England’s World Cup Finals 2018

[TheSpread]

Lets be honest, this was the best chance that we are ever likely to get in any of our lifetimes,
It`s never going to open up like this again shouting COME AND GET ME. proud of the boys, but underachieved yet again.

I agree. Ultimately another failure.

[Hoop Blah]

Lets be honest, this was the best chance that we are ever likely to get in any of our lifetimes,
It`s never going to open up like this again shouting COME AND GET ME. proud of the boys, but underachieved yet again.

It's not underachieving, it's pretty much about on par with what we should expect from this side.

Not getting to the semi once the draw fell as it did would've been underachieving, but not beating a pretty decent and experienced Croatia team is no disgrace. My main concern from yesterday is the number of people I spoke to that thought we would be pretty comfortable against them.

That just seemed to be letting a little of Old England slip back into the way the nation was thinking.

[genome]

Lets be honest, this was the best chance that we are ever likely to get in any of our lifetimes,
It`s never going to open up like this again shouting COME AND GET ME. proud of the boys, but underachieved yet again.

It's not underachieving, it's pretty much about on par with what we should expect from this side.

Not getting to the semi once the draw fell as it did would've been underachieving, but not beating a pretty decent and experienced Croatia team is no disgrace. My main concern from yesterday is the number of people I spoke to that thought we would be pretty comfortable against them.

That just seemed to be letting a little of Old England slip back into the way the nation was thinking.

It wasn’t totally unwarranted. They needed extra time and penalties to beat Denmark and Russia.

[Hoop Blah]

It wasn’t totally unwarranted. They needed extra time and penalties to beat Denmark and Russia.

You can be confident and optimistic that we'd beat them. There just seemed to be a bit of that arrogance creeping back in.

[Sutekh]

Lets be honest, this was the best chance that we are ever likely to get in any of our lifetimes,
It`s never going to open up like this again shouting COME AND GET ME. proud of the boys, but underachieved yet again.

It's not underachieving, it's pretty much about on par with what we should expect from this side.

Not getting to the semi once the draw fell as it did would've been underachieving, but not beating a pretty decent and experienced Croatia team is no disgrace. My main concern from yesterday is the number of people I spoke to that thought we would be pretty comfortable against them.

That just seemed to be letting a little of Old England slip back into the way the nation was thinking.

It wasn’t totally unwarranted. They needed extra time and penalties to beat Denmark and Russia.

If Kane had scored that second goal instead of managing to hit the post then it may well have been comfortable against them. And even at the end he really should have buried that set piece but let's not forget he's still not the finished article either

All in all Croatia's experience told, Perhaps if Gareth had had someone in the squad who could do a man marking job if the need arose then he could have stuck them on Modric on the hour mark and made Croatia rethink.

Let's hope more ENGLISH youngsters get breaks into PL teams over the next couple of years rather than yet more youngsters from Spain, Germany, France etc. Phil Fodan at Man City's meant to be pretty useful isn't he, let's hope he gets some run outs in their team as a sub reasonably regularly - or perhaps a season out on loan rather than being stifled in pointless Academy games.

Credit to Spurs and Liverpool though who do seem to manage to bring young British players through, either from their academies or the lower leagues, reasonably regularly.

[TheSpread]

It's not underachieving, it's pretty much about on par with what we should expect from this side.

Not getting to the semi once the draw fell as it did would've been underachieving, but not beating a pretty decent and experienced Croatia team is no disgrace. My main concern from yesterday is the number of people I spoke to that thought we would be pretty comfortable against them.

That just seemed to be letting a little of Old England slip back into the way the nation was thinking.

It wasn’t totally unwarranted. They needed extra time and penalties to beat Denmark and Russia.

Credit to Spurs and Liverpool though who do seem to manage to bring young British players through, either from their academies or the lower leagues, reasonably regularly.

I think you may have highlighted one of the problems there. A lack of winning mentality at club level.

[genome]

More Textbook Kes

[Scutterbucketz]

When is the best time to take down our England things? I don’t want to look petulant by taking them down too soon, nor do I want to look full Tommy Robinson by leaving it up too long. I really hadn’t thought this far ahead.

[Old Man Andrews]

When is the best time to take down our England things? I don’t want to look petulant by taking them down too soon, nor do I want to look full Tommy Robinson by leaving it up too long. I really hadn’t thought this far ahead.

The second the final whistle is blown on Saturday I'd say.

[BR0B0T]

When is the best time to take down our England things? I don’t want to look petulant by taking them down too soon, nor do I want to look full Tommy Robinson by leaving it up too long. I really hadn’t thought this far ahead.

Stick a red hand up there and join in the orange order festivities

also an excuse for a bonfire with effigies etc

sectarianism >>>>> racism

[BR0B0T]

you've already got the sword

[Scutterbucketz]

Those bowler hats are pretty snazzy.....

[Green]

Many painted mini roundabouts round your respective ways?

Saw one in Blackheath (of all places) today, googled it to post an image on here and turns out it was quite the thing.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/world-cup-2018/6725291/england-flags-painted-mini-roundabouts-wales-anger-2/

[Scutterbucketz]

God the world is a cold dark place now that our dreams have been destroyed. I started out doing the ICH thing for a laugh just because it was fun, but then against all accrued knowledge of how it feels like to lose I think I allowed myself to believe it could finally happen.

Anyway, anyone else looking forward to singing “60 years of hurt never stopped me dreaming” at the 2026 WC? Only if we get there of course.

[TheSpread]

You can always leave it up for the nations cup which everyone is looking forward to immensely.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Its amazing the negative stats being thrown around about England. 3 defeats, only beat rubbish. Some people were mentioning that we only has 7 shots on target in the tournament, which was less than Saudi Arabia. I presume that was just made up because we had 6 shots on target in the first 45 mins of the first game and scored 6 goals in the 2nd. 12 goals scored in the tournament.

In 1990, we exited in the semis with a record of W1 D5 L0, the W being a 1-0 win over giants Egypt.

Spain 82 was a bit of an anomaly due to the strange format, but this has been England's best WC since 1966. No getting away from that.

[TheSpread]

Did England really exceed expectations? No. It's roughly where I guessed we'd be, maybe a round further due to the easier side of the draw.

So a bit of a meh, tournament for us IMO. Some highs, some lows. So all in fair to middling.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Its amazing the negative stats being thrown around about England. 3 defeats, only beat rubbish. Some people were mentioning that we only has 7 shots on target in the tournament, which was less than Saudi Arabia. I presume that was just made up because we had 6 shots on target in the first 45 mins of the first game and scored 6 goals in the 2nd. 12 goals scored in the tournament.

Don't think pens count and one was a deflection that was going wide ...... so that's 6 goals from the 3 shots on target

[Scutterbucketz]

Got the flag down with a lot of sweating and swearing. And a long pole attached to broom handle with a fork on the end, whilst stood on a ladder.

I didn’t realise i used so much damn glue.

INCH

[Snowflake Royal]

Kes nearly suckered me in to replying with his last offering. Must. Not. Cave.


You've got to view the tournament as a success without question. Best set pieces in the Finals, Golden Boot winner, biggest ever WC win, first WC semi in almost 30 years, bettered our world ranking, exceeded all expectations. Obviously that needs to be tempered slightly with the fact we were disappointing in open play at times and some of our performances didn't live up to what we were capable of, some players not performing to the standard they are capable of and shape first XI maybe not quite right, easier draw to get to the semi. But those are relatively minor considerations given recent performance, they should be used to keep future expectations low, not beat up the team.