Three Blokes Down the Bar

A second rate England team with 10 men weren't good enough to beat a third rate Portugal team full of thespians and stunt men.
I officially take back everything bad I ever said about Owen Hargreaves. He was outstanding. If only Gerrard, Lampard, Cole(J) and Beckham had had a fraction of his energy, desire, commitment we would have sailed into the semis, with or without the wonder-kid Rooney. How refreshing to see a holding midfielder going past established "stars"in midfield and then passing them again as he returned at full tilt for his defensive duties. For those of you old enough to remember, he looked like a curly-haired Colin Bell!! He epitomised good old-fashioned english football values, like Bell, an honest hard-working, skilful midfielder who wanted to win and whose heart was bursting with the pride of playing for England.
We had the chances. Unfortunately established "world class" players like Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham looked as if they had been playing just too much. They looked jaded and lacking spark. Joe Cole was out of sorts, Ashley Cole was clearly lacking match fitness and short of his aggressive, incisive best. Neville too looked under par.
Rooney had too much expectation placed on his young shoulders especially as he had no support. He certainly did not deserve a straight red.
Crouch and Lennon both did well in trying circumstances, but I suspect Becks has come to the end of his useful international life.

Penalties!!! what can we say?.....??!!&*^%$
Ronaldo will do well at Real Madrid. His acting skills will be better utilised than in the English game, and as for his flying fancy feet..I just wish the great Ray Wilson could have played against him,...he'd stll be picking himself out of the 33rd row of of the stand with no time to talk to Referees or wink to his bench!!!
So good-bye Sven. Thanks for keeping us there or there-abouts.your record speaks for itself. Although I would love to know the reasoning behind some of your decisions ( I hope your new book will tell us rather than focussing on your varied sex-life)..Heskey?????? Crouch?????Walcott????
And the future? Maclaren?? I don't think so. I hope he proves me wrong but I suspect we need Wenger.

And do I care who wins?
I couldn't give a -lying -uck.
Come on Huddersfield!!!!

Who said I couldn't do it.
Well there we all were again, I must admit I was a little concerned, I had been so impressed with Ecuador's first two matches that I felt obliged to put a healthy bet on them reaching the Final. the same day they were well beaten by Germans but I thought it was some devious ploy to play England in the next match. My fears thankfully were ungrounded and in my opinion they never really threatened the England goal and I thought it was just a matter of time before England scored.
While we have visitors here i have been banished to the public bar in Socrates Bar so I dont get the running report from John and Dave but I shall be back in my rightful place in the saloon for the next game(s). Hope someone will give me a leg up onto the stool.
England played adequately within themselves and I am sure they are saving their latent brilliance for the last 3 games. You know, I know and they must know that they can all play better than have been doing but at least we have done enough to get to the quarter finals.
I honestly believe now that they can at least reach the Final, whether they will win that or not I wouldn't like to forecast, there may be some hand of God or similar. One thing I do know is that we will all be there rooting for them.

Yes folks, we won again. I lost my bet with Costas and so I'm a bottle of Gran Manier (red) lighter, and I'd love to say I'm happy about it...BUT....come on...we didn't play well did we?..I reckon Hargreaves was our man of the match..Beckham was pants..but scored a typically brilliant Beckham goal before throwing up...and post match it wa claimed he was dehydrated. EXCUSE ME?? the best paid professional players, supported by doctors and therapists and physios and trainers and coaches and razor technicians, and no-one noticed he was dehydrated? are you serious?
We will be better next time 'cos Lampard will be playing,..and gerrard..and Joe Cole..and Terry won't make another uncharacteristic error..(unlike evry game so far).
So we won and the tactics worked.
Rooney as lone target man for Robinson's huge lumps out of his hands.
Rooney as lone target man for long balls from central defenders.
Rooney as lone target man for thrusting midfielders with a fantastic range of passing ability...(err..Lampard?? Carrick??..Gerrard??)
Rooney as free striker behind front man..(himself)..dropping his shoulder and his pants to beat the last defender and pick up the second ball, skin the full back and lob the keeper with his back to goal from 40 yards with one boot missing..
oh and by the way it was hot
oh and by the way Rooney wasn't match fit
and Sven was only PRETENDING to bring on Crouch and Bridge(!!!!????@@++**^^%%)..GENIUS..Beckham saw what was coming and despite the Chorlton Curry Collywobbles he conjoured a quick goal to save everyone's blushes.
My real worry now is that we continue to wangle our way through to the final where we meet the cheating Germans who have fallen over themselves to con the refs that they can actually play soccer, and in the final we play out of our skins...the gerry's are useless..and Ballack falls over in the area with 20 seconds to go and steps up to score the winner.....AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

(With acknowledgments to Art Garfunkel)

Was it some kind of a dream,
Floating in front of our eyes,
Watching a fast flowing England team?
Or was it a dream.

There was Hargreaves running the midfield,
A strange glow in his eyes,
And nobody managed to get near Cole
Oh what could it mean?
Oh, was it a dream?

Bright start
England on fire.
Bright start,
How could they close and fail?
How could a team that started so brightly,
Suddenly turn so pale?
Bright start.

Was it a kind of a shadow team
Playing the second half,
Wandering over the pitch unseeing,
Were they in a dream?

There's a high ball in the area
Falling out of the sky
And nobody seems to know who to mark,
Or where they should start.
Oh, oh it was so dark.

Bright start
England on fire.
Bright start,
How could they close and fail?
How could a team that started so brightly,
Suddenly turn so pale?
Bright start.

England finally managed to live up to the pre-tournament hype by playing quite well for one half of the game. despite Owen's injury highlighting the stupidity of Sven's decision re walcott and Defoe, and having to play Crouch again. So we never got to see the favoured pairing of Rooney and Owen.
J.Cole got a lot of the ball and used it well, although A.Cole must have got a bit sick of tear-arsing past him and never getting the ball.
Playing hargreaves in the holding role (which he seems to be good at!!) released Lampard to go forward and he was unlucky not to see one of his efforts go in. Let's hope Sven heeds the lesson and desists from playing both Lampard and Gerrard at the same time in midfield.
The second half saw a reassuring return to form, i.e. we were crap. Interestingly, having got the midfield and attack working o.k., the defence went into a sulk and took their collective eyes off the ball. Rio suffered a bad injury to his image when sweden scored and had to be substituted with the nowhere man (Campbell) who went missing in the last minute, along with Robinson, and A.Cole and Carragher and Hargreaves. And where was Crouch when we needed him in defence? Does he think he's a forward or something?
So we are through and if the Germans can beat Ecuador so can we!!!!
(Sky sports news dismissed Ecuador as only having qualified because their players live at altitude....Cheats!!...oh yes, and they they only beat Brazil and Argentina on their way to qualification!!!!!)