Accept it - we are not good enough

[Icy Gull]

Just like Brighton were never going to win Division 2 playing defensive football, England are never going to win a tournament playing like we did last night.

Yes it was brave and we took one of our two clearcut chances but we were on the backfoot for most of the game. Reading some of the posts on here it seems we played France off the park, not in the game I saw.

Yes we'll progress, probably to the 1/4 or 1/2 final but there is NO WAY we can win this tournament, we don't have enough ability throughout the team. IMO of course.

 

[Wardy]

We played the game we did last night because we knew that all though a win would be great a draw would be enough. If we make the knockout stages we will play a differnt style of football.

 

[El Presidente]

England played very similarly to the Albion have this season against more gifted opposition. I thought the tactics were cautious but correct, Rooney scared the pants off the French, and had it not been for Heskey being a complete twat as usual then we would have won the match. Having said that Rooney was heading for at least a yellow card and that is why Sven took him off. Hargreaves was more effective than Scholes and Vassell much livelier than Owen, so to slag Sven off for tactics and substitutions is shortsighted.

Remember James did not have to make a save during the first 90 minutes. England will play poorer than this and win matches, don't let the result cloud judgement over the performance.

 

[seagull over spain]

I go along with you all the way El Presidente but may be a bit further Beckham was hidden for the majority of the game, and it was evident early on that Scholes was not worthy of being out there which takes away half the midfield, Heskey should never have been invited, when Sven leaves the likes of Smith behind, the defence were certainly solid although I do hope that he does not rely on leaving Terry out if he is fit.

 

[ditchy]

one word .. NAIVE !!

 

[oldham gull]

one word .. NAIVE !!

did you have to pick a french word!

 

[Northstander]

WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY do England ALWAYS give the game away thinking they have won it!!!!!

I feel like it's the end of the world.....lets just do em on Thursday, still it's a lesser team so we'll lose no doubt!!

 

[Gyuribá]

and I hate that some france-gay people who I know are saying Zizou, Zizou... bullshit

our national sport newspaper gave Zidane 8 from 10

nonsense

 

[chips and gravy]

It was unfortunate to lose in the way we did, but strangely I don't feel gutted. France never looked like scoring until we gifted them their goals. At least we know we have the beating of them now. Frankly it doesn't matter whether we qualify as winners or runners-up since we'll most likely have to beat Spain or Portugal in the next round, and we have the beating of both of them.

We always start Euro slowly - we'll pick up in the next couple of games

 

[Dave the OAP]

In the same way as I never sing " You might as well go home" with 5 minutes left, I think commentators, especially that Tilsley twat should not have made the point about Santini getting a 1-0 chant in every dug out in England when he gets to be manager of Tottenham. ( and the " Are you Scotland in disguise?" chant was crap too)

I just thought it was a matter of time in the second half before they scored.

WHAT IS ALL THIS HOOF IT UP THE FIELD TO OUR MIGIT FORWARD LINE OF OWEN ALL ABOUT ( Not that we do that to Lean of course...Oh no sireeee)

SORT IT OUT SVEN

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

France deserved to win , end of.

 

[Simster]

For FUXAKE!

We lost in the last minute against the tournament favourites.
Holland lost their opening game to Russia in 1988 - and beat the same opponents in the final.
Not good enough my arse. The first half was fairly even and WE scored. The second half, they were chasing the game. That's what happens in football - the team behind do push forward more often.
I actually think we looked useful. Only Heskey looked particularly poor if you ask me.

 

[larus]

At times we looked good last night. They had a lot of possession, but most of their shots were from distance.

Scholes looks out of sorts, and maybe we would be better off with Hargreaves starting on the left.

Rooney played exceptionally well IMO, and James hardly had anything to do all night. On the other hand, Owen was not in the game, and maybe we should appoint a different penalty taker than Beckham. He's missed 2 in a row now and from 12 yards a top pro should be able to stick them away all of the time. I've never rated him as our top penalty taker, I remember the one against the Argies and it was hit virtually straight and only went in cos the keeper dived one way.

Overall, I thought we did well, and we should judge it by the performance and not the result.

 

[tricky]

I agree with C&G - it was a great performance last night by england, it's just classic that the result doesn't match it.
Thank god this was a group game and we won't meet france for a while now (although I really don't think we need to fear them now).
Wish people would stop being so reactionary - we were incredibly unlucky to lose to a team that most people in the world recognise as the best and tournament favourites.
Our defence looked great, even with our 5h choice centreback. James looked solid and the whole team looked good.
At the very least - we entertained the world with the game of tournament....

 

[balloonboy]

On last night's showing I'd be happy to include England in my top 6 in the world - France, Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Italy, England.

Not a bad line up.

We have some great young players and for most of the first half passed the ball at least as well as the European Champions.

Bad luck Sven!

 

[Brovion]

I actually think that was a good England performance last night. For about 60% of the game we played REALLY well, Rooney was easily the best player on the pitch and if Barthez had been made to stand on his line for penalty we could have been 2-0 up going in to the 90th minute. Scholes and Owen were poor and Heskey for Rooney in retrospect was a tactical error, but apart from that it was a good 'joined up' performance against one of the best teams in the world.

Well played lads, unlucky - that's football. Now I know how the Swindon fans felt!

 

[Storer68]

, and James hardly had anything to do all night.

Apart from get out-witted from a free kick and give away a penalty in the space of two minutes

 

[rodgerscuz]

I disagree with this thread, I thought that England playted fantastic for the whole 90 minutes and its was just the lack of being alert and too much panic in the last three minutes, dnt put em down, playing like we did last nite for the whole of euro 2004, Winners easily, well played lads!