But perhaps this is why England are doing bettter this time! No stand out media hyped player. Here is a thought I often over the years looked at the players and teams doing well take for example the Germans up unto recently no body art in sight but this campaign there where a number of German players with body art and they are not performing so good! Is the popular image distracting them from reaching their peak. Look at Beckham never reached his full potential and look at his lifestyle. Look at Scholes Giggs Gerrard to name a few top players no body art. Southgates team now yes their are some with body art, (Sterling has a picture of a Goal net on his arm lol) but their are no real press prima donnas.
All we really want is entertaining,attacking football.. If we get that and they still lose,I wont be as gutted as I normally am in a failed world cup. About to watch the France-Uruguay game with 2 Frogs watching the game in my house.. COME ON URUGUAY!!!
What an amazing competition so far. England fans should be happy that we have improved under Southgate but the improvement has dared us to dream. First, Sweden...…..
I see FIFA has issued a statement condemning Maradona's remarks but interestingly that statement concludes with the following words: "At a time when FIFA is doing everything within its power to ensure principles of fair play, integrity and respect are at the forefront of this World Cup and how the organisation is now run, FIFA is extremely sorry to read such declarations from a player who has written the history of our game." Ignoring for a moment the irony contained at the start of that sentence, it appears that FIFA promotes and celebrates cheats.
Good game of football between Belgium and Brazil,and what about Martinez sacked from the premiership to World Cup semi final! A nice football man
One good first season and then just waffle. He completely lost the dressing room. Evertonians couldn't wait to get rid of him.
Sorry I was referring to the first sentence in the post,that he was sacked from the premiership and is now in the world cup semi final. It is a fact however that in my opinion he is a good football man! Have you a prediction for the England game today?
After saying that England wouldn't get through the group stage I will give up on predictions. I really hope we get to play Russia or Croatia in the semi's but Sweden can be difficult today. Fingers crossed. All the counting chickens by hundreds of thousands ("It's coming home") of people is silly to me. Match by match...….
This is the strangest World Cup I can remember. It seems like fate is intervening and we are so far benefitting from having a team that has been coached well alongside favourable results of other fancied teams and their subsequent elimination. I watched the 1966 competition, although I was only 9, and remembered it because my Dad jumped up off the settee at one point and smashed the living room light! Our family went to watch the movie "Goal" shortly afterwards and football was freely coursing through my veins from then on. Goodison Park was one of the best stadiums at that time and hosted many matches; the Portugal v's North Korea being the most exciting with Portugal running out 5-3 winners with the fantastic Eusebio scoring 4 goals, Portugal pulling back from being 3 goals down. From Evertonfc.com: Portugal stayed at Goodison for their quarter-final tie against North Korea, a side fresh from a famous humbling of Italy at Ayresome Park. The game lived up to all expectations, proving to be one of the most memorable matches in World Cup history. The North Koreans raced into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes and, with the crowd chanting "We want three", they duly obliged four minutes later through Yang Sung-Kook. But it was just a matter of time before Eusebio got into his awesome stride and, after pulling one back on 26 minutes, he drilled home a penalty just before half-time to make the score 3-2 at the break. On the hour, he struck home a fine throughball to level and within three minutes was fouled in the area before successfully converting another spot-kick for his and Portugal's fourth. A magnificent comeback was complete and, 10 minutes from the end, Jose Augusto made it 5-3 from Eusebio's corner to end any lingering hopes of a North Korean revival. It didn't stop the Asian nation fighting valiantly until the final whistle, but the greater experience and know-how of the Portuguese won the day. Eusebio ended the tournament as the leading goalscorer, although Portugal's run ended at the semi-final stage, against England at Wembley.
