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No way Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole and Hargreaves (I'm shocked) deserved to be on a losing side.

Penalties are a cruel way to decide games. But what about the Portuguese goalie (again!)? Three saves and one almost save.

But a poor team is in the semis.

The post mortem will villify Eriksson, and rightly so.

I know I'm going to get a right caning here but as this is a forums that encourages free speech I thought why not?

Now that England are out maybe we can finally put 1966 to bed and lay the ghosts to rest. Yet again England are going to win a tournament before it's even started (that's David Beckham saying that during the closing credits on Match of The Day) and fail as soon as they come across a tidy side.

Okay Portugal were not great by any shout or means but if we are honest, England huffed and puffed their way past the previous teams they had to play. At the end of the day, if you miss 3 out of 4 penalties, then you cannot expect to deserve to go through.

The thing that generally let's England down is their aroogance in thinking that they have got a God given right to win everything. Okay the Germans may be arrogant but with their footballing history, they may just have something to be arrogant about.

Thanks for 'listening'.

Flags ripped from cars/ grown gently weep in kebab shops/ smug welsh blokes share your tears/ you deserved to win

Sorry to be poetic, but I share your pain.

Gawd bless ya' all

Hi All,
Is it me or are the England team the sporting version of New Labour - all spin and not much substance. Lots of talk about what they are going to do but not backing it up with the performance.
They were crap against Paraguay, terrible against Trinidad and Tobago and lucky to avoid defeat against Sweden with a handball, a couple off the woodwork and a great off the line clearance. They werent convincing against Ecuador and never looked like they were going to really stretch Portugal.
It was a stirring performance in defence after Rooney got sent off. Hargreaves was awesome.
THe bottom line is that Ericsson is a manager who gives the appearance of being ultra-conservative, a hangover from his days as Lazio manager when Italian football was renowned for defensive tactics. Not taking enough forwards and playing Rooney up front on his own was asking for trouble.

The really worrying thing is that McLaren is taking over. I can feel more of the same.

It just wasn't our year - the injury problems with Owen and Rooney before the World Cup meaning that neither were at all match fit in Germany, Owen then collapsing in the Sweden game, Sven gambling with the four strikers and losing the bet when he lost Owen, Beckham not at his best and getting injured yesterday, Rooney getting sent off, bloody Portugal and that goalie in a penalty shootout.

Throw in that we had enough chances to win it yesterday, even when down to ten men, but we couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.

A damn shame, but there you go. Not meant to be.

I am looking forward to seeing what McClaren does - although I don't want to see England go three behind, those two amazing Middlesborough comebacks in the UEFA cup a few months ago showed a swashbuckling style that could do us very well. We'll see, eh. Bloody game!

BUT what was the point in Walcott ????

Its be like Blair sending the army cadets into Iraq...........excellent experience for the boys??????

There was no bloody point at all. It was a decision which seemed stupid at the time, and turned out to be...stupid. We took only one fit striker with any experience at international or even premiership level - Peter Crouch, and the idea was that he could be brought on as a sub!

Sven was a cock, with a Keeganesque understanding of tactics, who got away with it for so long because he was foreign, and seemed a bit brainy. In fact he was a mercenary two faced twat, who twice almost ditched England for Man Utd and Chelsea, for which the deadheads at the FA rewarded him with golden handcuffs.

Four million pounds a year? Fucking hell, anyone could pick a better team than that clueless twat, who was too gutless to choose between Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard. He took England to three quarter finals, and got dicked by Big Phil Scolari three times, the man who could have been the next England manager but for the comedy bungling of FA dickhead-in-chief Brian "My brain hurts" Barwick.

It's not that I'm bitter you understand. Not bitter at all. I hope Sven enjoys a long and happy life with his ?25 million of ill gotten gains, the devious amoral skank.

Now all we need is for the Germans to win the fucking thing for our joy to be complete.

Robches wrote:

SNIP

Now all we need is for the Germans to win the fucking thing for our joy to be complete.



What's wrong with the notion of Germany winning? So far this tournament they have proved to be one of the more attack-minded teams.

Argentina were many people's favourites (I even put ?90 on them to win) and played some great football at times. But when 1-0 up against Germany, Peckerman swapped an attacking midfielder for a deffensive midfielder. He thought the game was as good as won. he was wrong.

Klinsmann, on the other hand, threw on a couple more attackers, got the goal they needed and went on to win the penalty shootout.

If they continue their attacking ways, and it leads to them winning the final, then I'll be the first to say "Germany deserved to win".

After that, I daresay they'll annex the Sudetenland.