Good job England, you were the better team. In the semifinals for the first since Paul Gascoigne broke down in tears in that Italian evening back in 1990. English fans must be ecstatic and deservedly so.
Your post is what irritates most England fans! You generalise like we are all the same ffs! You do realise that other English have slated his post right? I don’t call all Spanish fascist do I?
Agreed. There have been Brazilians who went on social media to "massacre" fans of national teams who were eliminated early, but that's not all Brazilians. I myself think it's great England is in the semifinals. English fans have waited a very long time and while it is true England won only 1 World Cup and has won no European Championships, England is still a historic participant in World Cup competitions and its role in the game itself (it is the game's birthplace, after all) can never be minimized.
Well played Sweden and nice to see some classy fans rather than the last match debacles with certain nations swarming the thread and joining in. Quarter final is a good achievement for your team
I'm guessing the fella doesn't follow football much either as Sweden are one of our 'bogey teams'. We've ALWAYS struggled to beat them.
Yes and I don’t know how anybody can complain about Sweden being in the quarter final, I thought we English fans were self entitled, yet people are claiming that Argentina, Brazil, Germany etc should be in the last 4/8? They had their chance and lost. Italy were knocked out by Sweden and they topped a group with Germany, you can’t say they don’t deserve to be there
Yeah, whatever. We're in the semis and your lot are already home. If it ends here it's still equals the best performance in my lifetime. Reality isn't going to hit hard in this tournament, not now we've reached the last 4 - its such a young squad they'll just start looking forward to the Euros. Time is on our side.
They do deserve to be there and it’s stuck up idiots that are protesting because they think individual world class players means they have a better team. It’s bullshit tbh and clearly a lack of understanding of how football actually works.
Sweden were deserving to be there. Rubbish thinking anything else. They played as a cohesive unit since qualifiers, playing France tight both games, winning one, and shutting down Italy. Their first half was really bad, but they showed some fight in the second. Pickford made a huge save to keep England ahead. They obviously had nothing left in the tank at the end.
This is not necessary. You could say that about any team's fans Which is what? That England lose? In the semi-final. A place where many thought they would not reach? Look, every team has plenty of fans that have hope for their team, and come across as obnoxious. But just because the fans (some, as clear by the response tot he post in question) are irritating to you does not mean you should be taking shot at them.
This. Sterling is both quick and fast and opens up space, but that has little value if he can't pass the ball effectively. This was an issue v. Colombia, and an issue v. Sweden. In the semis, he will need to step up his game.
Exactly. Sweden had more clear chances than Columbia did that’s for sure, we just had a great goalkeeper to thank.. could have made our missed early chances count
It’s frustrating because he’s doing most other things so wel, I thought he was one of our better players today but I think he just needs a goal for confidence.. I would love to see Rashford get more game time though. Also we have already over achieved so there is no pressure now as you said above. It’s great because we’ll go into Euro 2020 now with confidence and a young team with positive experience with some more talented youngsters coming through (Sancho,Foden,Mount,Sessegnon etc) plus some of the KO games will be at Wembley
Tbf if I can add due to the limitations of our squad he is being played out of position which to be frank is pretty new for him. For City he’s primarily played on the flanks, either left or right where he’s more effective. He really isn’t a number 10 or suuport player for Kane.
Someome sounds bitter, suck on a lemon. For sure we are nowhere near Brazil, Germany, Italy, we are still in Russia, two of the three teams have packed up and left, the latter never made it to Russia....pmsl
I actually think Sterling has very good vision and understanding of the game, but indecision has crept into his England performances (but not really for City, 23G 12A last season) because so much pressure is put on him to get the numbers he does for his club. If he were playing for Man City he'd pull the ball back for the striker when the keeper gets a touch and that's a routine goal, but for England he's too reluctant to let a chance to score go.
You raise a good point about the pressure he may be under and perhaps I went a little too far in suggesting he has no vision, but it is limited, in my view, to space that has already opened up and which he must physically see. I think he's a player who thrives on instinct and by being direct. He relies heavily on his physical pace. But whenever I've seen him play an assist, it has always been a short simple pass to a player already in vacant space. His vision is not exceptional. Hazard, for example, has great vision. We see this in the 1 min mark in the video below: By contrast, in the highlights above between Belgium and Japan we see that Hazard, on his assist to Fellaini, makes the kind of assist Kane has been begging for. Does Sterling have the capacity to not even look-up and envision Kane's position in the box so that he can get a header? That's what is needed to catch some of these defenses off. Japan was not expecting Hazard's cross precisely because he didn't give it away by looking for Fellaini. Sterling's vision is very limited. Short ground balls into space he sees vacant. At most he might track a runner, but again, he must see the runner and he must see the space. He can't really visualize play. Contrast that to Hazard, who without even seeing the player or the space, can confuse the defense, by putting his back to them, and then before anyone knows it, he can turn to cut in a perfect cross that Fellaini has time to react to. That's vision.
Happy to see that England are causing some to lose their head as I predicted.The anti-England camp that has been predicting England's demise at every step of the tournament so far, but no doubt will claim victory if England do eventually go out. This isn't even really that good of an England squad (compared to 2002 or 2006). Hahahaha. Loving it. Like I said before, English fans have nothing to lose and things can only really get worse for the haters.
I havn't really red any comments but a well deserved win for England. We should be proud that Janne managed to take this swedish team so far. Hopefully we have at least one good striker for the euros 2020. My hope is on Mikael Ishak and Nyman. With that said, football might be comming home. Even though a win against Sweden might not say much for english fans. Few teams managed to "own" us this much.
As an American and a fan of African football, I have to give it up to England. I always warmed up to England because I see all of the players in the premier league and in my opinion the fact that England and Belgium made it this far in the World Cup shows the relative strength of the premier league. Even on a smaller extent some of the players in France as well. When you see players like Maguire, Kane, Sterling, Henderson all playing together despite being in different teams in the league, it's really great and shows how a team can rally together and succeed for the greater good. They have worked hard to get this far and I think if they work harder they can get a positive result against Croatia and even go all the way. Congratulations guys!
A question for neutrals Is this england side less annoying? The likes of Rooney, lampard, Rio and gerrard were so o we hyped and overrated, is that what made a lot of people dislike england? Even my wife wants this england team to win and she’s always disliked previous england teams To me, there are very few egos in this squad or arrogant players. Does that make a difference to you?
I believe both Hazard’s parents are footballers (professional?). As such his coaching has been excellent since birth. Thus he has very good vision. Same story as Messi. As said earlier in his autobiographical missive, Sterling was born to a Jamaican mom who was a immigrant student, housekeeper, now administrator. He’s had good coaching since his teens and has good vision, but not of the kind/ speciality that you develop when your parents’ work was in the same field as yours.
It’s a combination of the English fans, media, and players. English fans/ media have always been passionate. But some would get to the point as if they were talking down to you. We all remember the EASY statement. I think the loss to Iceland was humbling. Since then English fans/ media have toned it down a bit. The players are also less prone to the Superiority complex as well. Which never gets people on your side outside of your country. It was weird seeing Rooney as Captain when he was clearly losing a lot of his powers on the field in 2014. My first World Cup was 1994. England missed this one no? I missed 1990 so never understood why the English were so entitled to the Gods of football. I get they invented the game though and had a good run in 1966. 1998 was the Beckham red card? 2002 the crazy Ronaldinho goal elimination. Missed 2006. 2010. 2014 the elimination at group stage. The bold statements never matched the play on the field at the World Cup. World Cup 2014 and Euro 2016 as well as recent poor finishes in the Champions League I think has given the players relief from the English media’s expectations as well which probably helped settle all egos and increase team spirit / team work. The choice of coach is better too. Not old school like Hodgson who had probably kept the old mentality. No more bold / exaggerated statements from the media as well. No more Rooney yelling at the camera. All these things working together does make the team more likeable. English premier league promoting a Muslim player also has helped. I guess it’s a perfect storm of good will. One last thing: The English / American media also need to review their antics before the tournaments. If you want good will from the host nation. You can’t run news that say people are going to be killed in Ukraine/ Poland... Russia. However I’m glad they did as the negative press probably ensured a review of fan safety and ensured all of us a good time while abroad. Good luck in the semis.