Eng-gur-land v Messy Donner (R)

[MikeyM]

Red Card

Smith 2nd yellow 93rd minute

Challenge off the ball.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by Fanaddict
final 2-2 smith redcarded in stoppage time.

"Will he ever learn?" asked the guy who's doing the pbp on the Guardian's site.

[MikeyM]

Full Time

England 2 Macedonia 2

It appears England missed several opportunities in the 2nd half. Also, some bad defending in the 1st half...

[sinner78]

Load of crap...
Lets hope Sven ********s off after the euro 2004 campaign.
Im bored of his bland tactics and football...

As for the team...
Seaman should be pensioned off...
Neville shouldn't be picked....
Scholes should no longer be an automatic choice...

very poor stuff...
Time for some changes methinks...

[Treetaliano]

...but they still are better than Turkey...

[cosmosRIP]

Did we just watch Seaman's last game for England?

[ferrari77]

thanks for the turkey comment, but seriously what shite.that was a fcuking joke and im at a loss 4 words. i need a stiff drink. at this rate turkey might want to get their tickets for portugal ready.

[sinner78]

Originally posted by Treetaliano
...but they still are better than Turkey...

We're allowed an off night aren;t we??

At least we didn;t get beaten by the mighty Wales .

[RichardL]

Originally posted by cosmosRIP
Did we just watch Seaman's last game for England?

could be. Judging by the way Macedonia felt happy to shoot from anywhere you almost felt that was where they were getting their confidence from. This was no team who sat back and hit us on the break, they really had a go. After seaman's blunder you could see the belief grow in them.

The most telling thing though was that their pasing was so much better than ours. How many times did we give away possession needlessly?

BTW, why did scholes duck out of the way for the first goal? Had he jumped he might have cleared it.

[lanman]

Two defensive mistakes, two Macedonia goals. England looked good until the unneccessary change in formation, in which the England players did not look comfortable.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Eriksson does not have a clue about tactics.

[Prenn]

Shite

Time for Seaman to retire and Eriksson to piss off with his 80's tactics.

England can and should do so much more.

[Albion + England]

Two points, firstly i don't think Eriksson shud be blamed too much, these games aren't decided on tactics but quality, if we were playing France tactics would play a bigger part, but we should beat Macedonia with our quality at alone.

The distribution from the centre backs was appaling

Also, Beckham was attrocious, it was he who gave the ball away which led to their corner for the goal, he then played a terrible ball to Gerrard givin him no chance and it led to the 2nd ball. His passing and crossing were appalling but he was still being bigged up by the commentators, Scholes was our best player. People regard Beckham as being world class but would Zidane, Rivaldo etc ever put in a performance like that? Beckham you were sh**e son.

[Prenn]

Is it just me or has Beckham been crap all season?

He's become really petulant and agressive, I think he's been lucky to escape being send off for wreckless challenges on more than one occasion. He's no longer the free kick specialist he was and his vision has diminished.

I refer to Svens tactics over the time he's been in charge, not just tonight.

[minorthreat]

Originally posted by Prenn
Is it just me or has Beckham been crap all season?

He's become really petulant and agressive, I think he's been lucky to escape being send off for wreckless challenges on more than one occasion. That's probably a product of being expected to not only carry his national team, but also his club now that Roy Keane seems hellbent on self-destructing. That sort of thing is bound to mess with a person's head.

[cj herrera]

Originally posted by Albion + England

Also, Beckham was attrocious, .....His passing and crossing were appalling but he was still being bigged up by the commentators, ...

Heh .... just read a few online reports that said Beckham was the only one worth his salt. And now I'm reading posts on how crap he was.

Wish I could've seen it. Several reports said Owens looked onsides for at least one of his goals. Any conclusive replay angles?

[cachundo]

BBC Match Report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/england/2331911.stm) David Seaman's international career hangs by a thread after his latest expensive error on a night of embarrassment for England against Macedonia. . . . . It handed Macedonia an early lead and gave them the perfect incentive as they hung on for a draw at The St Mary's Stadium.

[Senor Askew]

2-2?!?! And this after an almighty lucky win against those footballing giants from Slovakia?!?!

*snort*

Pardom me while I go laugh my butt off for a few hours............

[dlatane]

Dobro, Makedonija -- this is a team from a poor country, playing against an England squad that makes the Macedonian GNP in football wages. The Macedonian team couldn't even afford a night in a London Hotel, but flew back to Skopje on a 3 a.m. flight to save money. Looks like after their close 1-2 loss to Turkey that the boys from Skopje wanted this more badly than England did after their lucky win in Bratislava. Macedonia kept Ireland out of WC98 and if England keep playing like this they might spoil England's trip to Euro 04.

[burning247]

Originally posted by cj herrera


Heh .... just read a few online reports that said Beckham was the only one worth his salt. And now I'm reading posts on how crap he was.

Wish I could've seen it. Several reports said Owens looked onsides for at least one of his goals. Any conclusive replay angles?

he was the only one busting his ass, and Owen was onside on one or more of his goal scoring opportunities.

[Justin O]

I just hope the players were giving Macedonia more respect than the TV announcer. After Macedonia went up 1-0 he compared it to going down 1-0 to San Marino back in '93. "San Marino?!" I saw these guys tie Turkey 3-3 in Istanbul a couple of years ago. They were always capapble of getting a result in England if they played their best and got some breaks. And that's exactly what happened.

Originally posted by burning247
and Owen was onside on one or more of his goal scoring opportunities.

Only one that I noticed. He had a break away in the first half that looked like it was probably a good call. The shot didn't clear the GK in any case.