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Euro 2020

Oh come on Marge ...

Totally get that people aren't interested in football, fair enough, but to castigate the game as being the root of all evil and inherently problematic on multiple fronts is pretty lazy. More than 27m Brits watched the game on TV on Wednesday, a small percentage of idiots is inevitable and when you have half the country behind the cause, a very small percentage is a reasonable number of people. The media showed the worst of it, as they would do, not the millions sat in their front rooms as families, daring to dream that it's coming home.

How predictable that we broad brush the subject ... "All Brexit voters are thick xenophobes", "All Tories hate poor people", "All football fans are violent nationalists" ... Boring. No wonder we're divided.

C'MON ENGLAND !
 
Rick said:
Oh come on Marge ...

Totally get that people aren't interested in football, fair enough, but to castigate the game as being the root of all evil and inherently problematic on multiple fronts is pretty lazy. More than 27m Brits watched the game on TV on Wednesday, a small percentage of idiots is inevitable and when you have half the country behind the cause, a very small percentage is a large number of people.

How predictable that we broad brush the subject ... "All Brexit voters are thick xenophobes", "All Tories hate poor people", "All football fans are violent nationalists" ... Boring. No wonder we're divided.

C'MON ENGLAND !
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Ok find me any other sport that elicits even close to the same response and you’ll have a point, but whether it’s National or regional games it’s always the same behaviour from the same fans. I never said “all x are y” because obviously it’s a minority, but pretending the problem doesn’t exist is completely absurd. Even in this thread - “we’ve always booed” as a reason to believe that isn’t a problem that should be looked at. Football really does put peoples blinders on to very real problems around violence, property damage and specifically domestic violence.
 
tayspru said:
Ok find me any other sport that elicits even close to the same response and you’ll have a point, but whether it’s National or regional games it’s always the same behaviour from the same fans. I never said “all x are y” because obviously it’s a minority, but pretending the problem doesn’t exist is completely absurd
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I didn't and don't pretend that the problems you described don't exist, I literally said that when you literally have half the nation engaged, you bring it all to fore, good, bad & ugly.
 
Rick said:
I didn't and don't pretend that the problems you described don't exist, I literally said that when you literally have half the nation engaged, you bring it all to fore, good, bad & ugly.
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But the problems come directly from Football fans - both the majority that cause damage and violence, and the rest who excuse it because of national pride or whatever. Football gets a pass from the top down in this country at the expense of others
 
tayspru said:
Even in this thread - “we’ve always booed” as a reason to believe that isn’t a problem that should be looked at.
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Pretty sure everybody in this thread said it's disgraceful. Didn't see anybody condone it, let alone support it.

Anyway I thought this thread was meant to be about the Euros, not discussing why football is a plague upon society?
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Yup I think we can get back to discussion about the Euros please. If you'd like to make a topic about the culture surrounding football etc, then feel free :)
 
tayspru said:
But the problems come directly from Football fans - both the majority that cause damage and violence, and the rest who excuse it because of national pride or whatever. Football gets a pass from the top down in this country at the expense of others
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I'm not going to change your mind, but I'd implore you to look at what this team are doing, taking a really innovative approach to battle injustice and ensure inclusivity. Look at where many of those players have come from, it's pretty inspiring really.

The "toxic masculinity" that has plagued football for decades is in the descent, as it should be.
 
The cans have been cracked. BBQ fired up and I'll be blasting the football anthems to really get in the spirit once I am up to my eye balls with larger and liquor.
 
Euros smeuros, we're off to Qatar ! </heartbroken>

Seriously though, the team have got a lot to be proud of, they've not only exceeded expectations around the nation, they've done it with absolute class, rewriting the rulebook and doing great things that they can build on in future competitions.

Three lions on my chest, I know we can't go wrong.
 
Yep, Shame about the result, and some complacent play in the second half of the final, but overall a great tournament which they should be proud of.

I do question the logic of bringing people cold off the bench to take penalties when they've hardly been involved in the game. Too much pressure? Hope the three unsuccessful penalty takers don't beat themselves up too badly...
 
Disappointed but not surprised by the result tonight. Whilst losing on penalties is always harsh, it's not as if we should have won over 90 or 120min.

I also said at the start of the shoot out I hoped that, if we were to lose it, that at least 2 players would fail to score to avoid there being just one person vilified. As it was, Pickford did a great job but we had too many of our takers rely on mind games during the run-up rather than the necessary power and accuracy.
 
I think we sat way too far back in the second half tried to protect the lead. Against Italy you aren't going to be able to do that. Kane was all but missing too. In my opinion Grealish was bought on too late as were Sancho and Rashford. As for the pens, Saka hasn't taken a professional penalty, so why is he taking number 5?

I could go on but I think its good to look at where we came from. We went into this tournament and especially in my social circles no one expected much from England. So well done to the lads for getting this far

Onto Qatar 2022
 
The fannying about on the ball before sending it towards the net during the penalties was utterly irritating; especially against Donnarumma who can get his body into spots so well given his height.

A great performance otherwise, even against the aggressively dirty fouling gits.
 
Didn't deserve to win tbh. They were the better team from the second half onwards.

I was in the ground opposite the end where the penalties taken and it was an intimidating sight. A wall of red and white.

Taking off three experienced players in Henderson, Walker and Trippier who've all taken pens before was a strange decision. To give the youngest player in the squad the responsibility of taking the most important penalty was even more weird.
 
It made sense to have Rashford and Sancho taking pens but they needed to come on for 10-15 mins to get a feel for the game and have some touches of the ball. Coming on to take literally the most important kick of your career is a huge ask. Rashford sent Donnarumma the wrong way but ultimately scuffed his kick too much, had he been involved earlier I don't think this happens. Not sure why Saka was ahead of the likes of Grealish, Sterling and Henderson either.

Southgate made a bad call but I've enjoyed this journey and actually feel proud of the team for a change. There's some extremely exciting youth in this squad so there's genuine hope for the next decade or so.
 
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TBF to the England team, the aim for the team from a few years back (2012 I think) for Euro 2020 was to reach the Semi-finals at the very least and in some ways Southgate not only achieved this aim but also overachieved it by reaching a final let alone if they could have won it. In that regards, you can say the tournament for England that it was a success though I doubt many will care for it, trust me I would have been heart broken if Scotland had lost in a final on penalties.

This is still a young England team and already has done far better than all over England teams before by reaching back-to-back finals and I have no doubt if they keep the momentum going (they clearly have learnt lessons from 2018 for example) then I have no doubt this team will be far stronger then and will reach the last four for sure.

From a Scottish perspective which annoys me in which had England won, we up here could have taken some gratitude that we were the only team that the champions couldn't beat and thus we should be joint champions! :p Ah well, see you guys in Qatar hopefully.
 
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