EURO 2024

[Gups]

So actually the Swiss goal triggering Southgate to let the team play football and their penalty-taking performance has turned me around to be positive about the England team, BUT the articles hailing Southgate as a genius because we lucked out against SWITZERLAND  is a bit nauseating.

My annoyance is the way England has been playing and performing the last few tournaments gives the picture of an upper-middle tier team punching above its weight (which is great), yet the picture painted is of one of the great teams doing what's expected. And you end up with things like wins against Panama celebrated like an actual achievement, and whatnot.

It's pretty hard to work out what to think. He's the most successful manager for England for decades. An excellent tournament record. But he has fantastic players at his disposal and makes bizzare tactical choices like playing Trippier on the left when he is completely right footed. The lack of movement from England players when playing the ball out is just mystifying too. Winners always get a free pass but we really are so hard to watch.

[Sheilbh]

So actually the Swiss goal triggering Southgate to let the team play football and their penalty-taking performance has turned me around to be positive about the England team, BUT the articles hailing Southgate as a genius because we lucked out against SWITZERLAND  is a bit nauseating.

Great stat that between 1968 and 2016, England won six knock out games at international tournaments; 2017 to 2024 and I believe we've won eight. But, for example, repeatedly last game it looked like there was a set piece routine just to get the ball back to Pickford - it was so weird. I think we were better against Switzerland - incredibly boring but in a less stressful way than previously.

I'd add that I see a lot more anger and moaning. But being angry and moaning for not playing well enough, in our third semi-final in four tournaments and after winning a penalty shootout (and scoring all penalties!) - is wild. Growing up this is what I assumed it would be like to be German or Brazilian

[Grey Fox]

So actually the Swiss goal triggering Southgate to let the team play football and their penalty-taking performance has turned me around to be positive about the England team, BUT the articles hailing Southgate as a genius because we lucked out against SWITZERLAND  is a bit nauseating.

My annoyance is the way England has been playing and performing the last few tournaments gives the picture of an upper-middle tier team punching above its weight (which is great), yet the picture painted is of one of the great teams doing what's expected. And you end up with things like wins against Panama celebrated like an actual achievement, and whatnot.

Did you pick Panama on purpose? 😄

[Syt]

Thinking about it it mostly seems that I have seen Foden lots of times.



 

Maybe he's just a big fan of the young priest from Fifth Element.

[Tamas]

I guess it's a "see, I have a weirdly shaped head on purpose" cut

[FunkMonk]

Don't care at all about England, I just want my son Bukayo Saka to do well and stay healthy. Please Gareth don't kill him

[HVC]

Found Duque

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9HkaNxNFHY/?igsh=eWx2YWFlbmJqYmg1

[crazy canuck]

Found Duque

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9HkaNxNFHY/?igsh=eWx2YWFlbmJqYmg1

lol

[FunkMonk]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/05/fox-sports-soccer-coverage-us-european-championship-copa-america-alexi-lalas

Lalas, predictably, has been at the heart of Fox's slickest on-screen moves this summer, and despite a slow start – in which it appeared he'd been deployed as a clown, a pure American idiot to entertain the Europeans on set – he's grown into the summer impressively. Ponying up in a pastel suite of summer suits from Men's Wearhouse, his thinning orange locks swept into a Trumpy scroll, the Big A has commanded the desk from his far-right perch with customary charmlessness and belligerence. In a tournament filled with "creative moments of the half, sponsored by IBM", Lalas often appears to be sponsored by IBS, launching into his uncontrollable verbal tirades ("HOLY SCHICK!", "THIS IS THE NEW ROMANTIC WAY TO PLAY MY FRIEND!", "VAR SAYS NEIN!") with the projectile force of a bout of diarrhea

And then, of course, there's Donovan – Fox's star man in the gantry, a lawn mower made flesh and blood. After Nico Williams missed an easy header in front of goal early in Spain's group match against Italy, Donovan flatly intoned, "What a chance this is for Nico Williams, he's going to have nightmares about this Ian" – and you could tell that the nightmare had already begun with Donovan's delivery, the syllables unvarying in pitch and volume, the drama of on-field events communicated with all the emotional intensity of a dot matrix printer

Also in Germany for the duration of the Euros is Tom Rinaldi, who's been unleashed on Europe to make the old continent pay for its sins in a kind of reverse Marshall plan. Rinaldi, from what I can gather, is a pitchside "poet" whose main function on Fox is to bulk up the broadcast with a few minutes of over-written filler

 

[HVC]

Man, even off the feild Clint Dempsey is better than Donovan.

[celedhring]

Man, even off the feild Clint Dempsey is better than Donovan.

Is that a debate on-the-pitch? Genuinely curious. Always thought Donovan was very overrated.

[HVC]

Man, even off the feild Clint Dempsey is better than Donovan.

Is that a debate on-the-pitch? Genuinely curious. Always thought Donovan was very overrated.

He was the darling of the USMT. Don't know if that's been rectified over the years but i distinctly remember being flummoxed at the time.

[celedhring]

Dempsey was the best US player of his generation that wasn't a goalie, imho.

Admittedly, he won me many fantasy leagues so I might not be completely objective.

[HVC]

The ref for the next engalnd game was suspended for match fixing in the past? How's he still a ref let only anywhere near the euros?

[Duque de Bragança]

The ref for the next engalnd game was suspended for match fixing in the past? How's he still a ref let only anywhere near the euros?

England needs all the support they can get?