7 comments

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  kkfla737

  1 year ago

  The pity of this is that this could have been England 's tournament. Too bad. Have to wait for 2010 for Football to come home.
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  betsy's bolton bum baster

  1 year ago

  Yea right dude. Every year England thinks it can be there tournament. If they beat Croatia they would've ended up in 2nd behind Germany in Group B and probably lose to Portugal yet again. The whole world is happy the bloody english aren't in it.
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  Kartik

  1 year ago

  "the whole world"
  
  No, the whole English speaking world. Folks in Latin America don't care about England. They don't rate England. They don't pay attention to England. But guess what? They rate Germany, Italy and Spain, so it's not like they don't pay attention to Europe.
  
  This could have been their tournament I maintain. You see one of the pitfalls for England has been delusional expectations entering every major event. Yet for the first time since 1970 (1990 was a gritty team and 1996 did well because they were at home) if you go player by player England finally stacks up well with the best in the world. Despite the hype this wasn't so in 2002, 2004, and 2006. England needed to over achive to even get as far as they did in 2002 and basically got as far as they should have in 2004 and 2006.
  
  But now with a healthy Rooney, a revitalized Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard in their prime, a solid Rio and Terry at the back and some flair in form of Bentley coming off the bench you'd be hard pressed to find a more talented team in the Euros than England.
  
  That having been said as I have stated over and over again English players have no tactical sense. They have no idea how to react to circumstances on the pitch and that doesn't come from their current coaches as much as it does from their upbringing and the problems with English football are much more deeply seeded than simply saying "oh Sven was terrible", or " oh that Keegan was a joke", etc as the British press does.
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  England Fan

  1 year ago

  Excellent!
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  eplnfl

  1 year ago

  Well, Kartik, you maybe wrong on this one, the whole world is happy that England is not there, is a more acccurate statement then one may think. Yes, England has a better squad right now then a team in the knockout round, Russia. Who else in the final 8 would you rate them clearly better? You can't really and you can't rate them better then France that went home early.
  
  Having Enlgand out of Euro 08 helped American viewers and ESPN focus on other teams that have the effect of helping Americans learn more about the European game. We all know that what makes the EPL great are all the foregin players not England's home grown talent.
  
  While ESPN thought they may have missed England it turns out that despite warnings to the otherwise soccer has survived with them.
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  Kartik

  1 year ago

  I'd rate England from a squad standpoint better than anyone in the tournament and after seeing Argentina struggle with two vastly inferior teams the USA and a weakened Brazil the last two weeks England has to be considered the most talented side on the planet. However, they will continue to fall short because of many of the problems with their game and mantality that I have outlined in the past. When I say England has the most talent I am not saying they have the best team. When I say Argentina has the most talent I am not saying they have the best team either. And clearly when I say Mexico has 5 X the talent of the US I am not claiming they are a better team either than the US, because right now they are not.
  
  England crushed Russia 3-0 at Wembley and before the official and the turf got the best of them were dominating the match in Moscow as well. Seriously, very few people rate England outside of areas with large penetration of English language football shows. Even the Guardian admitted so much as when they talked with a correspondent in Brazil about England's non qualification he said it was not news there and that "it's not like Italy or Germany did not make it."
  
  Has the soccer survived w/o England? These ratings would be higher no doubt if England were in these finals. I am more confident than ever about that when seeing these numbers.
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  eplnfl

  1 year ago

  England most talented! Kartik, Germany, Portugal, Italy, and Spain, and we haven't left Europe yet. The English talent is on par with Sweden. Name me their outstanding keeper and tell me about their world class striker, and don't say Wayne Rooney, who would be a AA baseball player in the US.
  
  Soccer will grow faster in the long run in the US when the fans here, and many now do, appreciate the game without England in the mix.
  However, I can't wait for the start of the foreign player dominated EPL and hope England make the 2010 WC line-up.
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