|
Post by Earl Purple on Jul 9, 2018 15:31:27 GMT 1
Do friendlies count for this purpose?
Has England been unofficial world champions since 1966 and when was the last time we were?
I cannot recall a time we beat the World Champions in a non-friendly match but we may have beaten one in a friendly and certainly may have beaten someone that had beaten one.
We didn't do enough to beat the Germans in the semi-final because we didn't score a second goal.
I think there's a big difference between us now and the supposed "golden generation" that failed around 2010 in that what we currently have is not perceived in any way as a golden generation and there were no expectations of us to do well in this world cup. There was pessimistic talk of us losing to Tunisia.
If our opponents look "ordinary" it's because we make them do so. We beat a Swedish team who were unlucky to lose to Germany and had won their other games without conceding a goal.
The best team by far in Italia 90 was actually the host nation, who were unlucky to lose on penalties in their semi-final. They outplayed us in the 3rd place playoff too.
|
|
Tom
Member
*Of Royal Blood*
Posts: 15,419
|
Post by Tom on Jul 9, 2018 18:31:08 GMT 1
Interesting to read the comments about Italia 90, some extra information I didn't already know. When I was looking through England's games on wiki in the last month or so one thing I did notice was that I think most if not all of the games were in the evening. The 3rd place playoff result didn't seem to be one I knew before i saw it on wiki even though I've read both Sir Bobby Robson and Gazza's autobiographies. Must have just failed to register with me, (though I read both those books a long time ago) but I guessed we'd lost as I think more would have been made of the game otherwise.
|
|
|
Post by suedehead on Jul 9, 2018 18:36:47 GMT 1
Do friendlies count for this purpose? Has England been unofficial world champions since 1966 and when was the last time we were? I cannot recall a time we beat the World Champions in a non-friendly match but we may have beaten one in a friendly and certainly may have beaten someone that had beaten one. We didn't do enough to beat the Germans in the semi-final because we didn't score a second goal. I think there's a big difference between us now and the supposed "golden generation" that failed around 2010 in that what we currently have is not perceived in any way as a golden generation and there were no expectations of us to do well in this world cup. There was pessimistic talk of us losing to Tunisia. If our opponents look "ordinary" it's because we make them do so. We beat a Swedish team who were unlucky to lose to Germany and had won their other games without conceding a goal. The best team by far in Italia 90 was actually the host nation, who were unlucky to lose on penalties in their semi-final. They outplayed us in the 3rd place playoff too. All matches count. If they didn't, there would only be an opportunity for it to switch federations very four years.
|
|
frag
Member
*Paranoid Android*
I have no idea what you're talking about, so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head.
Posts: 25,137
|
Post by frag on Jul 9, 2018 21:46:43 GMT 1
Do friendlies count for this purpose? Has England been unofficial world champions since 1966 and when was the last time we were? I cannot recall a time we beat the World Champions in a non-friendly match but we may have beaten one in a friendly and certainly may have beaten someone that had beaten one. We didn't do enough to beat the Germans in the semi-final because we didn't score a second goal. I think there's a big difference between us now and the supposed "golden generation" that failed around 2010 in that what we currently have is not perceived in any way as a golden generation and there were no expectations of us to do well in this world cup. There was pessimistic talk of us losing to Tunisia. If our opponents look "ordinary" it's because we make them do so. We beat a Swedish team who were unlucky to lose to Germany and had won their other games without conceding a goal. The best team by far in Italia 90 was actually the host nation, who were unlucky to lose on penalties in their semi-final. They outplayed us in the 3rd place playoff too. All matches count. If they didn't, there would only be an opportunity for it to switch federations very four years. England were last UFWC champions in 2000 (when we beat Germany during Euro 2000), but we lost it again four days later to Romania. There have been 49 different champions in total, and the championship title often spends some time in relative wilderness - before Peru took the title into the world cup, North Korea held it for about a year.
|
|
frag
Member
*Paranoid Android*
I have no idea what you're talking about, so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head.
Posts: 25,137
|
Post by frag on Jul 9, 2018 22:00:58 GMT 1
More on the UFWC: it was held by Latin American nations exclusively from September 2014 until Peru lost to Denmark. The North Korean reign I mentioned was from Nov 2011 until Jan 2013. The most impressive run was by the Netherlands, who held it from Nov 2008 all the way to the world cup final in 2010.
Oh, and Scotland are the top ranked team with 86 wins. England are 2nd with 73.
|
|
|
Post by Earl Purple on Jul 10, 2018 10:12:42 GMT 1
Teams who have reached world cup semi-finals since 1966. In 1974 and 1978 there were no semi-finals but I've included the teams that came 3rd and 4th.
England: 1966(W), 1990 (SF), 2018 (West) Germany: 1966(F), 1970(SF), 1974(W), 1978(SF), 1982(F), 1986(F), 1990(W), 2002(F), 2006(SF), 2010(SF), 2014(W) Portugal: 1966(SF), 2006 (SF) USSR / Russia: 1966 (SF) Brazil: 1970(W), 1974(SF), 1978(SF), 1994(W), 1998(F), 2002(W), 2014(SF) Italy: 1970(F), 1978(SF), 1982(W), 1990(SF), 1994(F), 2006(W) Uruguay: 1970(SF), 2010(SF) Netherlands: 1974(F), 1978(F), 1998(SF), 2010(F), 2014(SF) Poland: 1974(SF), 1982(SF) Argentina: 1978(W), 1986(W), 1990(F), 2014(F) France: 1982(SF), 1986(SF), 1998(W), 2006(F), 2018 Belgium: 1986(SF), 2018 Sweden: 1994(SF) Croatia: 1998(SF), 2018 Turkey: 2002(SF) South Korea: 2002(SF) Spain: 2010(W)
|
|
|
Post by Panda on Jul 10, 2018 11:31:41 GMT 1
In the 11 World Cups where the semi-finals weren't played simultaneously, the winner of the first semi-final has only gone on to lift the trophy 3 times (1990, 2006, 2014).
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jul 10, 2018 17:34:32 GMT 1
I've posted the odd one of these by the Guardian cartoonist David Squires who has surely replaced XTC's Andy Partridge as the most famous alumni of my comprehensive school. He was three years younger than me and his "doodling" was exceptional then ....
|
|
|
Post by suedehead on Jul 10, 2018 20:18:26 GMT 1
I've posted the odd one of these by the Guardian cartoonist David Squires who has surely replaced XTC's Andy Partridge as the most famous alumni of my comprehensive school. He was three years younger than me and his "doodling" was exceptional then .... I assume he still is three years younger than you
|
|
|
Post by Mart!n on Jul 10, 2018 21:02:21 GMT 1
Deserve win for France, Belgium just didn't press forward enough when it mattered, but they had many chances, especially when Kukaku had the room to smash it in the net. In the end it was a great match to watch.
24 hours from now England could be playing in the final against France, it will be nail-biting to watch
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jul 10, 2018 21:23:55 GMT 1
Deserve win for France, Belgium just didn't press forward enough when it mattered, but they had many chances, especially when Kukaku had the room to smash it in the net. In the end it was a great match to watch. 24 hours from now England could be playing in the final against France, it will be nail-biting to watch It felt like Belgium had run out of steam for this match. As if the epic comeback vs Japan, and the epic match versus Brazil had run their collective batteries too low. In contrast despite the final scoreline France were always on top versus Argentina, and defeated Uruguay at a canter.
Fingers crossed we'll be saying the same things tomorrow about Croatia & England respectively.
|
|
Hupin
Member
*On day release*
The French Tickler
Posts: 6,025
|
Post by Hupin on Jul 10, 2018 23:11:25 GMT 1
🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Allez les bleus!!! 🇫🇷 🇫🇷 🇫🇷
I was seriously worried about Hazard and De Bruyne before this match, but we managed to contain them enough and move on to the big game on Sunday. Eeeeeeek
|
|
|
Post by smokeyb on Jul 11, 2018 20:28:48 GMT 1
very quiet in here at the moment, you would think there was a game on or something.
|
|
|
Post by Earl Purple on Jul 11, 2018 20:44:33 GMT 1
we've been outplayed in the second half and of course we should have finished them off in the first half.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jul 11, 2018 20:54:53 GMT 1
How unfortunate for the England that I've known all my life to return for the second half of the World Cup SF, where they looked scared to play in a very important match.
They allowed Luka Modric to take charge of & dictate the midfield with the inevitable consequence.
On the basis of this match, whoever wins this Semi Final should get comfortably beaten by France in the Final.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jul 11, 2018 21:50:12 GMT 1
|
|
|
Post by Mart!n on Jul 11, 2018 21:52:36 GMT 1
Bugger again... oh well
To be or not to be, it was good while it lasted, I didn't expect them to get this far, its the best we've been for a long time in a major competition. We were just one step away, and it was taken away by Stones, he went to sleep.
|
|
|
Post by Panda on Jul 11, 2018 21:59:57 GMT 1
A great effort all tournament but we're just not quite good enough yet.
|
|
|
Post by smokeyb on Jul 11, 2018 22:31:06 GMT 1
England might need to improve for the next WC, as they had an easy draw by all accounts, and you have to expect that in 4 years time, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil will be back to form.
How they might look back to 2018 and say, bloody hell we could have won it.
|
|
|
Post by paulgilb on Jul 11, 2018 23:43:51 GMT 1
England's defeat means that their 7 matches will have been played in 7 different stadiums.
|
|