Football Focus

[EddieB]

Sorry to bring it up again, but we could’ve done with that Saudi manager.  The US team were highly organised and didn’t allow England any time on the ball.  By keeping the press on, doubling up on the ball carrier and stopping the short pass, we were out-thought and out-played.  All too predictable.  As a result, no one took charge, no ideas how to counter and a lack of movement off the ball.

 

I reckon at least half our completed passes were the Stones - Maguire stalemate.

 

One consolation is that we can’t afford a “dear old pals” fiasco with Wales.

[Hobby]

He seems to leave it really late before making any changes, thus not giving the new players enough time to settle and try new things, should have brought Foden on as well.

[Gareth Collier]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

He seems to leave it really late before making any changes, thus not giving the new players enough time to settle and try new things, should have brought Foden on as well.

This where I mentioned no plan B. In the first match it was won so 5 subs used to rest players and plan A was working. This time the performance was so under par something needed to change whether that be formation or players so a plan B or even C but, no, chuck on a couple of subs like for like and then not until the 68th minute then 8 minutes later a third.

The second half started and continued as badly as the first so why wait for over 20 minutes and then just make a token substitution? Give them a kick up the backside at half time and if no response use your 5 subs and a change of tactics to try to win unless a draw was all we were looking for.

Southgates post match waffle was worrying.

[britishcolumbian]

5 hours ago, EddieB said:

One consolation is that we can’t afford a “dear old pals” fiasco with Wales.

Since goal differental counts first, England can *lose* to Wales by two goals and be fine. If Iran beat the US, they have 6 points, England 4, Wales 4, US 2, if the US win they'd have 5, England 4, Wales 4, Iran 3.

[DIW]

'Private Eye' have got the inside track on Southgate's current mission

[4901]

Here in the USA, I haven't watched much football for a long time but decided to watch some World Cup matches. 

 

The Wales vs. USA match looked like the typical long-ball matches we get in the US professional leagues with four passes strung together being an achievement.   I watched the England vs USA match and was horrified at the England performance.  Long balls to midfield headed back and forth.  I even changed an important appointment to watch - big mistake.   Canada were more entertaining and skilled. 

 

It seemed that Grealish ( vs. USA) was the only England player likely to do anything inspiring or unusual and he seems very restrained compared with his Villa days.   (Being an expat Brummie, I have followed the Villa since the 1950s.) 

 

How much does the manager control the precise movements of the players these days?  Are the players scared of the managers? 

 

What would you do to get the England players more fired-up and enthusiastic?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 hours ago, 4901 said:

What would you do to get the England players more fired-up and enthusiastic?

 

 

Drop them all and find 26 players who are remotely interested in wearing the shirt with pride, some of them are still singing god save the queen at the beginning.

 

Mike.

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

Like an England performance from the 70's - hesitant,no one looking very comfortable on the ball,not much conviction when going forward,several players coasting.

Absolutely pathetic England-wake up!!

[Torper]

5 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

....................some of them are still singing god save the queen at the beginning.

 

 

I do wish England would stop using dirgey God Save the Monarch as their national anthem - it's a bit of a slight to the rest of the UK.  I should add that most of my English friends agree - there are so many more appropriate and stirring songs you could have.  Who makes the decision about the anthem?

 

Having said that, you lot do moan a lot.  Your team scored six goals in their last match agaist a side ranked 20th in the world, and managed a draw in their last match while clearly not at their best.  You've as good as qualified for the next stage.  I wish my country's team was in that position!

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Torper said:

 

I do wish England would stop using dirgey God Save the Monarch as their national anthem - it's a bit of a slight to the rest of the UK.  I should add that most of my English friends agree - there are so many more appropriate and stirring songs you could have.  Who makes the decision about the anthem?

 

Having said that, you lot do moan a lot.  Your team scored six goals in their last match agaist a side ranked 20th in the world, and managed a draw in their last match while clearly not at their best.  You've as good as qualified for the next stage.  I wish my country's team was in that position!

What should we use instead? Australia was thinking of making 'Waltzing Matilda' its anthem until its origins were pointed out. https://trishansoz.com/trishansoz/waltzing-matilda/waltz.html

[britishcolumbian]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

What should we use instead?

Jerusalem.

[britishcolumbian]

Well, Davies scored a lovely goal but we never had a chance. Belgium were just so bad they made us look better than we really are.

[luckymucklebackit]

4 hours ago, Torper said:

 

I do wish England would stop using dirgey God Save the Monarch as their national anthem - it's a bit of a slight to the rest of the UK.  I should add that most of my English friends agree - there are so many more appropriate and stirring songs you could have.  Who makes the decision about the anthem?

 

Having said that, you lot do moan a lot.  Your team scored six goals in their last match agaist a side ranked 20th in the world, and managed a draw in their last match while clearly not at their best.  You've as good as qualified for the next stage.  I wish my country's team was in that position!

 

Billy Connolly's thoughts on the National Anthem, think I agree (and Flower of Scotland is no better)..

 

 

 

[john new]

Well this VAR nonsense is farcical. Ronaldo not given offside when his upper body was clearly off (opposite of one disallowed earlier in the tournament) and a penalty when the bloke accidentally hit the ball. Interpretations gone mad, and I don't support either team so a comment as a neutral.

[EddieB]

I’ll be surprised if Ronaldo doesn’t try to claim he scored the penalty too.

[rockershovel]

On 27/11/2022 at 17:47, britishcolumbian said:

Jerusalem.

The RFU have taken to playing "Jerusalem" at Twickenham, with the words on the big screens. The crowd seem to like it but there's no doubt that it's a difficult arrangement. I struggle with it and I learnt it in the choir at school, these many years since. 

 

Nor is it suited to the RFU's fondness for strident sopranos leading the Anthem; it needs the sort of treatment you see at Cardiff, a full male voice choir. 

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

It begs the question as to why we need national anthems at the beginning of some sporting matches, exactly what does it do?

Also, in a similar vein, the New Zealanders need to be reigned in, unless British teams are allowed to have stereotypical drunken knife wielding thugs threatening the opposition.

 

Mike.

[britishcolumbian]

13 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

Also, in a similar vein, the New Zealanders need to be reigned in, unless British teams are allowed to have stereotypical drunken knife wielding thugs threatening the opposition.

I'd love to see a Canadian team face them and reply to the haka with an Iroquois war dance or something like that.

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

It begs the question as to why we need national anthems at the beginning of some sporting matches, exactly what does it do?

Also, in a similar vein, the New Zealanders need to be reigned in, unless British teams are allowed to have stereotypical drunken knife wielding thugs threatening the opposition.

 

Mike.

.. denotes that the fixture is an international and the teams represent their respective countries, along with extending the appropriate protocols to any visiting flags, monarchs or other such present (except in USA where the national Anthem is sung on all occasions, or so it seems)

 

It was once usual to end cinema performances and the days' TV transmissions with the Anthem, but cinemas discontinued this in the 1960s and TV transmissions don't end ....

 

I don't know why the All Blacks perform the Haka, but it isn't unique to the rugby team and seems to have been first performed as early as 1903. 

 

It has been toned down in recent years. Some teams, particularly England used to respond by facing up to the dancers in the days when it was performed immediately behind the halfway line. 

 

Then again, why do the Welsh sing "Delilah"? "Men of Harlech" comes from the film "Zulu". 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

No football on TV until 3pm today! I'm getting withdrawal symptoms already..

[Phil Bullock]

40 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

No football on TV until 3pm today! I'm getting withdrawal symptoms already..

With you on that one Peter! 
 

Just penning you a PM on another matter…

 

Phil

[EddieB]

4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Then again, why do the Welsh sing "Delilah"? "Men of Harlech" comes from the film "Zulu". 

Let's face it, we English are missing a decent national anthem.  Personally, I'd love to have words such as "I vow to thee my country" as set to "Jupiter" (Gustav Holst, English composer) and as used as a theme in the Rugby Union World Cup.

 

I don't know why, why, why the Welsh sing "Delilah".

 

Much as I like the film "Zulu", it does play a little fast and loose with the officers and men of the 24th Regiment of Foot.  "Men of Harlech" wasn't sung on the morning after the battle of Rorke's Drift, but certainly pre-dates the Zulu campaign as a folk anthem.

 

I always think of McDougall's when I hear "Flour of Scotland", only to discover that the company was founded in England!

[rockershovel]

The RFU, IRB or whoever did use "Jupiter" as a sort of coca-cola advert ditty .... "World in Union" or something of the sort. 

 

The fact is that the English are not taught to sing, least of all religious music and hymns. My grand-daughter has just started at a CofE school and will be an angel in the Xmas play (she even has a line about "a star in the East" at which she points dramatically to the door, any door) but the great majority of the English are "unchurched" as the Minister described it to me at a funeral we helped organise a while ago. 

 

I noticed this a long while ago. I've worked on rigs where we started the operational cycle with The Lords Prayer, which all Americans seem to know and recite quite unselfconsciously (the scene at the end of Deep-water Horizon, where the Toolpusher leads the bedraggled group in prayer on the back of the rescue boat was quite moving, I've been in this sort of situation with Americans). Mind you they don't know hymns. 

 

Jerusalem seems to me to be quintessentially English, any song which finds favour with the Labour Party and WI is clearly conveying meaning (although the enduring controversy over what, exactly it means suggests otherwise). Blake himself seems to have been a strange character, and the CofE don't recognise it as a hymn .... but my late father knew EXACTLY what he understood by "the New Jerusalem" 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by rockershovel

[britishcolumbian]

7 hours ago, rockershovel said:

It was once usual to end cinema performances and the days' TV transmissions with the Anthem,

CBC still does end the day's TV broadcast with O Canada, as far as I know

[britishcolumbian]

3 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

No football on TV until 3pm today! I'm getting withdrawal symptoms already..

How do you think I feel? I've been skipping the 2 am games but getting up for the 5 am fixtures, woke up again today at 4:45...