Losing to Portugal in Euro 2004

[admin]

By Magic Man Fan (81.155.255.21) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 10:51 pm:

What a shocking decision to disallow Campbells header.

How we missed Rooney. Also because Scholes and Gerrard came off early it affected us.

I hate to say it but it reminded me of watching Walsall last season. Once Rooney had gone off we didn't have that outlet up front to hold the ball up so midfield can catch up with play. That all Walsall were missing last season. Like Walsall also we defended too deeply just like in the second half displays againts Crewe etc, constantly inviting pressure.

England, as Walsall were for most of last season were missing just one player up front who can hold the ball up.

By Megadeth (81.153.36.200) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 10:57 pm:

Best team won - even if it was on penalties. England have looked pretty average through the whole tournament and our midfield has been incredibly poor (remind you of a certain club?)

Its sad fact that the best England player was an 18 year old. Ok, Campbell, Cole & G.Neville impressed , but Gerrard & Beckham have been very disapointing. Ronaldo easily showed tonight why he's wearing number 7 shirt at Man Utd and not "Becks".

Once Rooney went off that was it - England crumbled, why James continued to pump balls up the field to the shortest player on the pitch beggars belief - but being a Walsall fan I guess we're used to it.

Well its over now boys & girls. Lets start looking forward to the new season & 3 points at home to Port Vale (see i'm not always cynical)

By Des Lynam (217.43.178.108) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:00 pm:

Penalties, I hate penalties.

MMF made a good observation, england are just like walsall, something Mrs Des pointed out in the second half, we sat too deep and the marking was poor, we allowed portugal too much time on the ball and allowed them to dictate the tempo.

Poor old Darius, I feel for him (which is unusual for me as he is a villa player)I hope he doesnt get too much stick, after all, at least we had the chance to go to penalties after going 2-1 down.

C'mon me babbies, many positives to be taken from the campaign, the emergence of Rooney, the pairing of Gerard and Lampard, and the Germans going out in the group stages.

Auf Wierdesehn Rudi !

By Magic Man Fan (81.155.255.21) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:02 pm:

Midfield was poor tonight but at times we have retained the ball excellently.

All the players looked knackered tonight so Gerrard, Scholes and Lampard didn't have the same impact that they should have. And Beckham looks injured.

By Stu (195.92.67.75) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:04 pm:

To be honest, I thought the Ref was right to dis-allow the goal. As soon as Terry went up, I shouted foul. He might not have intended to do it, but his arm was obstructing the keeper.

Put another way, if that happened to me on a Sunday morning or that was against us, we'd be screaming foul.

Harsh, but the right decision. Mind you, a lot of his others were fudge awful.

The one thing that grates the most, is how David James for such a big bloke has such little presence. Both in the air and in the penalties.

Their bloke seemed to think he was going to save everyone, his mind games against Beckham and then taking his gloves off for Vassell were just superb. Whilst James stood there and didn't get remotely close to any of them.

••••• believe it, gutted, gutted, gutted.

Also, is it me or was that like watching Walsall? Score a goal, sit back, sit back, sit back, drop deeper and deeper. They bring on Rui Costa and Postiga, we bring on Neville & Hargreaves.

By Magic Man Fan (81.155.255.21) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:14 pm:

I understand why he gave it Stu but the keeper was nowhere near the ball and still wouldn't have been if Terry had been the other end of the pitch. No one would have stopped Sol from scoring.

I wish Jimmy had been in goal for the pens.

No, its not you as I also pointed out above.

By Exile (203.167.253.205) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:16 pm:

Yes, substitutions were a big invitation to Portugal to come up and attack, weren't they? The disallowed goal should have stood, I think. The penalties were a nighmare, I knew we were going to lose the moment Becks skied his shot. Hopefully Posh will refuse him in the bedroom tonight for that.

Disagree about Ronaldo, Megadeth. I thought he was terrible. Cole had him sewn up completely.

Think of me while you're drowning your sorrows amongst friends back in England. I've got a whole day ahead of me in a hostile environment - Kiwis love it when England screw up in any sport. Apparently all we're good for these days is darts and snooker, and whilst that mat be true, I do not need to hear it every time we DO lose at anything!

Cheers all,
Exile


By Magic Man Fan (81.155.255.21) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:27 pm:

Keep reminding them of the Rugby and Cricket Exile!

Cole was superb against Ronaldo. The timing of most of his tackles was impeccable. He and Campbell have gone right up in my estimations after this tournament.

By Claudio Ran (81.131.133.252) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:40 pm:

I thought Joe Cole would have been a better option than Vassel playing behind Owen and in front of the midfield. The defence were awesome, midfield awful, attack awkward and James awake (I could not find another word that begins with aw).

Why don't goalkeepers just stand up to penalties. They'll never save the really good ones, and penalties like Postigas thay can easily pick off. He'd have looked a right prat if James had knelt down and picked it up!


By PGtips (213.48.64.68) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:45 pm:

Its bizzare that we exit on penalties after drawing 2-2 with Sol Campbell having a goal disallowed that would have won the game. An almost exact copy of France 1998. Just like the Argies the Potuguese were even allowed to take the resulting free kick ahead of the alledged incident whilst we are still celebrating. You don't often see such identical incidents let alone happening to the same player under the same circumstances. We also have yet another player with a broken metatarsel now.

A dreadful performance tonight even allowing for the fact that we had less time to recover from our previous game. In many ways a classic English tournament. Raise everyones expectations across the country. Tantalising glimpses of quality. Underperform at the vital moment and go out penalties.

It's over to the Dutch to win it now.

By Leamore Saddler (83.151.199.112) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:46 pm:

When I criticised David James in an earlier thread, I was quickly taken to task. After the 3 subsequent performances, I stand by what I said – David James is CRAP – FACT (© SheffieldSaddler 2004). He is no more an international ‘keeper than I am.

Just look at the guy. He is 6’ 5” and built like a light heavyweight boxer and yet he has less authority in goal than Jimmy Walker. He often punches when he should catch; he is frequently rooted to his line when he should come for the ball; he cannot organise a defence at set-pieces; while I agree that all penalties should be scored, he never looks like saving one; he flaps at the ball when under pressure; his distribution leaves much room for improvement – I could go on.

He has got to be the worst first choice England regular ‘keeper in living memory. Well, can any-one else think of a worse one? If you ranked all the present Premiership goalkeepers from 1 to 20, he would be at, or near, number 20. It says a lot for the poor quality of our ‘keepers that he is even considered for the squad. Eriksson has got to start using Robinson and hope that Kirkland (potentially the best, imho) overcomes his injury jinx and also tries out the likes of Green or Hoult. They c a n n o t be any worse!

I think few would disagree with Eriksson’s outfield selections. Who would have thought that Beckham would be so awful – easily England’s worst starting-choice player, over the 4 games. The midfield quartet are probably the four best individuals but they never really convinced as a unit. There was little quality coming off the bench – even the usually reliable Vassell was poor, tonight (his penalty just about summed him up!).

Portugal were clearly the better team but, even then, they needed a poor decision by the referee to go through. It might have been our year! Roll on Germany in 2006.



By Steve Roy (84.64.21.247) on Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 11:50 pm:

Could not agree more about James. Said to the lads midway through the second half - could you see this Watford reject saving a single penalty? No. And duly, six penalties, he did not even dive the right way once. The six/seven goals England conceded in the tournament, the keeper has not moved. Never thought I'd say it, but bring back Seaman! Or somebody who cares!

By Sam Jones (195.92.168.176) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 12:20 am:

Gutted is not the word to how I feel, I have a mate who is ENGLISH Born AND BRED but loves the Jocks because his nan was born in Scotland.

Worst part is I'm going to Edbaston with him on Saturday and he will be taking the "PEE" all day long out of the England team.

By Sam Jones (195.92.168.176) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 12:22 am:

Gutted is not the word to how I feel, I have a mate who is ENGLISH BORN AND BRED but loves the Jocks because his nan was born in Scotland.

Worst part is I'm going to Edbaston with him on Saturday and he will be taking the "PEE" all day long out of the England team.

By kevin (195.93.34.9) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 01:26 am:

Leamore,regarding your suggestion about keepers,I think Ron Green is past it.
But I agree with your comments about James,there's been a lot of instances against in the three matches,where he's been totally static when shots have narrowly gone wide.Having said that,I don't recall Seaman getting near many pens,either.
Overall,unfortunatel y,I think we finished where we deserved to be,6th or 7th rate.

By mr.cynic (80.43.2.242) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 02:49 am:

I lost faith in the tournament, too much going on. I believe the results are no more legitimate then WWF wrestling, its a farce. The Ref was bribed it was obvious, the whole thing is fixed.

By Exile (203.167.253.205) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 04:59 am:

Umm, Leamore, who provided the 'assist' for Owen's goal? Would that be James with his monster clearance kick?

By Leamore Saddler (80.189.171.40) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 07:50 am:

I take your point, Exile, but I don't think that even Mrs. James would describe that as an intended pass - more a hopeful punt upfield! It was the superb, instinctive reaction of Owen that turned it into an "assist". Do you think Heskey or Vassell would have done that?

Kevin, I am not so sure about Ron Green. Even now, he might be better than that Manchester City clown. Come to think of it, - even Richard Green might be an improvement!

Nevertheless, I say again, on the overall play, we did not deserve to win. The game merely served to illustrate how the emergence of Rooney "papered over the cracks" for England. We were over-reliant on the young man.


By Stu (13.16.137.10) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 08:17 am:

Sam, just gently remind your Jock mate how they performed in Euro 2004? Or the 2002 World Cup for that matter? Or any of the other tournaments they've messed up recently. Or any of the 2 bob nations they've failed to beat.

I can't understand how any other jock could dare to take the pee out of England when they couldn't even get there.

By Bristol Saddler (217.161.104.2) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:13 am:

I think thats four penalty shoot outs, out of five that we have lost, the only we have won being against Spain in Euro 1996!

Wasn't Southgate a Villa player when he c*cked up against Germany in Euro 1996? So that's two fecking Villa players who have got us knocked out now!

Thats the second time Sol Campbell has had a goal disallowed in the dying minutes of a game and thats the second time it should of fecking stood!

Yes Portugal were the better side, but often the better sides don't win and the bottom line is we wos Robbed!

After the France game, I started a thread just like watching the Saddlers! Well last night was exactly the same! Get a lucky break, go 1-0 up and then defend deep, do not hold the ball for longer than 3 passes and then hoof long balls to small and isolated strikers, after some brilliant defending conceed with 10 mins to go, your team is knackered and your creative players substituted, the referee is a wan*a and you lose the game at the death!

Incidently pick your top 5 England players (in order) that have come away from this tournament with any cr:
(1) W.Rooney
(2) S.Campbell
(3) A.Cole
(4) F.Lampard
(5) G. Neville

Observations - 3 are defenders and with the exception of Rooney, they are Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd players! If we accept the fact that Rooney is a genius and aint gonna be an Everton player much longer, its simple to me! The players that play in their usual positions for clubs that are successfull perform! Those that don't play in their preferred positions or for successfull clubs, that are used to winning don't perform!

I just hope Gerrard and Rooney end up at Chelsea and we somehow find a new keeper and a left sided midfielder by 2006!

WE STILL BELIEVE! (Well Sort Of)!

By saddlerbabe (212.100.99.118) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:13 am:

We did deserve to WIN, but what can you do when the REF is taking the p i s s 5 yellows and a player with a broken foot! we was robbed Sol's goal was fine and Terry did not foul the keeper, we were great considering they had 12 PLAYERS, we were scared to tackle cos everytime we went for the ball he gave a free kick and it was a total of 15 to portucheats, and how many to England 3 in the first 45mins. Give the lads a break i still love them.
D I C K H E A D SWISS REF.
WE WAS ROBBED END OF STORY.

By Bristol Saddler (217.161.104.2) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:18 am:

Saddlerbabe - Yes the ref was a wan*a! And yes we wos robbed! But in all fairness the reason Portugal had more free kicks, is because they attacked more and ran with/held the ball more than England!

By SheffieldSaddler (82.38.185.114) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:22 am:

The thing is. It does not matter how bad we played. We scored a perfectly good goal and it was disallowed. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, except the fact that a player jumped up with the goalkeeper and beat him to the ball, which in this refs eyes is breaking some law of the game.

By saddlerken (217.145.225.210) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:23 am:

games are not always about who attacks more. we seemed to have a game plan (sort of).

Score a goal and hold on, and we were so close

We only had 3 days between games, this must have had an effect on the players, their legs looked heavy. Even when they did equalise, we had the bottle to storm back, earn a free kick in a dangerous position and score a legitimate 2nd.

BUGGER!

By Stu (13.16.137.10) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:25 am:

I still don't see how we were robbed.

We were outplayed for 90 minutes, there was a foul on Campbells goals. Listen to it again, you hear the whistle go before Campbell has even headed the ball.

I lost c o u n t of the number of times we hit stupid long diagonal balls to our two small strikers.

Simple face is we were beaten by the better team and didn't deserve to go through.

By Geoff Whiting (195.92.168.172) on Friday, June 25, 2004 - 09:30 am:

Just totally gutted. No doubt on the night Portugal performed better, wanted it more, deserved to win. But over the four games, they performed no better than us and were lucky to beat Spain and go through to the QFs.

But for me nothing can take away the fact that we won the game in normal time, and the Ref took that away from us with one of a whole string of awful decisions - he was either bribed or he's just fecking useless!

I can forget the rest, for me that one decision is all it comes down to, all that matters. We won the game with a good goal, and that cheating useless ba$tard scrubbed it out.

I agree our performance compares to watching Walsall, and so did the Ref's. Just think back to one Ref, one lousy awful penalty decision at Palace, and those points alone meant that Palace got into the play-offs and we went down, ONE decision that changed the season for two teams that are now 2 divisions apart. No wonder I hate Refs these days.

Agree about James, he is truly awful - for their equaliser the ball passed so close to him but he only stuck out a half-hearted hand to it - OK it was a close-in header but I'll tell you Wacka would have stopped that - but James's reactions are just pedestrian or non-existent. And for the penalties, as has been said, no presence, no interest, no sign of effort, never looks like going the right way or getting anywhere near to one. If he ever plays for England again, it will be too soon, but I fear Sven has this liking for him, though for the life of me I have no idea why!

Overall - very poor performance, but ultimately robbed !

P.S. Has anyone found the ball from Beckham's penalty yet ? That just about summed up HIS performance in the tournament!