Well done Portugal.

Thank. It is ironic indeed.

After a night of reflection.

What an exciting drama. Hope it shows to everyone why Football could to be the most exciting sport. It is a game that demand individual brilliance as well as the whole team to remain focus to the last minute. It is also one of the few sport where the 23th person on the field, the referee also have to perform his best and very much involve in the drama of the day.

In my humble opinion the better team did win the game last night. Looking at the result one team appear to have given their best so far and other just start to comes on form in the right time. Well done. Best wishes to Portugal.

 

Ok so Titian, why bother even standing in the 6 yard box? All the keeper has to do is touch you and he gets a free kick!

Pathetic interpretation if you ask me - typical Euro rubbish. As for our interpretation - well we did invent the game so we might have an inkling as to what the rules are

 

Agreed wholeheartedly - better skills, better attacking flair, better all-round ability and far more entertaining. The English players seemed to spend an alarming amount of time falling over their own feet. As I saw the close-up slow-motion replay, the ref was justified in disallowing the goal (my team (Ireland) wasn't there, so I can afford to be dispassionate).

Face it, you English folk, with the exception of some budding talent, your team is a collection of superannuated puddings who move as if they're mired in treacle. And will somebody please explain to me why such a fuss is made of this Beckham individual? The only noteworthy thing he does in the entire 120 minutes is put the ball into near-earth orbit.

 

i think it's a bit off the criticise beckhams penalty when the penalty spot was more like a sand trap than a football pitch, still he maybe should have spotted this and compensated.
cheers


julian

 

Did you invent the rules that:
- there should be linesmen?
- the goalkeeper can't get the ball in the hands when one of this players pass the ball back?
- you get the yellow card if you tackle from behind
- and and..

Merlin like in every other sport things evolve. New rules are made to avoid abuses or to make the sport more interesting or for any other reason. If you are ignoring this evolution because you invented this game a few milions of years ago, is ok for me but don't blame the others if they don't interpretate things like you do. Just tell me what in the heck is Terry's elbow doing on the goalkeeper's shoulder? I'm not saying this because it was England who was damaged. Actually I was hoping England would win the match. But I try to see things objectively even if Switzerland plays /involved. That is why I also read online international papers to see what other people with other mentalities think about it.

 

We played crap, but we were robbed, pure and simple, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the goal, and if that was considered a foul, then the game is really being diluted IMO. Things like that always seem to happen to England, but I knew as soon as it went to pens that we would lose, we always do.

At the end of the day though, people say every year we can win it, but when will people realise we just aint good enough. Ultimately, despite Portugals poor finishing, I was surprised we didnt get spanked. The ref should IMO lose his privelidges to referee internationals - was he being paid by the bookies (after what Merlin said you almost have to wonder!!). Sorry titian, but that was a goal all day - I guess all the keeper has to do is bump into the other player and then that player will be penalised. It just sucks TBH.

 

Julian, this is one of football's best-paid players. He should be used to playing on a variety of grounds. I would have imagined that this would be a fundamental requirement of any allegedly top-class footballer. In addition, the BBC site says that the penalty spots were a known problem. Again, allowances should have been made.

 

terry was jumping. you try jumping high without lifting your arms. at a push i'd say it was 50 / 50 with the goalie looking for a 'foul' by getting under terry and terry being a plonker by touching the goalie ?!? still think is was a bad call.
cheers


julian

 

As for Beckhams penalty (which you could tell he didnt fancy), it was crap and there was no excuse. I am another who fails to see why Beckham is so worshiped - he has scored a few flukey goals from a long way out in the past and occaisionally takes good free kicks - hardly worth all the hype IMO. As for the excuse about the penalty spot, they all had to use the same spot, so its not an excuse IMO.

 

on the english replays terry and campbell were no-where near the keeper, their eyes just on the ball.

Sorry Titian, I think you're wrong.

 

paul, as you say they all had the same penalty spot but only beckham didn't have the knowledge that it was utterly f*cked as he was first up. i.e. if you took your fabia round a diesely roundabout and stuffed it into a wall whilst those behind saw this, realised what happened and slowed down - would you expect your insurance co to tell you to naff off with your claim because others used the roundabout and didn't crash?
this imho is some measure of excuse. unfortunately beckham hasn't been on form for a long time but he was instrumental in the 5-1 germany game which is where a lot of his rep comes from i believe. tbh the england team needs a good kick up the arse and less lazing about on spanish beaches.
cheers

julian

 

Julian,

So unfair. Why as a nation do we have to apportion blame? Two days rest was not enough. If Portugal had scored first, do you really think they would have pinned us back for the rest of the game? Look what happened when they scored - we went up te other end and put it in the net. Twice!

We should be proud of that team. They scored 15 goals in just over four games before Rooney was hobbled. They played great football - only the Czech Republic have impressed me more.

Give 'em a break for heaven's sake.

 

Beckham has not looked his self since the last world cup in my opinion. What he was good at he doesn't seem to be doing. He was brilliant up and down the RHS, and putting evil crosses in. Now he seems to have lost his engine. I think we should have taken either Scott Parker or Shawn Wright Phillips as possible replacements for golden balls if it wasn't working out for him, but apparently he was irreplacable. Why they took Gerard off and left him on I know not.
I actually think our biggest problem this tournament has been that in two big matches Sven has settled for 1 - 0 and then we've not been able to hang on. Our defence and goalkeeper have tried manfully but there's been not enough support at the end of matches from left and right midfield. I think Wayne Bridge should play left back, Ashley Cole Left midfield, and if Beck's can't get his head together, then Gerard for captain and try some other options there. He's been our worst player consistently this tournament

 

A non-pundit writes...

I'd agree with that. Against France it was an excusable policy (first match in the tournament, not wanting to over-commit, etc), and the defence were so good in that match they nearly got away with it. But, having scored so early last night, there was no way England could sit back and defend a lead for the remainder of the game. If that's the manager's policy, he's made a big mistake.

As for the disallowed goal, I though it looked fine, but, tbh, Portugal played better than England and deserved to win.

There was, inevitably, a lot of hysteria in the last week about England winning it, but I didn't think they were playing well enough, despite scoring so many goals. The reckoning is: against France, a suicidal but brave defensive display, against Switzerland, a poor performance and a result that flattered England, against Croatia a good attacking display and a leaky defence, against Portugal, suicide.

Having said all that, I don''t think Portugal look very likely to win the tournament - on the two occasions late in the game when England applied a bit of attacking pressure, they scored both times (disallowed goal included), and I suspect France or Holland will make short work of them.

-- Ian

 

Heard a new take on the disallowed goal on Radio 5 Live this morning from some chap from the referees association (or whatever they are called):

He looked at the tape closely and said that the whistle was clearly blown BEFORE Terry and Campbell went up to head the ball in i.e. the foul was given for a push Campell made when he went up for his FIRST header - the one that hit the bar.

Don't know whether this was the case because all the close up, slow motion replays concentrated on the header when the ball went in, not what happened in the build up to the first header.

If there was a push before the first header then this would explain why the ref was clearly signalling (at the end of full time) that he'd given the foul for a push (rather than Terry resting his arm on the keeper) and why we're all miffed when looking for something wrong with the second header.

Matt.

p.s. Lordsummit - it was a shame to see Gerrard go off but apparently he was almost on his knees because he was so knackered. I think it is also a shame that Kieron Dyer wasn't used as you would have thought his pace might have worried the opposition.

 

But surely it should have been obvious it was fúcked up as soon as he put the ball down on the spot. Fact is, look at his face when he took it - he just didnt fancy it at all IMHO.

 

Has anybody heard from Michael yet?

Generally agree with what has been posted here already. I thought England didn't play well enough and the midfiled and in particular Beckham was disappointing. I can still hear my daughter screaming at the ref, even though she's been asleep all night.

Portugal played with more determination than England and until they scored I didn't think their finishing was any good but they kept trying and finally got their just rewards.

But that goal :grrr: :inferno: and that twat of a ref :chainsaw: :gatling: :chop: :laser: :saw:

 

Very true.... I heard it. The whistle was blown well before the goal was scored. Just a second or so after the whistle for the free kick.


GTM

 

Here I am . What an awesome game!!! We (me & my wife) had excellent seats, about 10 rows up from the edge of the pitch looking across Portugal's 1st half midfield area.

Anyway, there was no trouble at the game our outside that I was aware of. It took ages to get home as they closed the Metro for a while (for safety reasons apparently). We eventually got a bus to somewhere closer and then walked. The whole of Lisbon was out in their cars waving the flag and honking their car horns .

Since I was at the game and at the other end of the pitch from the goal where the disallowed goal happened I didn't see what happened and haven't seen any replays yet. However, I've talked to a bunch of people (English and Portuguese) who have and they all say that Terry had his arm around the keeper so IMO it was correctly disallowed. Clearly you see less from being at the stadium but I thought the ref was fair. There were a couple of free kicks given to Portugal for fouls which I thought were clearly in England's penalty area but he decided they weren't. Also, there was a Portuguese "goal" that never registered even though the ball had in fact gone over the line (can't remember the details but it was all a big mess and James eventuallly bundled on top of it). You'll always get some controversial reffing decisions - that's just part of football.

IMO Portugal were definitely the better side and deserved to win it. England played too much like an Italian team in trying to defend a 1-0 lead instead of attacking. I also noticed that virtually every single goal kick that James sent soaring into the other half ended up with Carvalho (what a defender!) or Andrade heading it to another Portuguese player.

As for the penalties, that's two misses in a row for Beckham . You can't complain about the penalty spot - it was the same for everyone.

I wonder whether Figo will line up at the start of the next game? He looked decidely "tired" although he did make some good plays. He was visibly furious at being substituted just before taking a corner but in the end that substitution is what gave Portugal the equalizer.

I reckon Portugal win the whole thing now. I said before the game that IMO whoever wins England v. Portugal will win the tournament. If the final is Portugal v. France then Portugal had better win it. I couldn't stand to see the bloody French winning another tournament .

Michael.

 

[PEDANTIC MODE ON]

Yes. I dind't watch the game and was in the process of tunning the harpsichord; with all the honks and Viva Portugal I had to postpone it: I just could not listen to the intervals properly...
[PEDANTIC MODE OFF]

Anyway, I hope Portugal will win the cup. Even though I'm about half French I hate French chauvinism. I have no idea whatecer how the teams played. I didn't watch the game. But during the TV broadcast streets were completely empty; just after that they were filled with shouting fans...

How did the English supporters behave aftwerwards?