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

[hans kraay fan club]

Gutted, by both, but for Boro it was the injustice that was the over-riding thing. That made it really hard to let go.

This one, ultimately, was self-inflicted. We had Croatia at our mercy for 40 minutes and blew it. Harry Kane, in thirty years time, will be waking at night, agonizing over why he didn't just roll the ball sideways for Sterling to tap in.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

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

And the gloating vile fans, assaulting our players, mocking us as we tried to leave their shabby smoggy town.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Gutted, by both, but for Boro it was the injustice that was the over-riding thing. That made it really hard to let go.

This one, ultimately, was self-inflicted. We had Croatia at our mercy for 40 minutes and blew it. Harry Kane, in thirty years time, will be waking at night, agonizing over why he didn't just roll the ball sideways for Sterling to blaze in to Row Z

Corrected for you

 

[Thunder Bolt]

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?

.

Who knows? But we are on the right track.

U21s : 3rd in Euros
U20s: World Cup winners
U19: Euros winners
U17: World Cup winners
Senior squad: World Cup semi finalist

 

[brightn'ove]

I couldn’t speak for hours after the boro game. Honestly, the hangover hurts more than last nights defeat.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Corrected for you

I guess it must somehow be Sterling's fault after all. Selfless national hero Harry Kane, was FORCED to have a really crap shot, and miss the open goal on the rebound, because he knew Sterling couldn't be trusted to roll the ball into an empty net from 6 yards. DAMN you Sterling.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I guess it must somehow be Sterling's fault after all. Selfless national hero Harry Kane, was FORCED to have a really crap shot, and miss the open goal on the rebound, because he knew Sterling couldn't be trusted to roll the ball into an empty net from 6 yards. DAMN you Sterling.

I'm actually a fan of Sterling, as per the thread I started the other day, and he probably would have scored but he does have form in missing open goals. Call it gallows humour

 

[Triggaaar]

Feels about the same for me. How about you?

Felt much worse against Middlesbrough, but not because I don't care about the WC.

If we went back to 2016 and you offered me promotion again Middlesbrough, or England winning the WC in 2018 and Brighton losing in the playoffs, I'd choose winning the WC - easy decision (without knowing whether Brighton would ever get to the PL).

If last night had been the final, or I'd thought we'd beat France, it would been much worse. I ignored all the idiots saying 'it's coming home' (yes I know, that's half of NSC) and protected my feelings, as it probably wasn't coming home was it.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I'm actually a fan of Sterling, as per the thread I started the other day, and he probably would have scored but he does have form in missing open goals. Call it gallows humour

Can you imagine if the roles were reversed in that incident? If Sterling had wasted that double chance, with Kane stood waiting to tap in the goal that would have sealed a place in the World Cup final? Sterling would have been utterly slaughtered. It would have been like Beckham after '98.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Can you imagine if the roles were reversed in that incident? If Sterling had wasted that double chance, with Kane stood waiting to tap in the goal that would have sealed a place in the World Cup final? Sterling would have been utterly slaughtered. It would have been like Beckham after '98.

Sadly I think you're right.

What should have happened, of course, is that Kane should have squared it and Sterling tapped it in before carrying out a celebration where he pretended to shoot Lovren with his AK47 tattoo, so enraging the Croat that he attempted to lamp the pair of them. As per the rest of the half he'd have missed but he finally would have got the red card he deserved. Has anyone had such a match of two halves as Lovren last night? I can't remember it if so.

 

[SUIYHP]

I mean, England missing out on the final is a pretty shit feeling, but the hope is that England exceeded expectation and restored a belief that we can perform well. The extra plus is that the England side are all very young. I was more reminded of Germany in 2010 who went out in the semis, but then went on to win 2014 rather than 1990, we have the potential to improve and for once our players have instilled pride rather than embarrassment.

Boro felt more like the opportunity of a lifetime wasted. It’s easier to see it in hindsight as merely the taster of the promotion season but I genuinely thought we’d had a lucky run and blew it at the death. We were all happy with our amazing undefeated record but we scraped by draws rather than crucial wins, which proved to be our pitfall.

What’s worse was that b*stard that we all know and hate scuppered our chances of recovery through the playoffs by removing Stephens from the equation against MASSIVE. With the knowledge that we’d have to compete with Villa, Toon and Norwich in the following season it seemed like promotion would never happen. Thankfully Hughton proved that our side weren’t a fluke but the real deal.

 

[Napper]

Can you imagine if the roles were reversed in that incident? If Sterling had wasted that double chance, with Kane stood waiting to tap in the goal that would have sealed a place in the World Cup final? Sterling would have been utterly slaughtered. It would have been like Beckham after '98.

Stirling was MOM first half and still he is hated by the masses who hopefully now will go back to not talking about football.

As for the hurt , it was a massive kick in the balls to be 25 mins from the final but the fact we've over achieved , alongside thunderbolts stats of the youth levels of our national side mean for me this is no where near as bad as Boro.

 

[happypig]

Last night England had a chance to win it but were beaten by a better team. At Boro we had the opportunity to win it taken away by an incompetent, lazy, "look at me", charlatan ref. I will never, EVER, forgive that ****.

 

[papajaff]

Nah, I don't despise, loathe or hold Croatians in utter contempt.

Whereas, those horrible basstad Midds CJTC's.....................

 

[brightn'ove]

Also wanted to add that the Middlesbrough game completely ruined an absolutely incredible season, whereas England going out in the semi final of a World Cup is actually quite an achievement in itself.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I didn't find the Middlesbrough game that bad at the time, it was the Sheffield Wednesday 1st leg that magnified it over time as there was always another chance via the Play offs and it would all have been forgotten. Half time in the Wednesday game with all the injuries just felt like we'd ran over a bus load of Black cats on the way to the ground.

I was gutted for 5 minutes afterwards last night but soon perked up. This World Cup has been tremendous laugh from the Pub visits, BBQ's, It's coming home memes and the glorious weather. It's gutting to go out so close to a final but it's put the fun back into supporting England which has been missing by feeling dirty cheering on JT and the like, the tournaments over before they start (2014) and not to mention Iceland. The up and coming youth teams and feeling like we are learning means I think we will only get better rather than turn to ratshit. It's still a positive outlook.

 

[aolstudios]

Not even close for me. I was so gutted vs Middlesbrough I struggled to be up for the start of the following season. I am disappointed we lost of course, bit I feel nothing but pride and appreciation for the efforts of the players and the manager. Well played England.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

This. All of it.
Nowhere near close

 

[Whitley Bayster]

I hope the similarity is that the lessons are learnt from the disappointment. I look back at Middlesbrough and think its the best thing that could happened to us now. At the time I was gutted but that disappointment made us mentally stronger and two years on we are in a far better place. If England use the lesson and experience to improve then 2020 and 2022 could be really exciting tournaments

 

[rippleman]

England blew it. Not a chance that there will be another WC where Italy and Netherlands don't qualify and all of Brazil, Argentina, Germany & Spain fail to turn up. I think it unlikely we will get such a good chance to get to a WC final. Take nothing away from Croatia though. They were fitter, stronger and more technically adept which bearing in mind they only have 4m to pick from was some achievement.

We were cheated by an incompetent wanker of a referee. That hurt far more; no comparison.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

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?

That isn’t what this thread is about. It’s about how i felt when we lost vs Middlesbrough and how i felt last night...

After the Middlesbrough game I thought that we’d make it one day to the prem.