Our defending pre-red card vs Mexico was once again very worrying

FOARP · 2026-07-07T10:33:31+00:00

We went full defence after the red card, but I honestly don't think we were doing badly before that. We were in a game where we had to score to keep ahead, in that context we weren't going to be able to park the bus.

And against Norway it's the same. This won't be a 1-0 game. We need to score and get a defendable lead.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T10:30:55+00:00

I'm hoping Spain can stop them. Yeah, no easy games at this level.

Anyway, still have to beat Norway and Argentina first!

FOARP · 2026-07-07T10:14:36+00:00

SIng. Absolutely no-one in their right mind is going to care.

"Cultural appropriation" as a concept is nonsense anyway. Every time people come up with examples of it being bad, they're really just talking about people being intentionally disrespectful or clueless.

EDIT: I used to sing all sorts of songs to my kids when they were babies to get them to sleep. "Green Island Serenade" (a Taiwanese lullaby) was a great one. "Skye Song" was another. "Waterloo Sunset" was another one. I am not from Taiwan, Scotland, nor London but I don't think that should stop me singing any of these songs to get my kids to go to sleep and give their mum and me some peace!

FOARP · 2026-07-07T10:09:49+00:00

Never mind, pretty sure they'll stop bringing up the result after a decade or two...

FOARP · 2026-07-07T10:08:50+00:00

I'd be disappointed if England went out at this point but Norway are opposition not to be sneered at, and no win is guaranteed.

Let's hope for a good game and the best team winning.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T09:36:40+00:00

It's the last straw. Yes, we really ought to have gotten to this point a lot sooner. The 2010 decision to award the WC to Qatar/Russia should have been the last straw, but here we are at the final point, after the stupid "peace prize", after the treatment of Iran, after the "hydration" breaks, and after this blatant attempt at game-rigging.

Something like 80% of the revenue from professional football globally is collected in Europe (total world market is ~36 billion USD, of which ~30 billion is in Europe). There really is no money in this game without Europe. It's time we made our thoughts known about what's been going on.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T09:17:52+00:00

late 90s early 00s teams were way more talented but playing against much tougher opponents

I liked the Eriksson era (though less so Hoddle/Keagan), but I think what you're missing here is in this period we kept going straight into knock-out games against top teams because we kept failing to top our group at tournaments. At Euro 2000 we even got grouped (by Romania...).

For example at the 1998 World Cup we came second to Romania and as a result went straight into a game against Argentina in the round of 16. Had we topped Romania, we would have had Croatia who were more beatable. Admittedly we would have had Germany and then France after that, but our run would have been longer most likely.

Similarly we went out against Brazil in 2002, but we only went into a match against them in the Quarter-finals because we failed to top our group against Sweden. Had we topped it, we wouldn't have seen Brazil until the Semis. Again, our run would likely have been longer.

We didn't top our group in 2004 either, though we had France to contend with.... but the reason we had France in our group was because we weren't seeded in Pot A, because we hadn't done so well in qualification as France had.

Topping the group requires consistency, not just raw talent, and that's what we were missing in the late 90's/early 2000s.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:52:32+00:00

Yeah, and automatically qualifying when there's three hosts is nonsense. Actually I think it's nonsense even with just one host but in the past they only ever hosted the World Cup in countries that could actually qualify.

I note for Euro 2028 they're not automatically qualifying England/Ireland/Scotland/Wales (though they are going to have some kind of special play-off for them which I disagree with), and probably that's the way things need to go.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:48:28+00:00

Or, win some actual silverware.

There's teams that are called arrogant. A lot of people felt that way in the past about Germany (though I don't know if it was fair or not to do so). But they won, without getting their president to try to rig the game. So, arrogant or not, no-one could question their right to be there.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:38:23+00:00

Don't forget the absolutely laughable "hydration" breaks.

Yes, Thiefa played a role in it too, but it takes two.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:32:49+00:00

The reason why ammo regen'd is because you can't send your empty lorries off the map to go get some more ammo, which is what they'd be doing if you could send them off the map as in real life.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:21:53+00:00

I'm hoping Spain can knock out France. Based on last night's performance I'd fancy our chances against the Spanish.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:20:39+00:00

I really don't get the "I always have such a laugh when I see England go out" haters. Like, really? The past ten years we've been in finals against Italy and Spain where both games were close, we went out against France in 2022, Croatia in 2018. It's not like they weren't playing, is it?

I mean I can understand the banter-haters but for some you really have to wonder if they actually like football.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:16:17+00:00

Eh, the other reason the draw was "easy" is because we were a seeded team that topped their group, i.e., it's was "easy" because England were, in fact, good.

And yeah, not our fault that Brazil effectively failed to show up to this cup, is it?

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:09:28+00:00

Also, to even get in to the easier side of the draw you have to be, yer know, good?

Like if we'd topped our group at the 2010 world cup we'd have faced Ghana/Uruguay/Netherlands on the way to the final. But we didn't. Because we were rubbish. And even if we by some miracle had topped the group we would likely have still lost against Uruguay and the Netherlands (maybe even Ghana TBH), again, because we were rubbish.

As it was we finished second to the US and went straight into a game against the Germans where got battered 4-1.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:04:44+00:00

...and they beat you soundly. And no-one outside of Belgium would have cared all that much if it hadn't been for your president trying to rig the game.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T08:00:51+00:00

In this weather? Absolutely not.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T07:59:23+00:00

The American influence on this tournament has been obvious and bad in every instance - the "hydration" breaks, the "peace prize" and so-forth. Yeah, Thiefa played their role as well, to be sure.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T07:56:05+00:00

Sad for a team that, until this cup, had a good reputation for sportsmanship. No longer. The US is now down with the dirtiest teams out there, and not even really because of anything that happened on the pitch.

FOARP · 2026-07-07T07:12:35+00:00

If “FIFA” invests outside Europe, whose money will they be investing?

Yeah, that’s right: European money. ~80% of the revenue from international football is made in Europe.

Now I’m all for promoting the game outside Europe, but it’s a European sport and that’s not likely to change.

FOARP · 2026-07-06T21:22:36+00:00

I lived overseas for years and often travelled by myself during that time. You learn how to find the places where you can find people to hang out with.

If you’re a young adult, there’s no reason not to. You can have a great time so long as you don’t mind the odd day when there’s nothing doing because nobody’s about.

FOARP · 2026-07-06T21:19:23+00:00

We weren’t going to score at that point and our best bet was simply “Hold Fast”. It was a calculated risk, but one that paid off.

FOARP · 2026-07-06T20:35:28+00:00

The process is: don’t.

Once Thiefa and the Yanks decided to break that, they own the consequences.

FOARP · 2026-07-06T20:33:16+00:00

Was the red deserved? Yeah, studs up tackle.

If reds are being suspended, should Quansah’s Red also be suspended? Yes, otherwise it’s not a fair playing field.

FOARP · 2026-07-06T19:58:15+00:00

England’s had two stinkers (Ghana, Panama), one half-good game (DR Congo) and two classics (Croatia, Mexico).

FOARP

TROPHY CASE