[Football] Losing to Croatia v Not beating those utter ***** Middlesbrough

[maltaseagull]

Very disappointed but proud. We should have had it wrapped up in the first half when we were dominating them.
Once Morris started running things we were on the back foot. We need to find a midfielder who can run the game like that.

 

[highflyer]

Not even close

England/World Cup is an enjoyable summer hobby
Brighton is the career.

 

[nwgull]

After we lost to Middlesbrough (and then Wednesday), I was confident that we’d bounce right back and everything that the club did over the subsequent weeks added to that confidence. I was well over it by the time we’d signed Murray on loan.

Last night was the closest we’ve been to a World Cup final in 28 years, and I feel like I’ll be wondering ‘what if’ about that chance Kane had to make it 2-0 until we next get to that stage, in the same way I wondered what if Chris Waddle hadn’t hit the post in extra time in Turin for 20 odd years.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I hope so. After Middlesborough and then the play-off defeat I really thought we'd blown our chance to get into the PL. I thought that the traditional 'big' teams would rebuild and wouldn't be so bad again, and consequently we'd have to settle for being a good 2nd tier club. Obviously I was wrong. Hopefully we (England) will get stronger and we won't live to regret the fact that at this World Cup the cards got dealt in our favour but we couldn't find a winning hand.

There seems to be a theme that we only got to the semi finals because we faced easy teams. I think that is doing England & Sothgate a big disservice. When it gets to the knockout stages, anything can happen.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Very very few teams win tournaments, and being knocked out is the norm. No relegation / promotion which can have a lasting effect - we just reset again to the same base.


So, for me, Middlesbrough was far more disappointing.


Shame that the Euro qualifiers don't start in September as they usually do. We have to wait until March this time, I think.

 

[pasty]

Nowhere near. I was devastated when we were robbed at 'Boro, but last night I felt nothing but pride at how well we'd done to get there, and hope for the future of this England side.

 

[Marshy]

Equally gutted

The World Cup comes around every 4 years and we will never get such a favourable route again, Winning a World Cup or Getting to a Final is going to be a once in a lifetime thing.

Boro I was obviously gutted, but even then I just knew it would not be long before we made it.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Not even close , Middlesbrough. I am still upset with Italia 90 though.....

 

[Hotchilidog]

Boro was worse. As others have said it was a rank injustice last night was not.

 

[maffew]

We'll never have a better chance. Ever. With the Albion, whatever happens, we get a crack at it every year. EVERY year. Its all part of the rollercoaster.

But with England, you have to wait 4 years for a shot - and we've just been within 25 minutes of a World Cup Final, and absolutely blown it. Sorry, it doesn't mean the Albion mean any less to me, but I am fvcking devastated tonight. Casually shrug all you want if you say you don't really give a toss about England. But for only the 2nd time in my entire life, I had a fantastic chance of experiencing a World Cup Final as something other than a neutral. And for an hour tonight, I honestly, confidently thought I would. I honestly cannot relate to people who don't give a shit about that.

Gutted beyond gutted.

Same here. Totally gutted still this morning. The feel good factor of the last few weeks assisted by the weather across the whole country just isn't something we can get next year, and so unlikely to get again in the next God knows how many multiples of 4 years, probably never for many of us, the old club Vs country thing can **** off right now, in a right foul mood

 

[TSB]

Devastated by Mike Dean.
Couldn't give a **** about England.

 

[Icy Gull]

I was upset for weeks about the Boro game. I am already over the England game. No comparison for me

I was more pissed off with the way the ref didn’t bother to book the Croatian players body checking the England players in the first half. Lovrens especially. Other than that the better team over 120 mins won and we did way better than I expected at the start. In fact I really enjoyed our performances until half time yesterday.

 

[Guinness Boy]

We'll never have a better chance. Ever. With the Albion, whatever happens, we get a crack at it every year. EVERY year. Its all part of the rollercoaster.

But with England, you have to wait 4 years for a shot - and we've just been within 25 minutes of a World Cup Final, and absolutely blown it. Sorry, it doesn't mean the Albion mean any less to me, but I am fvcking devastated tonight. Casually shrug all you want if you say you don't really give a toss about England. But for only the 2nd time in my entire life, I had a fantastic chance of experiencing a World Cup Final as something other than a neutral. And for an hour tonight, I honestly, confidently thought I would. I honestly cannot relate to people who don't give a shit about that.

Gutted beyond gutted.

The two things felt quite different to me. I wouldn't say gutted about England so much as now being resigned to us never, ever doing it. This was our "Leicester winning the Premier League" chance. We weren't the best side in the tournament and no one expected us to win it at the start - in fact no one expected us to get to the semis. But all the big teams with the exception of France imploded at the same time, we had a favourable draw and managed to make the most of very limited means (essentially a bit of pace and some decent attacking set plays).

We kept only one clean sheet, failed to beat a poor Colombia in 90 minutes and lost to Belguim reserves. If it wasn't for all the "it's coming home" and waistcoat nonsense people would have been saying same old England.

Compare that to Boro where we failed to get promotion by one goal. ONE. Where we were diddled out of it by astonishingly poor refereeing. Where 89 effing points wasn't enough. And I was there and I had to walk back to the station through their banned goons and talk to a massively gutted Tony Bloom at Kings Cross.

Yes, we got another go the next season. Yes, England won't get another one for four years, and that will be a farce of a tournament in the middle of winter in a place that shouldn't even sell footballs. Yes England will never have a better chance. But France must have been watching last night and alternating between gales of laughter and licking their lips. No way were we good enough. The truth told in the end and I expected nothing else TBH.

 

[Gary Leeds]

Tonight is worse for me because I just don't think I'll ever see England win a World Cup in my life time. Plus you have to wait 4 years to get another crack.

I always thought we'd go up to the prem at some point, so although the middlesborough game was a joke, we didn't have to wait too long until we got what we wanted...

So 20 years ago in the middle of all the struggles you seriously thought when we were 90 minutes away from going out of the league and existence as a team, or playing home games at Gillingham that we would make the prem?

 

[Brovion]

There seems to be a theme that we only got to the semi finals because we faced easy teams. I think that is doing England & Sothgate a big disservice. When it gets to the knockout stages, anything can happen.

Oh I agree. And we've both seen England lose (or fail to win) 'easy' games in the past. Many many times. And although it's true we did get the 'easier' ride than we did in say 1966 (Mexico, Uruguay, France, Argentina and Portugal), you still have to actually win the games.

However I was more concerned with the relative strength of the traditional big teams. Argentina and Germany were shadows of their previous selves. Italy and Holland didn't even qualify. Will the big teams be so (relatively) weak at the same time again? Was this the 'right' tournament at the 'wrong' time in our development?

 

[Pinkie Brown]

Not remotely comparable for me. Devastated by the Middlesbrough result & injustice of how it occured with help from their 12th man; Dean. England result? The Alan Partridge gif about sums it for me.

 

[Bozza]

We'll never have a better chance. Ever. With the Albion, whatever happens, we get a crack at it every year. EVERY year. Its all part of the rollercoaster.

But with England, you have to wait 4 years for a shot - and we've just been within 25 minutes of a World Cup Final, and absolutely blown it. Sorry, it doesn't mean the Albion mean any less to me, but I am fvcking devastated tonight. Casually shrug all you want if you say you don't really give a toss about England. But for only the 2nd time in my entire life, I had a fantastic chance of experiencing a World Cup Final as something other than a neutral. And for an hour tonight, I honestly, confidently thought I would. I honestly cannot relate to people who don't give a shit about that.

Gutted beyond gutted.

Not dissimilar to how I was trying to describe my melancholy disposition last night.

I'm 46. England have had three decent cracks at tournaments in my lifetime, so once every 15 years or 7-8 tournaments, give or take, and this was arguably the best chance of those three. When will the next good chance be? How many more times will I see England get to the last four?

Re: Boro - I hated that day for many reasons. I guess how I view that day may now have mellowed somewhat as it ultimately became part of the overall journey we were on, and I now know there was a happy ending to the story.

 

[durrington gull]

Feels about the same for me. How about you?

Nowhere near the same - I’m over last night already but Boro was a killer

 

[DavidRyder]

The journey back from Boro was far longer than my journey back last night, so for that reason alone, Boro was the worst!

 

[Meade's Ball]

I keep being offered commiserations by a number of colleagues this morning, and I accept them, mixed with a slightly dumbfounded feeling. I'd rather England had won, but I have little emotional attachment to the England team. Nothing like that with the Albion and their endeavours.
I imagine the sympathy will come toward me during the day, whilst I sit a tad baffled, thinking at first that the Albion have lost a pre-season friendly without me noticing.