Gunter / HRK / Wales

[elrey]

From some fat welsh bird's facebook



Just want to write something like when you find out your next opponents are the disabled dwarfs under 7s girls team, or when you find out Wales got beaten by England and you couldn't stop laughing until you started cry. Or when you find out you're 5 games in, have been leading for 16 minutes of all of those, haven't won a match in 90 minutes in any of those, and you'll be in the final if you don't play too much worse than England.

[elrey]

If you are Welsh, please feel free to comment but bear in mind this post is not aimed at you.

If you are English, given the video that emerged yesterday of the welsh squad celebrating Englands defeat like they had just won the competition outright, does this affect the way in which you feel about Gunter / HRK / Wales football?

With the Welsh, it so often seems like more than simply banter - a real chip on the shoulder type of "we will always support anyone else against England"

Last question, now England are out, will you support Wales because of Gunter / HRK?

FWIW, I think I would have cheered on Wales before that video came out and now I wont. I also think Gunter and HRK may have damaged their standing with Reading fans but whether that is true and whether it will last remains to be seen.

B) someone stupid welsh cow I have on facebook who said that Wales are now officially the best team in the UK. Well.... Wales got beaten by England, and yes England were massively poor, but Wales haven't played a great team yet. Russia, absolutely useless, England playing poorly, Belgium seem massively disjointed, Northern Ireland don't even have any good players etc etc. Portugal don't seem to be good either, so Wales could get to the final.

They'd get humped by Italy, Spain and Germany.

Wales clearly are the best team in the UK. If you believe that England are better you're dillusional. They are weak, spineless, spoiled wasters who barely ever put in a proper shift on the team. They lack team spirit and togetherness which Wales have in abundance, which Ireland/Northern Ireland also have.

And just happened to BEAT WALES.

Yeah, football's a funny old sport. Had England beaten Russia, beaten Wales, then nicked a goal against Slovakia, would they have gone in with confidence and then beaten Iceland 3-0? Who knows, that's football. But you get England playing Wales again in a years time, England will win.

[elrey]

If you are Welsh, please feel free to comment but bear in mind this post is not aimed at you.

If you are English, given the video that emerged yesterday of the welsh squad celebrating Englands defeat like they had just won the competition outright, does this affect the way in which you feel about Gunter / HRK / Wales football?

With the Welsh, it so often seems like more than simply banter - a real chip on the shoulder type of "we will always support anyone else against England"

Last question, now England are out, will you support Wales because of Gunter / HRK?

FWIW, I think I would have cheered on Wales before that video came out and now I wont. I also think Gunter and HRK may have damaged their standing with Reading fans but whether that is true and whether it will last remains to be seen.

Actually what has annoyed me about this is A) Bale coming about and making comments like he's a 12 year old teenager and B) someone stupid welsh cow I have on facebook who said that Wales are now officially the best team in the UK. Well.... Wales got beaten by England, and yes England were massively poor, but Wales haven't played a great team yet. Russia, absolutely useless, England playing poorly, Belgium seem massively disjointed, Northern Ireland don't even have any good players etc etc. Portugal don't seem to be good either, so Wales could get to the final.

They'd get humped by Italy, Spain and Germany.

Wow, I think I know who has the chip on their shoulder.
They might get humped by Germany, they definitely would not get humped by Italy or Spain.
They played badly against England, but they are improving and learning throughout the tournament. If they played against England tomorrow, do you seriously think England would get the same result??
Wales are an excellent team. Not a collection of excellent individuals, but an excellent team. And football is a team game.
Get over it.

You can keep thinking......

Yes, they're improving as the tournament goes, they're playing with spirit that England didn't play with. But again, football is one of those games where small things can turn it. Reading a report about how England should have played like 1990 or 1996. In 1990 Robson went in on a downer and England played like trash for most of the tournament. They won ONE and drew two of their games and finished top of their group. Drew with Ireland and Holland and only managed to beat Egypt 1-0 in the last game with a goal on 58 minutes. Pathetic. 2 goals scored, one let in. Hardly champions material.

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great....

1996 went a little better, 2 wins against Scotland and Holland, after drawing with Switzerland. Then getting outplayed by Spain but winning on penalties and getting kicked out on penalties by Germany.

We didn't win a single game in the knockout phases in normal time in our two most successful tournaments. That's apparently how England should have played.

How do you make a bunch of knackered, over played footballer get it up?

Some of the Welsh players like Bale have played a lot of matches too. Some like HRK played less league games than most, not European football, at a lower level and with less energy too. But they've also got something to prove. To show themselves on the big stage. The English players don't have that.

So, yes, the Welsh are playing like the Irish did, only they have a superstar up front and the Irish had Shane Long.

[leon]

If I was you I'd stop thinking.

[elrey]

If you are Welsh, please feel free to comment but bear in mind this post is not aimed at you.

If you are English, given the video that emerged yesterday of the welsh squad celebrating Englands defeat like they had just won the competition outright, does this affect the way in which you feel about Gunter / HRK / Wales football?

With the Welsh, it so often seems like more than simply banter - a real chip on the shoulder type of "we will always support anyone else against England"

Last question, now England are out, will you support Wales because of Gunter / HRK?

FWIW, I think I would have cheered on Wales before that video came out and now I wont. I also think Gunter and HRK may have damaged their standing with Reading fans but whether that is true and whether it will last remains to be seen.

B) someone stupid welsh cow I have on facebook who said that Wales are now officially the best team in the UK. Well.... Wales got beaten by England, and yes England were massively poor, but Wales haven't played a great team yet. Russia, absolutely useless, England playing poorly, Belgium seem massively disjointed, Northern Ireland don't even have any good players etc etc. Portugal don't seem to be good either, so Wales could get to the final.

They'd get humped by Italy, Spain and Germany.

Wales clearly are the best team in the UK. If you believe that England are better you're dillusional. They are weak, spineless, spoiled wasters who barely ever put in a proper shift on the team. They lack team spirit and togetherness which Wales have in abundance, which Ireland/Northern Ireland also have.

And yet still beat Wales......

[Maguire]

If they played against England tomorrow, do you seriously think England would get the same result??

Nope, reckon England would score three tbh

[leon]

If they played against England tomorrow, do you seriously think England would get the same result??

Nope, reckon England would score three tbh

#julesrimetstillgleaming

[tmesis]

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great.....

Does winning in extra time no longer count as a win?

Belgium weren't a bad team back then, as it happens.

We also had some real momentum in the knockout stages, and there was a genuine feeling we could win the thing. Of course, anyone who doesn't remember it, and is just looking at stats, might draw a different conclusion. Anyone who can remember it and didn't think we were on a roll and could have won, is probably Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

[muirinho]

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great.....

Does winning in extra time no longer count as a win?

Belgium weren't a bad team back then, as it happens.

We also had some real momentum in the knockout stages, and there was a genuine feeling we could win the thing. Of course, anyone who doesn't remember it, and is just looking at stats, might draw a different conclusion. Anyone who can remember it and didn't think we were on a roll and could have won, is probably Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

I'm Irish, and I do remember, and yes, with a bit of luck you could have won that year - penalties are a complete lottery. Was that the year though that the manager admitted afterwards you hadn't practiced penalties at all? My memory may be failing me on that one though, I didn't live here at the time, so didn't have the huge coverage it would have got here

[tmesis]

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great.....

Does winning in extra time no longer count as a win?

Belgium weren't a bad team back then, as it happens.

We also had some real momentum in the knockout stages, and there was a genuine feeling we could win the thing. Of course, anyone who doesn't remember it, and is just looking at stats, might draw a different conclusion. Anyone who can remember it and didn't think we were on a roll and could have won, is probably Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

I'm Irish, and I do remember, and yes, with a bit of luck you could have won that year - penalties are a complete lottery. Was that the year though that the manager admitted afterwards you hadn't practiced penalties at all? My memory may be failing me on that one though, I didn't live here at the time, so didn't have the huge coverage it would have got here

We didn't practice penalties for years. We had this mindset that there's no point practicing penalties as you can't recreate the tension, rather ignoring the fact that a nervous person who knows how to take a good penalty will always be favourite over a nervous person who doesn't.

The English are the only fans in the world who get criticised for having any degree of optimism, which is immediately regarded as ridiculous over-rating of the squad, usually with the idea that we therefore all think we are going to win thrown in.

Back then though, coverage was nothing like now. The news focused on whether any crowd trouble had taken place, with none of the wall to wall "hype" for the tournament as a whole that you get now.

It changed really with the win over Belgium, then a dramatic win over Cameroon, and the country just went nuts over the semi final.

To be a football supporter back then was almost seen as being a hooligan. It was definitely seen as a lower class sport that only interested people who were probably a bit thick.

That semi-final gave the game a mass appeal that it'd lacked for a generation, and saw millions of people "get it" for probably the first time. In truth, with Paul Gascoigne - then still a great player, pre-injury - booked, winning the final would have been much harder, but even his tears added to the night, getting the whole country talking about football in a way they hadn't for a very long time.

[elrey]

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great.....

Does winning in extra time no longer count as a win?

Belgium weren't a bad team back then, as it happens.

We also had some real momentum in the knockout stages, and there was a genuine feeling we could win the thing. Of course, anyone who doesn't remember it, and is just looking at stats, might draw a different conclusion. Anyone who can remember it and didn't think we were on a roll and could have won, is probably Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

Sometimes it's just about a feeling, and that feeling probably didn't kick in until after a few dodgy wins.

Look at Portugal, one win in 90 minutes, got through because some 3rd placed teams get through. The feeling and what is actually out there might be two different things. You get to the semi-finals, you do think you can win it, regardless of whether you actually can.

[tmesis]

Beat Belgium in extra time, this is then Belgium of today, they weren't as good back then. Then played Cameroon, again, won in extra time. 4 out of 5 games and they were draws after 90 minutes. Inspired yet? Drew their 5th out of 6 with Germany and couldn't score in extra time and lost on penalties. Our second best ever World Cup, ONE WIN. AGAINST EGYPT. Great.....

Does winning in extra time no longer count as a win?

Belgium weren't a bad team back then, as it happens.

We also had some real momentum in the knockout stages, and there was a genuine feeling we could win the thing. Of course, anyone who doesn't remember it, and is just looking at stats, might draw a different conclusion. Anyone who can remember it and didn't think we were on a roll and could have won, is probably Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

Sometimes it's just about a feeling, and that feeling probably didn't kick in until after a few dodgy wins.

Look at Portugal, one win in 90 minutes, got through because some 3rd placed teams get through. The feeling and what is actually out there might be two different things. You get to the semi-finals, you do think you can win it, regardless of whether you actually can.

when we got on that roll, we had a change in attitude. We played on the front foot, to borrow a cricketing term, and that kind of enthusiasm and energy counts for an awful lot.

Playing without fear or with confidence is obviously a lot easier said than done, but there seems to be a culture of failure within the England set-up, with everyone, from the manager down, seeming to be preoccupied with what the press will say if they screw up.

[Ascotexgunner]

FFS.....Bellamy or Giggs for manager. I don't want Giggs and I certainly don't want Bellamy. What a choice......Looks we are about to go backwards. Giggs could never be bothered to play for us and Bellamy detached himself from the fans after a game in San Marino when he insulted the fans who criticised him after a shocking performance.
Urgh!!!!

[windermereROYAL]