Maximus Decimus
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Posts
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Posts posted by Maximus Decimus
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47 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:
Looking forward to this. Navas vs Mbappe is some mismatch…
What a crazy half.
France score and then have Spain fully on the ropes, before a wonder kid scores an amazing goal from nowhere and then Spain take control...
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4 hours ago, Copa said:
I’ve only run 4 times in 5 years and they’ve all been at parkrun. I did a parkrun 5 years ago in Canberra and another in England last year.
I’ve done two parkruns in Canberra over the last two weeks with times of 29 and 27 minutes. I’m now on the lookout for some proper shoes.
We have quite a few parkruns to choose from in Canberra and I’m thinking of trying the run with the dirt road in a nature reserve as the variation of the ground seems to work better for my feet.
It feels good to get back into running.
After running for about 16 months, it takes over.
I dropped a laptop on my big tor yesterday, and for a while was debating whether to go the walk-in.
My only thought was how long I wouldn't be able to run for.
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Reactions to the QF have been interesting. Obviously, the nature of the penalty win has English people excited but there's also been some positive reviews. The pundits on The Rest is Football we're very pleased about it and felt it a step in the right direction.
On the continent, reviews were far less kind. The write-up in the Spanish press on El Pais was pretty scathing (especially of Southgate) and as if nothing had changed.
Similarly, I've been following the analysis on Four-four-two and he was probably less positive than for previous games. Apparently after the subs we abandoned all semblance of a coherent system.
I'm not too fussed. I thought it was clearly better, without being too amazing.
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11 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
Anyway, whether it’s Holland, Netherlands or Nether-regions, they are going to be a tougher nut to crack than anything England has faced so far in the tournament.
Looking forward to it and a place in the final is now within our grasp despite all the flapping that people did during the group stage on the form of this team.
Personally I’m optimistic of getting there.
We came into the tournament thinking we might be the best team. Although the bookies odds are limited, we were clearly one of the best.
Things haven't panned out like that but I'm fully embracing the chaos of it. Yes we've been lucky but we've been unlucky in the past, so I don't worry too much about that.
We've also been lucky in the past. 1990 was similar in it's chaotic nature, in 1996 we basically robbed Spain in the QF and in 2018 we survived a penalty shootout.
Bring it on!
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22 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:
Yeah, it is essentially like what you say about people saying England to mean UK, England being the largest and most populated part of the UK and Holland being the most historically important and populated part of the Netherlands.
I was shocked to find it was only 6 million out of 17.
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2 hours ago, DavidM said:
Is saying Holland actually wrong ? I’ve known Dutch people say Holland
I've always seen it as people saying England when they're talking about the UK.
I might be wrong, but I think they even used to use Holland on TV graphics and things.
I watched something with Van Dyck the other day, and was surprised to hear him say Holland. I always presumed it was an error foreigners made.
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So amazingly this is gonna be the first time England-Netherlands have ever played in a knockout game of a major tournament.
Pre-tournament I said I'd like to see us beat one of the big nations when it matters. I'm on the fence whether this fully counts, but I'd take it!
I've been using Chatgpt to get stats quite well this Euros, but got properly wrong results for when I asked for England-Netherlands results (it missed out 1988!). Turns out that I think even it struggles with the whole Netherlands/Holland thing.
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14 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:
Before this tournament one of my mates changed our WhatsApp group name to "Can we not knock it?" in reference to those years (92 -93) and the great Graham Taylor documentary that accompanied that wcq campaign. We're always quoting from it, so it feels appropriate that it's ended up with England playing Netherlands.
Funny, I watched it again last week. I was too young at the time to know anything other than we didn't qualify.
I felt genuinely sorry for Graham Taylor whilst seeing that he clearly wasn't well-suited to the job.
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26 minutes ago, gingerjon said:
We got that in 1996.
Ronald Koeman?
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21 minutes ago, Sidi Fidi Gold said:
England got progressively worse as the game went on and were a bit fortunate to get through but there's something totally exhilarating about England winning a penalty shoot out, I feel like I'm on cloud 9 and I'm gunna get drunk.
Saka showed some real guts to step up after what he went through after the last Euro's and so did the other 3 black players, knowing what was to come if they missed.
I was so pleased for Saka. Overall, we were very confident taking the pens.
I agree, it's the best way to win but I don't want to do it again.
I want the Netherlands, revenge for 1993!
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Twice in one lifetime, what a lucky man I am.
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Big improvement in general play without being too dangerous.
Definitely positives if we can get a win.
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Weird feeling. Still feels like a bonus after Sunday, but I can't help but get my hopes up
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Just hope it doesn't go to penalties. I honestly think I won't watch if it does.
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19 hours ago, gingerjon said:
Changing the handball interpretation mid tournament seems very rugby league.
Ah the old 'this season we're gonna clamp down on x' followed by 2 weeks of chaos before completely reneging on it by week 3.
In a similar vein, playing good players out of position is very GB/Eng Rugby League. Richard Horne on the wing anyone?
I'm sure if we win all will be forgotten, but playing Saka at left-wing when he's previously publicly said that he doesn't want to play there, feels like something that a losing coach could be battered with afterwards.
Part me thinks that Southgate is somewhat sadistically determined to be pillored when he gets home.
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Very decent game. I was looking forward to the penalty shootout in the hope I'd see Germany lose one.
Alas it wasn't to be.
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19 hours ago, gingerjon said:
Stick this here
It's probably the closest comparison to Sunday for pure release from the depths of despair.
It's also similar because on that toss of a coin we would have had another miserable failure, and who knows the whole Southgate era might never have got going.
We backed that up with our best performance of the tournament, so here's hoping for the same.
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Think the Dutch are making a bit of a statement here.
I know Austria and Switzerland have done well, and England have the players but surely they should be the favourites on this side of the draw currently? They are a more established nation that create a lot of chances.
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1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:
I know this is a very obscure comparison but as people know I'm a massive snooker fan so let me make a comparison with that sport.
In snooker, a heck of a lot of fans don't like Mark Selby because he is seen as a really boring, unentertaining player to watch, always preferring a safety over a slightly trickier pot, not caring too much about break building, playing slow and monotonous. However, Selby's style clearly works because he's won 4 World Titles and is one of the most decorated players in the sports history.
I think this is the same as what we are saying about England, yeah they might be playing boring, slow, unentertaining but something must be working because under Southgate we've had some of our best runs in tournaments in our history. Now, I'm not gonna pretend I approve, I'm one of Southgates biggest critics but if we win the euros I will happily admit that his boring style of play clearly works.
Southgate's whole tenure as England manager has certainly been one of cautious play. One slight caveat I would add to that, is that I'm not sure there's been a time in tournaments when we've ever been what you'd call an attacking side, maybe 2004?
Where I will disagree, is that I don't think this is par for the course for Southgate, and I don't agree that a win would vindicate him.
We've been objectively terrible this tournament so far, and while we've had poor performances in prior tournaments, we've also had half decent ones. This team playing like this now is miles away from a performance like a 4-0 vs Ukraine, 3-0 vs Nigeria/Wales or 6-2 against Iran, and especially not one where we outplayed the current World Champions. There is clearly something different this time. I think Southgate is trying to approach it the same way, but it isn't working the same.
As for the vindication issue, you can't win a game like we did on Sunday and then extrapolate anything about tactics or approach. We were 60 seconds from abject huniliation. We can win from here, but we either do so because something changes and we improve, or we continue to get lucky.
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27 minutes ago, JohnM said:
The Slovenians were just so weary after all that effort that they could not strike the penalty ball hard enough to beat the Portuguese goalkeeper. I think we're talking milliseconds here. Portugal just sucked all the energy out of Slovenia for 120 mins, who gave their all against a better side, stopping them from scoring but not good enough to score themselves, which is understandable.
I realise that some England followers would rather see our guys play like Slovenia , running around a lot, running at the opposition all the time, never passing back to the goalkeeper, never taking a backwards step etc, a sort of football equivalent of the Protestant work ethic, but the same followers would be on England's back at the first counter-attack breakaway goal scored against us.
Yes, we're tiresome to some. Yes, we're boring to some, but our win the other night has already entered the folklaw of England football.
You raise a very good point. When England are aimlessly passing it around the back and reluctant to move forward, it's not because they're clueless. They understand far more than any of us do. It's because they can see the danger of what is there.
From a layman's POV, I don't understand why it is seen as safer keeping the ball around the defence than getting the ball up the field. You're always one mistake away from a very dangerous situation as evidenced by Pepe last night.
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Has that ever happened? All 3 missed for Slovenia and all 3 scored for Portugal.
When England fans feel pity for you, it must be bad.
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39 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:
What a 90 minutes from Slovenia! It's great to see a smaller nation actually attacking and pushing forward rather than sitting right back and relying on the occasional counter attack.
210 minutes without conceding against two of the supposed best attacking teams in the tournament.
Penalties!
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1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:
It was low on quality, but high on drama. And because we won, I'm finding it easy to look back with fondness at the match - especially the two goals. There have been plenty of dramatic England matches involving extra time or penalties over the years, and this is another of those to add to the collection. Thankfully we came out on top on this occasion, so for me it feels great. I'd take that over having played brilliantly but losing.
We can dissect the performances and review everything once we're out. Until then, I'm just enjoying being in the tournament. I've got a friends meet up next weekend and it would have been flat if England had gone out. But we're not, we're in the QF next Saturday against Switzerland.
Come on England!
I think that's why I did my post about it not overshadowing the reality of a bad performance.
Because it was euphoric at the time. It's the first I've even had a glimmer of the 'it's coming home' stuff and dancing round the room to World in Motion.
Anything from here is a bonus, because we were out, we were gone and I was already planning my week as if we were gone. It wasn't just a late winner, it was at the point where Slovakia were dragging out injury time and nothing was happening.
I can't think of a comparable sporting event for one or my teams.
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1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:
In fairness to Switzerland, their high press they put on Italy was flawless, world class, and should they do that to us with how we cautiously and slowly to the point of snails pace pass the ball along the back line we are gonna get stripped of that ball every time we get it and get absolutely slaughtered.
Have faith that Southgate will change the system...
He's like the Lord Melchett of football manager.
'So, are we going to change the system around and admit it isn't working?'
'Exactly, exactly what the enemy would expect us to do and therefore exactly what we shan't do!'
I'm actually hopeful that injuries might force some changes that end up being positive.
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4 hours ago, gingerjon said:
I don't think anyone is seriously saying England played well - I certainly haven't seen anyone do an about face on that.
The ref was weirdly bad so he'll almost certainly get the final now.
He set out determined to give yellows and fair enough, but completely shied away when it meant a red might be given.
I thought we were very lucky with their goal. If he goes down after thr contact from Guehi, it's a penalty and Guehi is off as he was already on a yellow.
Euro 2024
in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Posted
Spain have to be hot favourites whoever they get.
That said, it's football and a funny old game!