Maximus Decimus
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Posts posted by Maximus Decimus
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Can we not knock it?
Yes we can!
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All I'm gonna say is....
Take that Koeman, revenge for 1993. Have some of that you Heineken swilling, clog-wearing cheat!
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Yeeeeeessssssssss
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For once we've been the better team. The Dutch look dangerous on the break and it's still only 1-1.
Gonna be tight all the way.
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We're in an exciting game at least!
Oh yeh, never a penalty but definitely deserve to be at least level.
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1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:
Spain deserve to win this, they are the best side by a country mile. I mean, I'd like England to win it but if they don't then Spain are very deserving of the title .
That said, the semi final could well have taken a lot out of them and they might not be as explosive as they've been all tournament so far. But probably not.
Spain have to be hot favourites whoever they get.
That said, it's football and a funny old game!
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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.
Euro 2024
in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Posted
It was just do perfectly timed too, I couldn't believe it when I saw just 2 added minutes as they were celebrating.
Also, as a negative England fan, I could already see the near misses that I'd be going over in my head for days: the weird Foden line-clearance that looked like it crossed the line, the Foden wonder strike, the Saka disallowed goal etc
It came from nowhere and was a thing of beauty!