A world cup question

[miasmum]

This is a question Tim just asked me and I know nothing about international football so I cant answer it.

Obviously other teams have knocked out Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Germany all those great footballing nations. We’ve knocked out Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden. Now I may be wrong but none of those sound particularly great. The only good team we’ve met is Belgium and look what happened there. Is that why we’ve got this far, we’ve only played lowly teams?

I am not asking this on Facebook because everyones a flipping expert on there and they are all getting right on my ninnies

[TheOstrich]

Hmmmm ……..

They may not sound particularly great, but I think England have done very well to get to where they are tonight.

Group Stage:

Panama were very much the fall-guys of the Group, Tunisia have qualified for the World Cup before (this was their 5th such tournament, I think) and you can't really count the Belgium match as anything of note as both England and Belgium rested their top players and fielded their second string players. You could argue that England had a reasonably easy group to qualify from, but nevertheless they did so, and didn't get eliminated like Germany. First hurdle accomplished.

Knockout Stage:

I think they did very well to defeat Colombia, who are no World Cup dummies (they made the quarter finals in 2014) and have some fairly top class players. However, they turned out to be a "dirty" side and some of the gamesmanship was beyond belief. The England players did exceptionally well to keep their cool and their discipline; I've seen plenty of similar games where the match has descended into anything up to a 30-man brawl.

I didn't see the Sweden match as I'd just got home from a pre-season friendly game at Gillingham Town, and the 3 mile walk in this blistering heat did for me! Sweden have a fairly good record in World Cups over the years, but not so much of late. I gather England fairly dominated them in recording their victory.

You could argue that England have had a relatively easy ride to get where they have so far, but none of these games are easy, anything can happen over 90 minutes, and for such a young squad, I think they've done remarkably well. Full marks to Gareth Southgate.

[miasmum]

Thanks Ossie. I wish I could support them but it’s all the hype that puts me off. Three lions morning, noon and night for a start

And as for it’s our first semi final for 28 years do the maths, it’s 7 years

[TheOstrich]

No problem! Like you, I've no time for the media hype and all the lager louts bouncing up and down in front of the TV cameras.

An old school colleague of mine, who is also a non-league football fan, has actually booked a cruise with his partner so he can avoid the whole shemozzle. I think he's gone to Tenerife or something. Mrs O is muttering darkly that she missed a trick there ….

[JanB]

And can I also add that the standard of refereeing has been really dreadful, apart from maybe two of them.

Looks as if they've been told to let the game "flow" and not keep stopping the game for the most dreadful fouls we've seen.

Don't think England played very well for most of the first half, but well done to them. Apart from Sterling, who should never have been on the pitch in the first place.

And whilst I'm glad I'm not in England, because of the media coverage, Portugal is the same, although maybe not quite as bad. But then we have this coverage all season long

Apart from the medical stuff, which the Portuguese love to read/watch and see on their screens, football is also high on the news coverage - every day.

[miasmum]

And do the Portuguese brawl in the street, fight with the police and trash ambulances?

[JanB]

Erm, yes, they do Butt to the extent that the English do.

Mostly, it's the police wading in with their batons, bashing heads or any bit of the body they can hit, guns showing, that can set people off

Mostly only in the cities though, not the smaller places like Olhao.

[TheOstrich]

And can I also add that the standard of refereeing has been really dreadful, apart from maybe two of them.

Looks as if they've been told to let the game "flow" and not keep stopping the game for the most dreadful fouls we've seen.

Absolutely! Frome Town 1 Farnborough 1, 14/04/2018.

If the referee had got to grips with the game in the first 10 minutes or so, then we might not have had a 15 man brawl, 4 bookings and a sending off following a shocking tackle 80 minutes later ....

[JanB]

Berlimey!

[cromwell]

We have dropped very lucky with the draw and with other results, it's true. But you can only beat what's in front of you and they have more or less done that. In the semis Croatia await and they could beat us; but it's not like we're playing the Brazil 1970 team or Holland with Van Basten and Gullit.
The final, if we get there, will be a very different story though.

I love England and I love being Englissh; but I can't stand the commentary for World Cups. You can just imagine the commentators sitting there in their union jack underpants bigging everything up into the most vital, crucial, thing ever (and half the time ignoring what going on in the actual match). Incredibly nationalistic and biased and total over kill, just like those idiots jumping around spraying beer everywhere like Chimpanzees on speed, when England score. Hype to the extreme.