Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

But I was asking you why you think Arge, Germany, Brazil are the 'big boys' - what exactly have they done that's such a threat so far? :confused: Have you actaully watched any of their games, or are you just going on previous tournaments?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I've watched the highlights and yeah, they have yet to wake up - that's how they've been in previous tournaments and went on to improve. The difference is those teams tend to play a better style of football - England have been something of a shambles lately, just scraping by in matches with the occasional flashes of brilliance. It gets tiresome when you hear people say "well as long as they win I don't care how they play" - well that's hardly something to rely on!

If England do go on to win, I'll be the first to admit I was wrong - but I just can't see it. Apart from the midfield genius of Lampard and Gerrard I can't see England having any dominance on the pitch, although Rooney looks like he's slowly getting back to his best.

For the record I think England will beat Portugal - but in loyally keeping in tradition, the semis is where I think it will end.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Thanks.

Lampard is one palyer I'm losing faith in - he's had over 20 shots and has not managed to get a goal out of any of them. Something seriously wrong there. Gerrard tho is genius. And Rooneys performance on Sunday just says it all - he's back.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

You serious?? Lampard isn't a striker!! He's been all over the pitch, if I was English I'd be VERY happy with his performances.

And I disagree that Rooney is back. Getting there, but he's been better.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I know he's not, but he's struck for goal over 20 times and hasn't hit the jackpot. Poor IMO. David Beckhams not a striker either, but he gets blasted every time he doesn't score from a free kick.

Rooney shouldn't be by himself up front. He spent too long chasing the ball. If he had more support, you'd have got 120% out of him on Sunday, rather than just the 110% that we got. :tu:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

That's because Beckham has a reputation for being a free-kick specialist!

You could say the same about Rooney - he's not scored yet either.

Lampard is an attacking midfielder. So far I've seen him to everything an attacking midfielder do. Top performance so far.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Is this the anyone but England thread? - its very confusing... :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Well, TBR is very noticable by his absence, so while the cats away..... ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Yes - it's for people who aren't 100% pro England ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Guess who's back! :D Sorry folks, been away again for a few days - in England...:mad:

I will start off today by saying that you got away with it again against Ecuador and a small climbdown is in order on my part.

Simply put, i dont think you deserve to be where you are, you've had an easy group and an easy second round against Ecuador and you still managed to look like a poor team in every single game yet you have scraped it.

I had predicted you would go out against whoever you got in the Quater's but it looks like you've been lucky again and fluked another easyish tie against Portugal... To a point...

Deco getting himself sent off was a massive blow to Portugal and with Costinha and possibly Ronaldo missing as well you've spawned a much easier team. However, i think your so poor that you may even go out to Portugal still although im not as confident as before.

Anyway enough about said minor team, this is the World Cup after all and although you wount know it living here there are more teams than England in it - yes, its true!

Australia were well unlucky the other night, robbed by an incorrect decision by the ref IMO, so unfair. The less said about the Swiss / Ukraine game though the better.

All i can say now though is - Friday - 4pm - Germany vs Argentina :drool:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Make your mind up mate - either we're **** but just lucky, or we've had easy games. Which one is it? You thoguht Sweden we're going to spank us, and they didn't. So, it wasn't easy then, but it is now? Sour sour sour grapes :rolleyes:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Hardly, show me where i said Sweden would hump you - i said i HOPED Sweden would hump you.

And to answer your question, you are ****, you have been lucky and you've had easy games.

There's only one problem with luck....

Sour Grapes - lol - im loving it - the further you get the bigger the fall.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I'm absolutely stunned at your joy at the thought of failure. You sad creature.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Hmmm, all right mate, I see where you are comming from, the further we get the bigger the faliure :rolleyes:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I suppose that we will just have to console ourselves with the fact that we got further than Scotland (you still support them right?) in the World Cup ;)

If our exit gives you a bit of warmth in the cold wilderness, so be it...we are charitable ;) Be kind to your neighbours and all... ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I said fall, not failure.

Perhaps on a psychological level you were thinking failure when you read fall, Understandable i suppose.

---------- Post added at 14:36 ---------- Previous post was at 14:35 ----------

Creatures in the night exchanging glances....

I love you really OB.... :luv:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Except it would not be a faliure to most nations to be in the quarter finals of the worlds biggest sporting competition.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

In this instance, I see no difference.. Apart from the fact that Scotland didn't have far to fall when they failed to get anywhere.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

*dons flame-proof jacket*

Its petty and spiteful... but most of us footie fans, if not all, are the same... And no, before you say anything, I ain't a sweatie either.

As a Spurs fan, I wouldn't want Arsenal to win the champions league, regardless who they are playing against.

Its childish, petty and spiteful - but i'd be suprised if there isn't a genuinely passionate footie fan out there who hasn't wished/done it.

Scottish fans don't want to be part of England in any way sports-wise. Subsidy-wise, of course they do, but not in football. Its understandable to me at least.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Personally I think its funny that a chap whose team is ranked around 60 in the world feels that reaching the quarter finals with the chance of progressing is either a faliure or a us heading for a fall, considering you are currentley on a footballing par with Uzbekistan and Cuba you should really be glad nobody has been petty enough to start a 'Are Scotland The Cr@pest Team In The World' thread.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I will explain it then as your having difficulty, the further you get beating (sorry, scraping past) these easy teams the higher your expectation gets (putting you up for the fall), but as soon as you get a decent team your going to crash and burn (the fall itself) and therefore you will have failed (even though i never mentioned failure OB did) to achieve, well, anything.

Easy enough for you?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

There is a massive difference between expectation and hope. I personally don't expect England to win (note, this does *not* mean I expect them to lose), although I hope they will, so whatever happens now, I don't think they have failed, and I am happy.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

English expectations have actually fallen as the competition has progressed so I don't really see where you are comming from, besides even if we go out this round or the next it would be hard to class it as a faliure, as many good teams have not made it this far.

P.S. Did you know that Guatemala are currently ranked above Scotland :D :p:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Have you noticed how at the moment on the telly they are talking about England again even though this is Brazil v Ghana, oh and whats this a(nother) bit about 1966, how jolly.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

So mute your television then.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Nah, i'd much rather complain about it.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Well, I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but 'failed to achieve anything' is just a bit silly. If we go out in the quarter finals or the semis, we will have failed to win the world cup, but we will have succeeded in becoming one of the top eight or top four teams in the world. That's hardly failing to achieve anything. Much as you might desperately wish it were. :shrug:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

must say that the Brazil vs Ghana was the most entertaining match i have seen so far in the world cup.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Dont worry mate, my umbrella is up.

You will have failed to achieve anything as you have only managed to scrape by second rate teams so far with the possible exception of Sweden - who you drew with.

Congratulations!

---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:56 ----------

Far better than the Swiss game last night anyway - what a stinker that was!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I`m positive that England will win this year, i have a feeling. Mind you i get a few of those nowadays!:disturbd: :dozey: Must be the Alzheimers getting a hold! :)

Seriously though, We played the same in `66 as Geoff Hurst said earlier on tv and we will get better and better as the tournament goes on!;)
Portugal beware!:tu:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

France played well tonight... showed signs of what a good team they were 8 years ago, as opposed to the earlier stages where they looked as bad as they were 4 years ago.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I gave up with it at half time due to boredom, I am quite shocked France did it, on paper Spain had one of the best squads, may be the French realised that this was their last hurrah, it would be nice to see the likes of Zidane and Thuram go out on a bit of a high :tu:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

France did look good - second half...

Up until then they were pretty average, saying that, at the time Spain didnt look much better either.

I still fancy Brazil to edge France, but Brazil's defence is looking a tad shakey. I wonder what will happen with the likes of Zidane and Henry to deal with.

Could be interesting.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Sweden only drew with t&t, who we 'scraped' through a win against. Your logic is crap.

<snip>[/QUOTE]

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

OB, i could really mock you here but i wont as im starting to feel kinda sorry for you.

Sweden 2 - 2 England

England Scorers
J Cole 33
S Gerrard 84

Sweden Scorers
M Allback 50
H Larsson 89

Not a draw then... :rolleyes:

So what you saying is that im wrong in claiming you have been crap up until now and that you havent played second rate teams with the possible exception of Sweden.

You could be right - you only managed a draw against a team that drew with T&T - Sweden should be termed second rate as well.

Thanks for clearing that up OB. :tu:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

If that makes you feel better, then ok then. You call England second rate, when Sweden couldn't beat a team that England did, and Sweden only drew with England, and England topped the group that Sweden were in, and oops, England are now in the quarters, and Sweden (who you didn't think until now are secong rate) are now out. OK then :rolleyes:

Get over it.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I am - you brought it up... :monkey:

If you notice above i was quite happily talking about Brazil v France.

P.s. this is the anyone but England thread!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Are you still here?

All this bitterness and resentment, I thought you might have blown a blood vessel by now ...

:p:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I know - she really needs to step back a bit from the thread and cool off.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Who cares who wins the FIFA cup? - They don't take an interest in my work
so I don't take any in theirs. Now if only we could adjust the rules so it was played by two teams of scantily clad young ladies (or for the girls, hunks) on the beach.... All I know is that while England is still in there, most of our thugs are off the streets, so maybe I hope they do get to the final...

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Despite myself, i cant help but think you have a point :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Looks like tennis player Andy Murray might know where TBR is coming from... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5128028.stm

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Funny how that one starts off with "Scottish tennis star Andy Murray", but if you look at the positive press reports on the BBC website they start "British star Andy Murray" > http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/5122674.stm

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Busted :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

It started that way because it was a particular story that revolved around him being Scottish. Makes sense to me.

Tim Henman is always referred to as British (rather than English) is he not?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Me too. When it's negative he's Scottish, when it's positive he's British.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Hardly!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Why 'hardly'? For years us Celts are referred to by our home nationalities except when what we do looks good for the UK in which case we're British.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

How do you explain that Henman is always refrred to as British then?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Because a lot of English people seem to think being English and British are the same thing.

For example, the Stereophonics are always referred to as 'Welsh rockers', yet Oasis are never called 'English rockers'.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Sweden are a worse team then England. But we are not doing that well and we havent faced a difficult team like we will on staturday yet. We may be further but we faced a pretty easy team in the 2nd round and we had one of the easiest groups, yet we still havent been convincing.

We will go out on staturday unless we play much much better. I think we will win on staturday but go out to France or Brazil in the semis, they are just too good and semis would be something to be proud of anyway.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

'cos he doesn't win - if he did he would, no doubt, be 'promoted' to being English. ;)

lots more comments on a similar theme in this link

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thre...20060629123300

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

So the BBC is being criticised for referring to Andy Murray as Scottish in a story that is directly related to him being Scottish?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

We're just pointing out that in one story he's referred to as Scottish (and proud of his nationality it would seem) yet in another (where he is being successful and would appear to be Britain's only hope this year) he's "British".

Completely inconsistant.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Please tell me, when have Brazil or France played well this tournament, or ever been convincing?
And also, who actaully had a difficlut group to start with? :confused:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I don't mean to harp on about this and I agree that you have a point, but what are they supposed to do when the local rankings are British, i.e. British No. 1 etc. They cannot be expected to say the British No. 1, the Scot, Andy Murray etc. all the time.

---------- Post added at 12:47 ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 ----------

France were **** up until Spain i.e. (better opposition), and now you think they are too good for England. Let's see how England fare against better opposition before judging.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Maybe that's because they don't want to upset some of the more uptight Celts? :shrug:

possibly because they know that Oasis and their fans couldn't give a flying **** about how their nationality is published. :rolleyes:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Now come on chaps let's not get into some sort of English/Scot argument - All the time I've been to Scotland, I have found the natives to be extremely nice - whereas Wales... I found most of them to be abnoxious. Now as for the French/Brit relationship I can understand their hatred of us - Either we fought them on their territory, trampled over them to get to our war zone or
fought our enemies on their territory - good strategy they repay us with burning lamb at the dock-side! - Let's see Ukraine win the cup eh?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

A far more simple solution is to refer to him as Scottish or British and not change between the two depending on his form.

Not at all - there's no need to refer to to Welsh bands by their nationality

Completely missing the point I feel....

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

But he is the British No. 1.
I really don't think it is the case that when he doesn't play well he's referred to as Scottish rather than British. I think it is widely known that he is Britain's new up and coming tennis star and is Scottish.


Have they themselves moaned about it.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

But the media continues to use both Scottish and British. You don't think it's form-dependant? Let's wait until he's knocked out and see what they say then.

I don't know - and it's not something to moan about really, merely an observation. Here is another example - why refer to her as Welsh? When Stephen Fry (for example) took over as host of HIGNFY, he wasn't introduced as an 'English comedian'.

It's all very trivial and is drifting off topic but I'm just pointing these things out as contributary factors as to why many celts feel alienated from the English (and thread like this spring up).

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Fair enough.


As I said earlier I agreed with your general point :)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

But if there's a chance of a welsh person/team 'winning' something, then they shoudn't be called british, but welsh?



I didn't think there was much of a point to get tbh.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

They should be referred to as Welsh OR British and it should stay that way regardless of form! As is is now, when they win they're British, when they lose they're Welsh/Scottish/Irish.

So don't reply then.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

In the spirit of the thread: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...rray_blog_war/

Same thing seems to be happening here..

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

:LOL: nasty small minded englishmen. Yes, because there have been reports of these nasty small minded englishmen beating up kids and disabled people for wearing scotland football shirts.......











Oh, no, sorry, worng way round :erm::rolleyes:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

They should be referred to as Welsh AND British and it should stay that way regardless of form! As is is now, when they win they're British and Welsh/Scottish/Irish/English, when they lose they're British and Welsh/Scottish/Irish/English.

I just don't think it's as blatant as you make out Russ, unless you can demonstrate otherwise. And if there is such an English bias in the press why is Henman always referred to as British rather than English?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I've already answered that!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

All positive Andrew Murray stories which say that he is Scottish.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/3652020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/3651346.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/4603449.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tenn...04/3650264.stm - mentions both British and that he's a Scot.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/4021855.stm - mentions both

A negative story that says he is British from Newsround http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/4211062.stm

Many of the stories I glanced at mentioned both that he was British and a Scot.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

And if I was so inclined I'm sure I could find double that which describe him as Scottish when he loses and british when he wins.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Whatever.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Good call lad - you went right up in my estimations yesterday! Come on Portugal - end this farce!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

No he isn't :p:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

LOL, :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Scottish or British God though? :p:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Depends on whether he's being portrayed positively or negatively, apparently. :)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Now you're getting it!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Come on England - end this farce!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Quite right - the sooner England pack for the bus back the better.

Cracking game this afternoon though, its a shame two of the best teams have met so early on when there are still crap teams in the tournament.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Here you go TBR, I found this, and thought of you immediately :D

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2006/07/22.jpg

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Despite your PM'ing and begging i repeat i am NOT coming round to your house dressed as a baby just to satisfy your sordid sexual fantasies.

Now drop it!

Come On Portugal!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Now come on ! Don't be shy, that's not what you said in your reply PM ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

True but i could hardly tell you to X off on a family forum now could I? :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

That's the whole idea of a PM though ;)

I promise I won't copy and paste it in here. :naughty:

Now that just wouldn't be cricket, another sport you can't play. :PP: :angel: :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Thank god for that! :p:

Dont get me started on Cricket, the most boring sport invented by man bar none.

Even fishing's more exciting.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Until someone classifies paint drying as a sport.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

You've obviously never had a good day fishing then.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I think that's how scottish league football is best described.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I agree.. The sooner England win the cup, and then pack, the better..

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Looks like TBR will be happy tonight...

---------- Post added at 18:29 ---------- Previous post was at 17:49 ----------

Uh oh, penalties...and tradition dictates England should start packing up...

---------- Post added at 18:45 ---------- Previous post was at 18:29 ----------

Ah well - as predicted :shrug:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Yep...

Ahh well.. The players played well..

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Really... :confused:

Anyway, over to TBR...

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

They held the portuguese back with only 10 men. Sadly, self inflicted.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Agree, after Rooney was sent off, I thought England played exceptionally well, especially the defence. I also feel that it demonstrated how Lennon should have been more involved throughout the tournament. Personally I think Sven messed up royally, esp. with the striking situation and his over-reliance on Beckham, and the out of form Lampard.

(Nice sportsmanship from ronaldo to a fellow club team mate. What a ****. Still, the Man Utd training ground should be interesting).

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Probably the wrong person to do it to, if you are going to be on the same training pitch as him for the next season ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

How about a new football anthem for the british team?


God save our football team, give us a winning team,
God coach our team.
Send them to training school
t'learn how to play football
long to train how to play
God save our team!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

A 'new' anthem? I didn't know there already was one :spin:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I didn't know there was a british team.. I thought they were England.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Are these 'team members' employees of NTL or telewest?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Neither and what's that got to do with this thread?? :D