PaddockLad

The thing is, is a "good football match" two shite defences and it ending 4-3, or is it Italy not giving England a kick the other night and it ending nowts each? Last night was a different sort of nil nil, and it was pretty dull to be fair. But it was widely predicted that Spain weren't going to be what they were before a ball was kicked this month. Thats proven to be the case, but again the opponenents aren't being given any credit. Italy did that rare thing and actually scored against them. It looks like the absence of Villa and the midfield not being what it was has allowed sides to stop them from scoring as freely as in the last two tournaments. If that makes them less attractive fair enough, but theyre still unbleiveably hard to break down, which again isnt easy on the eye but is certainly good football.

Spain miss David Villa as much as Barca do.....and Xavi is knocking on a bit now, which I think affects the team just as much. He used to be able to skip past a pressing player and still get a pass away to continue a move, but now he's lost that ability a bit. A lot of the play goes through Alonso now and he's less attacking by nature then Xavi. Playing Busquets alongside Alonso is having an effect as well, Marcos Senna did their job on his own 4 years ago.

I think this is partially right....and the twats on the bbc lead the way in seeing the game in strictly "great/shite" terms. It was hardly a classic, but Spain were too heavily criticised and not enough credit was given to how Portugal played. Hansen,Shearer and Linekar are like fuckin cheerleading fan boys half the time, and theyve all played at the highest level. Lee Dixon talks the most sense, a lone voice of sanity. But even he didnt point out that Portugal were out on their feet in ET and gave Spain a lot more space, rather than Spain suddenly upping their game being the only factor in their improved performance.

Negredo starts for Spain tonight....I take it he's good, but how good?....relaible?...does he need 3 chances to score 1 usually?.... Portgual: Patrício; Pereira, Alves, Pepe, Coentrão; Veloso, Moutinho, Meireles; Nani, Ronaldo, Almeida. Spain: Casillas; Arbeloa, Pique, Ramos, Alba; Alonso. Busquets. Xavi; Silva, Negredo, Iniesta

Paul Allen been linked with more clubs than "generic golfer/piss head footballer comparison"

So Bale must know who the new manager is....AVB I presume?...

Mark Wright ...got mixed up in the horror of recalling the "Stamp years"...

Mark Bright was from Oxford.......Phil Stamp is what I was called when I played Sunday mornings by a particularly cruel team mate

No, MK Dons took Wimbledon FC's place in used to be divi 3.....AFC Wimbledon was formed by fans of WFC and they had to start at the bottom. Fuckin cheek, and the AFC fans must feel a massive sense of pride now theyre back in the football league. Their club in their town. If a club gets liquidated thats it, over. Most come back starting at the bottom as you say, Accrington Stanley and Aldershot did, Third Lanark and Maidstone Utd didnt.

Its a guide or indication, not definitive. Take friendly matches out of it and it would be a lot more accurate, but we really wouldnt be much different, and youd have the odd anomaly, like Honduras being 2nd for a while a few years back. The problem is how do we improve as a team so we can find a way past the quarter's/group stages. I think as a football nation we should be capable of improving, but the various things we've thrown about on here since Sunday prevent it.

judge for yourself.....theres all sorts of factors to be taken into consideration and applied. If your game is in the knockout phase, you get get 3 points for a win, 2 points for a win on penalties, and one point for a draw....but if you have a draw then win on pens it adds up to 3, the same for a win in normal time, but you've only drawn the game....it looks, to this layman at least, fuckin ludicrous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings

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July 9th.... Ferdinand is maybe going to be the subject of a "bad character" order... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/9354324/John-Terry-defence-team-mulls-bad-character-case.html#

Are you convinced you'll have a league to play in next season?... Sadly, most players think like players,not fans, as soon as they sign their first contract.

I got thrown off a job in a hotel in 94 by the special branch preparing for the visit of the Tory Party to Bournemouth for their conference.....they said I had an "indistinguishable accent, possibly irish" and further security checks were needed on me

Agreed. The only luck in 46 years then. Unlucky to be unlucky for half a century don't you think?....

Football's not played on paper or on the end of a broadband connection.....Portugal have looked a far better team than Engalnd iyam.

Doubt if its much of a joke for the old Queen or McGuiness tbh...he murdered Prince Philip's uncle.

Fair one, and I certainly wouldnt be surprised if Italy won the whole thing, but theyve lacked a true cutting edge in all their games but are sat in the semi final. Why? bcause they didnt give us the ball!...its what we dont do, or rather couldnt for the last hour and a quarter of the match. Chelsea and Greece are exceptions rather than the rule in this regard.

So why is it never us?.... why is it never us that gets the erm "luck"?....

Quarters being about where we should be is fine after the dogs dinner Capello left, but we should be aiming for better than that. I don't think we have a divine right to anything, but progress needs to happen quickly if the rest of the footballing world are to be prevented form leaving us behind completely. A limited Italinan side with one very special player made us look mediocre at best. And its been going on decades, with very rare exceptions, without anyone doing anything about it and therefore allowing the press the oppurtunity to ask why the fuck cant we compete at the very top level. It gone on so long, the press criticising the national team in 2012 for things they criticised us for in 1992. Its beyond senseless.

Fuck me I hope not...imagine signing some of that lot and the sort of "visitors" they could attract on a Saturday afternoon should they be at "a loose end" for a season or two..no further than Aberdeen on the train for them too...

Is it Stormont you work at then Ant? Not hanging around for the "historic handshake"?....

The article made me think of something Parky said yesterday about the powers that be accepting that we'll never win another international trophy again, which may well happen anyway because of the strength of the Premier League. I think theres a will at the FA to change things, but as long as we're playing 38 games a season in the manner in which we do + champions league then we'll continue to be shattered in the second half of games like we were on Sunday, and at most of the other tournaments I can think of. Think of Brazil in 2002, Romania in 2000, where we lost from winning posistions after the first 45, and other tired second halves where teams were there for the beating and some of our lot were dead on their feet, unable to physically change things because we couldnt keep the ball, which is obviously our other great failing. The two are linked for me, tired minds and bodies will just "hit the big man" with long balls....defenders at this level lap that shit up. I actually thought we played ok in the first half on Sunday, but it was the same old story in the second. Italy have got fuck all up front to speak of, especially in comparison with us, but Rooney's had 6 weeks rest and still looked knackered. Yet again at a summer tournament, players based in the Premier League have failed to shine. France in 02 were World and European champions and didnt win a group game because half their team had played a full season in England. With Zidane playing on one leg as well they were royally fucked. Something needs changing, the FA want to do it, but, taken with the comparitively small percentage of English qualified players who earn their living in it, the league they set up 20 years ago has basically grown into such an enormously powerful monster that its basically eaten whole any chance of our own national side succeeding on the big stage. But change will be a lot more difficult here beacuse of the sheer power of the PL than it was in Germany as Parky was pointing out yesterday.Good luck to Tevor Brooking & co. they'll fuckin need it.

England have just gone out of a tournament after a match in which they averaged 36% of the possession and were left trying to make sense of the tragicomedy that accompanies the team's most prolific passer actually being the goalkeeper, Joe Hart. No European country has won a World Cup in South America. To believe England can break that sequence when they are still so desperately short in the fundamentals of taking care of the ball is to believe there are fairies at the bottom of the garden humming the words to World in Motion. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jun/25/euro-2012-england-ambitions