50 Years of Hurt - Half a century of England / FA disasters in one thread

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Tooting Gull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
11,033
Great thread.

Apart from the more obvious in recent times (not least this week), remember a dismal 1-1 with Saudi Arabia when Sir Bobby Robson was under pressure accompanied by the headline 'In The Name of Allah, Go'.

The 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in 2005 was pretty shite.

Sven and Ulrika...Sven and Faria Alam...
 




Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
31,274
Greg Dyke's 'cut-throat' gesture at getting drawn in the same group as Italy and Uruguay for World Cup 2014.
 




Mayonaise

Well-known member
May 25, 2014
2,114
Haywards Heath
And then after all of that - the pinnacle against Iceland (although to be honest I stopped caring after the 2010 WC)

At some point we may just have to except that at international level, we are not very good.
 






Tooting Gull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
11,033
Prince William/David Beckham/the FA humiliating themselves for that World Cup vote crawling up to Fifa Exec Committee sleazeballs like Jack Warner - who then didn't vote for us anyway.
 


Worthingite

Sexy Pete... :D
Sep 16, 2011
4,966
Chesterfield
Michael Ricketts. His rise was as meteoric as his fall. He was never the same player after his one and only England cap.

Oh and Iceland. F@cking Iceland.
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,191
Gloucester
They'd still have smashed us though.
Not necessarily. A team that had just been pegged back from 2-0 to 2-2 with the final kick of the first half would come out after the break with an entirely different mind-set to a team that knew that luck was outrageously on their side that day.
 




LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
Not necessarily. A team that had just been pegged back from 2-0 to 2-2 with the final kick of the first half would come out after the break with an entirely different mind-set to a team that knew that luck was outrageously on their side that day.
I refer to the second part of my post which you didn't quote. Disallowed goal included, we were never going to win that game as if we scored 4, they'd have scored 6. The gulf in quality was embarrassing. And I'm always as positive and optimistic about England as possible.
 


GT49er

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Feb 1, 2009
49,191
Gloucester
I refer to the second part of my post which you didn't quote. Disallowed goal included, we were never going to win that game as if we scored 4, they'd have scored 6. The gulf in quality was embarrassing. And I'm always as positive and optimistic about England as possible.
England's heads dropped after that 'goal' - and Germany's tail was right up. If England's tail had been up, and the Germans disheartened, both teams would have played differently. England could defend better - and might have done in different circumstances. Nobody knows what the result would have been. That includes everybody on here.
 


LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
England's heads dropped after that 'goal' - and Germany's tail was right up. If England's tail had been up, and the Germans disheartened, both teams would have played differently. England could defend better - and might have done in different circumstances. Nobody knows what the result would have been. That includes everybody on here.
Yeah it's all conjecture of course but I remember being angry about the disallowed goal but feeling pretty realistic in that we in no way deserved to be drawing the game. As you say, anything could have happened but we were still shit.
 




GT49er

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Feb 1, 2009
49,191
Gloucester
Yeah it's all conjecture of course but I remember being angry about the disallowed goal but feeling pretty realistic in that we in no way deserved to be drawing the game. As you say, anything could have happened but we were still shit.

We certainly started shit, and finished shit after the game-changing refereeing decision - but we weren't too shit for that part of the game while we were clawing back that two goal lead . The decision certainly was a game changer - but of course, how much it would have changed the game had the ref. got it right, we'll never know. Whatever - we lost.
 


BadFish

Huge Member
Oct 19, 2003
18,226
The introduction of the Premier League, which allowed people with no obligation to help the national side influence how the national side was run.

Is the correct answer (on a thread with no correct answers). The Premier League is the root cause of many ills in English football. Great for those in it, shitful for everyone else.
 


The Maharajah of Sydney

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
1,417
Sydney .
Took a ton of abuse from my mates downunder for this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiO6cK4XUuI

Harry Kewell's finest performance as a Socceroo - he tore the English defence apart that night.
One of Sven's earliest matches and he played 2 teams against us with the Under 23's taking to the field for the 2nd half - Rooney's debut ?
What was clearly apparent though was that Sven seemed to have absolutely no idea of the history and sporting rivalry between the 2 countries and the nationalistic pride at stake as demonstrated by the pisstaking you would of got from your Aussie mates.
 




W.C.

New member
Oct 31, 2011
4,927
2002 still upsets me the most.

THAT Ronaldinho free kick. It's not fashionably to say but we had a really good team that year. If we'd got through that game then it was Turkey in the semi final and a POOR Germany in the final.

That was our chance.

ahh yes, I miss the Sven days. 3 Qfs in a row and one or two memorable results along the way. I was HAPPY with that level, you never know what might happen when you get within touching distance in a tournament. Unfortunately armchair England fans at that time had become insufferably arrogant which kind of spoilt it. I switched off for most of the Mclaren era (luckily!).
 


Brovion

In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,882
Prince William/David Beckham/the FA humiliating themselves for that World Cup vote crawling up to Fifa Exec Committee sleazeballs like Jack Warner - who then didn't vote for us anyway.

Oh, winner by a country mile. In our entire history that was English football's lowest moment. Well ahead of trashing the FA Cup one year by sending Man U to play in an international tournament in Brazil I think (can't remember the country or year) instead of competing in the 3rd Round. Another (failed) attempt at trying to secure the World Cup.
 








Biscuit

Native Creative
Jul 8, 2003
22,325
Brighton
Remember when Tim Flowers had a tame shot to take, but it hit a bobble in the turf? He sank back on his arse and the ball span awkwardly into the net.

That's England for me. Classic stuff.
 


Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
31,274
I think Gareth Southgate's own penalty miss in Euro '96 S/F vs. Germany deserves a mention.

Given that the England squad have been charged with a lack of bottle it's ironic that the man who bottled one of England's most important penalties of all-time is now manager, all the more so given that he ducked putting himself forward for the job after Roy's resignation.
 


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