Desire Avenue

I don't much go for football,but shucks,you can't avoid it.So here's a thread that everyone not inclined to it can avoid!!
Tonight:- victory for
ITALIA!!
Which makes me happy! So it's Italy or France for me (at least until tomorrow when the Rosbif might fluke through).But I find it very hard to support England. [disguise]

This is great,an Italy-France final may yet transpire.
France looked against Brazil (I saw the first half before going to a party).
Couldn't watch England v Portugal.The script was already written and inevitable.(Thank God).I hoped Portugal would finish us off quicker,but no,the expected England penalty disaster loomed ever larger.
The fans have no doubt taken it out on some poor buggers.

sound world wrote: Couldn't watch England v Portugal.The script was already written and inevitable.

I *cannot believe* they sent Frank Lampard up to take the first penalty. The bloke has had more shots at goal this tournament than any other player and hasn't got a single one in - his confidence had sunk visibly with every missed shot, so what on earth made them think he should go up first for penalties? You could see even before he went anywhere near the ball he was gonna miss it, he looked sick as a dog. If Gerrard had gone first I think it would have been a different story. That first miss affected the other guys badly.

Portugal are a bunch of thugs from what I've seen of them in this tournament. England deserved to win.

sound world wrote: The fans have no doubt taken it out on some poor buggers.

The people in the house next door to us went ahead with their celebration (commiseration) garden party anyway, the bloke who owns the house is a builder and a few of his mates were round by the sound of it. There was some rather fine singing going on long into the night. I found it quite touching at first - I thought, here I am on a gorgeous English summer evening, listening to some good English tenor voices singing songs of battles lost. It was all rather medieval.

By 1am though I'd had enough.

elizabeth wrote:Portugal are a bunch of thugs from what I've seen of them in this tournament. England deserved to win.

From the England - Portugal game that I watched, England looked like the thugs. Well, no - I won't tar the whole team with the same brush. Rooney is a thug. I could not believe the BBC presenter's reaction to him shoving Ronaldo just after the stamping event: "Well now there is shoving by the Portuguese players!"

I don't condone the shenanigans in the Holland-Portugal match, but a little perspective please!

Good riddance to England,I say! I think they played about 10 minutes of good football in the whole Finals.The rest was the usual studge.
Most of their players earn in a week what I earn in ten years.Beckham chucks his ?60 Calvin Klein undies away every day,rather than washing them.

red wrote:
From the England - Portugal game that I watched, England looked like the thugs. Well, no - I won't tar the whole team with the same brush.

I thought the English team, Rooney excepted obviously, behaved with admirable restraint on numerous occasions throughout the match, given the provocation. When you're playing a team who by and large fly into tackles with no intention of playing the ball, just flooring the man, it'd be understandable if there was a bit of retaliation here and there, but as a team they did really well to rise above it.

Rooney's stamping was unforgivable and he deserved to be sent off. Personally I'm not sure a young man whose temper is that ungovernable should be playing professionally at all, regardless of how good he is. He's a hero to a lot of young lads and behaviour like that sets an incredibly damaging example.

His resemblance to Desperate Dan does make me laugh every time I see him, though.

red wrote:I don't condone the shenanigans in the Holland-Portugal match, but a little perspective please!

The behaviour of the Portugal squad in that match was nothing short of disgusting - if I saw a group of men behaving like that in the street I'd call them for what they were - thugs. The fact that it happened on a football pitch with millions watching around the world makes it even more disgraceful, not less so. Yobs are yobs, whatever the context.

I hope France wipe the smug grins off their faces.

Fair enough. I thought Holland were at least as bad. Both teams now have a reputation for that kind of thing, unfortunately.

Although, I'm not sure what exactly you mean in the England-Portugal match. Apart from Rooneys, none of the other fouls stuck in my memory. It seemed like a fairly civilised (and boring) match, with both good and bad tackles by both teams, and no particularly bad referreeing.

Portugal looked like a good team playing badly (which is usual for them), and England looked like a bad team playing well (which is unusual for them)

SundayMirror headline-
'OUR HOPES IN ROOINS'

[crazy]

sound world wrote:SundayMirror headline-
'OUR HOPES IN ROOINS'

[crazy]

Presumably he's going to get the same vilification treatment meted out to Beckham in '98. The papers love nothing more than putting the boot in to someone they've been praising to the skies five minutes ago.

elizabeth wrote:Presumably he's going to get the same vilification treatment meted out to Beckham in '98. The papers love nothing more than putting the boot in to someone they've been praising to the skies five minutes ago.

Actually the same rag was full of stuff like 'Ronaldo gets Roo sent off', 'why Ronaldo should not be allowed back in this country' etc, suggesting that what Rooney did was good old English fair play (lol),spoiled by Johnny Foreigner. (I don't like the look of Rooney,doesn't seem as if there's a lot of grey matter on top of that enormous neck)
The Sunday Mirror also had headlines like 'Pack your WAGS' [:xx]
As I say,good riddance.

And Sara,I reckon Italy could surprise Germany.The German defence is pretty leaky,and if Italy can contrive a breakaway goal and then put up the shutters in traditional Azzuri fashion,I could still have my France-Italy final

I really think that Figo has very nicely shaped legs...
But that's just my two cents for the world cup.

sound world wrote:
Actually the same rag was full of stuff like 'Ronaldo gets Roo sent off', 'why Ronaldo should not be allowed back in this country' etc

I can quite see their point, in fairness. To suggest that Rooney was in any way justified in his temper is out of order, but more than one tv camera caught the wink from Ronaldo to one of his team-mates after the deed was done. The BBC also played back an interesting incident earlier on when Rooney was apparently being deliberately wound up verbally by two of the Portugal squad, who had big shit-eating grins all over their faces at the time.

Coincidence? I think not.