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!

!

but you can't do that anywhere. That is assault.

You don't know more than I do. You clearly think that you do, which is a sign of a huge ego. But you don't.

Your point is nonsense.

The final isn't composed of teeny men, as any cursory inspection of the squads reveals.

The Spanish outfield squad has 11 men over 6ft , the squad average height including the goalkeepers is 5'11''.

The Argentine squad is slightly smaller at 5'10" but still has 4 outfield players over 6 feet.

Generally strikers and central defenders tend to be tall. Goalkeepers obviously.

Full backs and midfielders/ wingers can often be shorter but there is also room for players like Rodrhi who is 6ft2.

There is opportunity for people of all height in the game, but generally it is rare for players under about 5'4" to make it to the highest levels of the sport these days (I doubt whether there is anyone in the prem under about 5'4"), probably because people are generally getting taller, the game is getting faster and short people generally have less speed (although they do probably have better acceleration and turning ability), and don't normally have the strength to hold off taller players. Maradonna was a notable exception as he was very stocky and there are others like Messi and Bernado Silva who do brilliantly at a relatively short height, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

Football these days is highly selective. If there was a significant benefit to being short or tall all the players would trend towards that physical characteristic.

Not a huge ego at all - that’s your internalised misogyny talking. Just a fact. You didn’t even recognise the signing of the GFA didn’t mark the end of the violence, FFS. You don’t even know what you don’t know!

What you lack in knowledge you more than make up for in dogged persistence, though.

I take your point but, at the risk of splitting hairs, there are many jurisdictions around the world where extreme provocation is a viable defence.

Just reading a very interesting article on why Messi who seems the opposite of a footballer profile works and it's because he scans and observes before he gets the ball and this is where he is ahead. .
In an article in the conversatation it states that when training youngsters and doing experiments people who see the lay of the land before they get the ball have fewer passes etc. ..

So his game is more cerebral than pure athleticism.

I shouldn’t worry: @mindymoo11is an expert on absolutely everything, including the criminal justice systems of all jurisdictions of the world.

Ah, so if the Scots don't support the English, they're awful. But if they wind up the Argentinians over England, they're also awful? Ah, got it.

You can keep saying there's been no trouble with the English, but unfortunately doesn't make it true.

Perhaps you could start another thread about the 'troubles' and the gfa?

This one is about how well the England team did to get to the World Cup semis, albeit sadly not the finals. It seems that this has caused a great deal of angst for a few in the devolved nations which is unfortunate .

@mindymoo11 you said:

”The war in Northern Ireland went on until 1998”. I’ve pasted the screenshot below so you can read it for yourself.

You were clearly erroneously conflating the GFA’s signing with the end of “the war” as you call it. Either that or your drafting of written English is poor. Either way - the statement is just wrong.

Major violent events since the 1998 signing include (as discussed) The Omagh Bombing (August 1998): Carried out by the Real IRA, a dissident republican group opposed to the peace deal, a car bomb killed 29 people and injured around 220 others in County Tyrone. It remains the deadliest single incident of the post-agreement period. Of course, there was also the Murder of Lyra McKee (April 2019): A 29-year-old journalist was shot and killed by a New IRA gunman during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry; Murder of John Caldwell (February 2023): A senior off-duty PSNI police detective was shot multiple times in front of his son by New IRA gunmen at a sports complex in Omagh. Then, as well as major targeted attacks, sectarian tensions have periodically erupted into large-scale street rioting, and paramilitary groups continue to exert coercive control over local communities through intimidation.

My reading comprehension’s just fine, thanks, and I don’t need someone as obviously ill-informed as you correcting me about it.

As PPs have said - start another thread about the Troubles if you’re that keen to talk about them and know so much about them (maybe multiple ones about all the other subjects on which you’re also an “expert”).

Just swinging the convo momentarily away from.the troubles and back to football , it's interesting to put it into context and look at Brazil 5 times winners ! Out. Italy 3 times I think ,out!
We got further than most other teams who had won before ,countries rather.
We have done really really well and we have a brilliant team and the euros are soon

@ComeOnEngland12sorry I’ve said all I want to now and you certainly won’t see another derail - from
me.

Do other nations do this when they lose or is this just an English thing where the manager and/or player(s) gets hung out to dry for the rest of their days when they lose the wc or euros?

I vaguely remember someone getting shot in one of the south american countries after he missed a penalty or some such thing . No wonder the referees dont want to penalise the Argies if that's the kind of crazy that comes to your door.

Other nations do too.

Just look at the criticism Brazil, Portugal, Germany received in their own countries

15 countries have sacked their manager.

No, please DO swing it back to the subject matter. I'm sick to death of the derail from posters who have another agenda to talk about. They need to start their own thread!

I'm also laughing at this part

'As PPs have said - start another thread about the Troubles if you’re that keen to talk about them '

You are the one that is going on and on and on about the troubles aswell.

I diagree I have to say. I don't think that getting into the semi - finals is doing well in a knock out competition.

The winner is the only team that people remember.

I;m looking at the U.K in the Argentina match. There are a lot of things that they did wrong. Did they not do more research on how Argentina played, before they played them

'I diagree I have to say. I don't think that getting into the semi - finals is doing well in a knock out competition'

Better than not getting in at all! Does NI or Ireland even have a team? And Scotland, well we all know how that went bless 'em.

Really?!? People still remember players of Italia '90 and Euro '96 like heroes. I think people have been spoiled by the consistent semi-final/final tournament finishes of this new England team that they forgot all those years of utter disasters and complete embarrassment of the so called "golden generation" (who are now pundits). Please remind yourself of what the English fans had to endure before knocking the consistently solid results of this new England team.

Ireland didn't qualify and Scotland were knocked out earlier.

My point is - it's not better to get further in a knock out competition, as England were still knocked out.

I'm sick of England getting knocked out at the semi final/final stage

A team ranked 4th reaching the semi-finals is quite literally the opposite of a 'false picture of reality'.

How do they have 'solid' results when they lost in the final in the Euros and now lost in the semi final in the world cup. They don't win anything!

The English women's team on the other hand, DO win competitions

I think that posters point is that England didn't play against some of the top ranking teams in the world cup