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!

!

Spain was predicted to win from the start. No offence, it’s highly unlikely that England could beat Spain.
Argentina held the line as did Spain for over 90 minutes but I wouldn’t be under the illusion that it was an easy game to play.

Spain are of course better than England and probably would have won anyway, but England could have easily been in the final if they had got their tactics right. Spain didn't allow them to have a single shot on goal in normal time. They completely disabled Messi because Messi never helps in defence so if they continued to attack he wouldn't have been getting on the ball

Some really odd views here.

Just because Spain saw off Argentina, that doesn’t mean Argentina are easy to beat or England should have beaten them.

I’ve watched football all my life and it’s sometimes just not your day. You can be flying away at the top of the league and come under against the bottom side and lose. You can have days when every player is on song and totally unstoppable - they play again three days later and are awful.

That’s what makes football great.

I was speaking to someone yesterday about the France v England game and they said it was a shame England hadn’t played like that against Argentina. Ignoring the fact that Argentina were actually trying to beat us and not just playing out some dead rubber game that no-one gives a toss about.

They done well.
Spain is my favourite country outside my own, they’ve had a tough year after challenging America over the war.
They needed it for the world stage.
I can’t believe the way Argentina carried on when the cup was lifted, sore losers. Donald Trump photo bombing the main celebration. 🫣
Congrats to the top 4.

England weren't awful on the day though. They didn't just have a bad day in the office like France did in their semi-final. They were 1:0 up and had they got their tactics right could have held on. It was a tactical error, not an off day.

Argentina are not easy to play against at all, but the only way to disable them and Messi in particular is to attack and not let them have the ball.

I agree, the other night was a tactical mistake. Shouldn’t have gone five at the back. But that’s sport - sometimes your tactics work, sometimes they don’t. They didn’t. If he’d gone all out for a second and they’d scored on the counter, he’d have got criticised for that too.

Can't wait for Euro 2028!! 2 years is such a long time to wait 😬

It will be a tall order for England. This Spain team are young and will all be at the Euros, plus France, plus Germany might make a comeback with Klopp and Italy might finally qualify for a tournament and then go on to win it 😂 It's going to be an exciting Euros. I wonder if Ronaldo will be there?

Cannot wait for the euros ! I get so excited when the tournaments are on, not sure what I’m going to do with myself now 😆

I don't think the strategy was a mistake.

1-0 and park the bus is a perfectly valid strategy.

It's the implementation of it that failed. It seemed like "sub on as many defensive players as possible" rather than a proper structured reorganisation to move to a low block. If you listen to the commentators the players where actually trying to figure out what position they should move into whereas it should actually have been a proper plan to move to the low block beforehand with everyone knowing exactly what they had to do.

England are very poor at implementing and also breaking down a low block as the game against Ghana (and others previously) proves. If they gain that skill then it may move them to the next level in actually winning a championship, as they have some very talented players otherwise and move the ball around well.

Parking the bus with 30 minutes to play is a bad strategy.

Especially when they know Messi doesn't run back so the way to get him out of play is to keep the pressure on them

Ghana pretty much did it for a whole game and managed a draw.

So clearly it is possible if you are actually any good at it.

We don't have to wait 2 years. Got the women's world cup next year.

Being it on

Argentina is a violent team of many thugs led by a crap captain in messi.
Having played for Spain im amazed he hasn't tried to clean up his team players.
They showed their colours again last night physicslly attacking Spanish players and even dragging them to the ground after. It was hard for them to be as violent as they wanted to be on last night's stage.

They are an global embarrassment and nothing without Messi.
I don't think we will see them feature much in future cups.
Good riddance.

I agree it would be very hard to beat Spain because they are a clinical solid machine. They have a 38 match winning streak !
But it's not necasarily exciting football.

Errr... ok 🥶 sorry I know the women have got better in recent years, but women's football is still an acquired taste. Not comparable to the men's

Each to their own. My dd is already excited about it

I said this earlier its just not remotely as enjoyable is it. There's no speed, no excitement it's just so very dull but everyone pretends it's the same lest you get labelled sexist.

I'll have to find a premiership team to follow if anyone has any tips.

Pick the team closest to you

I can't wait 🤩 Also looking forward to 2035 when UK is hosting. Ive been to 3 euros and still gutted I didn't go to Swizerland.

England is also hosting in 2028 in case you care 😛

They are not good enough

Im pretty sure i will have no way of getting tickets, let alone affordable tickets so I've kinda counted out men's euros 😅 also, i do kinda prefer watching women's football 🙈

I have to say that the women have a long way to go to gain the same furore and fan base as the men, but they are as good as the men IMO. There was loads of excitement when they played in the last few years - and won!

The 6:4 score against France - in the 3rd place play-off match on Saturday tells a different story.

It doesn't. The fact it was the third-place playoff and not the final proves the point.