Day 20: Sweden vs Switzerland and Colombia vs England

What is 'coming home'?

  • Total voters
    91
  • Poll closed .
England have a truly world class player in Kane. He was by a good distance the best player on the field. What is so impressive is he can do it all. I think he would even be a very good center defender if needed. I hope you English treasure him for the next 6 years or so.

England have to be better at getting the ball up the field. There was a long period in the overtime when England couldn't get past the center line without losing it. Other teams will learn from that and pounce. I hope Southgate has an answer.

Congrats on the win. I'm still hoping for France v England final.
 
Fridge chutney said:
Perfectly summarized. I was very disappointed with Colombia's demeanour. Very atypical.

What it tells me is that they didn't think they could go toe-to-toe with Anand without James. And it almost worked.
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Agreed. It was clear that Colombia decided that their best chance of winning the game wasn't for it to be a clean and open game. England had played some beautiful football in the first half of the Tunisia game (although wasteful with finishing), put 6 past Panama, and Colombia did not want England to get going again, even in the slightest.

They decided that their best tactic was to make life as difficult as possible for England (even at the expense of their own football), to intimidate them, out muscle them, get under their skin and do anything to stop England being comfortable on the ball. It was a scrap more than a football match.

Although England were unable to play the style that they wanted, they have got to take huge confidence in that fact that they know they are capable of both playing beautifully and winning ugly. They can do both and will be a better team after that experience. Whether it will be enough against truly World Class opposition, I guess we'll find out!
 
groovyalbert said:
Huh? Lingard took a dive in the box but I can't think what else you're referring to. Henderson went down easy for the head-butt, but that should have been a red regardless.
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Agree on Lingard. Disagree on Henderson. I can understand and feel the pain when even a small unexpected nudge below your chin can give you pain. That was a headbutt. He was plain lucky not to bite his tongue in pieces.

Try keep your mouth open and softly punch your chin below. That headbutt was 100x impact.
 
Aboutreika18 said:
Have to question Pekerman's and Colombia's approach to this game. While Rodriguez was out, he seemed to set Colombia up in a very negative fashion and their temperament was pretty embarrassing. They were lucky to take it to extra-time in the end.

But to lose a penalty shootout to England of all teams! Pekerman's legacy both at Argentina and at Colombia to a lesser extent is one full of "what ifs".
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Peckerman coached Argentina in 2006 when they had Riquelma and Veron in midfield and Argentina were spectacular....until they went up 1-0 against Germany. Then Peckerman goes defensive and takes Riquelma out with 35 minutes to go. At that point I think everyone in the world knew Germany would eventually equalize and then win. He also had a young Messi on the bench and didn't use him.
 
gerdm07 said:
England have a truly world class player in Kane. He was by a good distance the best player on the field. What is so impressive is he can do it all. I think he would even be a very good center defender if needed. I hope you English treasure him for the next 6 years or so.

England have to be better at getting the ball up the field. There was a long period in the overtime when England couldn't get past the center line without losing it. Other teams will learn from that and pounce. I hope Southgate has an answer.

Congrats on the win. I'm still hoping for France v England final.
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Don't agree with that,Columbia scored at the death,it knocked the stuffing right out of us a totally to be expected.We deserved to win it in normal time so the 1st period of extra time we regrouped and had to face up to a rejuvenated Columbia.

Second half we dominated again and created 2/3 decent opportunities and had the Dier header right at the end.

I am very happy with what I saw last night and now we are a team that know how to come back from the brink and win a penalty shoot-out,believe you me,not many teams will fancy playing England,Columbia shat themselves from the start and never really wanted to make a contest out of it,they tried to rough us up and disrupt our passing game but we kept to our new found passing belief right the way to the end,hell we were still playing it out from the back between Pickford,Stones and Maguire deep into the second half of extra-time.It was fantastic to watch.

Bring on the Swedes coz we aint Turnips anymore.
 
jungledrums said:
Well fecking said. It's such a shame. In an otherwise amazing world cup, this game highlighted the side of football that is so easy to ridicule. Colombia were filthy, England were theatrical. It's the kind of game a die-hard football fan can brush off as (generally) uncommon in the negative antics, but the casual fan that tunes in for the world cup would likely be utterly repelled by this showing from both sides.
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I don't agree with this. You could pick a side from every match that provided more theatrics than England did last night. Neymar repels, he's done it in four matches so far himself.

And I was just in a marketing conference with a bunch of casuals and the whole room went totally off agenda and spent 10 minutes talking about Harry Kane's post match elation and how it'd make for the ideal 5 second brand capture of this tournament. Casuals are fed the narrative, not the match report. England have just stoked the fire of what was already an amazing world cup.
 
trafford1980 said:
I don't agree with this. You could pick a side from every match that provided more theatrics than England did last night. Neymar repels, he's done it in four matches so far himself.

And I was just in a marketing conference with a bunch of casuals and the whole room went totally off agenda and spent 10 minutes talking about Harry Kane's post match elation and how it'd make for the ideal 5 second brand capture of this tournament. Casuals are fed the narrative, not the match report. England have just stoked the fire of what was already an amazing world cup.
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I'm not suggesting England were that bad - certainly not worse than Neymar. I was referring to the combination of Colombia's antics and England's theatrics. The net result was a rather dire football match, both in quality and the rubbish that occurred.

I live in Australia - the casual football fans here tend to primarily follow rugby or AFL. They're the 'tough guys' that watch football games (like this one), and go off and call "soccer" a sport for pussies (I am, to a degree, generalising). This sport doesn't have to prove itself to anyone, of course, but it is a little frustrating when the diving and carrying-on is given a global stage.
 
jungledrums said:
I'm not suggesting England were that bad - certainly not worse than Neymar. I was referring to the combination of Colombia's antics and England's theatrics. The net result was a rather dire football match, both in quality and the rubbish that occurred.

I live in Australia - the casual football fans here tend to primarily follow rugby or AFL. They're the 'tough guys' that watch football games (like this one), and go off and call "soccer" a sport for pussies (I am, to a degree, generalising). This sport doesn't have to prove itself to anyone, of course, but it is a little frustrating when the diving and carrying-on is given a global stage.
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Gotcha, totally agree with this.
 
I've generally been indifferent to Engalnd's fortunes in NT tournaments but i'm very happy and celebrated them winning the shootout yday. Didn't like the antics from colombia all game especially because by the end of the game when push came to shove they showed they could play properly and threaten England even without James instead of ruining almost a third of the match with shithousery and gaming and arguing with the ref about it. It was an important bridge to cross and i feel confident that England will beat sweden more easily, they need to put away the chances they have though and get Kane playing closer the the penalty area instructing him not to drop deep and take the ball of the CBs, too many counters where he should have been in the box yday where he wasn't kept the game alive.
 
Oldham said:
Not to sure this England team will beat Sweden. Based on today's performances the Swedes do look better.
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People said this about Colombia too. We were comfortably the better team, we just seemed to be stuck in 2nd gear.

Whether it was down to nerves or what, who knows. Sweden have nothing to worry us IMO
 
Rajma said:
I think it would have been very soft one considering the circumstances, the ref got it spot on for me, it wasn’t excessive enough for me to make such a big decision and leave Columbia with a men down for the rest of the game.

He was very stupid to do that but at the same time he clearly didn’t want to headbutt Henderson’s chin and went for a chest to shove him away from standing in the wall, should have used his hands it wouldn’t have looked this bad then.
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stupid of him to use his head, you’re right he should have used his hands. Using his head would easily excuse myself if i was ref and other refs to send him off.
 
colombia has truly disgusted me, if i’m being brutally honest. Most of their players are dirty, annoying idiots and losers after last night and death threats have already surfaced for bacca and uribe on twitter from idiot fans. Haven’t they learned from Escobar? Scum of the Earth. Thankfully there are still the few normal colombian people who try to put those idiots in their place.

Anyway, COME ON ENGLAND!
 
Icemav said:
Completely agree. We have no midfield to speak of and therefore rely on our defenders to control the game and our front players to be electric. Our defenders are doing a good'ish job but our attackers are not performing. Ali is definitely underwhelming. And Sterling has been woeful in every appearance so far. Southgate only has himself to blame in this respect as there is no rational reason for Sterling to still be in the side and that was before the game even kicked off.

We are very lucky with the draw because this we are wide open to get beaten by a half decent team.
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Most of them have gone home for a reason.
 
gerdm07 said:
Peckerman coached Argentina in 2006 when they had Riquelma and Veron in midfield and Argentina were spectacular....until they went up 1-0 against Germany. Then Peckerman goes defensive and takes Riquelma out with 35 minutes to go. At that point I think everyone in the world knew Germany would eventually equalize and then win. He also had a young Messi on the bench and didn't use him.
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Veron wasn't called for 2006 WC, but yes, I still get angry at decision to bench Riquelme in order to rest him for semi-final. From all teams, he chose to do that versus Germany who arguably has the strongest 'never give up' spirit. Still think that Argentina would have won that world cup if Pekerman would have kept Riquelme, they were so good to watch.

Yesterday it was non justifiable too. Colombia had the ability - even without James - to play better than thuggish football, and they were extremely lucky that their dirty tactics didn't backfire cause they should have been playing with 10 men for an hour.
 
promisedlanchiao said:
colombia has truly disgusted me, if i’m being brutally honest. Most of their players are dirty, annoying idiots and losers after last night and death threats have already surfaced for bacca and uribe on twitter from idiot fans. Haven’t they learned from Escobar? Scum of the Earth. Thankfully there are still the few normal colombian people who try to put those idiots in their place.

Anyway, COME ON ENGLAND!
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So a few anonymous social media idiots are now the Colombian majority? You need to get your head out of Twitter and go meet people in the real world.
 
antohan said:
So a few anonymous social media idiots are now the Colombian majority? You need to get your head out of Twitter and go meet people in the real world.
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This. Colombians I've met are feckin brilliant. Bunch of cnuts yesterday though.
 
antohan said:
So a few anonymous social media idiots are now the Colombian majority? You need to get your head out of Twitter and go meet people in the real world.
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no i was talking about twitter and twitter only, tbh the majority of colombians are cnuts on twitter. Probably should have separated Football and twitter in my original post.
 
The Colombian tactics yesterday were horrendous, the antics were shameful, and they made it truly ugly nasty game. If they still had neutrals on their side by the time penalties came about, I'd love to know why.
 
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...gry-at-england-players-after-world-cup-defeat

Here is what Jose Pekerman has to say
Players fall in the box, they collide and fall," he said.

"You have to try and stand in the shoes of these players. They are subject to situations which shouldn't really be present in football.

"These interruptions are bad. When there are so, so many fouls and interruptions I think that's not good.

"We have to try and find the right balance so that football can happen and the two sides can play the match with good intentions.

"We shouldn't only look at Colombian players, people should look at England players. I wish I was wrong, but I think from the next match England will be much more careful.

"Today we were on the receiving end of this but I hope it won't happen again. It's been absolutely obvious, too obvious."

He added: "I think we have to try and defend football and we should do a little more to try to prevent certain situations knowing that they may arise.

"It has been very uncomfortable to play this match knowing that feeling was in the air about refereeing decisions.

"Something is happening in football. There is a lot of confusion. What if the player falls because he fakes a fall or is being pushed by an opponent or they are trying to get the referee to book another player?"
 
And here is Falcao's take on it
'I found it peculiar that they put an American referee in this instance. To tell you the truth, the process leaves a lot of doubts. He only spoke English, some bias was certain.'

'The referee disturbed us a lot, in the 50-50 plays, he always made the calls in favour of England. This situation was undermining us. He didn't act with the same criteria for both teams.

When in doubt he always went to the England side. It's shameful that this happens in the round of 16 of a World Cup

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...s-referee-favouring-England-win-Colombia.html
 
DavidDeSchmikes said:
And here is Falcao's take on it
'I found it peculiar that they put an American referee in this instance. To tell you the truth, the process leaves a lot of doubts. He only spoke English, some bias was certain.'

'The referee disturbed us a lot, in the 50-50 plays, he always made the calls in favour of England. This situation was undermining us. He didn't act with the same criteria for both teams.

When in doubt he always went to the England side. It's shameful that this happens in the round of 16 of a World Cup

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...s-referee-favouring-England-win-Colombia.html
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Wow if we go down that route then for the England - Columbia there would only be a handful of countries that could ref that game given the popularity of English and Spanish. Also given English tends to be the 2nd language of a lot of people in the world the ref invariably would have spoken English anyway.
 
Judas said:
The Colombian tactics yesterday were horrendous, the antics were shameful, and they made it truly ugly nasty game. If they still had neutrals on their side by the time penalties came about, I'd love to know why.
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Better said with a picture.
bpxqwZk.png

O flower of Colombia
When will we see your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And tried to send him homeward
Tae think again.

To the Sweden appreciation thread.
 
DavidDeSchmikes said:
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...gry-at-england-players-after-world-cup-defeat

Here is what Jose Pekerman has to say
Players fall in the box, they collide and fall," he said.

"You have to try and stand in the shoes of these players. They are subject to situations which shouldn't really be present in football.

"These interruptions are bad. When there are so, so many fouls and interruptions I think that's not good.

"We have to try and find the right balance so that football can happen and the two sides can play the match with good intentions.

"We shouldn't only look at Colombian players, people should look at England players. I wish I was wrong, but I think from the next match England will be much more careful.

"Today we were on the receiving end of this but I hope it won't happen again. It's been absolutely obvious, too obvious."

He added: "I think we have to try and defend football and we should do a little more to try to prevent certain situations knowing that they may arise.

"It has been very uncomfortable to play this match knowing that feeling was in the air about refereeing decisions.

"Something is happening in football. There is a lot of confusion. What if the player falls because he fakes a fall or is being pushed by an opponent or they are trying to get the referee to book another player?"
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argie getting salty

DavidDeSchmikes said:
And here is Falcao's take on it
'I found it peculiar that they put an American referee in this instance. To tell you the truth, the process leaves a lot of doubts. He only spoke English, some bias was certain.'

'The referee disturbed us a lot, in the 50-50 plays, he always made the calls in favour of England. This situation was undermining us. He didn't act with the same criteria for both teams.

When in doubt he always went to the England side. It's shameful that this happens in the round of 16 of a World Cup

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...s-referee-favouring-England-win-Colombia.html
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colombian getting salty
 
FlawlessThaw said:
Wow if we go down that route then for the England - Columbia there would only be a handful of countries that could ref that game given the popularity of English and Spanish. Also given English tends to be the 2nd language of a lot of people in the world the ref invariably would have spoken English anyway.
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In the past when England lost they also blamed referees and the other teams from cheating, what goes around comes around.
 
FlawlessThaw said:
Exactly, worth pointing out to Falcao.
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I think when we are discussing National Teams there is always bad reactions when you leave a tempered knockout stage after a defeat, just imagine if instead Colombia it was England who had lost? What would the press or players say? Probably wouldn't be much different?

And complaining about Colombian reactions on Twitter? We just need to see some of the comments here on match threads to know you don't expect sensible comments after defeats.

The Internet is full of keyboard warriors. Time to move on and just think on Sweden.
 
SCP said:
I think when we are discussing National Teams there is always bad reactions when you leave a tempered knockout stage after a defeat, just imagine if instead Colombia it was England who had lost? What would the press or players say? Probably wouldn't be much different?

And complaining about Colombian reactions on Twitter? We just need to see some of the comments here on match threads to know you don't expect sensible comments after defeats.

The Internet is full of keyboard warriors. Time to move on and just think on Sweden.
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Well I think complaining about random people on twitter about anything is a bit much. But I think Falcao, the Colombian captain, saying that an American ref should not have reffed the game yesterday because he spoke English is actually quite different and worth at least bringing up.

Might be naive but I've never heard of that complaint before. I know loads of people have complained about refs being incompetent but accusing a ref of being biased due to his language is a new one for me.
 
FlawlessThaw said:
Well I think complaining about random people on twitter about anything is a bit much. But I think Falcao, the Colombian captain, saying that an American ref should not have reffed the game yesterday because he spoke English is actually quite different and worth at least bringing up.

Might be naive but I've never heard of that complaint before. I know loads of people have complained about refs being incompetent but accusing a ref of being biased due to his language is a new one for me.
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Its the normal conspiracy theories. South American mindset isn't that much different from Iberian or Italian mindset, reason why when England is faced with this type of situations they don't like it.

Actually I don't see any negative to England players trying to take advantage from some situations, its time to start learning that sometimes you need to play dirty on the pitch.

Like it or not sometimes being naive isn't the best way to react, different than saying every team should be diving or rolling, but if you are facing South Americans or Southern European teams you know their reactions aren't exactly the same as Scandinavians or Germans.

I always try to explain this to my friends from England, for them this is an alien concept, just ask any South American poster here, for them it was a normal game, just move on and prepare the next battle to win.

Of course with Sweden will be totally different this time.
 
SCP said:
Its the normal conspiracy theories. South American mindset isn't that much different from Iberian or Italian mindset, reason why when England is faced with this type of situations they don't like it.

Actually I don't see any negative to England players trying to take advantage from some situations, its time to start learning that sometimes you need to play dirty on the pitch.

Like it or not sometimes being naive isn't the best way to react, different than saying every team should be diving or rolling, but if you are facing South Americans or Southern European teams you know their reactions aren't exactly the same as Scandinavians or Germans.

I always try to explain this to my friends from England, for them this is an alien concept, just ask any South American poster here, for them it was a normal game, just move on and prepare the next battle to win.

Of course with Sweden will be totally different this time.
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Aye the England team have had to adapt and whilst I didn’t like Colombia’s attitude overall, it wasn’t for me something to get worked up over.

Still I think we should be able to call a spade a spade and highlight ridiculous statements like Falcao’s.
 
:lol: @ the reactions from the Columbia camp. Bunch of absolute clowns. Trying to take the moral high ground after constantly fouling, harassing the ref, headbutting, barging players leaving the pitch and most pathetic of all scuffing the penalty spot before a pen. Talk about a lack of self awareness. Enjoy your flight home losers.
 
Colombia can feck right off. Started the tournament kind of wanting them to win it all, started the game wanting them to win. By the end I was cheering for England. Absolute petty cnuts
 
Did ye see the Sun’s “apology” for the “Go Kane” headline they used before the game?
As usual opinions are mixed, but for me :lol:
 
Charlie Foley said:
Colombia can feck right off. Started the tournament kind of wanting them to win it all, started the game wanting them to win. By the end I was cheering for England. Absolute petty cnuts
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This, and most annoying was Colombia didn't need to play the way they did; they've some quality players playing for them.

In many ways I felt a sense of relief when Dier slotted his penalty home, not because it meant England were through but because it confirmed Colombia's exit from the tournament. It'd be a travesty if they somehow manage to go all the way.
 
Can you imagine COL v URU?
It could go down as the worst game ever in terms of play acting, cheating, ref swarming.
Sad, considering how gifted both teams actually are.
 
DavidDeSchmikes said:
And here is Falcao's take on it
'I found it peculiar that they put an American referee in this instance. To tell you the truth, the process leaves a lot of doubts. He only spoke English, some bias was certain.'

'The referee disturbed us a lot, in the 50-50 plays, he always made the calls in favour of England. This situation was undermining us. He didn't act with the same criteria for both teams.

When in doubt he always went to the England side. It's shameful that this happens in the round of 16 of a World Cup

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...s-referee-favouring-England-win-Colombia.html
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Falcao was a right twat the other night. Not sure why.
 
SCP said:
Its the normal conspiracy theories. South American mindset isn't that much different from Iberian or Italian mindset, reason why when England is faced with this type of situations they don't like it.

Actually I don't see any negative to England players trying to take advantage from some situations, its time to start learning that sometimes you need to play dirty on the pitch.

Like it or not sometimes being naive isn't the best way to react, different than saying every team should be diving or rolling, but if you are facing South Americans or Southern European teams you know their reactions aren't exactly the same as Scandinavians or Germans.

I always try to explain this to my friends from England, for them this is an alien concept, just ask any South American poster here, for them it was a normal game, just move on and prepare the next battle to win.

Of course with Sweden will be totally different this time.
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Good points, mate... although I’d take exception to the inclusion of Germany. Not behind the door at all when it comes to the dark arts. I vaguely recall some prominent Italian? figure in late 70s/early 80s saying England will win feck all trying to play fair. The mass influx of foreign players has brought both +/- to the English game but it really is well overdue that we started smartening up.

Thought the team, as a whole kept pretty cool under the constant theatrics the other night and although I think some of Kane’s goals have been gifts from the gods, he was the fecking iceman the way he dealt with his penalty the other night. His previous two weren’t bad either.
 
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