Englands Perfect Storm - Football related - Discussion of non TA football - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Englands Perfect Storm


Recommended Posts

 
 

 

Before we say goodbye to ‘It’s coming home’ it is of optimum importance that England supporters and those pesky synthetic ‘scots’ who have displayed a soft spot for England in recent weeks digest a few facts. They’ve gotten off too lightly since super Mario’s winner after 5 long weeks of ‘What about England eh’ accompanied with a smirk.

 

The Auld Enemy will never get a better chance to reach a world cup final than they had this year. This was indeed a perfect storm. Their perfect storm.

 

Before the tournament begins a couple of big guns exit. Netherlands and Italy do not travel to Russia.

 

This time England have a fully fit squad of players to pick from.

 

England fans and media fooled us in to a false sense of security before the tournament with their ‘No pressure’, ‘We expect nothing’ and ‘Anything is a bonus’ rhetoric. On the surface this was refreshing but this was of course also a lie, there was pressure and expectation it was just hidden from view. Imagine three actual lions in the wilderness tapping their sizeable stomachs showing they are full from lunch while eyeing up a hippo from behind a big arse tree, they were always ready to pounce and it was only ever ending in one way.  That said, the ‘No pressure’ pretence was an advantage in the first few weeks, the quiet build up allowed them to focus on football. A rarity for their national team.

 

The initial Draw was easy. If they beat Panama and Tunisia (both well below England in the FIFA Rankings) then progress to the last 16 would be secured. Belgium were in the group but the way the fixtures landed in favour of England meant this was irrelevant. Had Belgium v England taken place in Match day 1 or Match day 2 then media pressure (see above, more on them later) and pressure from within would have been sizzling nicely. This perfect storm kept giving as losing to the better team in Belgium would give an easier path to England. They did lose. 

 

That draw again.. England were gifted no big guns in the group beside them. Senegal, Poland, Columbia or Japan do not strike fear in to any opponent, especially not to the national team who benefit from highest revenue in this world cup or indeed world football.

 

They play Columbia (Well below England in the FIFA Rankings) without their superstar in James Rodriguez. They progress with the help of a penalty shootout. An antidote for the Kryptonite of England had been found. There was nothing to be afraid of now. Giant monkey off the back. 

 

So who was next? Sweden (Well below them in the FIFA Rankings, there’s a theme emerging here). A Sweden without Zlatan. A quarter final of the world cup against… Sweden. Oh and what was more England were in the area of the world cup draw which saw them play last every round. They got to watch the football superpowers of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil exit before playing. Confidence however misplaced was rising. 

 

England knew they would face Russia or Croatia for a place in the world cup final. Let’s not forget both of these teams were ranked lower than them (all together now…..) in the FIFA Rankings. It was to be Croatia (A team Scotland have never lost to for goodness sake, a team in which Scotland beat home and away without conceding a goal in the last World Cup qualifying campaign, that’s right - the same Scotland that has a population one tenth of England’s). Let us not forget this gift of a world cup just kept on giving for England. A young youthful energetic team full of fitness would play the weary older legs of Croatia who had spent well in excess of 4 hours on the pitch in the previous 6 days thanks to two matches that went all the way.

 

England take the lead. Equaliser comes. They hang on ‘til extra time which results in them playing against a team in extra time who have played extra time in 100% of their 3 knockout games. That equates to a full 90 minutes, you could say an additional match. They lose. Fairly.

 

So why are England not heroes, why shouldn’t we see Dele Alli renamed Sir Dele Alli the queens honours at New Year I hear you scream?

 

Well, They really weren’t that good at football.

 

England have played 6 matches. W3 D1 (penalties) L2 (AET), they played no competitive matches against a team ranked lower than them. 

England had 6 shots on target in open play in 570 minutes. This is lower than Peru, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia who each played 270 minutes of football.

England scored 2 goals from open play, 1 which was deflected in to the net.

 

This isn’t the calm before the next storm. The storms are over forever. England will never have a better chance than the one they have just squandered. A long list of extremely fortuitous circumstances can never present itself in this way ever again.

 

It’s no surprise. I mean we’ve seen it all before. We just knew, we were so sure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bang on, to be fair. And not the read you get down here south of the border. They want to knight Southgate ffs. Their wee run cheered up a lot of people, few of my Blackpool neebs who follow fitba, were enjoying it, but as above saying how it was. Not played anybody, until Croatia..And that the Kane hype was way over the top. . Not kicked a ball last two games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary, my friend, you need to try and get over your obsession with England. It's not healthy. I don't disagree with everything you said, but please don't think that some England fans aren't capable of assessing the situation for ourselves. There's a whole range of opinions about how well England did, but most people that I know and I have spoken to think pretty much the same as I do. Even the voting in the BBC poll at the bottom of this link shows that the majority were not getting carried away with things:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44808192

The overwhelming majority of votes are for

"Encouraging - but let's not get too carried away" and

"As expected - beat the weaker teams, lost when they met a top side".

There's actually more votes for us being underwhelming than there are people voting to say that we were brilliant.

What you're doing is focusing on some of the voices in the media and the buffoons that phone radio talk shows calling for knighthoods for Southgate etc. Of course those types of callers get given more airtime, because they're so outlandish and create drama and talking points. But they're not representative of the majority.

Just one final point. Please don't think that all England fans expect to win all the time, or that we don't still enjoy watching our team play despite the failures. Most of us support club teams that also are pish. I'm a Southampton fan. Do you know what my team have won in my lifetime? Absolutely jack shit. No, I take that back - we won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2010. Beat the mighty Carlisle United in the final. A lot of England fans support teams that would get a stiff neck looking up at the Premier League, so I consider myself more fortunate than most. We're not spending our lives as club football fans arrogantly thinking we're going to win everything and celebrating trophy after trophy. When I did the Real Madrid stadium tour, I was in their trophy room for about half an hour. When I did the St Mary's tour, I was in our trophy room for about two minutes, and most of that time was because I stopped to do my shoelace up. Most of us don't suddenly become arrogant, ignorant about football monsters when we transfer our support from our club to the England team. I know you want to believe that we do, but it's honestly not the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think England have a reasonable chance of having a proper “golden generation” in the coming years and with that a chance of winning a World Cup or European championship. 

They’ve had some success at recent youth championships and have promising young players abroad now. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

England's run of opponents doesn't compare to Germany 2002 - Paraguay, USA, South Korea - but it was still a favourable run of knockout fixtures, compared to what they could've got.

I think most people in England are realistic about what they actually achieved, given that they scraped a win against Tunisia, beat Colombia on penalties and had comfortable wins against Panama (which you'd expect) and a poor Sweden side - the only two good sides they played, Belgium (which was more of a B-team game) and Croatia, they lost against.

Either way, it's the first tournament in years that England have exceeded people's expectations going in - which will probably be a factor in why (some) people in England became overly confident about their chances as the World Cup went on.

The Nations League will probably be a bigger test for England than this World Cup was - considering that they have to play Spain and Croatia home and away.

Judging by the age of this England squad though, they'll probably be stronger in the next few Euros/World Cups than they were this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen Huddersfield get to the later rounds of the FA Cup by beating dross for 3 or 4 rounds & then convinced myself that we could win it. We haven't done since 1922 though. I think that's why the armchair England fans (of which I include myself) started to get a bit giddy about it. In terms of public expectation (which is almost universally going out in the group stages /QF) we exceeded that. I'd say that 80%+ of people watching it on TV would have no clue whatsoever whether Colombia is the international equivalent of Bayern Munich or Walsall, so to that end, public expectation was exceeded.

In terms of people who know a bit about football, most of us can see England did OK, had a bit of luck but are honest that we weren't good enough...but that didn't stop us all getting excited about it though & we might have pulled off a 'giant-killing' in the final, you never know. In the end, though, it was good for Joe Public, but will be forgotten about soon enough.

And I've got Accrington away tomorrow, and an afternoon on the terraces beats sitting in the pub watching football any day of the week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was Englands "Leicester City" chance.

All the big guns had below par squads and were out of form.  They had a well drilled, above average squad that did what was necessary up to the semi final.  If they had put the chances away in first half they would be in the final. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, GaryWood34 said:
 
 

 

Before we say goodbye to ‘It’s coming home’ it is of optimum importance that England supporters and those pesky synthetic ‘scots’ who have displayed a soft spot for England in recent weeks digest a few facts. They’ve gotten off too lightly since super Mario’s winner after 5 long weeks of ‘What about England eh’ accompanied with a smirk.

 

The Auld Enemy will never get a better chance to reach a world cup final than they had this year. This was indeed a perfect storm. Their perfect storm.

 

Before the tournament begins a couple of big guns exit. Netherlands and Italy do not travel to Russia.

 

This time England have a fully fit squad of players to pick from.

 

England fans and media fooled us in to a false sense of security before the tournament with their ‘No pressure’, ‘We expect nothing’ and ‘Anything is a bonus’ rhetoric. On the surface this was refreshing but this was of course also a lie, there was pressure and expectation it was just hidden from view. Imagine three actual lions in the wilderness tapping their sizeable stomachs showing they are full from lunch while eyeing up a hippo from behind a big arse tree, they were always ready to pounce and it was only ever ending in one way.  That said, the ‘No pressure’ pretence was an advantage in the first few weeks, the quiet build up allowed them to focus on football. A rarity for their national team.

 

The initial Draw was easy. If they beat Panama and Tunisia (both well below England in the FIFA Rankings) then progress to the last 16 would be secured. Belgium were in the group but the way the fixtures landed in favour of England meant this was irrelevant. Had Belgium v England taken place in Match day 1 or Match day 2 then media pressure (see above, more on them later) and pressure from within would have been sizzling nicely. This perfect storm kept giving as losing to the better team in Belgium would give an easier path to England. They did lose. 

 

That draw again.. England were gifted no big guns in the group beside them. Senegal, Poland, Columbia or Japan do not strike fear in to any opponent, especially not to the national team who benefit from highest revenue in this world cup or indeed world football.

 

They play Columbia (Well below England in the FIFA Rankings) without their superstar in James Rodriguez. They progress with the help of a penalty shootout. An antidote for the Kryptonite of England had been found. There was nothing to be afraid of now. Giant monkey off the back. 

 

So who was next? Sweden (Well below them in the FIFA Rankings, there’s a theme emerging here). A Sweden without Zlatan. A quarter final of the world cup against… Sweden. Oh and what was more England were in the area of the world cup draw which saw them play last every round. They got to watch the football superpowers of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil exit before playing. Confidence however misplaced was rising. 

 

England knew they would face Russia or Croatia for a place in the world cup final. Let’s not forget both of these teams were ranked lower than them (all together now…..) in the FIFA Rankings. It was to be Croatia (A team Scotland have never lost to for goodness sake, a team in which Scotland beat home and away without conceding a goal in the last World Cup qualifying campaign, that’s right - the same Scotland that has a population one tenth of England’s). Let us not forget this gift of a world cup just kept on giving for England. A young youthful energetic team full of fitness would play the weary older legs of Croatia who had spent well in excess of 4 hours on the pitch in the previous 6 days thanks to two matches that went all the way.

 

England take the lead. Equaliser comes. They hang on ‘til extra time which results in them playing against a team in extra time who have played extra time in 100% of their 3 knockout games. That equates to a full 90 minutes, you could say an additional match. They lose. Fairly.

 

So why are England not heroes, why shouldn’t we see Dele Alli renamed Sir Dele Alli the queens honours at New Year I hear you scream?

 

Well, They really weren’t that good at football.

 

England have played 6 matches. W3 D1 (penalties) L2 (AET), they played no competitive matches against a team ranked lower than them. 

England had 6 shots on target in open play in 570 minutes. This is lower than Peru, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia who each played 270 minutes of football.

England scored 2 goals from open play, 1 which was deflected in to the net.

 

This isn’t the calm before the next storm. The storms are over forever. England will never have a better chance than the one they have just squandered. A long list of extremely fortuitous circumstances can never present itself in this way ever again.

 

It’s no surprise. I mean we’ve seen it all before. We just knew, we were so sure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fucking long post to state the bleeding obvious, old pal!

I agree. Left the boozer on Wednesday with the thought that we'll never win it in my lifetime and that was echoed by everyone I spoke to. We're not all southerners. Don't base your opinion on the English by those cunts from the capital.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Huddersfield said:

I'm fairly confident that at some point in my life I will have chanted "soft southern b***ard" to a West Brom player rolling around on the floor.

I'm fairly confident that I've done similar and occasionally suggested that a WBA player was a "dirty northern b***tard". I feel bad now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Huddersfield said:

I'm fairly confident that at some point in my life I will have chanted "soft southern b***ard" to a West Brom player rolling around on the floor.

 

1 hour ago, George Saint said:

I'm fairly confident that I've done similar and occasionally suggested that a WBA player was a "dirty northern b***tard". I feel bad now.

Jeez you "southerners" are geographically challenged...

 

Anyhoo : re all the guff above and on a thousand other outlets. Its the FEKKING media-get rid of those overpaid (by a large way) clowns and for as long as the BBC supplies output to the 4 nations please have more of a balanced output (aye some chance)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/13/2018 at 12:29 PM, The Bunnet said:

Bang on, to be fair. And not the read you get down here south of the border. They want to knight Southgate ffs. Their wee run cheered up a lot of people, few of my Blackpool neebs who follow fitba, were enjoying it, but as above saying how it was. Not played anybody, until Croatia..And that the Kane hype was way over the top. . Not kicked a ball last two games.

My little lad loved it. As did we all. I was pragmatic - , England win against the poor sides and always lose against the better sides. But for a few weeks life was a little bit more exciting. Me, my dad and son watched all the games together at the local and it was fucking brilliant. If you lot ever get there and get as far then I certainly wouldn't begrudge you that in fact I'd be 100% behind you. 

It's been a great tournament. Just hope Croatia can finish on a high!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/13/2018 at 2:47 PM, ParisInAKilt said:

I think England have a reasonable chance of having a proper “golden generation” in the coming years and with that a chance of winning a World Cup or European championship. 

They’ve had some success at recent youth championships and have promising young players abroad now. 

Who though? The current generation is weaker in probably every department compared to the one that has preceded it. So not only are they weaker, but they still lack the same technical skills that many other nations posses. Some decent players may come through, but will they really spearhead them to a major trophy? I very much doubt it. Italy/Netherlands are on their way back, throw in the customary big nations and a French side who look like the next dominant nation and you've got an England team who are well below in the pecking order.

Well done to England for reaching the Semi-Finals of a World Cup, easy draw or not for most nations it is a dream to get there and fair play to the fans, they got behind the boys for once.

However the OP is probably right, this was the perfect storm which England really should've captalize on and they've blown it. Some people seem convinced that this is the dawning of a new era for England, but for me I think it will just be same old story and nothing more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...