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The Portugal Match: First Early Reactions

July 1st, 2006 | By: Shawn | 124 Comments »

That was an appalling way to lose, and yet it was inspiring to see so gutty and commited a performance from an undermanned squad for so long.

Minus its captain for more than an hour, down a man for nearly an hour, England played rock-hard in defense and continually tried to craft an attack out of shreds. It was an awful loss, and yet one to be proud of.

Firstly, hats off to Portuguese keeper Ricardo, who was brilliant during the penalties, stopping three of four and getting his hand on the one that went in. That sort of thing is tough to beat.

As to our own play, what can you say?

With Beckham injured and Rooney sent off for a combination of rough play and foolish temper, England might have collapsed entirely and lost by two in regulation. Instead, they showed enormous grit and, frankly, were the more threatening side for long stretches of the second extra period.

I need to run errands before the Brazil/France match (the winner of which I hope crushes Portugal), but I wanted to single out a few players for fine play.

Owen Hargreaves was England’s man of the match in my view: all over the pitch, hard, fast and the only man to convert his penalty.

Paul Robinson was fine, too, but withered during the penalties despite a decent showing on the first couple.

Terry, Rio, Nevile and Ashley were good but not great — and Terry should’ve been the man taken off for Carragher.

Steven Gerard was, like Hargreaves, a dynamo, and I was frankly shocked to see him miss his penalty.

(Speaking of which, I wonder if Frank Lampard will ever be the same.)

Joe Cole and Beckham were equally non-factors, but Aaron Lennon was a real ball of fire off the bench. I have no idea why he was taken off.

Rooney was ok until his meltdown — and I’m sorry, but stomping Carvalho in the balls and then shoving and shouting at people (the ref included) is out of bounds. If, say, an Italian player did it to John Terry, most English fans would be calling for blood.

Crouch was painful to watch but he was game.

Oh yes: man of the match for Portugal? Sven Goran Eriksson. England lost this match the day they hired him five years ago and again every time they didn’t let him go for his lackluster tactics, his complete inability to inspire his squad, and his repeated personal transgressions. He’s a disgrace and the best thing about losing is it marks the end of his run.

Tags: England, Portugal

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 124 comments.

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By Laura | July 2nd, 2006 at 12:54 am

Have to agree with you Slash, we weren’t playing as well as we could have, but have to say that maybe the formation and coaching for the games haven’t been spot on, something to definitely improve on.

Rolf Habich - if you’re going to revert to stereotypes (tea drinking, fish&chips, the Sun)then why don’t you go and just buy a frankfurter stick it up your @ss and watch some porn - Capsice

Posted from United Kingdom

By Gibro | July 2nd, 2006 at 12:55 am

GUAHAHA the England hooligans are finnaly out. No skill, no class, what a disgrace! Little chavs deserve to go home and sleep. You had the easiest teams to play and still lost BUAHAHA pathetic is all i can say.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Shane | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:03 am

Boring boring England finally plays a good match and this is what happens. Its a little unfair. I think Rooney’s reputation had him 60% off for that foul before the ref decided to red the last 40%. You guys went down fighting and should be proud of yourselves.
I couldn’t stand watching you for every game until this one.
Clearly though, as with other tournaments you guys don’t have a game turner in the team. It may well be Rooney, but trying to keep on him on the pitch for whatever reason seems like a victory.

Posted from Australia

By Tiago | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:04 am

In spite of the lack of goals I really enjoyed this very tactical game. Both England and Portugal played very concentrated, both giving everything they have.
Again we’ve won in the PK against England who go home honourably.
Whatever the result against France in the semi-finals, Portugal has already made a great campaign.
This game helped to prove that the lack of fair play of the game with holland was an incident of the game itself, the referee and early dutch harsh fouls.
Cheers to England - an excelent adversary

Posted from Portugal

By Tim | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:05 am

Thank you Tiago, well played to Portugal too!

As for Gibro, there’s hardly much ‘class’ in your blog is there..pathetic is what i also say

Posted from United Kingdom

By Shane | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:07 am

For all the English out there. Here’s the big tip. With Steve McClaren’s super impressive record at Middlesbrough, don’t expect much more from your national side.
Get a decent manager first

Posted from Australia

By Marcy | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:09 am

What does history and politics have to do with football?

Hey, it´s a sport to build not burn bridges. Many comments have been posted by sore losers and winners.

In POrtugal, people were dancing on the streets. But, why?

I was jumping around too, ecstatic with Portugal´s victory. But, it´s important to be objective.

Although Rooney was unquestionably given the red card fairly for his immature reaction (it´s foolish to deny it) against probably the best centre defencemen in the world - Terry and Gallas are the second and third best, Portugal was unable to dominate or create clear scoring opportunities.

Ricardo was the hero, but the English defence was absolutely superb, and Lennon wreacked havoc up front (he is really fast and dangerous).

Penalty kicks are not 50/50 or simply a question of luck - skill and ability to cope with pressure are critical.

Yeah, I too don´t like Cristiano Ronaldo, a hoggish crybaby who forgets that football is a team sport, however, for what both teams had shown prior to this match, Portugal deserves to move ahead. England did not play a single decent match through the whole WC.

Guess they were over-rated??!! I don´t know for sure because they have great players (Terry, Cole, Rooney, Lampard, Lennon, Beckham, etc… )- they should be able to do better. Strange???

ya know something - maybe England should hire Mourinho, tough that would be expensive.

It was a very even match, I´m glad Portugal got through, but England did not play worse - not at all!!

Congratulations to all for the display of courage under so much heat.

But why do some english fan bloggers want Portugal to lose so badly against FRance??

Cum on, show good sportsmanship!!

Posted from Portugal

By Ricardo | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:10 am

Petreson, you are pathetic.
As any Northen European who understands shit about ‘futebol’, you should be skying right now.
It is so good to see how you bunch of drunks are all so sad. You not only fear talent, you are unable to recognize it.
Dedicate yourself to the ‘cod fishing activity’, so that we can cook it here in Portugal. You don’t even know how to cook (giving cod to the dogs?). Anything that requires talent is not for you.
Sweet dreams.

Posted from Canada

By LiverpoolFC | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:17 am

Well,lets just say lil Ronaldo won’t be having much of party at Old Trafford from now on. I have some Man U friends and they weren’t very happy with his lil act against Rooney. I’m sure Rooney isn’t too happy either and it hasn’t gone unnoticed with Alex Ferguson as well, Now he can actually chuck a boot at someone who actually deserves it

Posted from Australia

By Sandi | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:29 am

Wayne Rooney is an embarrassment. His left foot to the groin was clearly INTENTIONAL, (Owen).
He should be banned from his National Team.
Guys like him will never mature to a respectable level. Sorry to see England go home. PK’s are no way to win a match. Glad to see France advance to the semi’s. One icon down (Beckham), one still alive (Zidane). 2010 just won’t be the same.

Posted from United States

By Ana | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:31 am

Congratulations England, you have a great team!

FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!

By David | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:47 am

English team are bunch of cry-babies.You English fans are bunch of hippocrates! You love to point out how others cry when they lose but when it’s your s o r r y a s s team then you find all sorts of excuses!

Posted from United States

By Angie | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:52 am

Jphn Petreson - Got shrink?

Posted from United States

By uncle sam | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:54 am

Has anyone noticed or is it just me. England plays a very boring style of soccer.

Posted from United States

By Hannah | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:08 am

Anyone who is saying that England sucks etc.. does not know soccer (football). All the teams in the final 8 deserved to be there. And in this game, England lost their best players (Beckham & Rooney) and still were in the game right to the end. If it wasn’t for stupid penalty kicks they probably would have won (sorry but penalty kicks is NO WAY to decide a team game!!). If I had to pick one reason why England lost is was COACHING. Sven did not know how to use the players he had other than Beckham and Rooney and that is why they were so worn out (injured) and in Rooney’s case so frustrated to the point he was kicked out of the game. Throughout the tournament England did not use their scoring potential and to me that means it is the fault of the coaching style. If England is ever going to win a World Cup again they need a coach who will have a more exciting style of play that does not rely on winning games only 1-0 (like today and every other game they have ever played under Sven) or playing some sort of prevent-defense style which NEVER wins championships. I am not really an England fan but that said I feel sorry for players like Beckham who might never play again in the World Cup You can say whatever you want about them but Beckham played hard in every game he was in. And Hargreaves (from Canada ) played hard too and did not deserve to lose. Good luck next time to England (and good luck to find a better coach!) and I sincerely hope that whoever wins the championship this year, it is because they proved to have the best players and best style of play and hopefully there won’t be anymore games decided by penalty kick

Posted from Canada

By Angie | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:11 am

Rolf, von Dir haette ich mehr erwartet!!! Hoerst Dich gewoehnlich recht intelligent an. Was sollen denn die Beleidungen.

Posted from United States

By CSAblade | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:11 am

Amen to that, Sven will not be missed, and shame on the english FA for sticking with him.

Posted from United States

By Kyan | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:11 am

ive read half the comments on this page but got a bit bored of argentine fan’s stupid comments so i thought id set him straight on a couple of things, altho judging by what hes written so far hes too ignorant/slow to do so

firstly, the mass brawl at the end of thegame was started by cufre kicking mertesacker in the balls. this was after the match and cufre received a red card for it so u can go to hell with ur savages. rooney’s step on carvalho wasnt even intentional but cufre knew exactly what he was doing cos he wasnt a gracious loser.

did anyone see maxi rodriguez’s flying punch as well? savage…

as for being savage and uncivilised, ur the lame tard whos come on this site trying to laugh at english fans for getting knocked out on penalties, the irony!

and another thing, its not called futbol its called football, u didnt invent the game, u just invented different ways to cheat in it.

and last time we played it was 3-2, to england just in case u cant remember so that suggests our football’s better than urs.

and our players showed more passion for england than urs did for argentina.

congratulations on portugal, devastating for england but it had to happen to someone.

non-english fans, if u have some crap to say go spout it elsewhere, i dont think anyone here really wants to know

Posted from United States

By LiverpoolFC | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:13 am

I think 7 teams including England and Portugal deserved to be there but not Italy, not by a long shot.

Posted from Australia

By David | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:27 am

HA HA HA HA HA EVEN NORTHERN IERLAND BEAT STUPID CRY-BABY ENGLAND TEAM!!!

ROONY WHO????? ENGLAND WHO??????

GO HOME YOU DIRTY FOOTBALL PLAYERS!!!

Posted from United States

By jmh | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:29 am

England finally played what i thought was a great game and what irony… they lose.
Hats off to the English team. Fighters, one and all. What an absolutely awful way to lose a match; penalties, that goes for any team. The Args were devastated as well. As far as some of the comments on this blog are concerned, let’s all try to be civil. The great beauty of the game, especially this cup is the fact that it can bring us all a little closer together as we are seing millions of people do in Germany.
Portugal managed to hold on and are blessed with an incredible goal keeper. The only negative thing i would add concerns Mr. Rooney.
He performed an incredible diservice for his team today and i believe the memory of it will remain with him for quite some time.
G*d bless the UK and the same goes for Portugal.

Posted from United States

By Angie | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:33 am

England never gave up. And they did not attack the Portugese after the game. Good sportsmenship.

Posted from United States

By LLC | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:38 am

We didn’t stand a chance with an Argentinian ref.. it is like Osama bin laden reffing a USA match! Plus Aaron Lennon was definately brought down in the box for a penalty. I don’t think the French will let the porteguese dive thru to the finals though.

Posted from Australia

By MArcus | July 2nd, 2006 at 2:40 am

PORTUGAL WON…TOO BAD…..you dam English people don’t know how to win nor lose.

The ref was just fine…..boy when someone loses you always look for excuses….too bad….

The world wanted England to lose….your too violent and you always think you are superior in soccer…please…..never!

The English media was cruel to Portugal…and now looks who is laugthing.

Haha! So much for rooney…not even one goal….too overated.

He did nothing and deserbed to be red carded.

I remember here in Bermuda, english fan were saying the Portuguese will have to remove their flags….Guess Again.

Listen I know it’s hard, it’s bitter..but one team had to lose…and that was you….sorry …

Posted from Bermuda