The Portugal Match: The Single Most Disappointing Thing

What can I say?

England are probably the biggest under achievers out there.

Now I’m English……(living in the USA), and I have to say that as soon as they intorduced the teams and then the refs…..I knew England would loose….the ref being from Argentina! BUT, actually the ref was really good.

England lost this match for several reasons (IMHO):

1) Sven played a crappy tactical game…….which was always designed to get us a draw (unless we had a Beckham freekick:-) The squad was really lacking in strikers….oh and I know he couldn’t have predicted Owen’s ACL (shit, I did my own ACL and I couldn’t have predicted it!)…..but a single striker….up front…with Rooney??? Why? Is he fast? NO. Does he have great ball skilss? NO. He is useless. (Credit to Croutchy……but I’m not a great lover of route one football).

2) Wayne Rooney….how dare he!!!! What an arrogant, pathetic thug! I can’t believe that he earns so much money. Seriously he should be fined several million by the FA! He is so selfish, this is bigger than him and his lack of self discipline……this is about letting his country down and giving us a bad name. With 10 players on the pitch we helf Portugal to a 0-0. How would we have done in the second half with 11 players? Could we have won? Well we will never know…because that tosser Rooney let us down. Stupid, immature thug.

Well done to Portugal! You had more heart and fight.

To the FA…..well if you let Rooney play in the Premiership again…..then you deserve the England team to carry on with this crap underachieving shit. These millionaire superstars need to get a little more heart and guts….stop worrying about themselves and think of the bigger picture – their country! And yes Rooney I mean you!

And to respond to the narrow minded idiots on this Board…..how did Bangladesj do in the world cup? Actually how did they do in the cricket?

Please don’t throw bricks especially when in your own decrepid glass house

Posted from  United States

The amount of immature people getting on the site is horrible. Some 12 year old from Bangladesh is not only typing in a style which makes your eyes bleed but states points from a obviousally biased perspective.

On the other hand, thumbs up for Crouch and Gerrard and lets hope for fair play for the remaining of the games.

Posted from  Hong Kong

Sadly, I am not surprised by the manner in which many English fans vent their frustrations with this match (ie, finger pointing and banging on about injustice) and by how many non-English fans resort to personal attacks and taunting (sorry, calling Rooney and Crouch names isn’t a valid way to discuss football tactics in my book). What saddens me more is that having lived in this country for 4 years, I’ve grown to dread England winning or losing. I hate to generalize, but there seems to be a distinct lack of true sportsmanship in this country.

When they are winning, they can’t quite grasp the concept of winning gracefully, have no concept of a shallow victory, and refuse to take responsibility for the immature actions of their own players (come on, players on every team misbehave)

When they lose, they are quick to accuse anyone of conspiring against them (er, it is highly doubtful that a situation was orchestrated at great length with the sole purpose of “making” Rooney lose his temper or that the Ref was planted there to thwart the English advance), ignoring the fact that their team just didn’t deliver.

End of.

And when they are not involved, they find it impossible to support anyone else.

I know this is not true for every English fan, and I apologize for making sweeping comments. But there must be a reason why 4 yrs ago I was excited to support England because I had just moved here, but after living here and being exposed to the mind-set of the media and the team, which is reflected by the comments of many of the bloggers here (as well as almost anyone I discuss sport with in the pub), I find myself (shamefully, but I can’t help it) unable to support them.

And I am really sorry for that.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Tuhin,

The only ‘lack of intelligent discussion’ going on in this blog is coming directly from you…i think the reason why not many people are responding to you is that the majority of us wud prefer to speak with adults rather than infants like urself…
Go and visit another blog that’s more suitable to ur age-range and let the grown-ups talk!

Posted from  Germany

PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL
The press of uk try to win out of the four lines but the great team Portugal with the great coatch Scolari win inside the four lines….LONG LIVE OUR NOBLE PORTUGAL and f*** England

Posted from  Portugal

And yet another example of a lack of intelligent discussion…
I think i’v seen the same message from our friend here under a different healine,

Congratulations Filipe Num-head,
U win first prize for being a total loser and showing up the more sensible bloggers from ur country!

Posted from  Germany

Okay. I am an England hater but still I’ll give my honest opinion:
They are really overrated. There is no question about that. Here, many people asked the question “Who will stop England?” The answer turned out to be Portugal without Deco and Costinha. Its really pathetic. Its always way too hype. Be it Rooney’s leg or Beckham’s leg. Both turned out to be pretty useless in the WC. At least Beckham delivered some deadly crosses. Rooney did nothing. He is very immature.
Personally I am an Italy fan. So I really have to appreciate the way England attacked after going a man down. It actually seemed as if Portugal were a man down!! Hats off to the way they played the game.
Why was Theo Walcot included in the squad? Was that to show him how the WC is? He did not play a single match for Arsenal and still was included. Why was Rooney risked? I am pretty sure there are some good English strikers out there but who don’t hog the limelight and hence couldn’t make the national team. If there aren’t any, then England shoud feel lucky to reach the quarters.
Make less hype of yourself, play some good football and dont include cry-babies in the squad and maybe you will win the WC in next 40 years. I am sorry for the harsh words but that’s the way it is.

Posted from  India

I think Shawn its more than a game for some people. Its all about supporting your team,about going nuts, maybe rubbing it into dickheads who deserve it and thats whats happened. Its nothing to be too fussed over, its just a blog, a place where people can vent their opinions instead of going out on the street and knockin someone’s block off or tossing chairs or bricks at them, now thats going too far. Like someone said words can never hurt unless u take em to heart. Its other things that can hurt so I’d prefer it, if ppl actually go on here go nuts, go abuse whomeva u want, george bush, wayne rooney, michael jackson who cares as long as they don’t get violent out there and embarass everyone from their country and ruin other people’s lives. It is just a game but it is also a whole lot more.

Posted from  Australia

@vinlondon “exposed to the mind-set of the media and the team”

I understand your reference to the media but not the team, how have they behaved differently to any other cup hungry squad?
You’re also pretty naive if you think teams don’t conspire to get a dangerous player like Rooney red carded. Portugal saw a weakness, an opportunity, and made the most of it.

Posted from  United Kingdom

come on england. i have lived here for ten years and i still dont get the lack of objectivity! england played with ten men against a half witted portugal side and played well. they lost to penalties fair and square and on the day cristiano ronaldo was superb, rooney or no rooney. england are not shining doves. peter crouch scored the winning goal against trinidad by pulling on brent sancho hair. the bbc buried this for days while the german press made a fuss of it. people, some team has to lose. brazil, the world champions went home too! so come on alan, i was shocked at the way you seemed to encourage already pint fuelled english rage against cristiano. take responsibility for not being the best team on the day and regroup for south africa.

Posted from  United Kingdom

i have to agree with binarybloke the wink from ronaldo speaks for itself.also the way he tried to play down the incident in he post match press conference also shows that ronaldo now rembers that he plys his trade in england and with rooney.

Posted from  Ireland

i wasn’t trying to encourage rage against ronaldo (his actions on the pitch would have seen to that already) only to discuss a vital turning point during the game. it is hard to be the best team when you only have ten players and your star player sent off

Posted from  Ireland

Shawn,

Thanks for your reply. I still thing the subject of the blog is about the English team (the FA).

Welcome to blogging and foruming, there will be strong comments and sometimes unfortunatly racist remarks. The English aren’t the only ones to experiance this.

Shawn please move on from this, delete those comments and let’s talk football.

You should read some of the comments on the brazillian blog if you can’t stomach the comments made here.

Posted from  United States

Binarybloke, my reference to the team should not lead you to believe that I think that the English team (I use that term loosely) are unique in exhibiting unprofessional behavior. Personally, I think they’re all a bunch of prima donnas. The lack of taking responsibility for their actions and even claiming to be above all the theatrics of “latin” players is what perplexes me about England.

The media feeds this mentality particularly well in my opinion.

The rapidity in which Rooney’s rather gross foul is now mitigated because his own team mate “betrayed” him and “caused him to be sent off” is rather disturbing.

As for my naivity,, I do not argue that Ronaldo wasn’t using provocation when opportunity was there. The red card is Rooney’s own fault, however. Just like Deco. No reason to hate him. But it hardly makes him a victim.

And by the way, since when did “everyone else does it” become a valid rationalisation for bad behavior?

Posted from  United Kingdom

I think that in this past game England played as good as the 4-5-1 system implemented by Erikson would allow them. There are some teams that can translate that formation into goals, but the way England played throughout the tournament showed that either 1. The 4-5-1 is not suitable to the types of players on the England squad or 2. The 4-5-1 was not properly taught/developed enough to be effective.

I am not defending Rooney at all, but one of the causes of his frustration was clearly the fact that he was alone up front, with virtually no support.

The formation used was designed to control games, but not to win them. Other than a few notable exceptions, the team played well, but I think Sven is ultimately the one to blame for this showing.

For the English fan that apologetically posted originally, it is clear that much of the rude and immature behavior was instigated by some of the rude and immature posts as seen above from the England haters.

I hope England gets a better, more motivating coach.

Posted from  United States

I agree with you people on the whole. But, I can understand why some get mad at the lack of fairness. I like the English people personally. But, the fact that many in their media loved the USA’s flopping and the vitriol that is usually shown to Italy no matter how they play shows an inherent nastiness that I felt the English were above. Since they have won nothing since 1966. You would think they could give other countries credit for winning. With the exception of Brasil they are harsh to every one else. I am starting to beleive that if Italy or the USA won 3 cups in a row many would still bash them.

Posted from  United States

Frank Lmapard was offered money by his opponents…..and being a greedy leech that he is…used to sucking money from that russian bloke….he took that offer….

Posted from  Nepal

suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuureeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Posted from  United Kingdom

I was all set to go for Portugal because of the obnoxious ENglish fans, etc, but the honest truth is that the team really won me over. They played with real pluck, and a hell of a lot more pasion than what we saw from the pathetic Brasilian side. They don’t have the beautiful game, will they ever? But they CARED. They cried at the end. They went down kicking and screaming. But, for god’s sake, they need to learn how to take penalty kicks.

Posted from  United States

I have asked this question on a couple of site (nobody responded)
If Rooney has supposedly stomped on the Portuguese players private parts/groin wouldn’t he be in agony and feeling physically sick for a couple of hours, wouldn’t he just want to go and sit on a bucket of ice. Instead he got up and started playing again as soon as Roonay was shown the Red card. He is either a hero or it just didn’t happen that way. Rooney was under attack from two players, I think he was just trying to keep his balance and stepped back, I personally don’t think there was any intention. If it happened I would have at least expected they player to be carried off on a stretcher, You Guys should know and I am sure you will let me know if I am wrong.

Posted from  Japan

There was no passion in the game in the during the first half. What were both the teams trying to do? Contain the opponents!!!

Tierd of watching this risk averse football. This beautiful game is about scoring a goal. Come on guys, be creative, take risks.

Being said, Rooney was not at all professional. If kikcing the opponent in the crotch is by accident, go the player and offer your apologies. That idiot was totally arrogant. Fool paid the price for it.

England committed more fouls than portugal. The statistics speak for themselves.

England needs a Scolari or a Klinsmann as coach. Do not tolerate nonsense and boot the non performing likes of Beckam out. I doubt whether he displayed any leadership skills in all the games. We want to see fresh talents.

Till then you will be complaining about play acting by the opponents.

God save this mediocre team.

Posted from  India

come on guys, don’t tellme you’re really riled and upset about off- colour, sometimes downright racist remarks.

must say, during the early stages of the first round, i was appalled to read some of the stuff, but soon realised that this was just raw red meat thrown out to sensitive fans suffering a team loss.

trouble is, for so many it’s not just a game. it’s about a lot of unfinished nation business dating back to 1939. of course one might say, that’s politics and this is football. but then someone came up with the term political football.

look guys, england started and finished miserably and a lot of people have been biding their time, knowing all too well that the media hype bubble was going to burst and the team, though talented on paper, just did not have the smarts or skill to play at this level.

now, out they come, knives sharpened, with a i told you so approach and a few low blows about colonialism, the queen, hooliganism and any other spots they feel might be soft ones.

take it for what it’s worth — nothing at all, and see some of the beastly stuff posted on the netherlands, brasil, argentinian and portugal sites. ignore them and see what happens.

Posted from  United States

now take this deluded fellow from nepal saying that lampard, who sucks $$$ from russia was paid to lose the match.

frankly, what does one say to this clown? i say one pays him back in the same stupid coin. i am behind any poster who flays him with all sorts of nasty stuff about who he is and where he comes from and the miserable state of his nation.

still, one could ignore him, but would that be any fun?

Posted from  United States

i would like to add my comment,after reading some of the comments that have came from around the globe.being an englishman i find some of the things said about rooney and the english fans ridiculous.did you all of you watch the portugal game?,firstly rooney was the one being fouled by carvahalo,but instead of falling over like a girl(which has been seen by numerous players eg henry for france) he tried to stay on his feet and keep possesion of the ball,secondly he was not sent off for the accidental step on on the portugeuse player,it was for the push on ronaldo who was winding up rooney(his own club team mate).so if you think thats good sportsmanship then you dont know what you lot are talking about.i was in frankfurt for the first england game,and the atmosphere was superb,i didnt see one bit of trouble when i was there,and we were drinking and having a great time with football fans from all over the world,i returned from germany with two st georges flags signed by people from all over the world(so is that racist?).i would just like to end on saying the english are not bad losers either,fair enough we cant take penalties,but did our players react like the argentinians when they got beat by germany,i think not.so before you all start having a go at the english take a look at what other players,teams,and their supporters have done before you have a go at us.thanks

Posted from  United Kingdom

ok guys lets be honest….
I could as a portuguese say that the english got what they deserved…. however I must say that we were tremendeously lucky (again). our two teams are not very lucky when it comes to decisive games……
but england has been more often on the big stages of world football….one world cup, a few semis….
Portugal is well behind england as a country, I know cause I lived in england 12 years. but that doesn’t mean we cannot achieve something….glorious….
As for the portuguese who are always complaining about the way other nations look at us……well I have to say that it is not their fault that you go and clean their houses and toilets just to have a few pounds so that you can show in the village back home your brand new car….they do not put a gun in your heads I tell you to come and clean their crap….
are you to ashamed to do that kind of job back in portugal…. I am looking for a cleaner and they earn more money than me per hour….
as for england it gave me more as an individual than portugal did….it gave me the chance to study and raise my fammily…..
the uk is just like another country, you have good people and bad people…long live england and portugal

Posted from  Portugal