Day 20: Sweden vs Switzerland and Colombia vs England

[marlowe78]

England definitely added to the muck but that's want Colombia went looking for. The English players were just playing their game the first 15-20 minutes and the Colombian players were acting like twats - Sterling was used like a hobby horse, Henderson butted in the line (though he embellished it), the shoving match with Maguire, etc. As dirty as it was, I think it was a character-building experience for the team, dealing with situations like that help build resolve.

BTW, I was a bit disappointed in Falcao. I've always respected him and you'd think with his abilities and experience he'd be a tad better than that...

I think they will beat Sweden but England badly needs a top-class MF in the coming years (but from where?). Henderson is steady but really nothing beyond that and Dier, fair play on the penalty, but he was a liability up until then. The better teams in the competition have a definitive midfielder that can unlock defenses and England would be so much better if they had someone doing that. They wouldn't, for instance, have to rely on Kane dropping deep so much.

One other thought...THANK YOU GOD that Joe Hart was not taken on board again!

 

[SCP]

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.

I don't say this as a critic to England, its the opposite.

I know its very noble on British or Scandinavian football culture to be against this but as far as I am concerned South Americans or Southern Europeans will not change their way of seeing the game or reacting to situations.

Am I saying I like time wasting or simulating fouls? Of course not, but its the same way as sometimes you watch games in the Championship where you see brutal tackles and the refs don't even show yellow cards, let alone red cards.

Of course if a foreign player goes to play in England he has to respect the rules and adapt his behaviour but trying to make this the universal norm on International Football or European Football its harder to change imo. Even if this game wasn't the normal standard to discuss this.

 

[Grinner]

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.

Klinsmann was a fecking disgrace in 1990.

 

[Honest John]

Yep. Actually made a joke of his rep with that goal celebration of his.

 

[beedoubleyou]

I don't say this as a critic to England, its the opposite.

I know its very noble on British or Scandinavian football culture to be against this but as far as I am concerned South Americans or Southern Europeans will not change their way of seeing the game or reacting to situations.

Am I saying I like time wasting or simulating fouls? Of course not, but its the same way as sometimes you watch games in the Championship where you see brutal tackles and the refs don't even show yellow cards, let alone red cards.

Of course if a foreign player goes to play in England he has to respect the rules and adapt his behaviour but trying to make this the universal norm on International Football or European Football its harder to change imo. Even if this game wasn't the normal standard to discuss this.

I've no problem with players going down if they're touched. Gamesmanship is part of modern football. However, going down like Henderson did was too much and it makes England's players and pundits look somewhat hypocritcal.

John Stones has hardly done himself any favours either by claiming Columbia are the dirtiest team he's ever played against, in a game where he deliberately kicked someone in the head. He should be missing the rest of the tournament, some balls to be talking about other teams

 

[GlastonSpur]

... England badly needs a top-class MF in the coming years (but from where?). …

Maybe (?) Harry Winks will develop into that player. It's a pity he got his lengthy injury lay-off soon after getting his first and thus far only call-up to the England senior squad, making his debut when starting in England's 1–0 away win over Lithuania, which was the team's final match in their WC qualification campaign.

BBC Sport stated that, on the night, Winks was "England's best performer. Neat and tidy and almost scored. Eye-catching among so much mediocrity".

But first he needs to prove at Spurs that he's back from his injury as good as he was before.

 

[vanthaman]

200,000 have signed a petition to get the match replayed

 

[SCP]

I've no problem with players going down if they're touched. Gamesmanship is part of modern football. However, going down like Henderson did was too much and it makes England's players and pundits look somewhat hypocritcal.

John Stones has hardly done himself any favours either by claiming Columbia are the dirtiest team he's ever played against, in a game where he deliberately kicked someone in the head. He should be missing the rest of the tournament, some balls to be talking about other teams

Yup Gary Lineker hardly does any favour when he Tweets Pepe is a Dick (nothing false) or Neymar does this or that, and after watching the last game doesn' say nothing about diving, but in every country there are double standards, they just need to shut up and focus on Sweden which is what really matters.

 

[redshaw]

The whole world saw what dirty fouling bastards the Colombian players are so no amount of talk can mask or hide what they did. Also the head butt was a straight red card, they got away it.

It's clear what the Colombian players were trying to do. Falcao and his teammates should be embarrassed in how they went about the game.

 

[djembatheking]

200,000 have signed a petition to get the match replayed

190,000 of them were Welsh , Irish and Scottish .

 

[Solius]

Sweden seem very basic to me. I only really know Lindelof. What's their main threat?

 

[tomaldinho1]

Sweden seem very basic to me. I only really know Lindelof. What's their main threat?

Very physically strong, well drilled defensively and dangerous from set pieces from I can see. By all accounts they've developed a really good team culture and have a great reputation in Sweden (someone Swedish can probably say if that's true or not!)

Will be interesting to see how our new possession based style matches up to theirs because they play, as far as I can tell, in a very disciplined and direct way that probably suits many of our PL players. Many people think we're favourites but we've scraped past Tunisia, battered a semi professional team, our B team lost to Belgium's B team, scraped past Colombia.... we're worse than we think and they're better than we think. Will be a close game.

 

[Solius]

Very physically strong, well drilled defensively and dangerous from set pieces from I can see. By all accounts they've developed a really good team culture and have a great reputation in Sweden (someone Swedish can probably say if that's true or not!)

Will be interesting to see how our new possession based style matches up to theirs because they play, as far as I can tell, in a very disciplined and direct way that probably suits many of our PL players. Many people think we're favourites but we've scraped past Tunisia, battered a semi professional team, our B team lost to Belgium's B team, scraped past Colombia.... we're worse than we think and they're better than we think. Will be a close game.

Cheers!

I want Lindelof to do well but I would also like him to have an absolute mare.

 

[podurban2]

Sweden seem very basic to me. I only really know Lindelof. What's their main threat?

Our main threat is not really a single player but our cohesiveness as a unit. We are well-drilled defensively and a lot of players work very hard.

Further, a lot of these players have had good experiences within international football. The “younger” generation won the u21 euros in 2015. Those include Lindelöf, Augustinsson, Hiljemark, Kiese Thelin, and Guidetti. Meanwhile the ”older” generation which contained Berg, Toivonen, Larsson, Lustig, Svensson played in the 2009 u21 euros, where they reached the semifinals before getting knocked out on penalties against England. These players make up over half of the starting XI, as well as being our first three subs. Our 21 has been one of the brightest spots for us during the last couple of years. And we are now reaping the benefit of that.

Also our coach Janne Andersson is extremely collected (although on the field he will go berserk). We will be in good shape and have a good team spirit going into this, and we also avoided to play 120 minutes in the round of 16. Only Lustig (suspended) is out. These players will be up and ready for a great task on Saturday.

 

[beedoubleyou]

Yup Gary Lineker hardly does any favour when he Tweets Pepe is a Dick (nothing false) or Neymar does this or that, and after watching the last game doesn' say nothing about diving, but in every country there are double standards, they just need to shut up and focus on Sweden which is what really matters.

True. Though I think Henderson was a million miles from Neymar's spoilt child hysterics.

There's gamesmanship, there's diving, then there's a few thousand fathoms before you get to Neymar.