Hexus Euro 2004 Thread.

[Russ]

if rooney wasnt such a selfish scouse idiot, and passed to vassell rather than diving an hoping it could of been different. SIGH!

[Stoo]

Rooney was getting tired and and a bit scrappy, hence taking him off to inject fresh legs into the side, only they go and throw it all away with two stupid incidents..

[midzt]

if rooney wasnt such a selfish scouse idiot, and passed to vassell rather than diving an hoping it could of been different. SIGH!

Couldn't agree more, I was shouting at the TV saying "f***ing pass it!!" never did.

And if Beckham just took a little more time and calmed down. He took the penalty so quickly.

Come on England

[Butuz]

Ha Ha.

Twooooaaaa Niiiaaaaaaallllllllll



Tres bien!!!!

Butuz

[Galant]

I AM GOING TO BARF!!!!!!

Flippin free kick in the last flippin three minutes, and then a flippin penalty in the flippin last flippin minute!

What the flip was flippin Hesky doin? And Gerrard for that matter. Just kick the stupid ball out Gerrard!

I'm going to go cry now.

[Galant]

can we please pray, together, that good o' english thuggary doesn't emerge on the streets of portugal tonight, seriously! :/ I hope they smoked plenty of pot today I really do.

Very good point.

What's worse than handing the game to France in the last two minutes? Getting chucked out of the tournament for riots and hooliganism.

Everyone commence playing, so we can meet em again in the final and finish what we just started.

[Swafe]

whos with me ? armed with a knuckleduster finding the first french b****rd i can find :@



only joking, but i am mad ! stupid england

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

What the hell happened!?

Zidane is officially in league with Satan, there is no way on this earth that anyone can be that good. In less than 2 minutes ONE MAN scored two goals that made the previous 90 minutes a total and utter waste of time.

Anyway I'll try and make a stab at a match report minus any vulgar material and racist French comments!

Asides from injury time it was an impressive performance from England. Rooney and King stepped up to the plate in a big way and I feel very sorry for both of them especially. Rooney IMO should never have been taken off and King may has well have been Ferdinand in most situations. Top drawer and the future of England is safe in respect to those two players if they continue to produce displays like that.

Keeping
Calamity James does it again but then again Gerrard didn't help him out. Reasonable performance from him but that one incident will over shadow everything.

Defence
Cole - Very positive all night and made some nice runs down the wing as he usually does. Kept Pires under reasonable control and carried out defensive duties well.
Campbell - Pretty solid. Must've told the rest of the defence the right things all night made sure the defence weren't responsible for anything.
King - For his first competitive debut the boy done good. Very good infact and made the right tackles at the right times. I get the feeling that if Terry has a suspect game or two his place MIGHT just be challenged for.
Neville - Usually conservative yet solid performance. Commentators were saying he should have been more positive but really that isn't part of his game. He does what he does.

Midfield
Scholes - Tenacious and lively for a while. Faded towards the end of when he was on the pitch. He was capable of much better IMO.
Lampard - It was said that this was his 67th competitve game this season. Now consider he is at Chelsea where hardly anyone is sure they will be playing on a Saturday - his selection was proven to be the right choice. Great goal and matched Gerrard in his drive for the midfield.
Gerrard - I'll resist talking about "that incident" for a sec. Played very well and made some excellent tackles to take Zidane out of the game (for the most of it ) I have a feeling he will react to this and make an even bigger impact. So - WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING!?! Under pressure yes but WHY pass back to james when France are almost ALL in your own half?
Beckham - Wasn't a much a poor penalty from Beckham as well as a good save from Bartez. That turned the game. If he had of scored the penalty when England were getting hammered by France that would have put them to bed with a very sore head. Big game and it may be harsh to say it but he could have done better. Perhaps it's telling that he isn't used to the right after playing centre mid with Real.

Attack
Owen - Did nothing. Nada. Zip. Squat. As a pool fan this greatly disappointed me. Substitution totally deserved. Almost totally ineffective leaving all the work to...
Rooney - For me Englands man of the match. Tortured france on occasions and really made them work. Used his strength well and apart from the occasional anger problem he stepped up big style. No Fear. Why Sven took him off is beyond me because he looked fresh, had just made an excellent run and was just getting better and better.

Subs
Vassell - Didn't see much of him but made the comedy moment where Bartez got a slap up the chops with the ball. Much more effective than Owen however.
Hargreves - Didn't play just as well as Scholes IMO but he was getting tired. Can't say much about him really except he didnt make any glaring errors.
Heskey - First, let me say I can't believe Brum payed £6.25 Million for him and like I said before I'm a pool fan. Totally and completely ineffective against France. France could cope with players like Heskey but the faster ones like Owen would have caused problems. Then the free kick....


Asides from the end England played well. Let's just all hope that the fans are smart enough to just kick a wall and let it go. I have my doubts but here's hoping!

[directhex]

Allons enfants de la patrie ,

Le jour de gloire est arrivé.

[Dorza]

Oh well never mind....... At least your taking part



<---------

I really wanted england to win tho, but no they messed thigns up again. Why put Heskey on, hes crap. Ive never rated him, despite the mistakes made in the past they still dont seem to understand the fact that you simply dont make dodgy tackles in or around the area when your so close to winning. I blame beckham a bit to, he so rushed that penalty imo, he just hit it basicly with out thinking. Thats how it looked to me anyway.

[shiato storm]

well, as usual england lost.
i wonder why we spend so much money on a sport we appear to be monumentally cr*p at...
typical.

[Platinum]

Why do england always play so poor in the second half or when were a goal up?
Lets hope we dont get penaltys or were proper screwed

[Stewart]

France 2 - 1 England

Arrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh! How? How did we not win that game? HOW can we lose a game like that?

1-0 up a large chunk of the game, miss a penalty to put the game to bed, then conceed a free-kick AND a penalty in the dieing seconds, and lose 2-1.

Only once before in my life, have I watched a top class game swing like that, and that was when Man U beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the Champions League Final in 1999, after being 1 down for most of the game, then scoring two in injury time.

But even then, Bayern hadn't missed a penalty. I've had worse days, as its not knock-out football, but in terms of the result, this is the blackest day of all.

Positives? King looked perfectly at home against Henry, Rooney is worth about £5 million more than he was before the game kicked off, and we were a few minutes away from beating the best team in the tournament.

We can (and will) go through behind the French in second place I think, but the teams and fans confidence is shot. What do we have to do to get a result? Apparently more than being 1-0 up with a minute to go, having missed a 2nd half penalty to put the game to bed.

Just makes you want to rip your eyes out in frustration. Can you imagine the England dressing room after that game? Must have been like a morgue.

I have a sneaking suspicion that football was invented by some higher power, to annoy me personally.

WHY?!

[Nemeliza]

Zidane 2 - England 1
I want to cry but my body wont allow it. Im dissappointed but not bitter as that is why france are the best team in the world. (or one of anyway)

[Galant]

There is hope yet.

Take a look at history, go on, look up the stats, and tell me what happened in the early stages of tournaments when England did very well of won? Can you guess?

Have a look around and get back to me.

England need to be proud of a strong performance, and need to go out again, efforts redoubled, and steeled to not let pressure force them into any further such stupid mistakes.

We can still win this. The fans needs to get behind them, show their support. England need to go back out there, heads held high, and fight like the Lions they wear on their chests.

[Nemeliza]

i wonder why we spend so much money on a sport we appear to be monumentally cr*p at...

Seems as though u have answered your own question.