WELL DONE England
Nope I don't care what you say, so far so good, the last 16 to make it are by no means easy pickings, they are all good teams in thier own right, any win or draw is a good resul and making it to the last and top 8 is a good achievement for any Nation, there are a lot of Countries that didn't get into the top 16 and 8 of them that got no further.
Will they progress, I hope so, but at least there is no embarassment, there are no stupid red cards, and the effort has been excellent from all the players, could they do better, couldn't everyone ? only Germany have really shone higher than England so far, all the others have been much on a par with us, some good games, some good results some that could have been better, some luck and some badluck for everyone, a brilliant recovery against Sweden a team we haven' beaten in donkeys years (198something wasm't it) a job well done against Ukraine a nation on thier home ground and desperate to stay in the competition with a good result against France, there were many that predicted far worse a start.
It is easy to knock them but credit where credi is due, now if our Olympians do half as well as they did last time this will have been an excellent year for sport in the UK.
Very impressed by Scott Parker
Dave_Notts
We only played well in the sense of a backs-against-the-wall rearguard action. The gulf between the two teams was embarrassing, it was like watching a Premier League team against a Conference side. Had we won on penalties it would have been a total travesty.
This is the worst England team I have seen in my lifetime and we are now seeing the consequences of 20 years of saturating the Premier League with foreign imports. We don't have any quality midfield players, Gerrard and Lampard excepted and they are both at the wrong end of their careers. Where is the next generation of English midfielders?
If Hodgson didn't realise how hard the job was, he will now.
I agree with all the post Italy match comments posted, the players that have really shone in this years euro competition seem to be predominantely those that play in the Premiership but sadly from abroad, we train them well :sad:
And yes we can maintain the best league in the world but not create the same level of commitment, teamwork, and abilities when we form a totally English team, so I say again something I said in a previous thread, we need to get the England squad together more out of season for training as a National Team, not just in friendly matches against other nations but against each other, I know the injury worries and other problems Managers worry about but it is the only way we will ever solve our problems and it would help clubs as well.
Doubt it will ever happen but wish there was a way to do it.
I know a secret about football ..... I may tell you all later (hint: it has nothing to do with snipers)
Maybe to currie favour with the English fans, nah take the money and run its football.
Meanwile, can I just point out
England were unbeaten this time
Italy outplayed us, but could not beat us, 2 hours of football during which they had possession for most of the time, they had a bus load more attempts at scoring than us, yet they could not score, the defence held strong, the keeper stood fast and the midfield and forwards came to the aid of thier team members, it may not be memorable, it may not be the way to win matches but it is a credit to them of sorts.
Most say Italy deserved to win the penatly shoot-out, and I can understand why they would say that, but had England won it would be because they held fast against an opponent worthy of scoring but couldn't.
Let's not forget that by listening to the media stories of "dumped out of europe", "total failure" and "rubbish".
I think its a base to build on it just remains to be seen if the English players can improve enough or not in the departments they lacked. Roy will of course be key to that in his selections and tactics.
The secret is that if you only look at the end they know the score, until then you're just wasting your time
And that is right and confirms what I said, the English Premiership or first division as it was is the best in the world and anyone playing in it can learn a lot, they can of course learn in any league but playing in the best league will always help them more, and though I believe it true of times past when it was predominantely British players even more so now when the best league in the world includes players from every Country thus broadening the experience for the players within it.
the BsBSky contribution
A clever organisation that doesn't give it's money away lightly, there is a reason they pay so much into the league.
This is what Wikipedia gives as the reason for such a contribution
The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from The Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. This deal will be worth £3 billion as of 2013-14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively. The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to an audience of 643 million viewers. In the 2010–11 season the average Premier League match attendance was 35,363, the second highest of any professional football league behind the German Bundesliga, and stadium occupancy was 92.2% full. The Premier League ranked first in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, ahead of the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A.
Sky have a current deal with the German Bundesliga that cost them 2.5 Billion Euros
Sky have a current deal with the Premier League that cost them 3 billion pounds
Which means they put more money into the Bundesliga than they put into the Premier League