Beat the Belgians

[Dan Ellard]

Looked to me like a gentleman's agreement not to injure each other. No sliding tackles etc. No bookings?

Apart from Tielemens and Dendoncker both getting booked in the first half... for sliding tackles.

 

[Ave IT]

Interviewer to Southgate : “If you had wanted to win that game you’d have brought on Harry Kane wouldn’t you?”
Southgate : “Errr…. Well, Yes of course….. but….”

 

[Emeraldinho]

Colombia are my dark horses for the tournament - they look very dangerous opponents and anyone who thinks we will breeze past them into the quarters are, frankly, deluding themselves. They'll have about 30,000 fans cheering them on too (how the bleddy hell do they afford it?!) so England will need to REALLY be on their game. I reckon they'll nick it 2-1 even without Rodriguez so yet another early flight home to Blighty beckons. :silent:

 

[Ave IT]

Colombia are my dark horses for the tournament - they look very dangerous opponents and anyone who thinks we will breeze past them into the quarters are, frankly, deluding themselves. They'll have about 30,000 fans cheering them on too (how the bleddy hell do they afford it?!) so England will need to REALLY be on their game. I reckon they'll nick it 2-1 even without Rodriguez. :silent:

Funny, isn’t it? Before the game so many people saying how England need to wise up and do what needs to be done like the Germans or Spanish would do in the same situation and play the ‘long game’. Now it’s happened it’s suddenly dawning on everyone that actually Colombia are really quite good. Doh! :doh:

 

[PL2 3DQ]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

 

[monkeywrench]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

Alternatively we could have fielded our strongest side, and still lost. That would have been far worse.

 

[Clarke B]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

Totally agree PL2. The feel good factor has certainly dropped after that awful game last night. Hopefully it will bring a degree of realism to our campaign, after all Panama were one of the worst teams I've seen in World Cup history...Argyle would win comfortably against them.
Anyway...back off to Moscow today. This is the first day in two weeks of being here where it hasn't been baking hot! Went inside a Russian submarine yesterday....it was very intetesting! Kaliningrad is an odd place though....the old German buildings are beautiful but the city is covered in the old soviet monstrosities. I imagine its bloody depressing in the harsh winter!

 

[Balham Green]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

Alternatively we could have fielded our strongest side, and still lost. That would have been far worse.

And could have picked up injuries and suspensions. Imagine the flak Southgate would have got if that had happened.

 

[Balham Green]

Colombia are my dark horses for the tournament - they look very dangerous opponents and anyone who thinks we will breeze past them into the quarters are, frankly, deluding themselves. They'll have about 30,000 fans cheering them on too (how the bleddy hell do they afford it?!) so England will need to REALLY be on their game. I reckon they'll nick it 2-1 even without Rodriguez so yet another early flight home to Blighty beckons. :silent:

Pretty sure few people are thinking England will 'breeze past them' especially with our recent history. I think they are a decent side with James but looked very average without him. Should we sneak past I expect us to lose to Switzerland or Sweden in quarters.

 

[Clarke B]

Colombia are my dark horses for the tournament - they look very dangerous opponents and anyone who thinks we will breeze past them into the quarters are, frankly, deluding themselves. They'll have about 30,000 fans cheering them on too (how the bleddy hell do they afford it?!) so England will need to REALLY be on their game. I reckon they'll nick it 2-1 even without Rodriguez so yet another early flight home to Blighty beckons. :silent:

Pretty sure few people are thinking England will 'breeze past them' especially with our recent history. I think they are a decent side with James but looked very average without him. Should we sneak past I expect us to lose to Switzerland or Sweden in quarters.

I wouldn't mind us losing to Sweden. Some of the Swedish girls here have been unbelievable. If we get knocked out then I'm flying to Sweden!

 

[andyr1963]

Yep, good enough for me.
Two down, five to go, just beat the team in front of you. :thumbs:

Not for one moment do I really think we will win it, (on performances so far, i would quite like Croatia to win it) but I would love the atmosphere / party if we did get anywhere near it. Semi final would be fantastic. :scarf:

Can’t agree with that last line. Been there in 1990 and it definitely wasn’t fantastic when losing in the semis.

Semis would be a good effort though.

Not fantastic losing in any round. I suppose the issue is the expectations build from the likes of Knibsworth who thinks beating Panama means we have a world class team.

Fantasic is maybe the wrong word.

IF we get past Colombia (big word if) we have to negotiate Sweden or Switzerland, (would prefer Switzerland as our record against Sweden isn't very clever) then we would probably face Croatia, arguably the best team at the tournament. We could get past the first two but I cannot see us getting past the semi final.
A worthy nay memorable achievement would be a semi final. :scarf:

 

[monkeywrench]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

Alternatively we could have fielded our strongest side, and still lost. That would have been far worse.

And could have picked up injuries and suspensions. Imagine the flak Southgate would have got if that had happened.

It was a lose/lose situation. On balance he probably did the right thing.

We're not exactly very good at knock out football, so he's given us every chance. Tough game Tuesday, they can really hurt us. I still fancy us to win though. Just.

 

[third earl of jean]

Southgate's first big mistake. All of the momentum and feel good factor evaporated in one lousy game.
The players brought in know they are lame ducks and are just playing the one game to give the first team a rest and the first team are probably seething at being dropped after being 'in the zone'.

We won't find out how big a mistake it is until Tuesday night. Fingers crossed the gamble works.

Alternatively we could have fielded our strongest side, and still lost. That would have been far worse.

And could have picked up injuries and suspensions. Imagine the flak Southgate would have got if that had happened.

It was a lose/lose situation. On balance he probably did the right thing.

We're not exactly very good at knock out football, so he's given us every chance. Tough game Tuesday, they can really hurt us. I still fancy us to win though. Just.

I tend to agree with this, there were merits both ways and the option Southgate took was certainly not unique for such a situation, Martinez did the same as have plenty of managers in previous tournaments. At the end of he tournament he’ll be judged so time will tell.

 

[Balham Green]

Would have loved to play Japan in 2nd round though. Easiest last 16 game possible. We all know Columbia is going to be a desperate struggle.