First time I ran into British fans was a Manchester United away match, where they had absolutely swarmed the city, literally flooding every Cafe and so on. Whenever I see a Manchester United kit from that era I am reminded how insanely pale some of them were, the whitest of white skin I've ever seen. the stuff you think about as a kid
Holy shit dude, that's kind of the bad stereotype you sometimes hear. I haven't experienced that before... Only went to about 4-5 games live and all were pretty chill. Turkey vs The Netherlands in the WC qualifying was kind of intense because it was extra heated due to the Dutch-Turkish fans. They booed the Dutch national anthem hard and dominated the stadium. It was loud and had an intense energy, but kind of cool to experience. Benfica also had a good strong atmosphere. Never experienced actual hooligan like abuse though, that's ********ed up. Does it still happen often?
I have stopped going to too many football matches, and when I do I usually buy tickets in the family section so right now the highest risk for me if to get a soda spilled on me or a child drop its hotdog.
That still can go both ways IMO but the motion definitely shows that it’s not a clear and obvious penalty.
FTR - I am not confident at all and see Italy as favourites for this. Maybe that's the pessimistic football fan in me, maybe it's a bit of self protection. When you weigh up who has put on the best performances this tournament it's no doubt Italy. They also played the hardest game (Spain), though drew with them. I think it's easier to make a case for Italy than England. No matter what happens I think there are going to be celebrations here. It already feels like we have achieved what we thought was impossible. Getting to the final of a tournament is just something that does not happen to England. When it comes to 8pm tomorrow I will be desperate for us to win, but if it's not to be then we will have been in a WC semi, a Euro final and for the first time ever there will be genuine belief and excitement on the build up to the next WC that we could go in among maybe the top 5 in the world and therefore can legitimately dream big, and for me that's a big part of what sport is about.
I don’t have much of a preference in this game, but to call Italy cheats just days after Sterling dived to get them in this final is extraordinary.
Then again Italy struggled mightily against Austria and I don’t think their D is that great. They have a good enough midfield and attack, well attack not as much as the midfield. For England, the defense and attack is better so it’s a pretty even game for me. The only thing that makes it a bad matchup is how Italy plays, I think the way Spain plays is ripe for how England likes to counter but with Italy, they won’t be able to play that way.
England are the better team man for man, they can mostly beat their selves by playing silly and/or not believing it. I believe in their team, and i think they've worked up to this, starting from the gimmick screens in corner kicks to now where they seem just so deep with talent in some positions, they've done everything right. I think they deserve this trophy, but then again they are up against the Italy experience which can turn out being whatever.
Isn't England the same country that went around the world stealing national treasure and historic/cultural artifacts. A bit like shit claiming the toilet stinks, don't you think. They play with a 7 man defense. Are you suggesting this is the game to change tactics, start playing football and stop being cowards... or just continue with shenanigans that got them this far.
Harry Kane is one goal short of being tournament leading scorer. They've scored just 2 goals less than Italy, 3 less than the tournament top scorers. I'm kind of enjoying people making fun of england for years for doing nothing right, and now that they are, people are shaking in fear of what will happen would they win it.
England can lose and their fans will still be unbearably biased about how great they are, will probably start a whole "stop the steal" campaign to try and overturn the result.
One reason why I love England doing well is for how much in their feelings it gets some people. Absolutely rattled.
I think it’s England’s to loose. The talent they have is unbelievable. They are stacked in every position. Weak link is probably GK. With all that being said, Southgate due to the immense talent he has at his disposal doesn’t really have to go deep tactically. I’m afraid if they come up against a good coach and good tactics they may be undone. Denmark didn’t really do anything spectacular apart from playing as a unit and see how it frustrated them. Italy is the better tactical team in my opinion and can definitely frustrate them more than Denmark did.
It's like people demand English fans and pundits to simply shut up and not enjoy it. Feels kind of ridiculous to me. England is just another country and just another team. There's idiots everywhere. Germany made fun of Argentina when they beat them and were widely criticized for it: https://apnews.com/article/9cc1b57a40d6450aa62e80315adcf41f The English doing something similar would have this place in a frenzy.