Clap, clap - clap,clap,clap- clap,clap,clap, clap - They Choked!
It's probably best that I've waited two days to rant about England's loss to Portugal. What could have been a 5,000 word diatribe will be toned down to a cliff notes version.
a) Wayne Rooney is an idiot and a thug.
b) SGE (my version of the England manager's name, Sven Goran Eriksson) is a moron for only bringing four strikers to Germany, with one of them being a teenager - Theo Walcott - who was clearly not ready for this stage. When Owen went down and Rooney went off, all England was left with was the Stork, Peter Crouch. Yippee.
c) SGE is an idiot for having Frank Lampard take the first PK of the shootout. The man hadn't put a shot on goal the entire freaking tourney. His confidence was clearly gone. Yet he's the guy you want setting the tone? Nice.
d) Please explain SGE's substition of Carragher for Lennon late in OT. Why take out one of the few sets of fresh legs - as well as clearly the best player on the pitch at the time - just before the shootout? Was it because Carragher is some sort of PK expert? Based on his effort - and I use that word loosely - let's hope not.
e) I'd comforted myself with England's exit by repeating that it didn't matter because Brazil was going to win the whole thing. Then Team Samba bows out to France, 1-0. Aarrrrrggggh.
f) At least Thierry Henry scored the goal for France. Did I mention he plays for Arsenal?
g) By the way, SGE thinks he did everything perfectly. Of course he does.
Comments (2)
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I agree about "SGE" - he leaves much to be desired. Some other items to add to your points:
1) Not from England - how much was his heart really into it? Look at Klinsmann and his assistant during the games, you can see passion written all over their faces.
2) Questionable strategy - how many more long ball passes did they want to try before realizing it was such a low percentage strategy? Why not try some crosses??
3) Lack of chemistry. Watching the team interact I can't help but wonder how much chemistry existed between the various players.
More on Klinsmann converting his team to a BMW roadster
Posted on July 3, 2006 8:04 PM
It's the same old hooligans' song, whether you blame the Swedish coach, the star player's ACL tear or Rooney's goonery: England is abysmal at PK's and can't get it done in the World Cup.
As for Klinsmann, he isn't being portrayed as quite the genius today in Deutschland. All the more reason to believe he'll be Arena's successor here in his adopted homeland.
Posted on July 5, 2006 4:25 PM