Well done Portugal.

Some english are some of the most horrible people I have ever met, I find lots of foreigners FAR more polite and genteel, the british gent is by and large a colossal minority, true, british polite people can be lovely, so can foreigners.
The sun ought to be banned, its scum pure and simple. along with all the other tabs.
We are naturally down, and we are making a fuss, as we really believed that goal was legit. that's not sore losing, its having victory snatched from you.
woudln't matter too much if we crashed out with a whimper. still, I don't care anymore, I can't watch england, its too painful seeing those basic errors, for such big names, it shoudn't happen. my we are as far as big names go, by far better on paper. why doesn't it translate into practice.
perhaps we expect too much, or the media AGAIN are to blame.
I do think the 2 days prep vs 3 days is not reasonable, esp given our long season.
its logical the poor ref gets the blame, that's part of the culture, I would have to watch again, but I really did feel his reffing wasn't good way before that goal.
the defense that the penalty spot was known about is unsound, it doens't matter if you know the ground say where you hit a golf ball is soft, it can still make you cock up big style, even if you know.
dunno what this has got to do with poor portugese innocent fans who just want to enjoy the game and get attacked...madness. neanderthals everywhere.

there is a huge difference between questioning the refs professional ability and abusing him, he is just doing his job, he is a person, and has feelings,too.
That radio station ought to be censured for that, and the guy sacked, and never allowed to work in broadcasting again.

 

Hilariousness of the day went to the national news (forgotten the channel/time)

Aparantly the Swiss Ref has an internet site, from which you can post ''good luck messages'' to him. Its a website all about himself.

The nice people at the news room put the web address on the TV, so he could get a large quantity of ''good luck messages'' hahahahahaha!! I love that.

 

Greece 1 : 0 France

:boogie: :elephant: :ffrc: :mo: :banana:

 

data,
there are arseholes and angels in most countries. the trick is to ignore the former and befriend the latter.
cheers

julian

 

I was very pleased with the English fans' behaviour. England used to be the home of fair playing and good losing (and winning, of course) and the hooligans have deeply deteriorated that image. Which is a pity, because of England's traditions in sport.

Now the Sun is quite another matter... In the home of The Times, Sun is an aberration - perhaps understandable, but quite disagreeable. IMO, of course.

 

Oh Yes! . Now the team I wanted least to win it are out .

Michael.

 

this is becoming a sweeeet cup... doesn't matter who wins now! french won't!!! zidane's magic was out for the day

oh i'm so happy... :JPS:

(bad, bad dobby!)

Jack

 

After all that rubbish about England's last ditch defence not working, I find it amusing that the Greeks hardly seemed to get out of their half for the last hour, could not hold onto the ball, and were repeatedly forced to hoof it up the pitch. And yet with a little luck they held on

So did the better team win yet again then?

 

I only watched the 2nd half and IMO Greece were the better team on the night. I don't know what was wrong with France, they almost looked as if they were trying too hard.

Michael.

 

Funny, I had a different impression, Michael. Did anyone else get the impression that the French didn't seem to care much about losing? I was expecting really frenzied, all-out assaults on the Greek goal, but they didn't come. Les Bleus didn't even seem to come in waves the way the Portuguese did. Now I KNOW they must have wanted to win, but somehow, it seemed, not that badly. They went out with a whimper rather than a bang. Very odd.

 

P.S. From the BBC Sports Site:

French media shows no mercy


The French press has labelled the country's exit from Euro 2004 at the hands of Greece as "pitiful".
The defending champions were beaten 1-0 in Friday's quarter-final and the French media has savaged the team.

Newspaper Le Parisien said "it is a severe failure which will necessitate hard questioning".

And Sports paper L'Equipe described the team's display as "indefensible", adding: "Les Bleus are stark naked, they showed no desire, no ideas".

Three-time world footballer of the year Zinedine Zidane bore the brunt of L'Equipe's anger.

The paper gave Zidane, who is tipped to retire from international football, just four out of 10 for his display.

"He was practically useless during the first half. Can Zizou quit the national team after such a lacklustre performance?," the paper asked.

Le Parisien predicted "France's failure means the end for the golden generation which won the 1998 World Cup in 1998 and the European championship in 2000".

Le Monde, the quality daily which unusually let sport onto its front page, wrote that France were "dominated from the first minutes of the match".

"Penetrable in defence and disorganised in attack, France leave this tournament quite rightly," it added.

The front page of the Nice Matin screamed: "Dismaying!", while also asking "is this really a surprise?"

"The team is no more than a shadow of its former self," it continued.



In contrast, "The Sun", read only by Neanderthals according to some, but "the biggest selling newspaper in Britain" (I don't know what conclusions you can draw from those two facts), has not only scraped the bottom of the barrel, but is now through it andwell en route to the Antipodes. I quote:



THE Swiss referee who cheated England out of Euro 2004 also cheated on his wife  with a sexy blonde woman ref.
Urs Meier dumped his attractive wife Franziska to set up an Alpine lovenest with Nicole Petignat.

Meier  the most hated man in England after disallowing a last-minute goal by Sol Campbell to deny England a place in the semi finals  walked out on his marriage six months ago.

Dark-haired Franziska, an attractive 41-year-old, said: “Urs cheated on me and it sounds like he has cheated on England.


Oh yes, "The Sun" said that Meier had apologised for his blunder, which curiously is precisely the opposite of what the BBC says. News must have a surreal quality in the UK - I now understand why Julian avoids it!

 

i'm quite prepared to believe that 4 million or so of the uk population are low of brow. still it's nice to see that the english media aren't the only ones capable of turning on their national sportsmen.
would have been nicer to have had the headline 'well done chaps, never mind' but i guess human nature will out.
cheers


julian

 

According to today's Swiss papers, she said nothing of the sort. So, it would seem that, in addition to pulling particularly silly stunts

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004292521,,00.html

Britain's biggest-selling newspaper also, er, handles the truth carelessly. Or is this merely an accepted part of life in the UK?

But whatever happened to, as the French call it, "le fairplay" and stiff upper lips and playing to the whistle and being gallant and sporting in defeat?

 

tones, using the sun as a representation of the english populations mentality is about as fair as urs meier's decision
cheers


julian

 

The Sun is widely considered to be an entertainment rag, rather than a newspaper, and the intelligent contingent of our country take everything printed in it with a pinch of salt. Alas there are some amongst us who still believe "they wouldn't let them print it if it wasn't true". Hopefully the extreme lack of anything approaching intelligence is slowly removing them from the genepool.

Please don't judge us all by the quality of journalism in the Sun . Sure, we have our fair share of double (or even single) figure IQs but it really isn't all of us. I am, however, ashamed to say that the Sun is the best selling "newspaper" in the UK.

 

Ah but Tones, we weren't defeated, we simply lost the lottery show at the end. Yet again! As in 1998, 1996, 1990 etc etc.

 

Julian, as Urs Meier's decision was indeed apparently fair according to other referees, I think I'd hesitate in making such a comparison...

And I didn't use "The Sun" as a representation of the UK in general. I'm thankful that this is not the case. But I find it disturbing that such a rag could attract such sales. I grant you that this goes back a long way (in the days of the Evil Empire, "The News of the World" was outsold only by "Pravda" - as to which was more "pravda" ("truth" in Russian) is debatable)).

 

But isn't the lottery element part of the game? Does the better team always win? If the worse team flukes a goal and stays ahead, is it a worthy winner? Bad refereeing decisions will always be with us and that's part of the game -and lets' face it, it is only a game. Or do you espouse the Bill Shankly school of football philosophy? - "football isn't a matter of life and death - it's much more important than that".

 

tones, my statement was a demonstration of circular irony hence the . you know my feelings about the media..... up against the wall with the lawyers with 'em.
cheers



julian

 

Just as long as you exempt the patent attorneys!