hmmmmm, the sun appears to have set

[HatterDon]

Well, I can't believe what I just saw: mighty England held at Wembley by Monte-freaking-negro. This on the same day that Northern Ireland couldn't beat THE FAROE ISLANDS!

I didn't see the NorIron match, but I did see the England match.

1. Worst match I've ever seen Crouch play in a 3-lions shirt.
2. Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole were absolutely useless.
3. England's most creative player was stationed right in front of his own back four for most of the match.
4. Montenegro was unlucky not to steal all three points.
5. I never thought I'd see England play a person who doesn't start for his club side -- amazing.

I don't know how much they charged for tickets, but I don't think anybody not named Krancjar got his money's worth.

Eric Morecambe: What do you think of it so far?

Everybody in The Palladium:

[fulhamwannabe]

what was the final score england?montenegro is not a bad team,just as good as serbia,croatia and bosnia.....
what northern ireland didn't win?unbelievable,,,,,,,faroe islands,part timers  :dft001:
just finished watching scotland/spain,a very good game which the jocks have narrowly lost 3/2 what a shame coming back from 2/0 down to level it,only for llorente to steal it in the last 15 minutes,,,,,,,,,,,,
had to watch this game as i'm a massive rangers fan glasgow that is  :dft012:

[LBNo11]

...and people wonder why we are so disillusioned about our national side. I didn't even bother to watch the game.

Capello's character may be the problem, but the FA appointed him with a ridiculous contract so you can't really blame him if he is not to fussed about what happens to a foreign sides demise.

But the players are the fools that believe the hype that the media gives to their prowess, no passion, no pride, too rich to care so no hunger or desire.

Montenegro may have been better than we thought, and other national sides may be learning and catching up with the old top national sides of yesteryear - but we should have a national side that no longer 'treads water' in ability, but sets the pace for other sides to try and keep apace with.

The time for a drastic change should be here, but that would entail a wholesale sacking of the FA, and they are teflon coated.

For me I will only watch England when a Fulham player is playing, I have more interest these days in watching Fulham players from foreign countries playing Internationals than the players who play like their badge is three pussycats rather than three LIONS...
:035:

[duffbeer]

England was still the way better side.  Officiating was horrendous and mostly to England's disadvantage.

If the sun has set on anybody it's Italy.  Drew with a NorIron side that cant be the Faroe Islands. 

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

Now don't go dissin' the Faeros, look who their manager is !!!
the excellent Brian Kerr.

[duffbeer]

I told my son the result and he said, "what'd you say? England couldnt beat Carlos Bocanegra?"   :011:

[LRCN]

cmon.. it's not as if england scraped a draw was it. we played too slow and montenegro didn't get out of their half until they hit the bar, but if fulham played that we'd wonder how we didn't win. their goalie was man of the match.

[The Equalizer]

I refuse to watch and England game until all of the players and the manager that went to South Africa have been removed from the national team.

The Scotland v Spain game was quite good though.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

thats not the England football team,just a bunch of over paid,smug,stupid,soul less clowns PRETENDING to be the England football team.The thing is not many fans care any more,if the players don't care why should we?if they don't show any passion why should we?

[ScalleysDad]

Its quite scarey how wide the gap is getting between the national set up and real life grass roots. We had an almost full turn out at training last night with nobody in a particular rush to get home afterwards. Only one England shirt on show and a very good analysis of the pointless option of playing a 4 - 6 formation further derided the Scots. In the current real world some of the twelves will be defending a full size goal on saturday and trying to keep a basic formation on a full size adult pitch which must seem like the prairies to some of them. The sixteens won't be playing as there are not enough teams in their league so without gaps in th efixtures it would all be over by Christmas. The fifteens are looking for a pitch to play on as the junior County Cup has to be played on a sunday. Sunday mornings has been the domain of the adult league for over twenty years. All of this is imposed by the County FA, who in part are following the national guidelines. Don't even get me started on the nonsense of taking ten year olds out of their teams for the Academy cotton wool tretament. National team,national set up, national manager .............. pah !!!!

[sipwell]

The Belgium - Austria game was fabulous. We, the Belgians, should have one 8-4 or something but we failed to score enough goals (we should stretch the goal, as we hit the post a number of times).
The last 5 minutes must have been some of the most frustrating minutes of my life. Scoring the 3-3 equalizer in the 87th minute (joy), scoring the 4-3 winner (so we thought) in the 90th minute (euphoria) and allowing them to score the 4-4 equalizer in the 92th minute (disappointment).

The Belgian team remains a team of "just not". Giving the Germans a really hard time (the hardest so far) but then just not drawing. Making the Turks' life miserable and leading the game twice, but then just not winning (in fact losing). And now, being the absolute best team on the pitch, creating massive opportunities (open goal, one on one, name it) and then just not winning.

Fulham should buy Vertonghen though. He is not cheap but he would help midfield enormously (and he never stops running).

[AlFayedsChequebook]

At the end of the day this result is pretty irrelevant, a draw is fine and England will get through in first place. There is no way that Montenegro will win the rest of their games, although I hope they get a shot at qualifying through second place.

Englands true problem will be revealed at 2012 when a group stage exit embarrasses a nation once more.

As for Italy, they are perennial challengers who have recently won a world cup and are technically the second best nation ever behind brazil. They will be fine because they know how to play as a team. Not that I expect Italy to do anything for at least another 2 or 3 tournaments

[HatterDon]

Well, Instant Karma came and got me for starting this thread. Last night the US team failed in its attempt to keep 7 of its players inside the center circle the entire first half -- but only barely. USA got its first corner at 60 minutes. Colombia got its first at 65 minutes. It seemed that the only two footballers for the RWB who came there to play were introduced at halftime. One was, naturally, Dempsey and the other was a young Villa kid making his full debut, Eric Lichaj. Those two wanted to win. I'm not sure what the other Yanks wanted. I feel sorry for Sam's Army and Son's of Ben who evidently had been led to believe that a football match was going to occur at some point.


So, in retrospect -- Damn fine side that Montenegro, and a brilliant result for England in getting a point from them.  :045: :dft001:

[timmyg]

Well, Instant Karma came and got me for starting this thread. Last night the US team failed in its attempt to keep 7 of its players inside the center circle the entire first half -- but only barely. USA got its first corner at 60 minutes. Colombia got its first at 65 minutes. It seemed that the only two footballers for the RWB who came there to play were introduced at halftime. One was, naturally, Dempsey and the other was a young Villa kid making his full debut, Eric Lichaj. Those two wanted to win. I'm not sure what the other Yanks wanted. I feel sorry for Sam's Army and Son's of Ben who evidently had been led to believe that a football match was going to occur at some point.


So, in retrospect -- Damn fine side that Montenegro, and a brilliant result for England in getting a point from them.  :045: :dft001:

Or, last night's USA/Columbia crapfest was really just a glorified scrimmage and quite meaningless as neither team has an important game for another 9 months.

Whereas England's game counted, albeit incrementally. The Northern Ireland match against the Faroes probably wont count because of the moronic UEFA rules regarding second place teams.

[finnster01]

Although it is far too early for Capello to buy a full-size umbrella (forget about a McLaren size), he may just consider buying a little one for his cocktails at this point.

[fulhamwannabe]

my 12 million dollar question is why keep capello and pay him a MASSIVE wage?that i shall never comprehend!!! :001:

[LBNo11]

my 12 million dollar question is why keep capello and pay him a MASSIVE wage?that i shall never comprehend!!! :001:

...you and I both! The incompetency of the FA is well known, but this contract takes their level of foolishness to a new level! I'm not saying that Capello was not an attractive proposal when looking for a new International manager, but to give him such a contract without caveates dependent on perfomances/results is frankly ludicrous...

[alfie]

This is a bit old hat now but i just wanted my tuppence worth.

Although i agree with some of what has been said, it was quite clearly obvious that Montenegro did not come to Wembley to play football, and i think this also shows a little bit of what Danny M was going on about, the Montys objective was to stop England playing by fair and quite often by foul means, yes we should have beaten them but it is so hard against this type of team, Montenegro, Wolves, Stoke are they any different, personally i thought Ashley Cole had a good game.

I do take issue with comments that players have no passion or don't want to win, sorry i just don't believe it.
You only had to remember the World cup and the demise of teams like France, Italy and Holland and to some extent Brazil, the little countries are learning fast how to cope.

There thats my bit done.

[LRCN]

I do take issue with comments that players have no passion or don't want to win, sorry i just don't believe it.
You only had to remember the World cup and the demise of teams like France, Italy and Holland and to some extent Brazil, the little countries are learning fast how to cope.

There thats my bit done.

i agree with that. any time anyone says 'the players have no passion' well gets on my nerves. it's just a cliche people throw out there after a poor performance in something to explain it. it's like when people said against germany that we never showed any urgency and never went forward, but we were caught on the counter 3 times! to say a player doesn't want to play for england, or doesn't try for england, is rubbish imo.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

I do take issue with comments that players have no passion or don't want to win, sorry i just don't believe it.
You only had to remember the World cup and the demise of teams like France, Italy and Holland and to some extent Brazil, the little countries are learning fast how to cope.

There thats my bit done.

i agree with that. any time anyone says 'the players have no passion' well gets on my nerves. it's just a cliche people throw out there after a poor performance in something to explain it. it's like when people said against germany that we never showed any urgency and never went forward, but we were caught on the counter 3 times! to say a player doesn't want to play for england, or doesn't try for england, is rubbish imo.

Quoting a lack of passion is just the easy answer to a question that reveals England have never been particularly good at football since winning the World Cup in 1966. If you read Jonathan Wilson's excellent book on England (The Anatomy of England) you see that people are using the same excuses that were used when England first lost at Wembley to Hungary back in the 1950's. Hilariously, Stanley Matthews blames the manager is almost exactly the same words as a certain John Terry did this summer.