oh dear: now its all clear

[wendigo100]

Don't know about amateurs, but the lower ranked teams put on a far better show. Having watched the early rounds I found the games involving the minor countries, especially the African nations, far more entertaining. They played fast attacking football. There was a minimum of diving and playacting and the overall standard seemed much higher by comparason. One of these days these guys are going to come up with a world beating team. Ghana or Nigeria as world Cup Winners anyone?

No Dave. They went out partly BECAUSE they did a minimum of diving and playacting. In these competitions, they must learn to do it more, just as we must.

[Ruprect]

So I think the next World Cup should be the Amateur World Cup derived of purely players from Sunday Pub teams, I bet that would be far more entertaining than being bored by these spolied unprofessional millionaires.

I think you might be onto something AJ. Bring back tobacco advertising and you could have them all chewing on a bennie at half time and the more unfit amongst them throwing up their saturday night curry ten minutes into the first half. There could be a 'Golden Beer Gut' award for the most post game beers drunk in one session, and perhaps a football themed fruit machine in the stands. So much untapped potential. Could be called the 'world's end cup' or some such pub related aptness.

[DaveB]

Thats very true BTC.

I have watched football slowly being eroded over the years, the bygone teams of Brazil Germany and England etc would have run round the current over paid over hyped teams.

So I think the next World Cup should be the Amateur World Cup derived of purely players from Sunday Pub teams, I bet that would be far more entertaining than being bored by these spolied unprofessional millionaires.

Don't know about amateurs, but the lower ranked teams put on a far better show. Having watched the early rounds I found the games involving the minor countries, especially the African nations, far more entertaining. They played fast attacking football. There was a minimum of diving and playacting and the overall standard seemed much higher by comparason. One of these days these guys are going to come up with a world beating team. Ghana or Nigeria as world Cup Winners anyone?

[AlfredJPruffock]

1. I can't believe the England players don't know how to take penalties.

2. I can't believe they did not put in a lot of practice with penalties.

3. What I can believe, is they simply don't posess the strength of character to take them under pressure.

And that reveals these over-rated and over-paid superstars, for all their wealth and alleged talent as simply ...

unprofessional.

Thats very true BTC.

I have watched football slowly being eroded over the years, the bygone teams of Brazil Germany and England etc would have run round the current over paid over hyped teams.

So I think the next World Cup should be the Amateur World Cup derived of purely players from Sunday Pub teams, I bet that would be far more entertaining than being bored by these spolied unprofessional millionaires.

[sasguru]

Shouldn't "scoring more goals than the opposition before the lottery of penalty shoot-outs" be the priority?

Winners plan for all eventualities.

[BobTheCrate]

1. I can't believe the England players don't know how to take penalties.

2. I can't believe they did not put in a lot of practice with penalties.

3. What I can believe, is they simply don't posess the strength of character to take them under pressure.

And that reveals these over-rated and over-paid superstars, for all their wealth and alleged talent as simply ...

unprofessional.

[AtW]

You need strikers for scoring goals...

[Fleetwood]

I Our failure to take penalties has put us out of major competitions 4 of the last 6 times. I think they should become a priority in training.

Shouldn't "scoring more goals than the opposition before the lottery of penalty shoot-outs" be the priority?

[sasguru]

I agree with atw. If the penalty takers think one penalty a day on average is "practice" then that explains the crap way they took them. Our failure to take penalties has put us out of major competitions 4 of the last 6 times. I think they should become a priority in training.

[MrsGoof]

Alexi,

maybe you should be posting this on 606 where you'll find lots of other people who give a sh!t about debating the past.

but let me sumarise what happend.

the England team (including, coaches;players;managment;pimps; dealers and escorts) faild to win. Maybe THEY can learn for the experience.

[AtW]

You don't have someone trying to stop you in gymnastics

Apart from goalkeeper noone is trying to stop footballer during penalties - Sven was BSing how they trained it regularly but from this interview its clear that 20-30 a month can hardly be sufficient, heck, look at Germans and their efficiency at penalties, I am pretty sure they do it regularly gunning for 100%, that's the right attitude, certainly for the country which is known to fail on penalties.

[xoggoth]

ATW is quite right. If I put my mind to it, I could have made that penalty shot easy. I could win Wimbledon too. I turned up at the French Open last year and they wouldn't let me play. Why is it called an OPEN then FFS?

[wendigo100]

FFS, its a lot easier to kick bloody ball from 11 yards than do insane life-risking in gymnastics!

Really? You don't have someone trying to stop you in gymnastics, and you don't get on a beam after running your legs ragged for two hours, but why let that get in the way of a good rant against footy players.

[DimPrawn]

Overpaid, overhyped and overrated.

Just like most IT contractors.

Kerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrchinnnnnnngggggggggggggg

[AtW]

Lamps: Get off my back


From MARK IRWIN in Gelsenkirchen
FRANK LAMPARD feels he has been singled out for criticism after failing to set the World Cup alight.

Lamps — the runner-up to Ronaldinho in the World Footballer of the Year awards last December — had more shots at goal than any player in Germany.

But the Chelsea superstar failed to score and even flopped during the penalty shootout when his weak effort was saved by Ricardo.

And now he feels he has been unfairly targeted for blame after England’s latest failure.

Lampard, 28, said: “I’m a bit upset that a lot of people have been on my back because I’ve missed a few chances to score.

“After all I’ve done in the last two years I deserve a bit of respect.

“When people come along who want to knock me down, I do feel peeved. It gets my back up when unjust criticism comes from outside.

“I am upset because I’ve worked my socks off to try and be successful in this World Cup.

“And I would have loved to have scored the winner against Portugal and shown a few people but, unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.

“A lot of people have criticised our performances throughout the World Cup but you can only praise our efforts on Saturday.

“The spirit, the work-rate and the effort we gave, the fact we played with 10 men for an hour, created the better chances and never felt as though Portugal were going to score.

"It’s so frustrating to go out on penalties again.

“That can happen to any team — it happened to Argentina the previous night against Germany.

“But the depressing feeling is that it’s happened to England a few times now.

“The fact three of us missed a penalty means no individual is isolated for the blame but that doesn’t make it any easier for me.

“It is a horrible feeling to be one of those who missed a penalty but those are moments when you stand up to be a man.

“And when you put yourself in that position, there’s always a chance it could go wrong.”
*

Steven Gerrard was equally upset at his failure to convert during the shootout and confessed: “I feel numb. I just can’t get that miss out of my head.

“The way I hit a ball, I should score from the spot. I have taken 20 or 30 penalties in practice over the last month and probably scored 95 per cent of them.

“I tried to do what I did for Liverpool in the FA Cup final against West Ham but my strike wasn’t accurate enough and the ball didn’t go where I wanted it to.

“Saturday was the hardest game I have ever played, when we were down to 10 men and the lads had nothing left.

“We did well just getting to penalties and I thought we were going to to do it this time.

“I’m just absolutely sick I didn’t score my penalty, I’m gutted. I have never felt this bad as a footballer before.”

---------

20 or 30 penalties over a month, ffs?

Knowing previous experience every player should have been taking 20-30 penalties every bloody day - and no this 95% bullcrap, have right attitude of olympic gymnastics teams - it has to be 100% right, not 95%, not 99% but 100%. FFS, its a lot easier to kick bloody ball from 11 yards than do insane life-risking in gymnastics!