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Oh dear! Ledley King is the replacement I think. He seems to have a better record against Henry than Carragher does. I'm concerned though with Rio and JohnTerry missing not so much against the French where a result is a bonus but against the Swiss and the Croations where losing goals would be a disaster.
So, King I have seen, but not much. Carragher I have never seen. Everyone is worried about Thiery and Patrick, as well they should. So, King held his own against Henry in the Premiership I take it you're saying, whereas Carragher did not?
Well, if that is Sven's choice, he must have a reason for it, and you have to admit: he has done a great job with England.
BTW:
The French and a result just a bonus? Are you giving up already? Damn, man, we need to make a statement here!! We don't play as wel with our backs against the walls from starting off slowly as the Italians seem to do, or the Germans.
So, remember Munich??? I feel the need for a battlecry!
Now I know the wife loves me...
Got home from work today and she's got me a cool new England shirt for wearing down the pub during the England games
http://garry.knott.users.btopenworld.com/shirt1.jpg
...and she got herself one for wearing at home during the England matches!!
http://garry.knott.users.btopenworld.com/shirt2.jpg
(she said I couldn't post it unless I got the size 10 label clear!!!!!)
Well that's my pass out for the month confirmed :thumbs2:
My opionions on the Portugal v Greece and Spain v Russia matches.
Portugal were soooooooooooooooooooooooo poor the ball was needlessly given away by them for greece so score the first goal, C Ronaldo who came on as sub in the second half to try and give more pace down the wing was a pile of poop, first off he gave away the penalty that lead to Greece second goal after that it was no better, cross after cross was either under hit or over hit, when he did get one in there was no player from his team there to even try and put the greek keeper under pressure, i'm not even sure if he was even called in2 make any type of save in the match, from what the bbc pundits were saying at the end of the match he was playing on the wrong side of the pitch and having 2 use his weeker foot each time, There seemed no urgancy in there genral play Figo who should have been bossing the midfield was mearly a shadow fer most of the match only in the third min of added time did he curl in a good corner fer Ronaldo to head home, Now Greece completly oppercite they played a gr8 passing game very solid in defence and the first goal was taken very well the player didnt rush his shot kept the ball nice and low even at full stretch the keeper was beaten by low driven well placed shot in2 the corner of the net, this was Greece first win in any championship torniment and they totaly deserve it in no way was they intimidated by this so called gr8 portugees team who were tipped by a few so called experts in the world of football as being fav fer the cup, but on this showing they will be lucky to get through the group stages and just to rub salt in2 the portugees team wounds spain went and won.
The Spain Russia match was a livley one 7 yellow cards and a sending off in the dieing stages of the match, the first 30 mins of the match spain had all the possession and it seemed russia had only turned up in body and not spirit only poor finishing and some stout last ditch defending and a couple of gr8 saves from the keeper stopped spain being 4 or 5 goals up in the first half an hour of this match, the last 15 mins of that half things began 2 change russia finally worked out what they should be doing with the strange silver round ball and came very close on sevral occations 2 breaking the dead lock and couple of good saves this time by the spain keeper kept the score at 0-0 when half time arrived, the second half pretty much had the same feel at the beginging of the first half again with spain havin the bulk off the possesion but some poor finishing again saved russia at the start of the half, then the spain manager made couple of subs and within 35 seconds of comming on one of the fresh players scored the winning goal (from the player arriving on the pitch 2 the ball hitting the net was timed by the bbc at 35.7 seconds), The russians did try and equalize but even with having 3 up front they did not have the luck at breaking down the spanish defence and a needless trip/foul on a spanish forward reduced them to ten men as the defender had already been booked once and he was given a second yellow this = a red card and he will miss the next match.
So the euro 04 is only a day old and so far we had a huge upset,sending off,penalty and 4 goals :) from the action so far it its gonna be a roller coaster of a championship yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay :)
Garfield99 that was an excellent write up on both matches.
I agree that Portugal looked poor, but so did England in the opening game of Euro 96. Luckily they play Russia next, but will still need a result from the Spain match even if they do beat the Ruskies. I can't write them off yet, they must be better than that. Hats off to the greeks though, great football. I liked the way their manager was getting really wound up even when they were winning 2-0 with 5 minutes left!
For a while I thought Russia were going to do the same to spain. Chance after chance wasted for the Spaniards and then the Russians started coming good for a while. It's a shame the referee spoiled it with 8 bookings and a red card when I don't remember seeing much to warrant 1 card! Spain v Greece now looks like being a great match, I will be watching that one for sure.
Like you, now the tournaments started I'm into it already. I can see lots of shocks in Euro2004, maybe early elimination of the hosts is one of them. I'm trying to stay cool for the big one tonight. Lets hope we can keep possesion and teach the French a lesson ;)
Euro 2004, it's started :thumbs2: :thumbs2: :thumbs2:
Great reporting Garfield.https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2006/04/1.gif
Will things settle down? Or is this going to be a pattern in Euro 04? Upsets, and close matches? https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif
I can predict one thing for sure, an unfancied team will probably make it to the final. It's all Greek to me ;)
And so, another dark horse emerges? The last I remember, Greece gave England fits, so, perhaps it shouldn't have surprised us?
Great shirts btw, and what a woman G! Lucky man you are.https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2006/04/1.gif
I didnt see much of the Switzerland v Croatia as i was watching England white wash the new zealand in cricket (we managed 2 win summit to day at least) 3-0 serises win Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, any way back to the football from the bbc pundits at the end of the game this is what i gather was how the match went, :bor: :bor: :bor: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz *half time* :bor: :bor: :bor: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz *full time* that pretty much covers that match it seems.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooook now the England v France ummmmm ya well ummmmm ok fer 90 min's the whole england team played out there skin's. L King was out standing in defence all the midfield gave a gr8 performance in stiffeling out the french attacks helping 2 protect the defence and also nice passes when they had the ball, the Lampards goal on 38 mins was the icing on the cake gr8 set peace free kick by beckam and a pin-point header by Lamps left Barthez in the french goal in no mans land and rooted to the spot, what happeded towards the end of the match has still left me and prolly whole of england stunned, first off Rooney was clean through on goal and Mikael Silvestre sithed him down in the penalty area, only got a yellow card but should have been red as he was the last defender, so Beckam steps up hits the ball cleanly but sadly Barthez guessed correctly and palmed the ball away, this was not a problem our defence was still strong and the clock was counting down slowly but it was counting down, Now in the last 15 mins or so some of the england squad were looking a tadd jadded so sven used his subs Vassel came on 2 replace owen + Hargreves came on for Scholes then a few mins l8tr Heskey replaced Rooney this seemed a real good move at the time, then in extra time it all went pear shaped first off Heskey have a needless free kick away just outside the penalty box from witch Zedane scored it was a fantastic free kick James had no chance, this was disapointing but not a problem we still get a point no shame in that, then ohhhhh boy then pretty much from the kick off we were under pressure and Gerrard lost it totaly hoofed the ball back 2 James in goal not spotting terry henry was clean through with only the keeper 2 beat, James was committed in2 a tackle and took henry out clear penalty this time to france and 2 be honest James should have been red carded fer that and not just yellow carded as he was by the ref, welp up steps zedane and unlike beckam earlier he sent the keeper the wrong way and scored :sad: , full time 2-1 france tomorrow is gonna be crap at work i aint gonna bother reading the damn paper unless i can find the cricket write up that just my well cheer me up, ohh well roll on thursday the team need to pick themselves up and win the remaning 2 match's in the group.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay me finally 100 posts :)
Another top write up. You should be a journalist!
100 posts too, congrats, joint the WOTPP's 101st Infantry
As the first match’s kick off 5pm GMT each day I’m listening to the first half on a radio while at work then catching the second half at home while munching on some Dinner, First off today was Italy Denmark and despite the 0-0 score line at the end of 90 min’s the match was far from boring, The Danish were not afraid of the BIG names that were in Italian team and had more of the possetion in the first half and had it not been for some outstanding saves by the Italian keeper Denmark could well have been 2 goals or more to the good, saying that though as the half wore on Italy also had some chances but thanks 2 some fine keeping by the Danish keeper this time it stayed 0-0 at half time, Now the second half seemed very stifled and was mostly played in the midfield and also seemed very nigglee with a lot of ummm lets just say miss timed tackles by the Italians although they are renowned fer that type of play so I shouldn’t have been surprised, also in the second half we saw the best and worst off Italy’s Totty couple of times in the second half his touches and passing game was fantastic and deserved a goal but each time the Danish keeper was up2 the task of keeping his team in the match, Just before full time though Totty was lucky 2 stay on the pitch when he carried out a needless studs up tackle on the knee of a Danish player, they were both deep in mid field the ball and player were going no wear and he just launched himself studs first by the time he connect with the tackle the Danish player didn’t even have the ball and hadn’t had it fer a good 2/3 seconds it was that l8, he only received a yellow card fer the action but should have been straight red the ref positioning wasn’t gr8 and the assistants as though out the match were no help to him at all, The Italians in the past have been accused of negative play but had said pre-match that ppl would see a more attacking side to there game fer euro 04 not sure if attempting 2 cripple the opposition is what ppl are looking for, one thing I noticed and also the radio/TV pundits picked up on is still the fact the Italian mid-field love going forward but when it comes to dropping back and helping out in defence they seem very slow at doing so leaving big gaps and ya get the feeling if they make or want to progress in euro04 they need to tighten the midfield up if not its gonna bite em in the ***.
The second match of the night was Sweden v Bulgaria now I must admit I was in to minds weather 2 watch this match or maybe go watch some paint dry as it had 0-0 written all over it, I’m glad I went againced my first choice of paint drying duties and watched the match, when they last played each other it was in world cup 94 it finished 4-0 to Sweden this match was also a barn stormer, From the off both teams only had one thing on there minds ATTACK!!!, Who needs a defence if the opposition score 1 we’ll score 2 was the tactics both teams seemed 2 have adopted, on the pitch there was huge spaces and this gave loads of room for an open passing game fer both sides, it was end 2 end stuff and the first 30 mins flew by in no time at all and was very surprising it was still 0-0 with half time fast approaching, with Bulgaria missing a good chance at the Swedes goal the ball was launched down the wing and with pretty much the whole Bulgarian team still in the Sweden half (apart from the keeper) all it needed from the Swedish winger was pinpoint pass in the penalty area this he managed and who should be on the end of it but Ljungberg of Arsenal nice easy goal for him and the keeper had no chance half time 1-0 Sweden, during half time one of the TV pundits mentioned how quiet Larsen fer Sweden had been and to be honest he had been very quiet that was soon 2 change in the second half, the second half stared as the first one had and was making gr8 viewing the coaches must have been having kittens and wondering why they even bothered with tactics, again on more than one occasion Bulgaria had the chance 2 level the match and even go ahead but they kept fluffing there finishing and boy were Sweden gonna punish that in the mins 2 follow, now if u get the chance 2 see the build-up play and then Larsson first goal its well worth it from a pinpoint in swing pass from the wing Larson dived full length to fire the ball past the helpless keeper via a header and as the commentators said that could well be goal of euro 04 already, there was more was to come direct from the kick off Sweden had the ball back and within around 30 seconds Larson again had the ball in the Bulgarians goal it was now 3-0, The thing is Larson came out of international retirement to play in euro 04 125,000 Swedish fan’s had signed a petition fer him 2 play again and the countries pri-minister called him and asked him to play again, none of witch swayed him at playing at international level again the person who got him to change his mind was his 6 yr old son don’t know what he said but I bet Henrik Larsson is glad he changed his mind, Now the 4th goal was a penalty Ljungberg was fouled but the contact happened just outside the box so at most should have only been a free kick, the odd thing was Larson being on a hat-trick but he didn’t even try and get the ball to take the spot kick it was left to another Swedish player 2 slot the ball home for number goal 4, Sweden added number 5 in they dieing mins of the match nice easy chip over the keeper by this time Bulgaria just wanted off the pitch and the Bulgarian keeper had a bad back from picking the ball out the net so many times.
Big news in the England camp Scoles picked up an ankle injury in the France match and is highly doubtful fer the Swiss clash Thursday although Sven has given him till Wednesday to prove his fitness, also Neville picked up a slight thigh strain in the same match but is expected to be fit, to make matters worse Nicky butt injured his knee in training today and went fer a scan at hospital the results will be known l8tr on Tuesday, if it turns out both him and scoles are not fit then Owen hargreves will more then likely start the Swiss match.
Excellent reporting cub reporter!! You are now promoted to full-fledged duties as the BBC has heard all about you, and we won't let them get ya. -thumbs-
On the Hargraeves issue: I think he played real well as a substitute in the first match: good ball control skills and midfield defense. I like him.I think he should be a starter.
Do we have to call you Garfield100 now? :D
No, Garfield102