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!

!

Because it is a game of small margins and mistakes get punished.

Tuchel got it wrong last night.

And it's not just England either.

Also, I don't understand all this 'because the media build them up', of course the media do and I'm fairly sure other countries do the same.

Also this we are no 3/4 in the world, we did really really well and Mexico was a sensation

They are something like the 4th best ranked team in the world, so it makes sense that they always finish 4th.

Good, but not the best.

Of course they do !

England weren't in the same side of the draw as France and Germany and the Netherlands are well down in the FIFA rankings at the moment (12 and 9) so hardly amongst the best.

Mexico were our biggest challenge and it was a significant victory to overcome the team ranked 10th in the world in their home stadium at altitude. They hadn't been beaten in that stadium in 13 years or something ridiculous.

I thought the Argentina match was a 50:50 beforehand. Argentina are ranked more highly than England at the moment, in fact #1 in the world, but their recent form has been a bit sketchy in this world cup (France and Spain have played better IMO) which probably bought down the odds a fair bit.

Essentially the first time we came up against a team ranked significantly more highly than us we lost. Kind of what was expected.

It doesn’t matter. Bellingham seems like a total prick.

I think the third place game is utterly pointless.
Played for money. For the TV revenue, for betting and gambling.
The players will say they will do their best, but the heart will not be there.

The boys played well and I am proud of them. The fact is the other team played better. People may criticise the strategy and the so called ‘dirty tricks and knavish behaviour of the sly foreigners’ but in actual fact, we just need to come back, practice, improve and try again. They were the better side who have shown that they can score in the latter half of the game.

Why do you see it as "falling at the last hurdle"? I think that's part of the problem , the expectation that England have the "right" to win. Argentina were better on the night so they won.

Why do you think this? I don’t think he does at all. I think he’s very young so has a bit of an attitude but that’s perfectly usual for a man his age, particularly one as talented. He’s an intelligent chap and I can tell he was raised well.

I didn't think the Argentinians were that bad.

I thought there was a rule whereby only the captain was allowed to talk to the ref or at least there is in the Prem.

FIFA should clamp down on that IMO, but it is something a lot of sides do.

Oh really so the hit around the head was usual game play then? Ditto the shirt pulling. They were horrible.

Because they aren’t as good as they think they are. They get to the latter stages playing easier teams and when they come up against a half decent team they fail. Every single time.

OP are you very young?

To even suggest the current team are "failing" at the final hurdle - you clearly have not seen many England games prior to 2018. the fact that they are even in the conversation for the actual title and are top 4 team in the world is so far removed from the England of old that it's like a different stratosphere.

Which makes Rooney's criticism of the team an actual joke. I don't know how he's not embarrassed to criticise them when England with him was an actual laughing stock and his involvement a meme.

It's not so called dirty tricks they were violent we have not seen this another games to this degree

Not really much worse than Kane falling down for the foul every time someone got within touching distance of him. He's been doing that throughout the tournament.

If there was serious foul play the VAR would pick it up and people would get sent off.

Yesterday it was a clear managerial error. They just couldn't hold on against such quality Argentina team plus Messi. It was impossible. Had the manager brought on some wingers like Saka they absolutely could have had a chance.

@XelaM roony is still a good player with experience and much of what he said was true. He said when you have too many defenders you think someone else will get it.

He also humbly admitted how awful past world cup teams were saying " what party, we didn't even turn up to the party. ".

@GasPanic it's up to the ref and there were soooo many fouls in the first 23 mins that it must have been hard to keep up.

Because they are not good enough. Because they are overpaid regardless of results, therefore the drive, the pride, and the will to win is not there. Because they are too afraid of injury, which may stop the gravy train. Because they do not have a winner’s mentality. We had a reasonable first half last night, at least the kids-on-a-park passing game had stopped and they appeared to be more focussed. The second half, all I could see, constantly, was a load of white shirts hogging their own goal mouth. As was demonstrated, to be just defensive, the opposition will see you as ‘fearful’ and will attack, attack, attack. At 2:1, they had nothing to lose but to go on the attack. We should have taken the game to them instead of shivering in a bunch like cowards bunching in our own half.

Well if I was to walk up to someone in the street or at work and hit them in the head, that would be quite indefensible.

He’s really nice.

Jude Bellingham is not a prick.
Here's one example of his integrity. He stopped to speak to a disabled Venezuelan reporter IN SPANISH when no one else would
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jCKTpXZISLo

I think he's amazing and he's still only 23.

How far do you want to go back?
We have had players that seem to not want to play.
We have had teams were the players just stop playing during the match
We have been beaten by better teams
and in some cases the managers tactics have been entirely wrong.
IMO you should never go entrirely defensive then throw two strikers on with 5 minutes left to play.

Then you also have the coaches that pick egos and big names over better players.