Originally posted by UshgarakOne major mistake from our defender made us lose that game. But our defense is not the same mate. And you neednt worry about the your offensive, you have to worry about your defense.
Y'know, Portuguese exhortations that their defence can 'easily' handle the tournament's top scorers so far might sound a little better had they not lost to Greece... I am damn sure if England lose it will be for good solid English reasons- being totally crap at inopportune moments- rather than a problem with our offensive edge. England has always been talented- but rarely TOP talented- but fired mainly by passion, enough to give even an Italian a headache, but very uneven against French finesse and, once upon a time, German efficiency, before they caught 'crap play' disease as well, probably from us.
Some neat press reaction from the recent games, though. Spain- who, if anything, have an even worse tournament record than England- are not happy.
"Another failure... the same as ever...
...this time there was no glory, not even dignity, nothing to cling on to, not even to good play or bad luck... this time we deserved everything that happened to us. Spain have failed again, and this time without an ounce of anything."
Gloomy stuff. Mind you, the Portuguese were pretty gloomy too at the start of the tournament- all was doom and gloom, which as the Telegraph said today, two products in which Portugal can fairly claim to be World leader, from the Fado onwards. One fan after the Greek match said he was switching sides to England.
"At least you have a coach who picks the best players. Scolari cannot even pick his own nose."
I guess he is keeping quiet now...
The Greeks are giving out fighting talk, however.
"We are not France who can win on command; we are not England who translate passion into kerosene on the pitch; we do not have Germany's ability to stay cool. We are the Euro-kamikazes... just imagine, even the defeat yesterday tasted like champagne."
So, err, kamikaze squadron coming your way, France. Hmmm... Mind you, someone should remind that guy that they score more goals than Germany...
Most amusing right now, however, are the Dutch, who are so convinced they are going out, some fans have bought their team's coach a one way ticket out of Portugal- to Belgium.
"One major mistake from our defender made us lose that game. But our defense is not the same mate. And you neednt worry about the your offensive, you have to worry about your defense."
Well now, that wasn't what was being talked about, was it?
Our defenders are actually pretty competent- there isn't a hole there like in, say, Holland. But they are going mental in giving away free kicks and then not being able to defend them. They need to calm down!
fookin hate Holland lol.....was like lesser of 2 evils to choose from there, Germany or Holland ><
as for the Portugal England game, England have a really strong tight knit defence, all he needs to do is bring on King for Terry and we're pretty much water-tight
Neville, King, Campbell, Cole
that is a world class defence imo, very strong and coordinated and capable of forming decent counter-attacks
Lampard, Scholes, Gerrard, Beckham
well....not much to say there really, our midfield is one of our strongest points...
Rooney, Owen
all the hype surrounding Rooney is pissing me right off, hate the way England idolise 1 player and ignore the rest, cant be good for morale etc. Owen isnt on perfect form tho he's gettin better each game, if he pulls his finger out this game we can get through
only troubles i see us facing really are Cole coping with Ronaldo, and the infamously retarded way we deal with set-pieces
I'm serious. What you are calling "French supporters" are nothing but scores of ignorant people who have just started to be interested in football after the '98 World Cup...
I'm really serious about English and Portuguese supporters. For England, it does the same with rugby,etc... For Portugal, we saw it before the competition, most Portuguese supporters were acting just as the team was already European Chamipion. (no offence here)
Originally posted by G.P
For Portugal, we saw it before the competition, most Portuguese supporters were acting just as the team was already European Chamipion. (no offence here)
Nah! You are wrong. People just want to celebrate bcs the Euro is a very good opportunity to forget a social and economic crisis here.
That is not our nature. Maybe in others countries yes but we are to much humble and pessimistic. More than necessary. And our pride has been hidden.
We just act as part of the Euro party. Happiness and joy does not are the same as acting like champions. Just see the public stats about our performace and less than 25% believe Portugal will reach the final, even after have won against Spain.
But: We are a nation of faith and we are very good surpassing ourselves when it is necessary. So if we lose today it will be no surprise but as all of supporters we believe in out squad 😛
Not offended at all 🙂
As I quoted above, doom and gloom, two areas in which Portugal can fairly claim to be world leaders...
Mind you, hardly as if England is a land of jolly, happy, optimisitc people. No-one ever thinks we are going to win these things- the Italians do, and the French do, and in World tournaments, the Argentinians and Brazilians are always well up for it. Germans used to be but have become very gloomy. But not England- not since 1970, certainly.
But it is just part of the English mentality to go hardcore on this sort of thing, at all times.