England vs Brazil

Well, there we are. Brazil have beaten us - my goodness, what a shock... odd thing, the World Cup, isn't it? We spend half the qualifying group convinced we won't even be going, then the weeks after the draw deciding we'll be lucky to make it out of the group. The second we make it to the knockout stages, though, we suddenly become convinced we're going to win the darn thing. A lot of the Scottish comments recently have been sour-grapes whinging, but that particular criticism is close to the mark. We're a good side, but to win the thing we'd have had to play out of our skins - quarter-finalists is a fair result, I think. That 0-0 draw ...  Read the complete review

The very fact we'd beaten Argentina should have assured us that England could afford to beat ANOTHER South American side, 1-5 against Germany, 1-0 against Argentina, 3-0 Denmark, all results that are relative to the fact we lost to Brazil, a team who on the day lacked any of what the former did, no tactical awareness or even a game plan. A semi fit Michael Owen up front, and a severely clandestine goalkeeper led to a painful exit from what was a very impressive World Cup, but if you need to blame anyone blame the team as a whole, a team should commit itself as a whole, when a player scores its the teams goal, when the team conceeds its the teams fault, and ...  Read the complete review

I feel so gutted that we have gone out at such a crucial point in the competition and I feel robbed. Brazil I felt were not the side I had witnessed in other world cups and even other games in this world cup. They could not penetrate our defence more than a couple of times and I found this little point to cheer me up a little. THis in hand I htink that we should have won, or at least dragged it to a golden goal situation and the dreaded penalties. But yet again like every match I have seen them play (which is all) since beating Greece to qualify, they have dropped right out of the game in the second half and am starting to get very annoyed at the mangement. Yes ...  Read the complete review

The pain - oh, the pain!! The world ended for England at approximately 9.24 am English time on Friday, June 21, 2002, but in reality we had spent the previous half an hour or so accepting the inevitable. If truth be known, this has been one of the greatest World Cup tournaments ever and for so long, so many days, we had thought that at last this may be our turn to regain the title of World Champions, in which case you know for every one of us it would have been THE BEST. With so many major sides slipping by the wayside and the combination of intelligent football and a masterful coach boosting our own performances, we began to believe, rather ...  Read the complete review

I just want to say thank-you to the England squad for all their efforts in the World cup. The joy they brought to us when we beat Denmark and Argentina. You have to take the good with the bad, and despite that gutting feeling you can?t help but feel proud. It?s all too easy for people to blame David Seaman, but it?s a team game and no one person should be singled out for blame. Seaman, is a top class goalkeeper one error does not make him a bad one. It?s weird how football has had such an impact. The whole family was up by 7.00 breakfast was served and everyone settled down. This time there was a real air of anticipation. England had done so well and ...  Read the complete review