England friendlies - who cares!??

[Easy 10]

There's a lot of mugs in football land.

There sure is.

Don't get me wrong - I'm passionate about the England games that matter. Qualifiers and tournaments, specially tournaments, I absolutely ADORE, and sometimes I can get a bit over-excited and emotional with them. But friendlies leave me utterly cold. I'd sooner watch a months worth of Eastenders Omnibus in german than bother going to a friendly.

 

[LANGDON SEAGULL]

The friendlies sell out as many of the tickets are for group bookings at reduced rate - around a tenner for kids

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Remember Mirandinha?

F me, there's a blast from the past. didn't he play for Newcastle?


Only friendly I attended was courtesy of winning an Arsegas (or was it Sussex Express?) competition, England v Uruguay (I think) circa 1995. The row we were in were largely decked out in Albion clobber - all sad Sussex competition winners like us.

 

[Pavilionaire]

The strange thing about England friendlies is that the more players get used the more obvious the starting XI becomes.

We all know Sven's team is Robinson, G Neville, Cole, Campbell, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, Bridge, Owen, Defoe, but even so he keeps on playing jokers like Upson, Phil Neville, Carragher and Danny Murphy - as if they're ever going to make any difference, ever.

It's all the fault of the Premiership management insisting on their players only playing 45 minutes. It's a f***ing joke - the pinnacle of any players career is winning the World Cup, and you can't do that with Man Utd or Arsenal.

 

[ShorehamGull]

I went to the England V France game at Wembley back in Febuary 1999. Only England game I have been too, England lost 2 - 0
Viera, Zidane, Henry, Barthez and Co were playing for France that night. We had all the usuals Beckham, Seaman and Owen and Lee Dixon.

 

[Robot Chicken]

F me, there's a blast from the past. didn't he play for Newcastle?

Just found this:

As a young kid I remember the Brazilian striker Mirandinha wooing the St James' faithful. How successful was he - and where is he now? asks Michael Jacobs
The signing of Mirandinha from Palmeiras in 1987 was a huge coup for Newcastle, who were then a struggling side in the old First Division (funny how things change). The Brazilian made a scintillating start and was a major factor in the Toon finishing 8th in the 1987/1988 season (they'd been 17th the year before).

But injury, and the bitterly cold North East weather took its toll on the mercurial Brazilian and soon the plaudits from Barry Davies - and more importantly the goals - dried up. The following season, Newcastle finished 20th and were relegated.

Despite a not unimpressive scoring record for Newcastle, 23 goals in 55 first team appearances, Mirandinha increasingly became a bit-part figure at the club and in 1990 he packed his bags and headed back to Palmeiras. A short while later he went to Japan. He was last heard of - according to the Newcastle website www.nufc.com - coaching Al Hajer in Saudia Arabia.

 

[seagull over sevenoaks]

I'd lost interest in them until the launch of the new englandfans club. Now that you get a cap for going and the limitation of the number of subs used makes it almost worthwhile..

 

[pasty]

Only good thing about England friendlies is that it gives me a damn good excuse to go down the pub. Whether I watch the footy when I get there though is a different matter....

 

[Marc]

Only good thing about England friendlies is that it gives me a damn good excuse to go down the pub. Whether I watch the footy when I get there though is a different matter....

damn straight! "hmmmm, watch boring England or drink beer and stare at totty?!?"

 

[pasty]

damn straight! "hmmmm, watch boring England or drink beer and stare at totty?!?"

googlefight agrees...

Watch boring england = 432,000
Drink beer = 8,690,000

 

[Albion Rob]

Err, it was Ireland ONE England NIL, it was a VALID goal, although your hoolies didn't want to accept that.

I think you#ll find the result is expunged from the record books because the match was never finished.

According to your logic, we drew 0-0 with York in 1995/96 and Carlisle should therefore have gone down.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Err, it was Ireland ONE England NIL, it was a VALID goal, although your hoolies didn't want to accept that.

Yeah, football hooligans, that's what they were.

My tuppence is that although friendlies may not be the best spectacles in the world they do give the players a chance to meet up during the season and give some new players the experience of being a part of the international set up and maybe see some 'competitive' action. If you don't want to watch then then don't but they are there for a reason.

Just another excuse to moan about Eriksson/England/the FA.