To ask why the England team (the men) keep falling at the final hurdle, (well virtually at the final hurdle,) at the football World Cup ... and The Euros too?

[GorgeousSpringtime]

Not an England-team bashing thread, but why, oh WHY do they - the men - keep falling at the final hurdle (well, virtually the final hurdle,) every time at the football (soccer) World Cup - and the Euro Cup too...?

They do so well, and get so far, and then BANG they're out. Nearly always in the top 8, or top 4, (and the top 2, in the World Cup once, and a couple of times in the Euros I think,) but never the winner. (Not since 1966 anyway!)

Is it nerves? Is it that they're so anxious to win that they keep making silly mistakes? Are they just not quite good enough? WHAT IS IT? Why do they keep getting so close, but just never manage to get the win?!

As I said, I am not bashing them, and they did well, and I am proud of them, but I just get so frustrated that they can't quite ever get the win!

!

@Gloriia

women’s football is just as good as men’s football, in fact it’s better because the women stuff and the men lose. FACT.

I guess because it's actually quite hard to win the world cup and there can only be one winning team - that's the whole point!

What a shame ! It should be worth somerhing I will be watching ! Jude v mbappe! Their last hurrah

It won't be England for a while anyway

Basically England are a good team but not a great team. The British media whip the country into a frenzy of its 'coming home' 1966 etc over and over and over and over and over again. This is why the rest of the world find this mantra so boring, monotonous and overinflated that they litetally support anyone but England. The media then spends the next month's and years denigrating every losing player and manager for daring to exist in its losing aftermath.

I do believe the refereeing has been atrocious in this tournament and even last night i feel the referee allowed the Argies off with alot. Ultimately the Argies are better players overall and of course there was Messi who is a footballing genius. The Argie manager knew what he was doing also.

England needs a reality check though, yes you hope for the best , but while i supported England last night I really didnt think they would win, and most honest supporters would say the same. Yes they could still have won if youre in the match of course you can, eg Messi could have gone out injured or sent off although Messi is highly unlikely to be sent off given that any referree doing such a thing would likely be on a hit list for the rest of their lives. Last night's ref is a 'favourite' by Messi. (Wtf) The ref allowed Argentina to mess with the sideline balls to prohibit England from taking quick throw ins . (Fifa needs an absolute overhaul)

Ultimately though England were outplayed and out managed. Who knows whether different tactics would have meant a different result either.

Ps I will be ardently supporting Spain in the final.

I did “let him be”!

Doesn’t stop me thinking his preference for a bunch of dirty playing cheaters to win over England (indeed, the whole ABE movement) is fairly illogical and rooted in ancient rivalries which should really just be long forgotten.

yeah for the love of god -get rid of that song. I could see people cringe at English people singing it when I was on holiday.

Yesterday was just a tactical error, going far too defensive and inviting them on when we only had a single goal lead. There was no way we could sustain that for 30 minutes. But that’s high stakes sport - you gamble and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. There’s no shame in going out in the semis to the reigning world champions.

People don't forget rivalries and grudges though. That's humans!

I mean I can't see Ukraine supporting Russia in sport any time soon

85 mins we held them off and were one up.

That's not a lesser team

I don't think it's that England 'went defensive'. It's that they couldn't get the ball in the late second half and once Argentina had the ball, England defended themselves really badly. They didnt run to get the ball off the attackers

I was watching the second half again there. Argentina attacked England's goal at least six times in a row.

We def need to re brand the kit and the songs.
The football song is so low and grungy. Also the national anthem ,Jerusalem is far more rousing.

Mindy , our defence was really good. They didn't get 6 goals did they ! We held them off for 86 mins !!
And it seems to be Messi speciality to pass the ball across the goal like a machine .

I am saying they SHOULD try to forget. I see you’ve got a high-minded moralistic stance on footballer pay. Well, this is my equivalent. I’m saying it is a more magnanimous, collaborative, in some cases forgiving thing to support England, even though you didn’t always and were once ABE.

Russia/Ukraine completely distinguishable, as they’re currently engaged in a war. Wars between England and Ireland and Scotland are long in the past.

I think you're naive if you don't realise that 86 minutes was tactical timing by Argentina

The game is getting so expensive now that the ordinary guy in the street cant afford to go.

I watched a video today of people paying 50, to 100 thousand to go to the world cup. Like everything else its becoming an elite indulgence and the people who support their teams cant afford to enjoy it live themselves , only part of that reason is the players huge wages. The likes of Haaland was probably given all of those bags free...free promotion for the company.

Jerusalem’s lyrics are basically a series of questions to which the answer is “no”, I’m afraid.

I love that song. It brings the England fans together. Others can cringe all they like!

I don't think we held them off for 86 minutes. I think that was Argentina's gameplay. They decide to go for two goals, just before it goes to extra time.

Ive seen other teams do it aswell

And that's fine obviously, glad you enjoy it. We're all different though and as I said earlier I'm not the only person to liken it to school football tournaments excitement wise as a viewer. Some people pretend it's as entertaining as watching men play but imo it is for from it.

What do you love about it?

The slowness of it ugh

ITS COM ING HOME ITS COM ING FOOT BALLS COMING HOME

😂

Well they are currently ranked 4 in the world, those country’s ranked 1-4 made the semi finals this year, so I would say although there is clearly an aspiration to improve that, they are performing as expected. As PPs have said they’ve done amazingly, but they not quite as good as the very top teams.

Andy Murray used to get a lot of this, he was consistently in the top 5 in the world, but it was never good enough for some.

…

Paid well is one thing. Paid obscenely while other people are struggling to survive. Its awful.

Do you remember when Ashley cole complained that he only 60,000 per week.

You wrote that they bring in millions for people that employ them.

That;s because currently, we as a society put more value on football than on getting homeless people off the streets. Society is fu..cked up