Euro 2004

[britneyspearsisgod]

All I can say is it's a damn pain to lose like that, but England still has Croatia and Switzerland to play, so if we can get through them, then we can plan on further.

[Guest Red Devil]

A lot of people are blaming Wayne Rooney for something he shouldn't really be blamed for, if Rooney didn't get fouled by Silvestre and scored then everyone would think of him as the wonderkid but because he didn't pass that made England lose the match? He ran from the half way line taking 3 defenders with him and won the penalty for us as well as playing a blinder for us, what else could the boy do?

We didn't lose because of one or two players, we lost because we didn't defend as a team after the 90 minutes had elapsed so we went down as a team and hopefully in our next 2 matches we will win as a team with the emphasis being on the word Team. This is a team game and no matter how good your individual players are, if you can't play as a team you can't win.

[Kobra]

Sven should of brought on Butt instead of Heskey in my opinion.  Heskey isn't bad, but common sense would tell you not to bring on more strikers when your trying to defend a lead against the best team in the world.

Zidane's freekick was unstoppable, as was the penalty, James can't be blamed for either.  The people who can be blamed, are Heskey and Gerrard, and I intend on doing that, along with Beckham for a piss poor penalty.

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Get a fucking grip. It was a great penalty, shame it was an outstanding save. What pissed me off most about the match was the commentary at the final whistle.

"Oh well, I guess we will just have to beat them in the final."

Wanker.

[nabeel]

I prayed that let France win and all the while I was cursing Zidane as a backstage politician and what not when he scored the goals. He is OK though. Henry should have the No.10 shirt

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I prayed that let France win and all the while I was cursing Zidane as a backstage politician and what not when he scored the goals. He is OK though. Henry should have the No.10 shirt

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What? Just WHAT?

Anyway, Beckhams penalty was very good, it was just a better save. No blame on Beckham from me.

If Beckham would have scored, no-one would mention the fact Rooney should have played Vassell in at all. Hell, if Beckham had still missed, but we still won 1-0, no-one would mention it, so having a go at Rooney, who was MOTM IMO, is stupid.

Sven should not have brought Heskey on, Rooney should have stayed on since as he was Man of the Match (though Campbell and King were outstanding too). It's Heskey's fault for his awful challenge that gave the free-kick away, but the actual free-kick was unstopable. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a fucking idiot. Might have been nice to have a man on that post though. It's then Gerrards fault for his awful backpass, no fault of James really.

I accept France played very well for most of the second half, but i'm just EXTREMELY gutted that we lead 1-0 until the 91st minute and lost. How you are winning in the 91st minute and lose i'll never know.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Beckhams penalty was extremely average and deserved to be saved. It was the perfect height for a goalkeeper. Iused to be goalkeeper for the first XI at secondary school and I tell ya, that is EXACTLY the sort of penalty you want to face. He even telegraphed the way he was gonna kick it in his run up. ...But then Barthez always saves penalties....And then gets hit in the face with the balll heh heheheheheh how I laffed.

However what I'm NOT laffing about it Emile Heskey. He must NEVER wear an England shirt again! An abomination of a tackle! He can't attack, can't defend, falls over at the merest hint of a touch...He should be strung up by his testicles. Giving away a stupid freekick on the edge of the area in the 91st minute?! It's Phil Neville all over again...There's no point...

And it then unnerved Gerrard who had been making decent backpasses all night...

For on ce I'm supporting James. He had a great game and had to commit himself to stopping Henry...

So therefore blame rests on EMILE HESKEY You can't tell me he's the 4th best striker in England. Vassell was good, Defoe's a classy player, Beattie, Smith...The list goes on...

Ledley was great, Frank Lampard was solid, Ronney was exciting to watch. Gary Neville an Sol Campbell were solid. Everyone else....Meh...

[MDK]

Argghh, I still feel numb from last night, but now it is starting to fade away. Those last 3-4 minutes of the match were just a blur to me. And anyway, its all in the past now. Bring on Croatia and Switzerland.

[stokeriño]

In a conscious attempt to change the topic of conversation...

Denmark vs. Italy has the potential to be good.

[Summers]

I'm hoping Denmark or Sweden win the tournament.

[G-O-D]

I think France vs England was a good match filled with excitement. I was upset when France won the match in injury time, but I think they deserved it. We practically gave them the victory, and they took their chances.

As for Italy vs Denmark, I'm betting on Italy to win it.

[MDK]

I think France vs England was a good match filled with excitement. I was upset when France won the match in injury time, but I think they deserved it. We practically gave them the victory, and they took their chances.

As for Italy vs Denmark, I'm betting on Italy to win it.

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I'm hoping its a draw 0-0 because I have Buffon and Nesta in my dream team. And I think I have a Dane, actually.. I cant remember

[TheGame3000uk]

I alway back the Italians in major tournaments, so if we don't win I hope they do. As for tonight's game it should be pretty close, Denmark are one of the outsiders to win the whole tournament in my opinion, and Italy are always up there so it should be good.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

Comments on the England game last night:

David James really impressed me with how well he played. I have always been very open about how I didn't think James should be the England number one goalkeeper - but last night he proved that he is the best we have. James cannot be blamed for giving the penalty away or failing to save it, if he had not gone after Henry he probably would have scored anyways and Zidane is just brillant when it comes to nailing a stationary ball.

Beckham missing the penalty wasn't brillant but I knew he wasn't going to score it anyways. He had a bad night for his skill.

Ledley King was outstanding and was a cruical part in our defence. All I can say is that this guy has got me thinking if he should be in the starting 11 ahead of Terry.

Wayne Rooney had sunshine coming out of his ass all night and was causing France many problems, the best attacker we have in our team with Owen being lackluster.

Its true that it was a bad result but we will still get through and thats the main thing. The French did push us and eventually we cracked, thats the way it is. Gerrard and Heskey were both unlucky and everyone makes mistakes, but I reckon now that both of them will be putting more effort in and making sure it doesnt happen again and that they are remembered for all the right reasons in a game.

We are still going to win the competition, we will beat the French in the final like we should have done yesterday and thats the main thing.

[Guest BigDirty]

Excuse me but are most of you english fans drunk or don't you know anything but soccer? I mean some of you do but some just post utterly crap.

1. Ok what sounds smarter?

a) Trying to go past 3 defenders and trying to score from a bad angle

or

B) after dribbling past 1 or 2 defenders pass the ball to your WIDE open teammate in front of the goal?

That he got a penalty is out of question. I don't blame the loss on Rooney, it's not his fault at all but the smart decision would've been to pass the ball, if you can't see that I'm sorry for you.

2. The penalty could've been worse but it could've been a lot better either. It was hard, but you shouldn't have shot a half-high ball, goalies love those ball, because they can save them by just guessing the right corner and they will look like heroes doing that. As a rightfooter you shouldn't try to shoot a high ball to the left, it's harder to do I know that from experience. A rightfooter should try to shoot at the high right corner or the low left corner. But shit happens you can always miss a penalty so I don't blame the loss on that either.

3. The freekick was nowhere close to unstoppable get that! It was right in the goalies corner, if James didn't speculate so much on the other corner he could've just stand there and catch the ball. It was not a superb freekick, it was a goalkeeper speculating too much and not being able to react (the look on his face was pretty dumb ). James is to blame for that goal.

4. The reason England lost is simple. You just beg for goals from the enemy if you only stay in defense and try to defend your goal for most of the game. Sure it often works but against a team with many dangerous players like France it's not the best idea.

[therockbox]

1. Ok what sounds smarter?

a) Trying to go past 3 defenders and trying to score from a bad angle

Bad Angle? Did you even watch the game? Had he got past Silvestre he would've been clear with Barthez bound to come off his line, and all he had to do was slot it in.

There were 2 or 3 players in between him and Vassell, trying the pass was extremely risky and, at the time, going alone was the best option.

2. The penalty could've been worse but it could've been a lot better either. It was hard, but you shouldn't have shot a half-high ball, goalies love those ball, because they can save them by just guessing the right corner and they will look like heroes doing that. As a rightfooter you shouldn't try to shoot a high ball to the left, it's harder to do I know that from experience. A rightfooter should try to shoot at the high right corner or the low left corner. But shit happens you can always miss a penalty so I don't blame the loss on that either.

A player should never miss a penalty, no matter who you are.

3. The freekick was nowhere close to unstoppable get that! It was right in the goalies corner, if James didn't speculate so much on the other corner he could've just stand there and catch the ball. It was not a superb freekick, it was a goalkeeper speculating too much and not being able to react (the look on his face was pretty dumb  ). James is to blame for that goal.

The freekick was unstoppable. That was Zidane territory and he put it straight into the side-netting. James was in the middle because Zidane could've put it anywhere, which is why he's one of the best players in the world, get that?

4. The reason England lost is simple. You just beg for goals from the enemy if you only stay in defense and try to defend your goal for most of the game. Sure it often works but against a team with many dangerous players like France it's not the best idea.

No, we lost because of 2 stupid mistakes. We let them come at us for 45 minutes, and defended almost perfectly. Two stupid tackles and an awful backpass, and we lose.

[fineintent]

Fucking hell, I thought I was going to cry last night. I just got back from a mates house, we went to a pub to watch the match. It was packed, a really great atmosphere - until Zidane scored that freekick, which was unstoppable, it curved a shitload.

I know what a great player Gerarrd is, but after last night he has gone down in my estimation - just smash it out, don't pass it back when Henry is around, he's soooo fast.

We just played boring football. I don't understand how Sven feels, I probably wouldn't be saying this if we won, but it can't be the same for him not being English. I mean Steve McClaren was off the bench a good 10 seconds before Sven even reacted. Here's hoping we pull our finger out against Switzerland and Croatia, we need to at least get to the semi finals.

[MDK]

Fucking hell, I thought I was going to cry last night.

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I know how you feel man. I am still numb from it.

[Summers]

The whole situation made me feel quite hollow and empty, I'm still getting over it.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I'm still completely numb. I've not been this depressed in ages............

Big Dirty:

I take his point about Rooney not passing to Vassell - i was thinking the same during the match as it happened, but in the end the penalty was won, and he was through on goal until Silvestre hacked him down.

With the placement of the penalty, i've never found it harder to go either side maybe thats just me. If anything i'd have thought it was easier going where Beckham did, but maybe it's not.

As I said earlier, the free-kick, whilst stupid of Heskey top concede it, was UNSTOPABLE. Anyone who argues is a fucking idiot.

James stood where he was for a reason. If James hadn't have stood there, then Zidane could have just hit the free-kick over/through the goal, and there would have been no-one there to stop it. With James stood where he was, Zidane couldn't have hit it straight, because he would have had the wall and James to beat. James standing where he did meant Zidane had to curl the ball over the wall - a harder shot which he did. In this case you hope the ball doesn't go right into one corner, so the goalkeeper can dive across and save, but the ball went right into the corner, making it unstopable. Though it would have been nice having someone on that post. Plus, as Agent_Sm1th pointed out, it was Zidane territory, and he could have put it anywhere.

I haven't explained that well, but I hope someone takes the point I was trying to make.

I don't recall any of us posting 'utter crap', but even if we did, it would pale in comparison to the excrement that's spewing from your keyboard

[Guest BigDirty]

Ok, with your strong arguments you've convinced me.

The freekick was unstoppable.

James is the best keeper in the world.

Every Zidane freekick goes in, no need to try and save it.

Rooney can dribble past every player on field & the ref and still score with ease.

Beckham is a penalty god.

England totally owned France and it was just bad luck.

England will win the tournament.

England > every other nation.

England >>>>>>>>>> Germany not only in sport but in every aspect of life.

I'm sorry for being a fucking retard and doubting all those things first. I hope you can forgive me.