All gloves are off now!
I thought I was watching a poker game when Portugal took on Holland, the rate the referee dished out the cards, I'm surprised no one called out black jack. It's such a shame the game turned into such a shameful farce. Two great footballing teams and we nearly got into a mass brawl. the referee didn't help the game by giving out cards like sweets at Hallow'een. But the good thing to take from that game must be the suspension of Deco and Costinha, both big big players for Portugal and they are going to miss them when England play them in the quarter finals. that's not counting what FIFA would do to Figo with his headbutt on van Bommel.
Before that game, I was really worried about our chances against either teams as once again, we struggled to beat a very average team, the worst thing to come out of that game was Beckham scoring the only goal in the game. Now Sven will have a good excuse to keep him in the side. People keep going on about how important Beckham's free kicks and set pieces are to England. For goodness sake, he's the only one allowed to be near any deadball, the law of average will tell you it's just a matter of time before he actually put one away. We have other players who takes great free kicks for their clubs, yet none were allowed to be near the ball when there's a free kick or a corner. I'm certain we would get more out of set pieces if they were left to other players who will inject more variety and ideas instead of Beckham's tiring routine, all other team's defences must know his free kicks inside out by now and it's easy to defend against them unless he get one 100% right, which, so far in this tournament, is very very rare considering the chances he has had.
My friends thinks I'm mad to even consider we have any chance against Portugal, but having seen Portugal and Holland play and when you look at the players who will be missing through suspensions, we now have a great chance to lay the Scolari voodoo to rest. Despite our inadequacies, there's light at the end of the tunnel and Sven has always been lucky, so let's ride the luck and get into the Semis when Brazil will be the likely opponent waiting for us there.
Before that game, I was really worried about our chances against either teams as once again, we struggled to beat a very average team, the worst thing to come out of that game was Beckham scoring the only goal in the game. Now Sven will have a good excuse to keep him in the side. People keep going on about how important Beckham's free kicks and set pieces are to England. For goodness sake, he's the only one allowed to be near any deadball, the law of average will tell you it's just a matter of time before he actually put one away. We have other players who takes great free kicks for their clubs, yet none were allowed to be near the ball when there's a free kick or a corner. I'm certain we would get more out of set pieces if they were left to other players who will inject more variety and ideas instead of Beckham's tiring routine, all other team's defences must know his free kicks inside out by now and it's easy to defend against them unless he get one 100% right, which, so far in this tournament, is very very rare considering the chances he has had.
My friends thinks I'm mad to even consider we have any chance against Portugal, but having seen Portugal and Holland play and when you look at the players who will be missing through suspensions, we now have a great chance to lay the Scolari voodoo to rest. Despite our inadequacies, there's light at the end of the tunnel and Sven has always been lucky, so let's ride the luck and get into the Semis when Brazil will be the likely opponent waiting for us there.