quarter final. Oops!

ewal

And I think that poor attitude infected the team - when things didn't go according to the script, they totally lost their composure.

UnclePsychosis

This is absolutely glorious watching. Wonder why he got sacked again? 

https://www.facebook.com/carly.t.catherine/posts/10157049607245322

stickyfiddle

UnclePsychosis said:

This is absolutely glorious watching. Wonder why he got sacked again? 

https://www.facebook.com/carly.t.catherine/posts/10157049607245322

No idea what football match he was watching cos it can't have been England / Iceland.  I was rooting for Iceland all the way tbh and very glad they won it. 

breakstuff

Apparently most of the England squad voted leave and they all got a little confused.

holnrew

Hay Kane is shit at free kicks, it was clear from the friendlies, so why was he the designated taker? Jack Wilshire has never performed in an England shirt even when fit, why bring him on at half time for one of the better players this tournament? Rashford has been a delight, so better keep him on the bench until it's too late for him to make a difference. Sterling is out of form and did poorly in the group games, he shouldn't have started.

The whole team lacked confidence and we all know where the blame lies for that.

p90fool

Can anyone explain to this Welshman why there is so much expectation and pressure on the English players to do well when they've only one two knockout stage games at major tournaments in the last 26 years? We went in feeling like plucky underdogs and are enjoying every moment, where do England's arrogance and chronically unreasonable expectations come from? It's grossly unfair on the players, who must have a realistic view of their world standing. Serious question, I'm not gloating.

stickyfiddle

p90fool said:

Can anyone explain to this Welshman why there is so much expectation and pressure on the English players to do well when they've only one two knockout stage games at major tournaments in the last 26 years? We went in feeling like plucky underdogs and are enjoying every moment, where do England's arrogance and chronically unreasonable expectations come from? It's grossly unfair on the players, who must have a realistic view of their world standing. Serious question, I'm not gloating.

Because 50 years ago an entirely different set of Englishmen won the World Cup. And therefore (in tabloid logic) England are the best football team and should rightly win everything if it weren't for those damn foreigners.

p90fool

I realise that, but it's now the 20th anniversary of 30 years of hurt, most England fans I know don't even remember Italia 90.

What is it that makes people like Clive Tyldsley think it's ok to be patronising about Iceland for the whole 90 minutes when England have been losing since the 18th.

In Wales we're often ridiculously hopeful about our rugby team but it still remains hope and sometimes confidence rather than arrogant expectation.

ewal

The way the pundits are going on now in the aftermath, you'd think England had just been beaten by Albion Rover's! Iceland beat Holland home and away, and the Czech Republic during qualification for goodness sake!

They really are a pretty decent team!

lloyd

p90fool;1129252" said:

Can anyone explain to this Welshman why there is so much expectation and pressure on the English players to do well when they've only one two knockout stage games at major tournaments in the last 26 years? We went in feeling like plucky underdogs and are enjoying every moment, where do England's arrogance and chronically unreasonable expectations come from? It's grossly unfair on the players, who must have a realistic view of their world standing. Serious question, I'm not gloating.

I think expecting them to beat Iceland last night is a fair one from everybody.

They'd have played Italy in the next round and I don't think anybody would be giving them stick had they lost that.

The way they rolled over to a nation of 300,000 is embarrassing so they're gonna get abused for it, and rightly so after everything they'd said in the lead up to the game.

As for past performances I'm not sure why they are built up so much and don't perform. Perhaps it's a culture thing, they certainly aren't as good as the media has hyped them to be in the past and they've probably been slightly better teams than their finishes.

I don't think there's been so much hype this time around, but hype or not-they should be winning this game.

mellowsun

I think the fact we pay them a million quid a week might go some way to explaining the high expectations placed upon them.

If they can't beat a part-time team they should get part-time wages.

Rickyd

Brexit, hoofed out by a supermarket at football....wonder what the odds are on Andy Murray going out in straight sets...what a treble that would have been!

Limehouse_Blues

Between 2009 and 2011 a close colleague of mine was Icelandic. He was a youth football coach in his spare time and football crazy. He sadly passed away suddenly in 2012. I was thinking about him last night. Sad he never saw this. He would have been so proud.

holnrew

That's sad I think with Iceland's growing confidence, France shouldn't take anything for granted.

lloyd

Fretwired;1129001" said:

TTony said:



joeyowen said:

I always want home nations to do well, but going further than them the all is sweeter still!

Cymruuuuuu





They have a *team*.

As did the Irish.

England have 11 incompetent mercenaries.

Pathetic.  





Rubbish.



England has a decent squad. England's problem was picking a manager who at best could handle a mid table premier league team like West Brom. Hodgson should never have been given the job. Look at the England rugby team. Utter shite until a decent manager turns up, puts a new regime in place and creates a winning team.

England weren't utter shite before Jones came in to be fair, they had played some great stuff under him.

They have improved a lot though so it's a fair point.

guitari

ewal said:

The way the pundits are going on now in the aftermath, you'd think England had just been beaten by Albion Rover's! Iceland beat Holland home and away, and the Czech Republic during qualification for goodness sake!

They really are a pretty decent team!

Never thought I'd see the Rovers mentioned on here!

Sesh

I'm English, I like football, but supporting England is becoming harder and harder.

It's not that they don't win games, it's the manner in which they don't win games. It's the whole fecklessness of it all. They don't seem to care or play as a team. The post match blubbing was pathetic. I hope the next manager has a big personality, and is not some softly-softly wet nurse.

Iceland played well and deserved to win. Good on them. I hope their fairy tale continues.

crunchman

p90fool said:

Can anyone explain to this Welshman why there is so much expectation and pressure on the English players to do well when they've only one two knockout stage games at major tournaments in the last 26 years? We went in feeling like plucky underdogs and are enjoying every moment, where do England's arrogance and chronically unreasonable expectations come from? It's grossly unfair on the players, who must have a realistic view of their world standing. Serious question, I'm not gloating.

I think it is fair to say that England have underachieved.

A lot of that is down to imept management.

Hoddle
Went to France '98 with only one left footed player in his whole squad (Le Saux) who then got injured and England had no balance.

Keegan
Inept but not all his fault.  Did well at Newcastle with Arthur Cox as his right hand man and the brains of the operation so England wouldn't let him employ Cox.

Eriksson
Went to the 2002 World Cup with Seaman as his keeper when the whole world could see that he was past it.  I remember seeing a Carling-Opta stat in the build up to that tournament that Seaman had been beaten more times from outside the penalty area then any other keeper in the Premier League.

Went to the 2006 World Cup with only 2 fit proven strikers in Crouch and Owen (and Owen was an injury waiting to happen).  Rooney was not fit, and Walcott was completely unproven and apparently he'd never even seen Walcott play.

Capello
Clueless about squad dynamics.  Had players at each others' throats (mostly at Terry's throat) over Vanessa Perroncel (Lampard's mate's girlfriend) and Terry abusing Rio Ferdinand's cousin.  Should have left Terry out.  He didn't and Terry caused all kinds of trouble.  Capello also insisted on trying to shoehorn Gerrard and Lampard into the same team when the whole world could see it didn't work.


I think the rugby analogy is fair.  England have had the players but a succession of inept coaches meant they under performed.  Need to find a footballing Eddie Jones.

digitalscream

crunchman said:

I think the rugby analogy is fair.  England have had the players but a succession of inept coaches meant they under performed.  Need to find a footballing Eddie Jones.

The thing is, the rugby team have had a lot of success as well as a lot of failure. I've been watching the woes of the England football team through the eyes of my football-mad family since the mid 80s, and I've never known them to have any success at all.

The only highlight I can remember is Gascoigne's mental two-touch goal against Scotland at Euro 96.

30 years of failure can't only be down to inept coaches.