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Who will you support


  • Total voters
    135
Nice volley to the top corner to equalise Jaffa!
I've a sweet right foot, me. :)

There's one simple reason why England aren't at this tournament – that is, over the course of the twelve qualification games we weren't good enough. Simple as that.

But hey, look on the bright side, at least you can still beat the U.S. ;)
Indeed. Unfortunately, the chances of us drawing the US in our qualification groups for future tournaments are slightly remote. :D
 
It's not that the talent isn't there. They just can't ever seem to put it all together when it counts.

But hey, look on the bright side, at least you can still beat the U.S. ;)

We're all united on beating the Yanks!:D And in a way I agree with you about English talent but stopping hiring the likes of Wenger, Benitez and Ramos would be more beneficial as all they do is buy either their own nationality or from their national league which is where their knowledge rests. Even after 11 years Wenger hasn't found a talent from the first or second division. Scouting for talent from your own lower league used to be standard practice and there has to be unfound riches there - it's plain probability in a decade.
 
I thought they were in the Premiership at the time but maybe not. Even so he had the tag wonderkid. What I mean is players from left field. Actually wasn't Upson from a low club ... but you see my point. I think Wenger's first signings were Garde, Grimandi, Petit, Anelka & Vieira. I read the BBC and I remember very recently that Wenger said his high profile English signings who failed have put him off signing anymore English players! And there wasn't an out cry. You are a very tolerant people. If he'd said "black" he would never have worked again but to say English and no one minded in England? Very tolerant of this prejudice but I don't know why.

I think England should have been through as the penalty given against Rooney in Russia wasn't a penalty, it was a metre out at least and I think that that draw would have got you through?
 
I think England should have been through as the penalty given against Rooney in Russia wasn't a penalty, it was a metre out at least and I think that that draw would have got you through?

We'd pretty much already blown it by then. The draw with Macedonia really screwed our chances.
 
Get over it mate. That was so long ago that the team is entirely different. Besides, one could write a book about all the crap german players have pulled over the years (Lothar Mattäus comes to mind).
But that's in the past and won't hinder me in enjoying some good footie even if it's germany playing and winning.
Let go of your hatred and enjoy the sport. :)

While I am sceptic that we will go all the way, I think Germany can at least make the semi-finals. At any rate, I will be happy so long as we do better than the Netherlands. My hatred for the Orange Shirts goes back to the World Cup 1990. I only say Rijkaard the Llama...
Cheers!

Ahmed
 
Get over it mate. That was so long ago that the team is entirely different. Besides, one could write a book about all the crap german players have pulled over the years (Lothar Mattäus comes to mind).
But that's in the past and won't hinder me in enjoying some good footie even if it's germany playing and winning.
Let go of your hatred and enjoy the sport. :)

Was that aimed at me?
 
I'm supporting Poland, 'cause that's who I drew in the office sweepstake.

Two things about this choice:
  1. They're playing Germany tonight *suppresses an urge to make a WWII comment*
  2. England couldn't be bothered to play well enough to win a place, leaving it to the Poles to do the job - is it reflection of the jobs market in the UK in general?! :p
And whoever's playing, it looks awesome in HD on my new Freesat box - football in Dolby Digital!

Shame ITV HD's signal sucks though... BBC HD and iPlayer actually make me want to pay my TV licence.
 
We had the players to qualify, just not the manager.
I don't think we've the strength in depth that some other nations have, but certainly we've got enough personnel with the ability to get through.

Part of the problem is the mentality – we seem to believe that we have a God-given right to be at tournament finals, there appears to be an attitude among many of our players that they just need to turn up, jog around for a bit and Johnny Foreigner will just roll over in the face of our superiority. This obviously is not the case at all. The mindset of the players isn't where it should be, many seem just too comfortable knowing that they'll be in the side irrespective of the quality of their performances.

Part of this is down to the media building these players up, so much so that they're believing the ridiculous hype about themselves. What the national manager needs to do is bring a few of these egos back down to earth – McClaren clearly didn't have the backbone to do so, from what we've seen of Capello in the past he's not the sort to suffer fools gladly so hopefully he can sort them out. It won't be an easy task, mind.
 
The Czechs or the Dutch for me.

Not having watched football for ages (I'm a supporter of an unloved Yorkshire club that's not Hull ;), and therefore prefer organised violence to organised football) can anyone tell me why no-one rates the Czechs?

I though they qualified from their group with something to spare, and are rated 6th in the world - so why are they being ignored by "the pundits"?

Was that aimed at me?

No it was aimed at AhmedFaisal, who was spouting off about how much he hates the Dutch.

Excellent analysis Jaffa of England's failings :)
 
No it was aimed at AhmedFaisal, who was spouting off about how much he hates the Dutch.


Excellent analysis Jaffa of England's failings :)

Got ya, couldn't tell at first. Typing and watching TV at the same time is not a good idea :D I should have read the full posts first...

As always Mr. Football (AKA Jaffa) gives a perfect summary. far better than my "the manager was crap" summing up of England.
 
Allez les Bleus, otherwise it's Hai România.

Luckily my wife isn't a big football fan, so it makes tomorrow's match less of a problem.

I can't believe the stupidity of the draw. Firstly, the co-efficient system was a complete joke by allowing Group C to happen. Yes, there's always a group of death but Italy and France seeded in groups 3 and 4, come on!! Secondly, teams from groups A+B can't play teams from C+D until the final, meaning that teams that find themselves in the semi-finals may have already played against each other in the groups.

Anyway, I've not been particularly impressed by any of the teams so far. Looking forward to watching Spain, and tomorrow's Italy - Netherlands.
 
I'll support Germany since I'm here. I don't speak German, so I just kind of yell along with everybody and continue drinking :D
 
I'm gonna go for Turkey. Tuncay plays for them, and coincidentally their kit now incorporates a Boro-style white band. Plus they play some nice footie.:cool:
 
I'm not picking a winner just yet because UEFA Euro competitions have a habit of winners "coming out of the blue" (and we're not talking the Italian team, either!).

However, I'd like to see either Germany or Italy in the final, though.
 
Allez les Bleus, otherwise it's Hai România.

Luckily my wife isn't a big football fan, so it makes tomorrow's match less of a problem.

I can't believe the stupidity of the draw. Firstly, the co-efficient system was a complete joke by allowing Group C to happen. Yes, there's always a group of death but Italy and France seeded in groups 3 and 4, come on!! Secondly, teams from groups A+B can't play teams from C+D until the final, meaning that teams that find themselves in the semi-finals may have already played against each other in the groups.

Anyway, I've not been particularly impressed by any of the teams so far. Looking forward to watching Spain, and tomorrow's Italy - Netherlands.

Portugal played quite well, including everyone's favourite player, Ronaldo. ;) He was particularly good.


And I hit it dead on...I should be a betting man. ;)
Yeah, I thought 3 goals was quite a high score to predict. I would have guessed 2 goals like you did, possibly only 1.
 
I thought Germany played particularly well yesterday.

Looking forward to tonight's Clash of the Titans™, I hope it doesn't disappoint.
 
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