Always someone to blame

[Stumpy Tim]

Why do football fans always need someone to blame when we lose a game. I've heard the following people blamed so far:

1. Beckham for not playing at his best & missing a penalty. He didn't mean to miss the pen, and despite not being at his best, he still worked his socks off

2. John Terry for not marking Postigia close enough. Again, probably not a mistake he made on purpose to make the game more exciting. When we're under that amount of pressure it was bound to happen

3. Sven for getting the tactics wrong. Well when you lose your most influential player after 20 minutes against the home nation the best policy was to play on the counter attack using Owen's pace

4. Phil Neville, for being selected. A little harsh seeing as he didn't select himself & he didn't actually make any mistakes.

5. The Ref. In all honesty, did anyone expect that to be given? It was in the last minute & looked like the keeper could have been fouled. I don't think any ref would have given it

Anyone I missed?

To win a major tournament you need that slice of luck, and we didn't have it this tournament. We had a wonder kid who got injured when we really needed him. We got hit with 2 last minute goals against France, the ref postponed a good goal against Portugal..... All I can say is that the lads did England proud, will be in Germany in two years & will be stronger with Sven in charge. In the meantime, I can kiss goodbye to waking up at 4.30am to watch this tournament and we can all look forward to Div 1 football next season.

As a great man once said, "Keep The Faith"

 

[alan partridge]

 

[London Irish]

5. The Ref. In all honesty, did anyone expect that to be given? It was in the last minute & looked like the keeper could have been fouled. I don't think any ref would have given it

This is the bit I have to underline. I couldn't believe the remarks made about this incident on the BBC by people who are paid a hell of a lot of money to impart their expertise.

I haven't watched a hundreth or a thousandth of the football these guys have watched, but I know that in a melee of players inside a box, if a keeper gets touched, however slightly by an opposition player, the ref will blow up for a foul.

You can moan about this modern protection of the goalie by the ref to the cows come home, but you see it in every Premiership and every Nationwide game. Yet not one person in the BBC team could be found to state this obvious fact. It was "we wuz robbed by the grocer from Zurich" - almost a direct quote from that embarrassing overgrown schoolkid Motty.

Now, the old-timers may be right - the game might have been a lot more fun 50/60 years ago when you boot the ball and the goalie's head in the back of the net at the same time and have a laugh about it as you trotted back to the halfway line. But thems yesterdays times.

Terry's shoulder came into contact with the goalie and then his arm did before Sol's header. No modern ref worries about intent - they are not mindreaders, they just look to see if the goalie was in any way obstructed. He was and the decision to disallow the goal was a fair one.

I'm not saying the Swiss guy looked a good ref at all, he looked very weak for example when getting players back 10 yards for free kicks, but on this most controversial decision, he got it right. Again I'm not saying it was a brave decision either, that would have been disallowing a Portugal goal in the same circumstances (hmmm.......) - but while it wasn't brave, it was still the correct decision.

 

[beorhthelm]

Disagree with that. Firstly from where the Ref was i dont believe he would have actually seen the contact. Secondly, had it been a Portugese defender in place of Terry, i think it would have been given as your own player cant 'obstruct' you.

To be fair though, i felt the ref took the fallen heap of the goalie and detemined that something had happened. It had - the goalie had failed to jump and fell over. These are the occasions where the ref should look to his assistant, who gave it. Frankly i somtimes wonder what the point of the assistant ref is as you rarely see the ref take their advise.

 

[Yorkie]

Disagree with that. Firstly from where the Ref was i dont believe he would have actually seen the contact. Secondly, had it been a Portugese defender in place of Terry, i think it would have been given as your own player cant 'obstruct' you.

To be fair though, i felt the ref took the fallen heap of the goalie and detemined that something had happened. It had - the goalie had failed to jump and fell over. These are the occasions where the ref should look to his assistant, who gave it. Frankly i somtimes wonder what the point of the assistant ref is as you rarely see the ref take their advise.

Yes, that is right.

A Swedish seagull said that on Swedish tv, their commentators couldn't understand why it wasn't given either.
Terry was penalised simply because he jumped higher than Ricardo. He did not foul him. You have to raise your arms to do a standing jump.

 

[Icy Gull]

The goalie jumped at the space already occupied by Terry and Campbell and then fell in a heap. To say no ref would have given it is rubbish, not all refs are as incompetent as that Swiss one.

It hasn't been mentioned anywhere so maybe it didn't happen, but I thought the Portuguese had a good goal disallowed a few minutes later when the ball crossed the line and he waved play on. They did score about a minute later though so justice was done for them and no replays of the earlier incident were shown.

The ref had a dreadfull game and I look forward to watching him ref the final

 

[Yorkie]

Seen on another message board:-

'The same referee who awarded the last minute penalty against us in the Romania game of Euro 2000 which cost us a 3 - 2 defeat.

The same referee who sent off Alan Smith of Leeds in the Champions League semi-final 2001, and made some of the most diabolical one sided decisions against the English side I've ever seen on a football pitch.

Can you see a pattern emerging?'


Hhhmmmmm

 

[ManxSeagull]

Their keeper tried to jump through John Terry.

Now I have sobered up, I think there should be an appeal made to the UEFA against the shite decision and have the match replayed.

We were cheated by a incompetent referee who bottled making a major decision against the home side in the dying minutes.

Boy am I angry.

 

[perth seagull]

4. Phil Neville, for being selected. A little harsh seeing as he didn't select himself & he didn't actually make any mistakes.

It has been said for years that Phil Neville should not be selected! And he did make a mistake against Portugal. He failed to mark Rui Costa adequetely, and then when he realised that he wasn't good enough, Neville tried to fail him by grabbing him round the neck with his arms to bring him down. However, because Phil is such a useless wimp he couldn't even get that right so Rui Costa just shrugged the little shit off and shot home to send Portugal ahead.

And if Neville did manage to make the foul on Costa, the chances are he could've repeated the situation for years ago against Romania. If we had a decent player there, they would've just marked Costa and tried to narrow the angle of his shot or force him to pass the ball.

Phil Neville is a massive liability and adds nothing to the team. I hate the little ugly ****!

Other than, I do agree with the rest of your message. There's no point pointing the figure at anyone. The only reason why I single out Phil Neville is because it is an ongoing problem that we've had for years, not something that is specific to Euro 2004, and he alone can't be blamed for getting us eliminated from the tournament. Unlike last time round in Euro 2000!.

 

[Sorrel]

I agree with Stumpy Tim. It's bad luck that we went out, not a conspiracy. If only we'd not let in that terrible second against France we could be playing Greece tonight, instead of being on a plane home.

 

[Seagull's Return]

I agree with Stumpy Tim. It's bad luck that we went out, not a conspiracy. If only we'd not let in that terrible second against France we could be playing Greece tonight, instead of being on a plane home.

An important point, right enough

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Seen on another message board:-

'The same referee who awarded the last minute penalty against us in the Romania game of Euro 2000 which cost us a 3 - 2 defeat.

The same referee who sent off Alan Smith of Leeds in the Champions League semi-final 2001, and made some of the most diabolical one sided decisions against the English side I've ever seen on a football pitch.

Can you see a pattern emerging?'


Hhhmmmmm

Come on Yorkie I thought you were more intelligent than that. If you see it from behind the goal Terry clearly placed his hand on the goalie. It was softish but as I said on another thread of that had been at the other end and the goal had been allowed to stand you'd be moaning about that!

 

[Titanic]

Oi Stumpy - stop sounding so reasonable! It's not big and it's not clever

 

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

To be fair to Urs Meier, the last minute penalty he gave against Romania was so blatant even I'd have given it.

 

[Marshy]

if it had been Portugals goal it would have stood no doubt.

And Collina would have given the goal.

 

[Dave the OAP]

what is this Bad Luck stuff?

If we had played half decently we would have finished the game off and then luck would not have come into it.

In all 4 games we let in 2 goals!

We lost to two FIFA top nation teams and beat two FIFA middle ground teams.

We are not good enough...simple as.

 

[Kylies Stunt Arse]

Will all of you that are being fair and reasonable please stop it. This is football, there is no place for that here.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Sorry about that KSA. I'll get go & find my football fan hat....

Sack the f*%^*ng lot of them

 

[aftershavedave]

Why do football fans always need someone to blame when we lose a game. I've heard the following people blamed so far:

1. Beckham for not playing at his best & missing a penalty. He didn't mean to miss the pen, and despite not being at his best, he still worked his socks off

2. John Terry for not marking Postigia close enough. Again, probably not a mistake he made on purpose to make the game more exciting. When we're under that amount of pressure it was bound to happen

3. Sven for getting the tactics wrong. Well when you lose your most influential player after 20 minutes against the home nation the best policy was to play on the counter attack using Owen's pace

4. Phil Neville, for being selected. A little harsh seeing as he didn't select himself & he didn't actually make any mistakes.

5. The Ref. In all honesty, did anyone expect that to be given? It was in the last minute & looked like the keeper could have been fouled. I don't think any ref would have given it

Anyone I missed?

To win a major tournament you need that slice of luck, and we didn't have it this tournament. We had a wonder kid who got injured when we really needed him. We got hit with 2 last minute goals against France, the ref postponed a good goal against Portugal..... All I can say is that the lads did England proud, will be in Germany in two years & will be stronger with Sven in charge. In the meantime, I can kiss goodbye to waking up at 4.30am to watch this tournament and we can all look forward to Div 1 football next season.

As a great man once said, "Keep The Faith"

well said stumpster