Well played Germany

Well it's all over for another 2 years at least assuming we qualify for the European Championship and with this squad not even that's guaranteed, certainly not if they play like they played in this world cup, I hardly think the mighty Wales are quivering in their boots at that performance.
No doubt there will be massive inquests and a lot of shouting over what went wrong, but it can be summed up fairly easily, We Weren't Good Enough! Not by a long way and not even enough to go down fighting. Oh sure some could point out the disallowed goal might have changed the nature of the game, it might have, but that wouldn't have improved our dreadfully playing squad for the next round. These players do well in the premiership, however they are surrounded (and I suspect carried) by talented foreigners too. Rooney might just as well not have turned up and don't get me started on Heskey!
It seems once again that only the England fans have the passion and belief in our country, certainly our squad doesn't seem too. The flags will be packed away and people will feel robbed, not by Germany, but by the England squad. Germany showed us how it can be done, will we learn? I suspect not, we never do.

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Just stop it!

I was out shopping today and couldn't help noticing the tabloid headlines.

Herr we go, again = The Sun
Jermania, now it's er Germany = The Mirror
JOB DONE NOW FOR THE HUN = Daily Star

Dear Lord, the puns are bad enough but the jingoism is embarrassing. No wonder certain people hate England, it's borderline racist and seriously wrong. England put in a reasonable performance against a rather poor Slovenian side and the gutter press are bigging it up as if it was a classic. Germany are a totally different kettle of fish and one of the better looking sides in the competition which has had a good few non performers go out (Yes we're looking at you France) as well as the odd upset (Hello Italy). I'm not saying England will lose and go out, but, the tabloids are making it seem as if this will be easy, it wont, matches against Germany seldom are and I doubt we'll manage a 5:1 thrashing this time.
The insults against the Germans are not helping and quite frankly a disgrace and make the English look like a bunch of racist idiots, despite it being the British press. No wonder "Anyone but England" becomes a way of life for some people.
With friends like the tabloids, the English are accumulating enemies we don't really need.

More about → Just stop it!

The ABE's will just have to wait

Better.

Still a lot of improvement needed, but much better.

More about → The ABE's will just have to wait

Just for once don't let us down!

I love watching football, from kids and adults playing in the park right up to champions league. The skill level of course is highly variable but the passion and commitment isn't, at least usually.
I've felt very let down by the England team over the last 2 matches, I've seen pub teams with more zest for the game playing in my local recreation ground. These England footballers seem to have forgotten that it is England they represent, not the F.A. not themselves, but England and the fans, not "this country" or "our country" but ENGLAND! We expect them to show some pride in this, some passion, a sense of commitment, not the stumbling and lethargy of the last 2 matches.
No doubt eventually the real reasons for such a poor performance of late will come to light, but most fans feel very let down anyway and wont accept anything other than the fact that you showed a total lack of commitment to them. You were booed off the pitch in your last match and struggled to understand why, it wasn't because all you could manage was a draw, it was because you didn't look like you were interested in playing! You treat the fans and your country with contempt, whether willingly or not and we expect so much better than that. Perhaps patriotism is an unknown concept for you in your high paid pampered life but it isn't for the hordes of England fans who have draped their cars and houses with our flag, they love their country in a way you seem to have forgotten. We want to believe you can do well, we've seen you play well for your club sides so know you can do it. So for once show some bloody pride and don't let the English down.

If we are to be coming home tomorrow at least let it be because we went down fighting!

More about → Just for once don't let us down!

Right, lets try this again. Come on England!

Our footballers, who are in South Africa

England is your name

Our World Cup has come

let glory be won

In Cape Town as it is in Wembley

Give us today a longed for victory

And forgive us our doubts

As we forgive those who score against us

Lead us not into offside traps

But deliver us to victory

For ours is the dream

the hope of the glory

For England

For ever

Today

More about → Right, lets try this again. Come on England!

Dream on

If people could predict football results as easily as say figuring out how much change they have in their pocket then the football pools would have gone out of business before they'd even had a chance to get going. Yet this guy is already predicting England's world cup exit.

Telegraph.

Dr Ian McHale has converted a well known mathematical model to predict which teams are most likely to progress through the competition.

The "ordered probit", used in business and medicine, shows that England has a six per cent chance of winning the tournament. 

That means it will win its group stage, then beat Serbia in the second round before narrowly succumbing to the French in the quarters.
The model, similar to one believed to be used by bookmakers, does not just take into account the form sheet but also the luck of the drawer.
It predicts that Holland are the favourites with almost 12 per cent chance of lifting the Cup narrowly ahead of Spain and Brazil.
Dr McHale, a sport statistician at the University of Salford, said: "England have an easy run up to the quarter final and then it is a very level match with the French. Unfortunately even if they win that they meet Brazil or Holland."
Dr McHale, whose work featured in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s magazine, predicted the form of the teams by studying nearly 9,000 matches over the last eight years and comparing this with their Fifa world ranking.
He then played the form books through a million different scenarios using the statistical model which showed the most probable progression of each team.
The results follow closely the bookies although Holland jumps from fifth ranked to first ranked because of recent improvements in form. That makes them a good bet at the current 10-1 odds.
In the rankings England drop from 4th favourites to sixth under the system but France jump from eighth to fifth.
Portugal, which is officially third ranked ream in the world, is ninth favourite because it has such a tough drawer.

You know it's bad enough that the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are fixated on our early demise but statisticians too? Hasn't the guy heard of lies, damned lies and statistics? Football is so much more than columns of figures to be number crunched and spew out a predicted result. Every football fan knows upsets happen and prays it isn't their side on the receiving end as you usually don't hear the end of it for years, decades sometimes. We still get the occasional mention of the 1950's USA upset here, wonder what the good Doctor would have made of that.
Most England fans have figured we wont win it, though we'll do our best to cheer our side on and keep our fingers crossed after all, upsets do happen and we do have a reasonable squad who did very, very well in the qualifiers and whilst we may not be as good as say Spain or Brazil, all they need is one bad day, a bit of bad luck or a set of poor refereeing decisions to ruin their tournament as well.
What I and others want from England is that they play with pride and passion, with a bit of fire in their bellies, something that has been missing from England squads in major championships since the 1990 World Cup.

As Sir Terry Pratchett wrote: "The thing about football - the IMPORTANT thing about football - is that it is not just about football."

Statistics can never take that into account.

More about → Dream on

What on earth has he been smoking?

Football, I'd hoped to avoid the subject for blogging after my last little foray as I enjoy watching the sport and enjoyed playing it when a lot younger. But I can't believe this...

Scotsman.

DAVID Cameron yesterday announced that he would be flying the flag of St George over Downing Street for the World Cup and called on MPs wherever they come from in the UK to cheer on England.
With England the only team from the home nations in the World Cup in South Africa, Mr Cameron has made the unprecedented decision to exchange the flag of England for the Union Flag which normally flies over Downing Street.
Mr Cameron's comments came during Prime Minister's Questions after an appeal from a new Tory MP to get properly behind the team.
He was urged to show his support for the English team by Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon), who said: "I ask you to do a great thing for the people of England and cut through the bureaucracy and nonsense and fly the flag of England over Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup."
Mr Cameron replied: "There was some question that this was going to have a cost impact but I've managed to cut through that and I can say that at no additional cost to the taxpayer the flag of St George will fly above Downing Street during the World Cup."
Then, pointedly looking up at the SNP members, he added: "For the purposes of this I'm looking at all the benches here and I'm sure that everyone in this House, no matter what part of the United Kingdom they come from, will be cheering 'come on England'."

If ever I needed a clue that Cameron does not understand both football and the English in relation to the rest of the UK that was the defining moment.

1. Football fans do not support their nearest rivals to win anything, it's a bit like trying to get Newcastle fans to cheer Sunderland, Celtic/Rangers, even Millwall/Charlton it just doesn't happen.
2. England are not Britain, it's not like the Olympics where the whole of the UK are involved, it's just one country England, not Scotland, not Wales and not Northern Ireland and expecting them to support us is is ridiculous, they don't particularly like us as a country in the first place.
3. The very fact that England are there whilst the other home countries failed to qualify is not going to make their fans transfer allegiance, they'd rather we all failed than one rise above the others, it's a type of tall poppy syndrome.
4. Anyone but England has more or less been the Scottish motto since 1998 when England have qualified (save Euro 2008) for every major competition and they haven't, they find this hard to forgive, we aren't supposed to be better than they are (in their eyes) and it has since been adopted by the Welsh and possibly the Irish.
5. We're English, not South Scottish or Eastern Welsh, we wouldn't support them and they don't support us!

 Then, pointedly looking up at the SNP members, he added: "For the purposes of this I'm looking at all the benches here and I'm sure that everyone in this House, no matter what part of the United Kingdom they come from, will be cheering 'come on England'."

They wont, nor do I expect them too, it's possible Cameron was just in a jokey expansive mood, however that was an insult to the Scots and would have been taken that way by some. We might get a grudging "Well done" if England do win it, though I wouldn't place money on that and I know they'll be dreading it if we do win as 1966 will be nothing compared to what will happen for the next 50 odd years. Mostly they'll be hoping that we fall flat on our faces, it's what rival fans do.

More about → What on earth has he been smoking?