England <3 v Italy
!
haha waiting to see Terry holding the Euro Cup
How many times did Italy hit the post? I thought England was just as bad as France yesterday and wwas totally outclassed by Italy. Rooney sucked
Devastated to lose like that yet again but we never deserved to win. Found myself almost hoping Italy would score in extra time to save us having to go through the penalties.
On a positive I'm glad it was a United player and Cashley who will now forever be remembered for missing and not Theo or Ox. Was trying to work out who would take them during extra time and couldn't think of anyone I'd want after Gerrard and Rooney. I then said out louad "oh yeah Cashley usually takes a fucking good pen.." then stopped myself immediately realising what would surely happen now I'd said that. Even if one of them had scored who on Earth would have taken the 5th one anyway? Carroll? I suppose it would have to have been Theo.
England played with a lot more determination and will than France did.
France were shameful - beaten before the game began.
England at least believed that they could make a game of it,no need to beat themselves up over their effort and resolve.
I'm English and I've always been behind the national team but it was by far the least disappointed I've been at going out. Look at the bunch of twats we have in our team. John Terry, Cashley (a special mention to the idiot for his stupid cocky run-up. It's Buffon not Almunia you cunt), Gerrard, Carroll, Young, Rooney.... I mean I hate Spain but even they don't have a bigger collection of cunts.
And Scott fucking Parker. What the fuck is he doing on a football pitch? Oh, right, yes, he's a family man. Forgot about that. Great lad, too. Hard worker. Quite the engine he has on him. He can run all day can our Scotty Parker. Always throwing himself around. Gives 110%. Puts his body on the line. So determined and committed for the cause. All fantastic ways of saying he's an talentless cunt who has no business being a footballer. And that is why England will never be any good at football. Even the talent we might have coming through like Wilshere and Oxlade will not be favoured over the Scotty Parkers of the nation.
Btw how freaking good was Pirlo? Some of his passes were ridiculous and he was dominating the game. To top it off the penalty he took was amazing.
Pick up ball, dribble forward 10-15 yards uncontested at the pace of a snail, pick a pass. Rinse and repeat. Embarrassing.
And the one time you want Theo to do one of his shitty low crosses, he dinks it up to the far post.
General Mirth wrote:Biggus wrote:Theres a fair chance that a penalty will be mishit or the taker will just blast it hard down the middle.
If its a well struck penalty just inside a post the keeper will never get to it anyway, so it's duel alright, but the duel is in the takers head between confidence/lack of confidence.
So it's fair to say that Pirlo didn't lack confidence.Maybe, but then again if you saw a player of Pirlo's ability taking a pen you don't expect him to 'blast' it or mishit it down the middle.
On Italian TV, Pirlo allegedly said that he took that penalty to motivate his teammates and psyche England. Given the context of the pen, it was one of the best I've seen.
Heh heh it's true I've never faced a penalty from a top class player, at lower levels you see more fluffed.
But as we see all the time they get fluffed at higher levels too.
The penalty can go left right or down the middle, if you don't move till you know where its going you've got a 33% chance of stopping it- if it's even on target, thats not the case if you are diving, and as the number of penalties taken increase the chances of one being missed does too.
I like dem odds. 
i dont get it, even if you dive, the odds are still 33% if you assume it's either left, right or middle, no?
one of the most boring matches i've ever watched. pirlo was made to look good by england constantly backing off the ball. he hardly ever had anyone in his face - given space and time to pick a pass, of course he'd look good.
england was horrible, especially in central midfield, where no one had any ability to turn away from pressure or retain possession. parker and gerrard were pathetic - carroll even more so. the one time england strung 3-4 passes together, walcott almost created a chance (i think he should've just shot it).
you see the huge technical divide when italy subs in guys like nocerino and diamante (who i thought was good when he was on west ham) and didnt even call upon di natale. i'm not at all saying england should try to play tippy-tappy pussyball, but the lack of quality in midfield and attack is just unbelievable.
Don't see how you can really blame Hodgson tactically.
Italy whipped England through the midfield because you had a crocked Gerrard, the clunky duo of Parker and Milner, and the woeful Young up against much better players. The latter three in particular passed very poorly all day.
He was always relying on one of the forwards to press Pirlo, should've just taken Rooney off after an hour perhaps.
Captain wrote:Pick up ball, dribble forward 10-15 yards uncontested at the pace of a snail, pick a pass. Rinse and repeat. Embarrassing.
And the one time you want Theo to do one of his shitty low crosses, he dinks it up to the far post.
England's fault. I'm sure Germany won't give him that much space
kamikaze wrote:i dont get it, even if you dive, the odds are still 33% if you assume it's either left, right or middle, no?
No think about it, cos a well struck shot to the left right either low medium or high is almost impossible to get to, but even a very hard shot straight at you high medium or low is easy.
You just have to block it too remember you're not worried about rebounds.
Captain wrote:And the one time you want Theo to do one of his shitty low crosses, he dinks it up to the far post.
I thought he should have went for the far post himself.
Can't blame him though. In the 60 minutes he was on, he only got the ball in Italy's half three or four times despite finding himself in plenty of promising positions.
naz wrote:Captain wrote:Pick up ball, dribble forward 10-15 yards uncontested at the pace of a snail, pick a pass. Rinse and repeat. Embarrassing.
And the one time you want Theo to do one of his shitty low crosses, he dinks it up to the far post.
England's fault. I'm sure Germany won't give him that much space
Germany will batter them.
Don't quite get the Balotelli love. Movement was great, but when he had the chances he did a terrible job of sorting his feet out and getting a shot away at the right time. He's looked that way for most of the tournament to be honest.
Better than Cassano though.
General Mirth wrote:On Italian TV, Pirlo allegedly said that he took that penalty to motivate his teammates and psyche England. Given the context of the pen, it was one of the best I've seen.
In the interview I saw (could have been another one), he said he decided to kick it like that because he had seen Hart making strange movements and expected him to dive. De Rossi adding that these moments remain for ever, just like Totti's similar chip 12 years ago. They asked De Rossi about his shot on the post, and he didn't really know what to say. At the time he felt bad, but now, at the end of the evening it's all good. For those who understand Italian, the video is below.
Still, you'd have to have balls of steel to do that in such an important game.
No arguments here