If those type of goals dont count there is a serious revision of Robbie Keanes career required
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2 draws and 2 defeats surely applying your own rules
So you opted for the lobotomy then. Very good.
The bitterness is strong in this one and the hangover is no doubt not helping one bit.
Not at all. You have my deepest sympathies
Semi finalists Belgium won just two games in the 1986 tournament and one of those two was won in extra time over the USSR. Argentina beaten finalists in 1990 won just two games in that tournament.
Of the 14 World Cup semi finals played since England were eliminated in the lottery to West Germany in 1990, only three were decided at a latter stage than England v Croatia on Wednesday night. Brazil v Netherlands 1998, Italy v Germany 2006 and Argentina v Netherlands 2014. England’s record in this tournament is fairly typical of that of a beaten semi finalist. Probably a little better.
It’ll be interesting to see if the entire nation of today’s losing finalist team is derided in the Irish media for being “deluded” about ever thinking they could win the World Cup.
The entire French media is certain that their team will win the final without much trouble - pretty much the entirety of the world media is convinced of such.
Meanwhile Croatia’s national television station has proclaimed its team as the “future world champions”.
One of them has to be wrong.
Of course the whole thing about Irish people trying to falsely claim that England was in a state of delusion when everybody in England knew full well they were in a 50/50 semi-final, can be summarised in three words: hatred of England.
And there’s nothing else at play whatsoever.
The only people who have been deluded during this World Cup are those who underestimated England’s strength.
They know they were left with egg on their faces and the embarrassed attempt at a wiping up job has been badly botched.
The amount of resentment, bitterness and hostility towards the England team and English people here is a real eye opener. Had Eire not gone and matured as a nation? England were bloody close to getting to a World Cup Final, led the semi final for over an hour, probably should have had it wrapped up by half time if they were a bit more clinical in front of goal and then only lost out to a winner ten minutes from the end of extra time to a superb Croatia team.
Heaven forbid the English people should get a bit excited or believe in this marvelous young England team that went so close. The carping from Eire soccer types about English fans losing the run of themselves and the slating of this marvelous young England team for everything to the manner of the scoring of their 12 goals is amusing.
In 1990 Eire were involved in two 0-0 draws against Egypt and Romania, which would make any short list of the worst World Cup games ever played. The two Eire goals in the tournament were products of length of the field agricultural goal kicks from the Eire goalkeeper, Bonner followed by two defensive howlers, which Sheedy and Quinn pounced on .Eire in 1990 were the only team in 21 World Cups to get to a quarter final and go home from the tournament without winning a single game in the regulation 90 minutes or the additional 30 minutes extra time. Yet something like a million people lined the streets of Dublin for a homecoming, a celebration of mediocrity to steal a phrase of @Cicero_Dandi.
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How many tries did Brian o gara score vs the nz wallabies?
Stop spamming. Go to a rugby thread if you want to talk about Brian O’Driscoll try scoring exploits.
O Gara mate
The most iconic moment in Irish football is of Bonner gritting his teeth for a long punt
Always comes back to rugby with the boys. Savage inferiority complex
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Very boring post.
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You spend an awful lot of time on threads on subjects you feign dislike of - Tottenham Hotspur, England soccer, grass court tennis.
Feign dislike? I just link rock solid theories with a body of empirical evidence. You just spend an awful amount of time trying to dispute reality.
I dont think anyone is saying English people shouldnt have got excited Geoff. At the end of the day, they were minutes away from the lottery of getting to a final and arguable should have had a more commanding lead up to getting to that point anyway. They got to the last 4, on the face of it a great achievement.
However it is the complete over blowing of the achievements which will ultimately, once again, prove to be their downfall. After the Tunisia game, and particularly after the Panama game once the knockout route became more apparent, all the media and analysis turned to the “easy run to the semi finals”. Before playing Belgium it was discussed that losing to them would be best. So on one hand there was all the talk about the best and most easy route, but yet after getting that route it was all about how great this team was. They beat who they should have beaten. however there are some glaring deficiencies in that team and when they easily qualify for the next tournament, the pre tournament hype will be off the wall. It was quite reserved this time around, due to a fairly inexperienced team and squad, but there will be immense pressure next time. Considering the abject performance of some of the big name teams, I cant imagine they’d get as nice a run again as they did, so they did very well to make the most of it. A shitload of countries would love to get that far. England are still one of the better teams in the tournament, but wouldnt be probable winners in my view. The video highlights of Jordon Hendersons long ball play summarises the height of their deficiencies.
They now seem to have a solid keeper, an issue for a long time, and the defence isnt bad, but they are badly lacking a second player to support Kane up front and badly missing 2 quality centre midfielders. Until those 3 positions get sorted, I dont think football will be coming home. And ultimately, that should be Englands target. They arent a country like Eire looking for moral victories. Its ridiculous to be comparing them as if they are on a par. They arent. England should be aiming to win these tournaments or at the very least competing at the business end. Countries like Eire aim for qualifying and getting progress. It is what it is. Croatia do show though what can be achieved with a modest population but a shit load of pride in their nation and more importantly pride in playing quality football.
Over blowing of achievement? They made the semi final of a World Cup.
What about Eire over blowing of achievement. A spanking new contract for the managerial team of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane who presided over a 1-5 home defeat to Denmark. Amusingly it is the same Roy Keane who is most vociferous in criticizing England.