I really can not understand why I fall for this every time that England play in a international competition. " England can win this " I always feed myself this nonsense. Why on earth did we think we had a great world cup? it must have been Southgates magic waist coat and the set piece love train. We beat Panama, Colombia (on pens) and Sweden and lost to Belgium (twice) and Croatia. Yes you could argue that you can only beat the teams in front of you but really?.
About this time last year was England's best performance beating Spain in their own back garden then scape past Switzerland on Penalties only to eventually lose to Holland.
So yes after all that I just wrote about I will still dust off my Vuvuzela and fall for it all over again.
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For me it was the simple thing that there was absolutely no expectation!!... We went to Russia off the back of a 2016 exit against Iceland in the Euros and a 2014 World Cup where we didnt even get out of the damned Group
When the draw for 2018 was made nearly everyone said that we'd struggle to get out of the Group, then we just went along for the ride when it got better and better - Am sorry I dont buy the whole "we had the easiest route to the Semi-Finals", yes that is true but the expectation prior to the competition was that we wouldnt even get close to it
Of course now we've reached the Semi-Finals of two International competitions that expectation will be firmly back on the shoulders of what is a very young England team, it doesnt help that we dont have a great selection of Centre-Backs at the moment but seriously continue to treat England like we did in 2018, go in with zero expectation, that way you wont be left disappointed should we fail, if we dont fail then the joy at winning should be even greater surely?
Even when they do well, it's "because the opposition were poor", or "we got a good draw". Ten years unbeaten in qualifying - ten years! - any other country would be celebrating that fact, I hadn't even heard that (which might be my fault) until, of course, we lose. And what else do we hear? "Well that's all well and good, but when we get to the finals we are always crap".
And the biggest irony of all? Those moaning on here, support Charlton...
As to why it hasn’t happened in the last 53 years is of course another matter altogether.
International football does very little for me now - I really couldn't give a toss.
If it wasn't for Charlton I'm not sure I'd even watch that much club football.
Could do without our Twat Army though:
https://www.football365.com/news/the-england-twatarmy-are-yesterdays-men
Every team has off games and i'm personally glad it happens now rather than just before the tournament starts. Just kicks the complacency out of our game
As Will Self pointedly said, quite obviously, not everyone who voted for Brexit is racist, but almost everyone who is racist did. In the same way, obviously, not all England fans are intolerant and right wing, but those who are intolerant and right wing will likely say they’re an England fan. Taking over market squares and bars and putting up Cross of St. George flags isn’t the best way to make anyone believe you’re not going to be a problem.
Ah yes, because the Dutch, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Germans etc don’t all meet up and drink whilst displaying their nations flag.
the fans that did go spent circa 6/700 quid and a v small minority - probably not even England away club members got nicked for having a sing song and had the backs put up when a load of robocops turned up
England are overrated anyway, people forget although we were semi finalist at the world cup, we lost 3 games lol. Every time we faced better opposition, we lost.
Our defence is terrible, making our team incredibly unbalanced. We can score, but my god can we leak goals too.
Let me say that I am totally aware that the herberts are a very, very small minority. But they do exist, there is no point in denying it.
The article is not accusing all England fans of being hooligans, and I agree that the line "Taking over market squares and bars and putting up Cross of St. George flags isn’t the best way to make anyone believe you’re not going to be a problem." is a load of bollocks. There are blokes who follow England (or use England matches as an excuse to follow their bizzaire agenda) who are there purely to cause trouble.
In my eyes, that's everything that is wrong.
Being satisfied with losing a game because we get 'easier opposition'. We won't win anything with that mentality.
As mentioned... People went into the 2018 Tournament with zero expectation about getting out of the Group
Everyone would have laughed had someone said we'd have made the Semi-Finals
Maybe your getting overrated mixed up with hope?
Nothing wrong with hoping that Charlton get promoted this season or England win every Major Tournament that we enter, I personally am not expecting either to happen though - Or maybe your getting confused about the "Its Coming Home" song when its clearly become a running joke throughout rather than arrogance
Zero expectation of getting out of a group consisting of Tunisia and Panama?
2nd favourites for the Euros... clearly somebody is overrating us?
Your simply letting your pride get in the way of success
No one will remember how we got to the Semi-Finals in years to come, they'll remember that we got there... Do you think Wales will care if they reach the Rugby World Cup Final beating everyone below them in the rankings? - Of course they wont