The Round Ball Game - II

[Lat-Literal]

Paulinho is, of course, another ex Spurs player and he went directly from there inexplicably to China. When you look at the quality of current and ex Spurs players in this tournament, not to mention that Mr Bale is absent, you have to conclude that there is just a massive problem with that club. If it had been anywhere else, the trophies would have been piling up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsena...Arsenal_FC.svg

[teamsaint]

So, tell me if I have this right ( or wrong) , current thinking is that really England and Belgium want to finish second in the group to avoid the “tougher “ half of the draw, which inludes Brazil, but England don’t have the bottle to try to lose But Belgium do ?:

Decent display from Brazil tonight, and classic demonstation from Serbia of why you need to take your chances against class teams.

Tadic is off back to Holland for a gentle run in to retirement. Disappointing, he is always worth watching.
i could do with JCs views on our new Scottish chap. No doubt he will be excellent . Back in the day, Saints always had a decent Scot or two, not least the brilliant Jimmy Gabriel. What a player he was.

[Lat-Literal]

So, tell me if I have this right ( or wrong) , current thinking is that really England and Belgium want to finish second in the group to avoid the “tougher “ half of the draw, which inludes Brazil, but England don’t have the bottle to try to lose But Belgium do ?:

Decent display from Brazil tonight, and classic demonstation from Serbia of why you need to take your chances against class teams.

Tadic is off back to Holland for a gentle run in to retirement. Disappointing, he is always worth watching.
i could do with JCs views on our new Scottish chap. No doubt he will be excellent . Back in the day, Saints always had a decent Scot or two, not least the brilliant Jimmy Gabriel. What a player he was.

Can I alter "don't have the bottle to try to lose but Belgium do " as "pursuing high principle, for better or worse, yet again on the international stage and not getting any credit for it"?

[teamsaint]

Can I alter "don't have the bottle to try to lose but Belgium do " as "pursuing high principle, for better or worse, yet again on the international stage and not getting any credit for it"?

It wasn’t my point of view of course, just trying to reflect the more cutting edge punditry.

Bring ‘em all on I say, and if it has to be glorious defeat.......

[johncorrigan]

i could do with JCs views on our new Scottish chap. No doubt he will be excellent . Back in the day, Saints always had a decent Scot or two, not least the brilliant Jimmy Gabriel. What a player he was.

Yes I was going to mention that I noticed you had another signing from your northern feeding club, sainty, but got rather caught up with Son's goal. I was surprised to see him leave - he's a good hard working player, strong coming in off the wing and was popular with Rodgers and with the fans. I think he's a good asset to have signed. I'm reading £7million, but to be honest I often think Celtic have quite a few options in midfield. Celtic are still out there to strengthen for CL.

[johncorrigan]

It wasn’t my point of view of course, just trying to reflect the more cutting edge punditry.

Bring ‘em all on I say, and if it has to be glorious defeat.......

I think that's the attitude, and I think it may be the same with Belgium...they'll both want to put down a marker. There is still no one outstanding team in this tournament. Anything could happen so you might as well keep trying to win. 0-0 tomorrow with Belgium winning 1 yellow card to two!

[Lat-Literal]

I will miss Joachim Low.

That question about whether he is about to pick his nose or shove snuff up it.

Remain voters like me were wrong.

That ludicrously xenophobic idea of Germany crumbling into the far right without the existence of the EU which underpinned every pursed lipped holier-than-thou vote in that direction.

They will recover because of their strengths and deep rooted values.

[jayne lee wilson]

With every passing day I am more convinced than ever, for many clear reasons, that Remain Voters like me were right!

But that is an argument for the Recent News Items thread, not this one which is about the sheer joy and drama of football at its highest level.
..

[Lat-Literal]

With every passing day I am more convinced than ever, for many clear reasons, that Remain Voters like me were right!

But that is an argument for the Recent News Items thread, not this one which is about the sheer joy and drama of football at its highest level.
..

Yes - you are right about keeping it to football.

My apologies.

[teamsaint]

Maybe that's why Poland lost!

Terrible Polish defending!

Hopefully we'll be able to sell Jan Bednarek to your lot for even more money than we got from you for Shaw in a couple of years time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44439298

Clean sheet and a rather sharp winning goal for Jan today.

[teamsaint]

A reliable source tells me that there are 6 Yorkshire born players in the England squad.

Just imagine a West Ham style " When Yorkshire won the world cup" scenario.........

I suppose I could live with it.

Edit, it's seven.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/southgate-names-england-squad-for-world-cup-with-very-few-surprises-1-9166964

[Lat-Literal]

A reliable source tells me that there are 6 Yorkshire born players in the England squad.

Just imagine a West Ham style " When Yorkshire won the world cup" scenario.........

I suppose I could live with it.

I find this reassuring just as the global nature of our squad from the Portugal educated to the Jamaica born. I have just returned from a bus trip to the local pub with allegedly a big screen. It actually has six medium sized screens and was so full of types I didn't have the patience with it. It strikes me yet again that the only decent pub in which to watch football is a football pub like the one I used to frequent regularly close to Highbury. There is much to be said for the concept of community being swamped by actual shared interest. However, given the transport, I am not expecting to be there any time soon if ever again. Talksport had it from early on that Harry Kane would be playing. I felt that this was a catastrophic mistake, especially in the first 66 minutes. Bring him on then if it isn't happening. Luckily, it looks like they had it totally wrong. H and J were good, though, on Kaliningrad etc - dodgy hotel, friendly people, great trains, brilliant low level policing. The Russians aren't perfect but they are handling it all so impressively. I haven't commented on VAR so far. This continues.

[Lat-Literal]

And your half time questions are:

(a) when was the first time that there was a player with a double barrelled surname in the England team?
(b) when was the first time there were two?

[jayne lee wilson]

And your half time questions are:

(a) when was the first time that there was a player with a double barrelled surname in the England team?
(b) when was the first time there were two?

..it's double-barrelled Lat, but not as we used to know it....
..I daresay, a fascinating subject for class and cultural analysis...On the Types, Causes, Meanings and Evolutions of...(well, perhaps when the footie's over...:)

Anyway.
How does everyone feel about the result and the prospects...?
All a bit hmm.., yes, but Gary Neville summed it up very well, I thought (as so often....)

[teamsaint]

..it's double-barrelled Lat, but not as we used to know it....
..I daresay, a fascinating subject for class and cultural analysis...(well, perhaps when the footie's over...:)

Anyway.
How does everyone feel about the result and the prospects...?
All a bit hmm.., yes, but Gary Neville summed it up very well, I thought (as so often....)

Means very little apart from where it leaves us in the draw, IMO.

At the start of qualifying, Southgate would have taken the situation like a shot. We ought to have a decent chance of beating Colombia. The knockout round games will likely be decided on odd moments of brilliance, clinical finishing, mistakes. I think England can create chances against the next two opponents, and have a striker on fire, so we have goals in us.
The real question marks are about the defence, and whether they have been able to do their homework on the opposition attack. They ought to know enough about Colombia, as there was always a decent chance we would play them. An awful lot rests on Henderson, who is being asked to perform a huge role. But he looks up for it, and needs to boss that midfield to make sure that the back three get protection when they need it.
Taking Rose was a poor decision IMO, but Young is solid enough, and solid will hopefully do in the next two rounds. It'll be interesting to see how Trippier deals with more of a defensive test, but he looks capable of doing the necessary.

Japan would have been a more straightforward challenge , ( and we'll presumably have big Colombian support to deal with), but we have a fair chance. I expect a good game, and hopefully a good old fashioned ,all European QF to follow. The draw gave us a very fair chance of reaching a QF, and nothing has changed other than we have some reasonable form.

Incidentally, thank goodness for Hoddle to deal with the nonsense that CT comes out with. One of the best pundits in my view. He is an excellent judge of players and their performances. When he was at Southampton, the transformation in the individual performances was dramatic. They went from mediocre to Not Bad almost overnight......