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The 2017-2018 Football Thread

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Lioness~ said:
That's good that you think so. Exactly what we want. We'll see, looking forward to this quarter :)
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I have no dog in the fight, so this is purely from the outside. Tactically you won’t be able to stop England unless of course you play dirty like Colombia did.

You won off a deflection, so sorry you couldn’t even score a legit goal off Switzerland. England are a much better team than the Swiss.
 
bmac4 said:
I have no dog in the fight, so this is purely from the outside. Tactically you won’t be able to stop England unless of course you play dirty like Colombia did.

You won off a deflection, so sorry you couldn’t even score a legit goal off Switzerland. England are a much better team than the Swiss.
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bmac4 said:
I am having to talk some sense into @Lioness~
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Ok, you think you know ;)
Our sport referees just gave the statistics we have against England, 14 meetings since 1986.
5 wins for us, 2 for England. 19 goals of us, 15 for England.
We'll see :)

Sweden-England.jpg
 
bmac4 said:
I am having to talk some sense into @Lioness~
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England always has a tough time with Sweden. It will be closer than you think.

Last ten meetings ended thusly:

Sweden 4-2 England (2012 friendly)
Sweden 2-3 England (Euro 2012)
England 1-0 Sweden (2011 friendly)
Sweden 2-2 England (World Cup 2006)
Sweden 1-0 England (2004 friendly)
England 1-1 Sweden (World Cup 2002)
England 1-1 Sweden (2001 friendly)
England 0-0 Sweden (Euro 2000 qualifier)
Sweden 2-1 England (Euro 2000 qualifier)
England 3-3 Sweden (1995 friendly)
 
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Lioness~ said:
Ok, you think you know ;)
Our sport referees just gave the statistics we have against England, 14 meetings since 1986.
5 wins for us, 2 for England. 19 goals of us, 15 for England.
We'll see :)

View attachment 768908
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Oh you want me to break this down for you? I don’t care about history. You really want a tactical break down of why you can’t beat England?
 
bmac4 said:
Oh you want me to break this down for you? I don’t care about history. You really want a tactical break down of why you can’t beat England?
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No, I don't care **** what you think. I already heard enough. You don't know us :)
 
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weckart said:
England always has a tough time with Sweden. It will be closer than you think.

Last ten meetings ended thusly:

Sweden 4-2 England (2012 friendly)
Sweden 2-3 England (Euro 2012)
England 1-0 Sweden (2011 friendly)
Sweden 2-2 England (World Cup 2006)
Sweden 1-0 England (2004 friendly)
England 1-1 Sweden (World Cup 2002)
England 1-1 Sweden (2001 friendly)
England 0-0 Sweden (Euro 2000 qualifier)
Sweden 2-1 England (Euro 2000 qualifier)
England 3-3 Sweden (1995 friendly)
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I didn’t say it won’t be close. It most certainly will, but that doesn’t mean Sweden win the game. There is some real tactical issues they can’t fix.

Honestly I don’t care about the history. This is about WC 2018.
 
Lioness~ said:
No, I don't care **** what you think. I already heard enough. You don't know us :)
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I have watched enough of you in this WC to know you don’t have what it takes. Your lucky you got as far as you did. Had Germany shown up this World Cup, you would have been sitting at home already.
 
bmac4 said:
I have watched enough of you in this WC to know you don’t have what it takes. Your lucky you got as far as you did. Had Germany shown up this World Cup, you would have been sitting at home already.
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And you're not even there :p
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
I can’t believe I’ve seen my country win a penalty shoot out! I’m still amazed and my heart is still racing !
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Agreed, but I had read that Gareth Southgate drilled that team in the taking of penalties; such sessions occurred at the end of every training session, the walk from the centre spot, (which he himself had described as horrifying), the placing of the ball on the penalty spot, eyeing the goalkeeper (and Pickford was very good) and than calmly slotting the shot.

Practice, practice, practice.

I would've been a bit surprised - and very disappointed - had England gone out on penalties tonight, precisely because Southgate is able to learn from past mistakes and does his homework.

I read with disbelief about how the English management (in 2016) eschewed a chance to watch Iceland - opting for sight-seeing instead and a boat trip on the Seine (I love historic sight seeing, but do it on a day off, or when the job is finished) - because they thought that Iceland were a walkover.

Southgate will not make those mistakes.
 
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Zenithal said:
Own goal, yes. I witnessed it in person actually. I may have vaguely joked to my brother next to me that they'd kill him after the match. So imagine my shock later on. It was at a time when Colombia was still reeling from the drug wars. Stupid joke to make in hindsight.
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Ahh found his story, how horrible. I remember it now too...my uncle and cousin got tickets and drove down from Ontario to see several games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrés_Escobar
 
bmac4 said:
I didn’t say it won’t be close. It most certainly will, but that doesn’t mean Sweden win the game. There is some real tactical issues they can’t fix.

Honestly I don’t care about the history. This is about WC 2018.
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True but head games need to be overcome. The mechanical tactics can be drilled to perfection but knowing you are up against an opponent you struggle with is harder to contend with. England took a step forward with winning a penalty shoot out. Possibly a bigger boost to morale than squeezing through 1-0. Colombia was poor and yet England struggled and we have a better record against Colombia.
 
weckart said:
True but head games need to be overcome. The mechanical tactics can be drilled to perfection but knowing you are up against an opponent you struggle with is harder to contend with. England took a step forward with winning a penalty shoot out. Possibly a bigger boost to morale than squeezing through 1-0. Colombia was poor and yet England struggled and we have a better record against Colombia.
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I don’t buy into the history struggles thing. This team is a much different group of guys. England have what might be the 4 or 5 best player in the world, and he has been clinical. The reason England struggled was because of the play on the field. They were more worried about the fouling than just playing.

Sweden will keep it close because they will park deep, but that works well for England. Give them enough set pieces, and they will convert.
 
bmac4 said:
I don’t buy into the history struggles thing. This team is a much different group of guys. England have what might be the 4 or 5 best player in the world, and he has been clinical. The reason England struggled was because of the play on the field. They were more worried about the fouling than just playing.

Sweden will keep it close because they will park deep, but that works well for England. Give them enough set pieces, and they will convert.
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Histories happen for a reason. Eventually hoodoos will be broken but until then...

If England has such outstanding stars, they hid their lights under a bushel tonight and contrived to look competent but not particularly impressive.
 
weckart said:
Histories happen for a reason. Eventually hoodoos will be broken but until then...

If England has such outstanding stars, they hid their lights under a bushel tonight and contrived to look competent but not particularly impressive.
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History only matters if those same players are part of it. Most aren’t.

Stars didn’t hide tonight. Do you think a 1-1 draw means the team didn’t play well? First and foremost, Colombia should have been playing with 10 men if not less. Second, England looked way more dangerous then Colombia did for large parts of that game. I don’t understand the thought that a team played poorly just because they didn’t score goals.
 
bmac4 said:
History only matters if those same players are part of it. Most aren’t.
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We've had completely different teams choke on penalties. Most famously against German sides but not exclusively. History matters whatever logic you want to counter it with. That was one obstacle overcome tonight but I feared the worst.

England should have put away Colombia within the first half. Colombia was poor and missing its talisman. Anyway, it is to be hoped that England will up its game against Sweden and accumulate a bit of momentum. Today was something akin to stasis in that respect but the result should give a small fillip.

I'm just less gung-ho about our chances. Belgium looks more technically gifted albeit with a fragile team spirit. France can also turn on the skills when it cares to. Uruguay will be Colombia with more competence and better finishing. I'll be satisfied with a semi-final place. Any more would be overachieving.
 
It’s all good teams left. But not nearly good in the same way. Different teams, with different strengths.
That’s what’s make it interesting. Anyone can win.

Those I’m most impressed by this far is Belgium and their turn from 0-2 against Japan, to win with 3-2 after goaling the 3rd only seconds before the end.
I was dropping my attention when Japan took lead with 2-0.
Went and did something else. When I checked again it was 2-1. I watched again.
The rest is the best I’ve seen in WC this far.
 
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