Bucket of Vindaloo
Jul 12th 2018, 6:08 am
#196
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Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Dubai
Posts: 4,017
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Good game last night, it looked like England might do it based on the first half performance but Croatia had too much class and the patience/confidence to believe in their game and wait for the goals to come. I doubt any England fan could be unhappy with how the world cup went, Southgate definitely overachieved, a semi final looked unlikely at the start. Unless Belgium do something crazy Kane has the golden boot, though his performances have dropped off as the tournament progressed.
Best for me was that English fans really got into the spirit of the world cup, and took it as an extended party rather than the sort of joyless affair it has been before. Kudos!
France for the cup though, unless Croatia really do something special and it would be great to have a new winner.
Best for me was that English fans really got into the spirit of the world cup, and took it as an extended party rather than the sort of joyless affair it has been before. Kudos!
France for the cup though, unless Croatia really do something special and it would be great to have a new winner.
You make a good point here regarding Kane , I thought he was poor the last two games , dropping deep to look for the ball last night just gave those two center backs 10 yards and to shut the space , probably frustration as well but we need to find a Plan B . Dele Ali plays that 10 role for spurs and he's far better further up the field , maybe he should have switched and through Sterling out wide and attacked Rabic more as Rose skinned him twice in 2 mins and the coach hauled him off.
What could have been eh !!!
Jul 12th 2018, 6:19 am
#197
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Disneyland, Dubai
Posts: 15,887
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Really great game last night full of attack and counter-attack.
At half time my feelings were that the game can go either way and frankly teams both deserved to win - although we were the better team in the first half. Halfway through the second half we seemed to lose it a bit, slowed, sat back and then screwed up. We then really struggled to come back from that goal. I felt that we sunk to our old ways of long balls to nowhere in hopes of picking up a forward. Kane was nowhere to be seen all night and Sterling should never have started. The boys really tried in extra time and it was a great pick up, the second goal was unfortunate as Pickford was well up for penalties.
Man of the match for me was Pickford. He's a fantastic keeper with a great career ahead of him now. Very uncomfortable to watch though as he always seems to be in the wrong place - pure comedy when he mugged off the Croatian striker by outrunning and out skilling him.
Well done to everyone. Mrs Millhouse 2 now understands why I watch England games at home, and go to bars for other games.
At half time my feelings were that the game can go either way and frankly teams both deserved to win - although we were the better team in the first half. Halfway through the second half we seemed to lose it a bit, slowed, sat back and then screwed up. We then really struggled to come back from that goal. I felt that we sunk to our old ways of long balls to nowhere in hopes of picking up a forward. Kane was nowhere to be seen all night and Sterling should never have started. The boys really tried in extra time and it was a great pick up, the second goal was unfortunate as Pickford was well up for penalties.
Man of the match for me was Pickford. He's a fantastic keeper with a great career ahead of him now. Very uncomfortable to watch though as he always seems to be in the wrong place - pure comedy when he mugged off the Croatian striker by outrunning and out skilling him.
Well done to everyone. Mrs Millhouse 2 now understands why I watch England games at home, and go to bars for other games.
Jul 12th 2018, 7:00 am
#198
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Disneyland, Dubai
Posts: 15,887
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Oh, and to add Southgate - what a proper decent gent. He comforted the team, got them to stand up straight and went around thanking everyone. Class act.
I'm tempted to forgive him for the penalty now.
I'm tempted to forgive him for the penalty now.
Jul 13th 2018, 10:14 am
#200
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Ah well, Lifesabic.
This "no stars" England team was frustratingly difficult to dislike compared to previous versions, not least the 2006 "golden generation". Of course the problem with teams with no stars is that, well, they have no stars. That was cruelly exposed when the Croatian holy trinity finally deigned to descend to earth and grace us with their skills after the 50th minute of that semi-final. Having never once heard the magical sequence "Modric-Raketic-Mandzukic" (not necessarily in that order) from the commentator in their previous three matches, suddenly it kept coming and coming. And it seemed to re-energise their whole team. Having finally figured out how to deal with England's unorthodox formation and with their key players then deciding to show up, suddenly Croatia were rampant. I was surprised at how quickly England then fell apart and seemed to be able to do little to counter, but also, at how much Croatia struggled to turn their dominance into meaningful chances. They really should have been well ahead after 90 minutes. I think France will handle them with ease but the prospective midfield battle of Raketic/Modric/Perisic versus Kante/Matuidi/Pogba is dangerously over-stimulating. The reality can only disappoint.
Watching the match on English TV gave us a few gems. Post-match analysis - bizarrely, standing on the pitch - featured Slaven Bilic (verbally) twatting an over-ebullient Glenn Hoddle into whimpering silence in an argument about Croatia's tactics. Then in the studio a superb screaming dispute broke out between Roy Keane and Ian Wright. Keano, of course, though gritting his teeth and trying so hard to be nice, could not help himself by reverting to his natural role of most irritating tosspot on the planet (maybe it's an Irish thing). All the talk about what a great effort by our brave and over-achieving boys was naturally going to set him off. He pointed out, not gently, that this team had blown what was likely to be England's best chance ever (ever, mind you) of getting back to a WC final. Young though the team may be, they are not suddenly going to get magically better than their Brazilian and German and Spanish and French counterparts. Of course Wrighty, in his assigned role of over-emotional partisan, exploded in response and what followed was a good minute of completely indecipherable screeching from both. It wasn't quite on a par with the Suarez-Cavani one-two against Portugal but was up there with the most magical moments of this WC so far. Alas, it calmed down quickly and ended with a comment by Wrighty that "this lot" had done better than could be expected, which showed I guess what he really thought about the team and explained why he was not the distraught wreck that might have been expected after the match.
Keano did make one other cuttingly accurate point about the England team: the World Cup is highly unlikely to be the first trophy that you win as a footballer.
So now we are nearly there. While this WC has had a lot of great moments, I don't think it's up there with the best. For one, we were denied a match between the two best teams in the tournament - France and Brazil - and that promised to be a mickey-dazzler of the highest order. I know lots of English football fans get annoyed about Brazil but they are ultimately superb footballers and Neymar's antics notwithstanding, he is thrilling to behold on the ball. Belgium handled Brazil fairly well and that was an exciting match but if that flukey first goal had not gone in off the defender then it would likely have been a different match with a different outcome.
For two, France are a very defensive side and while it is absorbing to watch, it is far from "total football". If it was Mourinho rather than Deschamps coaching France, then doubtless the commentators would have lots to say. It is notable though how much better Pogba looks all around, attacking and defending, in the French setup than with ManU. Does that say something (that we didn't already know) about MouMou's leadership? It does show that containment doesn't have to be sterile and boring but it's never thrilling so just as well Mbappe is in the mix as well.
For another, the golden boot is almost certainly going meaninglessly to Harry Kane who barely scored from open play against a series of hardly daunting opponents. I stand by my view that he is over-hyped (though not his fault he was played out of position versus Croatia) and I think England and especially the English media placed far too much emphasis on him. Meanwhile second place is Lukaku. Ten of their eleven collective goals were scored against Panama or Tunisia. Here's to a double brace by Griezmann or Mbappe in the final (I wonder what the odds would be of that?) to make it worth something!
Meanwhile too many good teams were missing or under-performed and the developing nations seem further away than ever from a breakthrough.
But Russia seems to have been a surprisingly good host and staged a very well run tournament. Which brings into focus the next one and how that will go???!!!
And which nasty tabloid will be the first to surface the inevitable revelations about Saint Gareth? When he is tricked into revealing that he cheated at bingo with his gran when he was six or whatever.... But you know something will come because it always does.
Football, bloody hell, eh? Hard to go back to the PL/CL slog now...
This "no stars" England team was frustratingly difficult to dislike compared to previous versions, not least the 2006 "golden generation". Of course the problem with teams with no stars is that, well, they have no stars. That was cruelly exposed when the Croatian holy trinity finally deigned to descend to earth and grace us with their skills after the 50th minute of that semi-final. Having never once heard the magical sequence "Modric-Raketic-Mandzukic" (not necessarily in that order) from the commentator in their previous three matches, suddenly it kept coming and coming. And it seemed to re-energise their whole team. Having finally figured out how to deal with England's unorthodox formation and with their key players then deciding to show up, suddenly Croatia were rampant. I was surprised at how quickly England then fell apart and seemed to be able to do little to counter, but also, at how much Croatia struggled to turn their dominance into meaningful chances. They really should have been well ahead after 90 minutes. I think France will handle them with ease but the prospective midfield battle of Raketic/Modric/Perisic versus Kante/Matuidi/Pogba is dangerously over-stimulating. The reality can only disappoint.
Watching the match on English TV gave us a few gems. Post-match analysis - bizarrely, standing on the pitch - featured Slaven Bilic (verbally) twatting an over-ebullient Glenn Hoddle into whimpering silence in an argument about Croatia's tactics. Then in the studio a superb screaming dispute broke out between Roy Keane and Ian Wright. Keano, of course, though gritting his teeth and trying so hard to be nice, could not help himself by reverting to his natural role of most irritating tosspot on the planet (maybe it's an Irish thing). All the talk about what a great effort by our brave and over-achieving boys was naturally going to set him off. He pointed out, not gently, that this team had blown what was likely to be England's best chance ever (ever, mind you) of getting back to a WC final. Young though the team may be, they are not suddenly going to get magically better than their Brazilian and German and Spanish and French counterparts. Of course Wrighty, in his assigned role of over-emotional partisan, exploded in response and what followed was a good minute of completely indecipherable screeching from both. It wasn't quite on a par with the Suarez-Cavani one-two against Portugal but was up there with the most magical moments of this WC so far. Alas, it calmed down quickly and ended with a comment by Wrighty that "this lot" had done better than could be expected, which showed I guess what he really thought about the team and explained why he was not the distraught wreck that might have been expected after the match.
Keano did make one other cuttingly accurate point about the England team: the World Cup is highly unlikely to be the first trophy that you win as a footballer.
So now we are nearly there. While this WC has had a lot of great moments, I don't think it's up there with the best. For one, we were denied a match between the two best teams in the tournament - France and Brazil - and that promised to be a mickey-dazzler of the highest order. I know lots of English football fans get annoyed about Brazil but they are ultimately superb footballers and Neymar's antics notwithstanding, he is thrilling to behold on the ball. Belgium handled Brazil fairly well and that was an exciting match but if that flukey first goal had not gone in off the defender then it would likely have been a different match with a different outcome.
For two, France are a very defensive side and while it is absorbing to watch, it is far from "total football". If it was Mourinho rather than Deschamps coaching France, then doubtless the commentators would have lots to say. It is notable though how much better Pogba looks all around, attacking and defending, in the French setup than with ManU. Does that say something (that we didn't already know) about MouMou's leadership? It does show that containment doesn't have to be sterile and boring but it's never thrilling so just as well Mbappe is in the mix as well.
For another, the golden boot is almost certainly going meaninglessly to Harry Kane who barely scored from open play against a series of hardly daunting opponents. I stand by my view that he is over-hyped (though not his fault he was played out of position versus Croatia) and I think England and especially the English media placed far too much emphasis on him. Meanwhile second place is Lukaku. Ten of their eleven collective goals were scored against Panama or Tunisia. Here's to a double brace by Griezmann or Mbappe in the final (I wonder what the odds would be of that?) to make it worth something!
Meanwhile too many good teams were missing or under-performed and the developing nations seem further away than ever from a breakthrough.
But Russia seems to have been a surprisingly good host and staged a very well run tournament. Which brings into focus the next one and how that will go???!!!
And which nasty tabloid will be the first to surface the inevitable revelations about Saint Gareth? When he is tricked into revealing that he cheated at bingo with his gran when he was six or whatever.... But you know something will come because it always does.
Football, bloody hell, eh? Hard to go back to the PL/CL slog now...
Last edited by Miss Ann Thrope; Jul 13th 2018 at 11:58 am.
Jul 14th 2018, 8:12 pm
#201
Excess Baggage
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 5,479
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Ah well, Lifesabic.
This "no stars" England team was frustratingly difficult to dislike compared to previous versions, not least the 2006 "golden generation". Of course the problem with teams with no stars is that, well, they have no stars. That was cruelly exposed when the Croatian holy trinity finally deigned to descend to earth and grace us with their skills after the 50th minute of that semi-final. Having never once heard the magical sequence "Modric-Raketic-Mandzukic" (not necessarily in that order) from the commentator in their previous three matches, suddenly it kept coming and coming. And it seemed to re-energise their whole team. Having finally figured out how to deal with England's unorthodox formation and with their key players then deciding to show up, suddenly Croatia were rampant. I was surprised at how quickly England then fell apart and seemed to be able to do little to counter, but also, at how much Croatia struggled to turn their dominance into meaningful chances. They really should have been well ahead after 90 minutes. I think France will handle them with ease but the prospective midfield battle of Raketic/Modric/Perisic versus Kante/Matuidi/Pogba is dangerously over-stimulating. The reality can only disappoint.
Watching the match on English TV gave us a few gems. Post-match analysis - bizarrely, standing on the pitch - featured Slaven Bilic (verbally) twatting an over-ebullient Glenn Hoddle into whimpering silence in an argument about Croatia's tactics. Then in the studio a superb screaming dispute broke out between Roy Keane and Ian Wright. Keano, of course, though gritting his teeth and trying so hard to be nice, could not help himself by reverting to his natural role of most irritating tosspot on the planet (maybe it's an Irish thing). All the talk about what a great effort by our brave and over-achieving boys was naturally going to set him off. He pointed out, not gently, that this team had blown what was likely to be England's best chance ever (ever, mind you) of getting back to a WC final. Young though the team may be, they are not suddenly going to get magically better than their Brazilian and German and Spanish and French counterparts. Of course Wrighty, in his assigned role of over-emotional partisan, exploded in response and what followed was a good minute of completely indecipherable screeching from both. It wasn't quite on a par with the Suarez-Cavani one-two against Portugal but was up there with the most magical moments of this WC so far. Alas, it calmed down quickly and ended with a comment by Wrighty that "this lot" had done better than could be expected, which showed I guess what he really thought about the team and explained why he was not the distraught wreck that might have been expected after the match.
Keano did make one other cuttingly accurate point about the England team: the World Cup is highly unlikely to be the first trophy that you win as a footballer.
So now we are nearly there. While this WC has had a lot of great moments, I don't think it's up there with the best. For one, we were denied a match between the two best teams in the tournament - France and Brazil - and that promised to be a mickey-dazzler of the highest order. I know lots of English football fans get annoyed about Brazil but they are ultimately superb footballers and Neymar's antics notwithstanding, he is thrilling to behold on the ball. Belgium handled Brazil fairly well and that was an exciting match but if that flukey first goal had not gone in off the defender then it would likely have been a different match with a different outcome.
For two, France are a very defensive side and while it is absorbing to watch, it is far from "total football". If it was Mourinho rather than Deschamps coaching France, then doubtless the commentators would have lots to say. It is notable though how much better Pogba looks all around, attacking and defending, in the French setup than with ManU. Does that say something (that we didn't already know) about MouMou's leadership? It does show that containment doesn't have to be sterile and boring but it's never thrilling so just as well Mbappe is in the mix as well.
For another, the golden boot is almost certainly going meaninglessly to Harry Kane who barely scored from open play against a series of hardly daunting opponents. I stand by my view that he is over-hyped (though not his fault he was played out of position versus Croatia) and I think England and especially the English media placed far too much emphasis on him. Meanwhile second place is Lukaku. Ten of their eleven collective goals were scored against Panama or Tunisia. Here's to a double brace by Griezmann or Mbappe in the final (I wonder what the odds would be of that?) to make it worth something!
Meanwhile too many good teams were missing or under-performed and the developing nations seem further away than ever from a breakthrough.
But Russia seems to have been a surprisingly good host and staged a very well run tournament. Which brings into focus the next one and how that will go???!!!
And which nasty tabloid will be the first to surface the inevitable revelations about Saint Gareth? When he is tricked into revealing that he cheated at bingo with his gran when he was six or whatever.... But you know something will come because it always does.
Football, bloody hell, eh? Hard to go back to the PL/CL slog now...
This "no stars" England team was frustratingly difficult to dislike compared to previous versions, not least the 2006 "golden generation". Of course the problem with teams with no stars is that, well, they have no stars. That was cruelly exposed when the Croatian holy trinity finally deigned to descend to earth and grace us with their skills after the 50th minute of that semi-final. Having never once heard the magical sequence "Modric-Raketic-Mandzukic" (not necessarily in that order) from the commentator in their previous three matches, suddenly it kept coming and coming. And it seemed to re-energise their whole team. Having finally figured out how to deal with England's unorthodox formation and with their key players then deciding to show up, suddenly Croatia were rampant. I was surprised at how quickly England then fell apart and seemed to be able to do little to counter, but also, at how much Croatia struggled to turn their dominance into meaningful chances. They really should have been well ahead after 90 minutes. I think France will handle them with ease but the prospective midfield battle of Raketic/Modric/Perisic versus Kante/Matuidi/Pogba is dangerously over-stimulating. The reality can only disappoint.
Watching the match on English TV gave us a few gems. Post-match analysis - bizarrely, standing on the pitch - featured Slaven Bilic (verbally) twatting an over-ebullient Glenn Hoddle into whimpering silence in an argument about Croatia's tactics. Then in the studio a superb screaming dispute broke out between Roy Keane and Ian Wright. Keano, of course, though gritting his teeth and trying so hard to be nice, could not help himself by reverting to his natural role of most irritating tosspot on the planet (maybe it's an Irish thing). All the talk about what a great effort by our brave and over-achieving boys was naturally going to set him off. He pointed out, not gently, that this team had blown what was likely to be England's best chance ever (ever, mind you) of getting back to a WC final. Young though the team may be, they are not suddenly going to get magically better than their Brazilian and German and Spanish and French counterparts. Of course Wrighty, in his assigned role of over-emotional partisan, exploded in response and what followed was a good minute of completely indecipherable screeching from both. It wasn't quite on a par with the Suarez-Cavani one-two against Portugal but was up there with the most magical moments of this WC so far. Alas, it calmed down quickly and ended with a comment by Wrighty that "this lot" had done better than could be expected, which showed I guess what he really thought about the team and explained why he was not the distraught wreck that might have been expected after the match.
Keano did make one other cuttingly accurate point about the England team: the World Cup is highly unlikely to be the first trophy that you win as a footballer.
So now we are nearly there. While this WC has had a lot of great moments, I don't think it's up there with the best. For one, we were denied a match between the two best teams in the tournament - France and Brazil - and that promised to be a mickey-dazzler of the highest order. I know lots of English football fans get annoyed about Brazil but they are ultimately superb footballers and Neymar's antics notwithstanding, he is thrilling to behold on the ball. Belgium handled Brazil fairly well and that was an exciting match but if that flukey first goal had not gone in off the defender then it would likely have been a different match with a different outcome.
For two, France are a very defensive side and while it is absorbing to watch, it is far from "total football". If it was Mourinho rather than Deschamps coaching France, then doubtless the commentators would have lots to say. It is notable though how much better Pogba looks all around, attacking and defending, in the French setup than with ManU. Does that say something (that we didn't already know) about MouMou's leadership? It does show that containment doesn't have to be sterile and boring but it's never thrilling so just as well Mbappe is in the mix as well.
For another, the golden boot is almost certainly going meaninglessly to Harry Kane who barely scored from open play against a series of hardly daunting opponents. I stand by my view that he is over-hyped (though not his fault he was played out of position versus Croatia) and I think England and especially the English media placed far too much emphasis on him. Meanwhile second place is Lukaku. Ten of their eleven collective goals were scored against Panama or Tunisia. Here's to a double brace by Griezmann or Mbappe in the final (I wonder what the odds would be of that?) to make it worth something!
Meanwhile too many good teams were missing or under-performed and the developing nations seem further away than ever from a breakthrough.
But Russia seems to have been a surprisingly good host and staged a very well run tournament. Which brings into focus the next one and how that will go???!!!
And which nasty tabloid will be the first to surface the inevitable revelations about Saint Gareth? When he is tricked into revealing that he cheated at bingo with his gran when he was six or whatever.... But you know something will come because it always does.
Football, bloody hell, eh? Hard to go back to the PL/CL slog now...
Jul 15th 2018, 5:12 am
#202
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Disneyland, Dubai
Posts: 15,887
Jul 15th 2018, 6:15 am
#203
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
I totally own being a knob; I never tried to be anything else on here really. But bitter? You England fans are such........ I'm trying to avoid that terrible word but I'm too weak to resist....snowflakes!
Jul 15th 2018, 6:28 am
#204
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2015
Location: Abu Dhabi via Barcelona
Posts: 1,478
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
That's about the same as calling me a luvvie loving communist!
He's correct on his diagnosis.
Jul 15th 2018, 7:02 am
#205
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Jul 15th 2018, 7:06 am
#206
Excess Baggage
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 5,479
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
I was pissed last night.
Jul 16th 2018, 2:56 am
#209
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Disneyland, Dubai
Posts: 15,887
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Decent enough game last night. Outcome was entirely predictable but I still wanted Croatia to win. Thought they did well really.
Jul 16th 2018, 3:50 am
#210
Knee deep and rising
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,007
Re: Bucket of Vindaloo
Felt a bit sorry for Croatia as once they went behind chasing the game was always going to play into the hands of fast French breaks. I didn't think France played that well on the night but they were clinical and knew how to close out the game.
Good tournament overall and I think VAR has been a success and should now be employed at high level club football. (Premier league and Champions league)
Edit to say: Harry Kane surely the worst golden boot winner of recent times in terms of scoring from open play?
Last edited by weasel decentral; Jul 16th 2018 at 3:53 am.
