I’m still annoyed we didn’t beat Belgium and therefore play tomorrow when I’m working from home rather than Tuesday when I’m out and about and will probably end up stuck on theM25 listening to Talksport. Still it’s better than having to watch ITV....
Listen to BBC Radio 5Live! Talksport is the ITV of radio.
I think Pickford is athletic - 6 ft 1" is fine for a keeper - the best keeper I have ever seen at his peak was Peter Shilton. He was 6ft 0".
Pickford's strengths are his distribution and shot stopping, he sometimes needs to look at parrying balls wide rather than straight ahead, but you can pick faults in most keepers! I consider him solid and that is important!
Can I just say, my memories of Shilton was that he was bloody awful. Granted I only remember him from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s. Didnt see him earlier than that.
I remember Gazza smacking a hat trick of free kicks past him in one game (think it was Spurs v Derby) and he didnt get near any of them. He didnt get close to the pens in the Italia '90 semi.
Hart, Clemence, Seaman & even David James at their peak all better than him by a country mile.
Thats just my memories of him. No doubt those older than 42 year old me will put me right.
We wouldn't have been in the '90 semi without his saves against Cameroon. He was better than Hart, Clemence, Seaman & even David James combined.
The Ecuador match at the knock out stage in 2006 finished 1-0, 12 years ago, Columbia similar ranked so going for 1-0
Good enough for me
Beckham scored so guess it must be Kane as he is the new poster boy! The whole country is going to start rocking at about 4.30pm tomorrow in anticipation
The referee will be Mark Geiger of the USA .. let's hope we can count on him to do the right thing .. ((:>) ... one of the assistants will be from Canada .. how are our current relations with our North American cuzzins ?
We have played 16 knock-out games at major tournaments. Our record is won 6, lost 10. 6 of those loses were on penalties. Other than Iceland, we've been knocked out by Yugoslavia (Euro 68), Germany (3 times, 2 of those on penalties, the other only AET), Portugal (twice, both times on penalties), Argentina (twice, once by Maradona, once on penalties) and Brazil.
The only teams ranked below us at the time of the matches were Iceland and Yugoslavia. So of the remaining 8 against teams ranked higher than us, 6 were by penalties, 1 after extra time and only 1 (Brazil, the eventual winners) in 90 mins.
I'm wary of Columbia, and then every other team we face, but historically speaking, once we get this far in a competition it takes a big hitter a lot of work to get past us.
Iceland certainly proved this World Cup that their win over us wasnt a fluke with their name being used to mock us
Ultimately Gary Neville is right when he talks about that match, we took the lead and had the advantage, the players worked on the training ground all week to deal with the Icelandic long throw yet the moment we went ahead we conceded because we didnt deal with it. The same happened again a short while later and with their lead they sat back and like Argentina let us break our backs and their two lines of Midfield and Defence
Had we protected that 1-0 lead a bit better and a bit longer then we may well have gone on to win the game as it is we didnt yet firstly as you say, the sides that have beaten us are no longer in the tournament whilst none of the sides left appear as stubborn as Iceland
Colombia wont be a given but fully see it being an open game and if I see anyone being stubborn in Defence I think it'll be us
just had a look over there 10 results prior to wc they have 0-0 draws against egypt and australia but did get a shock win over france, i do think its v much in our hands and just hoping we turn up.
Iceland certainly proved this World Cup that their win over us wasnt a fluke with their name being used to mock us
Ultimately Gary Neville is right when he talks about that match, we took the lead and had the advantage, the players worked on the training ground all week to deal with the Icelandic long throw yet the moment we went ahead we conceded because we didnt deal with it. The same happened again a short while later and with their lead they sat back and like Argentina let us break our backs and their two lines of Midfield and Defence
Had we protected that 1-0 lead a bit better and a bit longer then we may well have gone on to win the game as it is we didnt yet firstly as you say, the sides that have beaten us are no longer in the tournament whilst none of the sides left appear as stubborn as Iceland
Colombia wont be a given but fully see it being an open game and if I see anyone being stubborn in Defence I think it'll be us
Denmark would have been the only team to play in a similar style. It must have been a contrast for Eriksen playing in a Denmark team who used long throws as a weapon, but it certainly worked against Croatia.
We have played 16 knock-out games at major tournaments. Our record is won 6, lost 10. 6 of those loses were on penalties. Other than Iceland, we've been knocked out by Yugoslavia (Euro 68), Germany (3 times, 2 of those on penalties, the other only AET), Portugal (twice, both times on penalties), Argentina (twice, once by Maradona, once on penalties) and Brazil.
The only teams ranked below us at the time of the matches were Iceland and Yugoslavia. So of the remaining 8 against teams ranked higher than us, 6 were by penalties, 1 after extra time and only 1 (Brazil, the eventual winners) in 90 mins.
I'm wary of Columbia, and then every other team we face, but historically speaking, once we get this far in a competition it takes a big hitter a lot of work to get past us.
Well that's a different spin compared to what we normally hear!!
The Ecuador match at the knock out stage in 2006 finished 1-0, 12 years ago, Columbia similar ranked so going for 1-0
Good enough for me
Beckham scored so guess it must be Kane as he is the new poster boy! The whole country is going to start rocking at about 4.30pm tomorrow in anticipation
It doesn't matter who puts it in the net, the record will show H Kane Esq.
We have played 16 knock-out games at major tournaments. Our record is won 6, lost 10. 6 of those loses were on penalties. Other than Iceland, we've been knocked out by Yugoslavia (Euro 68), Germany (3 times, 2 of those on penalties, the other only AET), Portugal (twice, both times on penalties), Argentina (twice, once by Maradona, once on penalties) and Brazil.
The only teams ranked below us at the time of the matches were Iceland and Yugoslavia. So of the remaining 8 against teams ranked higher than us, 6 were by penalties, 1 after extra time and only 1 (Brazil, the eventual winners) in 90 mins.
I'm wary of Columbia, and then every other team we face, but historically speaking, once we get this far in a competition it takes a big hitter a lot of work to get past us.
Well that's a different spin compared to what we normally hear!!
We have only won 3 World Cup knock out games, away from Wembley, in normal time. Ever.
Banks was 6ft 1" - It is a big error in the game writing off lads who are not giants - they do have to compensate for their lack of inches but those who do are generally the best keepers.
I have often thought how easy it would be for an African country to develop a keeping programme and produce keepers that address a major deficiency they have. I'd love to run a project like that - even women's football where technically able keepers could make a massive difference.
What I would look for first is concentration - so any kids that can't concentrate in class would be out no matter how tall they were. You can work on the rest from there - keeping is a very technical position.
6ft 1" was pretty tall for a footballer when Banks was playing.
I accept that it is an average height 40-50 years on.
If we had the England team of Beckham's era I'd be letting myself get carried away thinking it was our year. With this team I don't have any expectation.
Maybe that's a good thing and the lack of expectation and pressure will translate to the players tomorrow.
If we had the England team of Beckham's era I'd be letting myself get carried away thinking it was our year. With this team I don't have any expectation.
Maybe that's a good thing and the lack of expectation and pressure will translate to the players tomorrow.
Yeah, I have hope - real hope for a change - but not necessarily expectation.
With this team we a) Have a system devised to be effective in the competition b) Have practised set pieces c) are probably better prepared for penalties than any other side and d) have a natural goalscorer. Ok, we may not have the best players overall, but systems win World Cups - look at Messi's and Ronaldo's World Cup records.
If we had the England team of Beckham's era I'd be letting myself get carried away thinking it was our year. With this team I don't have any expectation.
Maybe that's a good thing and the lack of expectation and pressure will translate to the players tomorrow.
I know what you're saying but I feel like we are actually a 'team this time...
If we had the England team of Beckham's era I'd be letting myself get carried away thinking it was our year. With this team I don't have any expectation.
Maybe that's a good thing and the lack of expectation and pressure will translate to the players tomorrow.
I'm more hopeful than I ever was with that group of players. Always felt like we had to fit all the stars into the line up, even if it didn't make the best and most balanced team.
Very tough on the Japanese who were terrific but Belgium have that touch of class and i like their chances against Brazil
Agree but there is something not quite right in the balance of that Belgium midfield, and Japan were able to play round them and get into the box with ease.
DeBruyne looks lost, how Wiesel gets in front of Dembele is beyond me and it was only after Fellaini came on, that they started to threaten.
Also not sure if Hazard and DeBruyne are the best of buddies? There was a couple of occasions in the 2nd half when Hazard could have played DeBruyne in, but once he saw who he was, he seemed to purposely change direction and ignore him!
To use a boxing analogy, Belgium look a bit 'glassy' to me, they go through games looking the part, but are far too prone for the sucker punch, than would make me confident of backing them heavily to win the whole thing.
Comments
We win it in extra time
one of the assistants will be from Canada .. how are our current relations with our North American cuzzins ?
EDIT
https://youngtribune.com/england-vs-colombia-mark-geiger-to-take-referee-world-cup-2018-last-16-clash/
The only teams ranked below us at the time of the matches were Iceland and Yugoslavia. So of the remaining 8 against teams ranked higher than us, 6 were by penalties, 1 after extra time and only 1 (Brazil, the eventual winners) in 90 mins.
I'm wary of Columbia, and then every other team we face, but historically speaking, once we get this far in a competition it takes a big hitter a lot of work to get past us.
Ultimately Gary Neville is right when he talks about that match, we took the lead and had the advantage, the players worked on the training ground all week to deal with the Icelandic long throw yet the moment we went ahead we conceded because we didnt deal with it. The same happened again a short while later and with their lead they sat back and like Argentina let us break our backs and their two lines of Midfield and Defence
Had we protected that 1-0 lead a bit better and a bit longer then we may well have gone on to win the game as it is we didnt yet firstly as you say, the sides that have beaten us are no longer in the tournament whilst none of the sides left appear as stubborn as Iceland
Colombia wont be a given but fully see it being an open game and if I see anyone being stubborn in Defence I think it'll be us
they have 0-0 draws against egypt and australia but did get a shock win over france, i do think its v much in our hands and just hoping we turn up.
England 2 - 1 AET according to my gut feels. Alli to score in ET.
I accept that it is an average height 40-50 years on.
England playing Sweden is like Charlton playing Millwall. No logic as to why but just a fact of life.
I just hope Switzerland can somehow get past Sweden.
And that was Hodgson's distinctly average 2012 team who beat them.
Maybe that's a good thing and the lack of expectation and pressure will translate to the players tomorrow.
DeBruyne looks lost, how Wiesel gets in front of Dembele is beyond me and it was only after Fellaini came on, that they started to threaten.
Also not sure if Hazard and DeBruyne are the best of buddies? There was a couple of occasions in the 2nd half when Hazard could have played DeBruyne in, but once he saw who he was, he seemed to purposely change direction and ignore him!
To use a boxing analogy, Belgium look a bit 'glassy' to me, they go through games looking the part, but are far too prone for the sucker punch, than would make me confident of backing them heavily to win the whole thing.