England Fail to Qualify for Euro 2008
[Editor’s note: for a minute-by-minute live blog report of the England-Croatia game, see this post]
One word: Nightmare. On the night of the most important games for England in recent years they bottled it. A gutless and nervy performance from every player. They gave it away all throughout the game and constantly played long balls up-field to Crouch who nodded it on for no body to get onto. Where was the player I said should have been playing just behind him?
The second half performance was better after Beckham and Defoe were introduced to the game. Defoe was making the runs and Beckham was getting the balls in…for a very short period only. They were all just too nervous and never controlled the game. Despite the Croatians already qualifying for Euro 2008 they still played as if they wanted it more and simply outclassed England.
Israel had done England the biggest favour any nation could at the weekend after beating Russia. Did England go out and fight for it, proving the critics wrong booking themselves into next year’s championships? Did they hell! They always gave it away at the key moment and couldn’t handle the Croats counter attacks (which were dangerous every single time.) They outclassed us in every part of the field; their passing – clinical; their finishing – crucial; defensively – experts. Some times in football the best form of attack is defence and they proved that tonight. Slaven Bilic used to be a defender in his playing days so the way he’s organised the back is superb.
In my previous article for SL, “Who should start for England“, I wrote that despite Paul Robinson’s calamities for the Three Lions recently, starting the game with Scott Carson would be a massive call. The lad had never played a home game for England so why, why, WHY should he start this one…the most important of England games!? I admit I was surprised to see McClaren had chosen Carson to start: I didn’t think he had the balls to make a decision like that. A decision which no doubt will cost him his job. Good. I didn’t think he had the credentials to manage the team in the first place and never thought he was right for the task.
Carson’s role tonight was inexcusable. He was at total fault for the first goal. A lack of concentration saw a long range effort, which should have been dealt with easily, bounce into the net. All he had to do was get his whole body behind it. After conceding that goal England’s heads dropped and they found themselves on the back foot the rest of the game. The second goal wasn’t his fault, it was the England defence’s. They allowed the Croats too much time and after Eduardo’s exquisite through ball several of them didn’t even follow the runner, playing for the offside instead. Major error.
As gutted as I am to say it, England will not be in Euro 2008 and will have no-one to blame but themselves. The worst result of the rollercoaster campaign was the 0-0 draw at home to Macedonia. How can that score line be justified? England need to move on from this quickly and most importantly learn from it. There are serious lessons to be learnt and much reflection needs to be done. Fair enough, in tonight’s game England were missing Terry, Ferdinand, Rooney and Owen, but it’s not an excuse. They still had the players capable of going out there and getting a draw, at the very least. In all honesty, the reality of it is that right now, England needed this kick up the ass. The way they played throughout much of the campaign, they didn’t deserve to qualify. Now England fans must decide what to do next summer and McLaren has to be considering his future, which surely won’t involve England anymore.
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The England players are mostly shit. Especially technically. That isn’t McClaren’s fault. The sooner you realise this the better. It’s their fault they are out. Blame Mcclaren all you want. But as the late great, Clough said “Tactics don’t win or lose you football matches, players do.”
Its high time that England have learnt where they errors.Its not your backyard game that you can passout with everything.Its damn fucking EURO!!
Players cant do anything if coach cant.Its like a puppet master guiding his puppets to set good show.
England were all over ground.Long balls wasn’t the strategy that England should have taken.Crouch was too weak for Croatian Defense and it looked he was easily challenged by them.
Its all MACCA’s fault.Such an absurd and immature coach he has been!!He plays with Owen in a friendly match just to make count of his wins and ends up with getting him injured.It was obvious for any one to have injury. Then why do you have to risk precious players like him if you already are suffering with less strikers ?
Another Macca blunder was taking SCOTT CARSON.Why the hell you have to take such keeper when you have one of the best in business.If you dont like both of them we still had better options.(Green was one of those.)
England have history of excellent keepers,keepers who went on to be as legends and this guy ruins everything.I don’t totally blame on this one but its just not what you do at EURO’s.I hope he takes another 4years to prove his potential
ULTIMATELY it all ends to ONE THING “SACK MCLAREN,FORCE MARK HUGHES TO QUIT HIS JOB AND MAKE HIM ENGLAND’S CAPTIAN.I PROMISE HE WILL END UP WINNING EURO’S AND WORLD CUP”
GET US A BETTER COACH YOU FA MORONS!!!! X-(
Why not bobby charlton.. LOL..
it was mclaren’s fault TWAT! he has gota go and hopefully he doesn’t take over at birmingham
right, this is what needs to happen.
- Maclaren sort of has to go, not really acceptable not qualifying.
- Peter Crouch needs to leave Liverpool to play every week and scoring regularly
- Defoe needs to leave Tottenham and go to a struggling premiership side, like birmingham or sunderland even fulham would do.
- The FA need to interview as many candidates as possible, don’t be afraid of the press, talk to O’Neill, Mark Hughes won’t do it, he’s too welsh.
- Get rid of Umbro, they don’t make good kits, Nike are much better.
- Get a Wimbledon-esque (tennis) cover for the pitch at Wembley so we don’t have a shambolic pitch which looks more like the Thames than a playing surface.
- Create a 4 Nations tournament for Summer 2008 for Wales, England, Scotland, Rep of Ireland and Nothern Ireland. Make it interesting.
Totally agree with the Umbro comment - they are rubbish!
The pitch last night was a complete shambles as well from the American football & weather
alex haslam talks a lot of sense defoe should sign for birmingham and conor nelson is a legend
bye bye steve we will never forget you … you stupid idiot!
conor said that mclaren is a tosser
sam crockett smells of shit just like steve mclaren
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
mclaren is a twat
by the way mclaren is a twat
Steve Mclaren is a total fucking arsehole who couldn’t manage a pub team. Monkeys could do a better job even if they were blind deaf and stupid. 4-5-1 formation is a last dicth attempt from a old ginger cunt.
Carson-i thought we couldn’t get any shitter than robo but i was wrong how could he not see the ball and get his body behind it. I suppose thats what you get when u play a villa goalkeeper.
I see Mclaren has took the money and ran what a pussy. If he comes back to the prem to manage i give him a very nice england welcome and beat the shit out of him and his ginger family.
If i had the wings of sparrow
and an arse of a crow ho ho
I’d fly over steve Mclaren
and shit on the bastard below, below!
Shit on Mclaren
Shit on Mclaren toinght,tonight!
Shit on Mclaren
Because he’s a load of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite.
Shit on Mclaren
Shit on Mclaren toinght,tonight!
Shit on Mclaren
Because he’s a load of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite.
(And so on)
Aston Villa’s Scott Carson and Gareth Barry combined to help rob fans of the chance to cheer the country in Euro 2008 during England’s 3-2 loss against Croatia at Wembley tonight.
Goalkeeper Carson’s early clanger and subsequent comedic performance must surely leave Villa fans wondering if their club really should give Liverpool £10million in January to secure his services on a permanent basis.
Carson allowed Nico Kranjcar to open the scoring from distance after just eight minutes. The Croatian fired a speculative shot from distance and Carson, failing to remember the basics by not getting his body behind the ball, parried the attempt into the net.
Speaking on Match of the Day, Ian Wright said: “Croatia were always going to shoot from anywhere and I at least thought he’d (Carson) do the basics and get the body behind the ball. But he didn’t and he’s paid the price.”
The answer to Villa’s goalkeeping problems was arguably at fault for Croatia’s second goal when the defence blundered an attempt to catch Hamburg’s Ivica Olic offside. His poor position helped the striker to round him and knock the ball into the net.
Of course, England fought their way back into the game, somehow, but Croatia grabbed the winner with another long-range effort after 77 minutes. While Carson was unsighted for Mladen Petric’s 25-yard shot, but it could be argued that he should have been in a better position to see the attack.
Gareth Barry, who was put out of his misery by Steve McClaren at half-time, did little but lose possession while he was on the pitch. The Villa skipper quickly reverted to type following mildly successful performances in recent internationals.
While on the subject of Villa let-downs, the big question now is whether Martin O’Neill will replace Steve McClaren - as some sections of the media are calling for.
Of course, it would be hilarious to see who American football fan and Villa owner Randy Lerner would give the job to - but the good of the national team must come first. Whether O’Neill wouldn’t be a good choice for the FA - if McClaren does go - is open to question. Well, many, many questions…
Whatever happen, tonight will be remembered as the night when the club boasting to be breeding the England internationals of the future helped eliminate the England team of the day. Thanks, guys, thanks very much.
When the final whistle blew the biggest cheer of the night came not from the croatian camp, but from the people of austria and switzerland.
That is because next summer they will not be invaded by thousands of drunk chav hooligans chanting “EN-GER-LUND!” and rioting through their towns and cities!
Hehe, England really are funny, in a sick sort of way. I watched the game on the BBC last night and thought their half time list of Paul Robinson’s mistakes was very funny. There were two and neither were mistakes IMO. Then Scott Carson doesn’t get behind the ball for the first one which was a joke and should have saved the last one, which most decent goalies would have pushed wide.
For everything else I could say about the game, manager, player and FA, I think the Robinson for Carson thing sums it. Funny thing is there has been a campaign to get rid of Robinson and Lampard for 18 months, when there really is no decent alternative and they are clearly the best in their positions. Carson/Green/Kirkland and Barry/Whoever are all inferior to the players most fans and the press got on the back of.
I’ve said it before. We (England fans) get the FA, manager and team we deserve. I don’t include myself of a few others in that, nut 95% of you were all anti those players and are way to interested in your club football. Then you come on sites like this whining about stuff. Consistency people, consistency.
Bad karma’s a bitch ain’t it!
4-4-2 is all we need to play. It’s that simple. Note we must always keep at least one big center forward type in there though. No more Owen and Rooney. Owen or Rooney plus one of Heskey, Crouch or Ashton.
While we won’t have a great chance of beating the best teams at the sharp end of major tournaments, Italy did it playing dry 4-4-2 with lots of 1 goal wins from bad performances.
We got 3 more points than Northern Ireland who were in, arguably, a much tougher group (Spain, Sweden and Denmark).
Stop mentioning Mourinho you idiots. He’s not a dumb as you and wouldn’t lumber himself with a choice of players which can’t fit his preferred 4-5-1. Before you say it, it is 4-5-1 not 4-3-3. If you only pick one recognised attacker (someone who scores goals first and foremost) then you are playing 1 up not 3. We started like that last night, but Crouch isn’t fit to lace Drogba’s boots and can barely occupy one center back for 90mins let alone 2 like Drogba does.
Slavan Bilic. I understand your comment about being the better team, but wake TF up m8. Your side are poor in comparison to ours and it was down to our tactics, nothing else. But well done all the same, all they can do is their best and they won the group fair’n’square.
Match Summary: We started out trying to defend and keep chances for both sides to very few for 90mins, looking for a draw. They weren’t so silly and knew we’d play like that out of fear. We went 2 behind. England realised they needed to attack. Croatia lost it for 30mins (start of second half) because we pushed back their midfield and isolated their forwards. We got level, SOMEHOW, but we did. We sat back again for the draw. Their midfield got closer to their forwards again and then they scored another goal. Seems to me when we attacked Croatia looked shaky and second best. When we played with fear and defended England looked shaky and second best. If only we’d have attacked from the start. A one goal lead would have left them playing for a draw at best because they wouldn’t have wanted a 5-0 tonking. McClaren’s fault IMHO. Also when will Gerrard shut up about stuff and play better than a 7/10 for England (he’s crap and manic depressive). Can’t play Gerrard and Lampard together? Play Lampard then. Send Gerrard for psycho analysis to remove that, scouse, northern, chip off his shoulder.
What nobody fails to realise is England cannot keep the ball. If you look at any successful international team, the key to their success is ball retention. The focus on the coaching of England’s youth is not to keep the ball or be technically superior to their opponents. All these players who you mention, Agbonlahor, Lennon, etc etc, they are all products of the coaching in this country that focuses on speed of attack rather than patient build-up play. Yesterday, did you see how after England got it back to 2-2, they dropped off the Croats? All they had to do was keep the ball and they were home and dry. With 25 mins to go, that is all that was required of them; but they were unable to do this. These players, Gerrard, Lampard etc, they are used to the powerful crash-bang English Premiership style of play…but when it comes to international football, they look like amateurs. If you cannot keep the ball you fail. Everybody loves the Premiership because it is exciting, but it is destroying the national team, as with the exception of Arsenal (note, no players in the Eng squad) and Man United, every other team would rather focus on long ball football than ball retention. Until players learn to keep the ball and be patient in attack, England will fail time and time again.
Furthermore, football in this country is not helped by the media who constantly over-hype players and sports news. It sensationalises and glorifies events which should not be given as much attention or coverage. English players are paid far too much. They do not play for the country anymore, but for their new 5 year contract to write autobiographies on a life which (a) can’t be all that fascinating and (b)is not even in its latter stages! It is ridiculous. I wonder what would happen if the England players were stripped of all of their money, cars, clothes and whatever else they have earned which has caused them to forget what their job is, and then made to play football. Maybe they would gain some heart and remember they are playing for this country and not for their wallets.
The entire FA needs to be removed if anything is to really change. Drastic changes must be made. The way football is run in this country must be altered if England have any chance of succeeding in the future.
To Zed. This whole technique thing is over hyped m8. It’s OK for top clubs to play 1 up and 5 mids, with 2 or 3 world class skillfull players in their midfield (Ronaldo, Fabregas, Giggs, Nani, Tevez, Robben etc.) These clubs can just but someone in these positions and let them be the difference in tight games where they’re playing badly. Look at Utd this year. No Ronaldo they look average and scrape wins. Ronaldo plays and the opposition fall apart and Utd stroll to victory. J.cole, Wright-Phillips and Lennon are not in the class of those players, can’t beat people for fun , though two of them do have the pace.
England will never be able to have enough players of that type, no matter what we do, to make that viable as a tactic. There are only 3 international teams who have the players to do that at the moment. Porugal, Brazil and Argentina. Argentina played like it at the World Cup but still came unstuck. The teams that went far, played dry 4-4-2 with center forward style players and won some very tight games by the odd goal. While Italy have a good mix of technique, physicality and defense they are in no way far superior to England. They just play as a team and are organised so they look better.
When we attacked Croatia they looked average. When we sat off we looked average. I think that says it all. We either play 4-4-2 with small forwards (which other teams don’t do) or we play 4-5-1 with a forward who isn’t big/fast/strong to occupy two defenders like a Drogba can in that formation.
I do agree about the FA though. They should all go, because the way they act causes fear in the manager and it then filters down to the players. In that climate, when the pressure comes in games like last night we play with fear and so go defensive. A one goal lead for England, by attacking, would have finished any hope Croatia had of winning that game and we’d be in the finals. No matter how average we’d be when we got there.
england’s men should donate their money to england’s women
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/england-players-should-give-their-wages-to-the-womens-team/sign.html
England’s ‘men’ should hand over their passports to the many talented foreign players that make their premiership teams one of the most exciting teams to watch.
I have to agree with Zed. Players are indeed overhyped in this country and also the critisism after failure destroys their confidence and affects them in future games. Will Scott Carson ever want to pull on an England shirt again? even though the whole team were outplayed he’s being made into a scapegoat. Football in this country is not about technical ability as we can see from the substandard premiership that we have. England will never outpass any decent International team, that is not the way of the English, it is more to do with passion and energy which when applied will knock more technical sides out of their stride. England have some world class individual players but as a team they can only play a certain way. There was not enough passion and energy yesterday which is why the final score could have been a lot worst for England. The Premiership which in essence is a foreign league in England lifts the counrty’s profile and some fans become arroagant and think they have a given right to success. 40 years of failure along with this latest debacle should humble those fans to lower the level of expectation.
Englishmen, you are guilty, that have appeared in such dung, it was not necessary to lose glasses with Macedonia and with Israelis. Moderate arrogance of the football players, too they vain and ambitious. It is opposite to look!
we’ll miss you ^^
Nothing against the people of England, you’re a sound crowd…except when it comes to football and especially you’re national team, which is why I say HA HA HA HA HA!!!
You couldn’t possibly deserve it more! You have a useless, overrated, ignorant team. Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham especially are s***!
You make excuses which make me sick! One idiot said get rid of Umbro, as if it will solve it. What a mong! And countless amounts of you twats, and Gerrard (overrated, scum , cheat, ref influencing c***!!!>:() blaming foreigners. Oh yeah, it’s their fault you’re Youth systems are s*** and that your players are too?! Every time you don’t win you all whinge and blame the ref or something stupid. The reason you lost is cause you have a dismal team.
You think you can have any manager you want, and that you’re the most important and best team in the world. One fool saying force Mark Hughes to quit Blackburn and make him take charge. I almost got sick all over my computer when I saw that. Unless Mourinho is a complete hypocrite, he will never take charge of your team, and to be honest, why would he? You’re not good enough for the mighty Marcello Lippi. Or Capello for that matter.
Always making a scapegoat too. Carson f***** it up but did the rest of the team do anything to fix it? Answer: Big f*****g NO!!! He made a superb save which a lot of you are forgetting too.
It’s also great news that for Austria and Switzerland that you haven’t qualified. As Zizou said, “That is because next summer they will not be invaded by thousands of drunk chav hooligans chanting “EN-GER-LUND!” and rioting through their towns and cities!”. Couldn’t agree with him more!
This is what I, and a lot of other people in Ireland have think about the English fans and national team. (A lot of Scottish, Welsh and N.Irish probably also agree).
P.S. All us Irish know we’re sh** but know more than you, don’t make excuses either. So don’t waste time saying stuff about us when you can’t, and when you could be spending it realising how crap you are!
Oh yeah, KingOfZamunda, is this “utter tosh” too?
Woo hoo!
CROATS 3
SCROTES 2
It’s gonna be a good summer!
moohoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo! Chickie guys! moo hoo hoo hoo hoo. The gay colonalism is out of EURO … What a nice loser you are England team . It’s in your blood ….I don’t know it’s cause of Sex-peer… Anyway, we ‘ll miss some players (Rooney , Gerrard , Owen , Beckham , Rio , Terry , Micah ) but no the team…
Alex Haslam? Listen man crouch cant perform any better he is almost perfect for england what else do you fucking want?!!
Zed You said england cant keep the ball i agree with you a bit there. Yes Gerrard and Lampard arent holding midfielders they dont stay back and collect they bust forward!! So are they at fault for being in those roles? No!! its mc clarens fault he should have played hagreaves or carrick in there and let Gerrard and Lampard forward cuz even barry cant hold. I hope the new manager realises this and plays the right PLAYERS in the right PLACES!!
we have no one but the players, the manager and the FA to blame
You sound like Croats haven’t beat the English, but as though England had beat itself. Stop being so arrogant and just say that we were better in all aspects of the game. It’s no one’s fault! The game was good and, if anything is to blame, it’s your pride and arrogance which lead you to your defeat. Your soccer is going to improve only when you realize that even though you are “the mighty English” it has nothing to do with soccer quality, and as long as you continue to underestimate your opponents based on which small country they hail from this is gonna happen to you again.
Aside from this, cheers chaps! Hope we see you at 2010!
I didn’t see the game, but I am not suprised. The Croates are known as the European Brazilians. It’s not the first time they beat off a great team.
The problem here is that England expects. Too much, in my opinion. The weight of expectation from the England supporters, to win tournaments, is too much for any international team, let alone England, to handle. What we must understand now is that we have a vastly overrated team, who are capable of going no further than the 1/4 final stage of an international tournament, and can no longer be considered a major force in international football. Even if England had somehow qualified for Euro 2008, did anybody realistically see them winning it??
Although we have a talented defence and midfield, we do not have true quality in the goalkeeping position, and (after Owen, and perhaps Rooney) the striking positions. Would the likes of Robinson, Carson, Bent, Defoe & Johnson start an international for the likes of Italy, France, Spain, Brazil or Argentina????
Tonights events have to be seen as a blessing in disguise; a wake up call our game desperately and deservedly needed. Our qualifying for Euro 2008 would have been a utter travesty, based on the Croatia game and our overall performance over the 12 qualifying games, and would have only papered over the huge cracks. McClaren and the FA board MUST be sacked if we are to make progress; we have only gone backwards under McClaren. At least under Sven, we always got the job done and qualified for the major tournaments with ease (which I must regrettably say we took for granted). Also note that in the big games/games against top opposition under McClarens tenure, such as Croatia (home & away), Russia (away), Germany, Spain etc, England have flopped terribly, and I am personally glad we didnt make it to Euro 2008 as we would have embarassed ourselves against the first decent opposition we would have come up against.
I would advocate the appointment of one of Martin O’Neill, Harry Redknapp or Jose Mourinho. If not, then surely we could go down the van Basten/Klinsmann route and appoint Alan Shearer? (who has the required qualifications I think). Whether he feels up to the task of managing this riff raff is another matter….
And while I am at it, Steven Gerrard needs to be dropped from the England squad. Never have I seen such an abject performance in my life. The supposed captain on the night, he showed no drive or inspiration to get his side back in the game, like we know he can do and has done for his club in the past. He seems to have taken his place for granted and I hope he is shown otherwise by Englands new regime. Frank Lampard and Hargreaves/Barry should play center midfield in future, at least until the Scouse captain realises what an honour it is to play for England. I think Beckham should still be involved with the squad, as he is one of the select few players who genuinely cares about England and is honoured to pull on the white jersey every time he plays.
I’m from Australia, and I’ve seen the game, and though you’ve beaten us in the Rugby World Cup, (don’t mention the Asian cup either) I have to say that is the worst performance by a England team or indeed a Home nations team I’ve seen.
Of course Steve McLaren should be fired, but I think it all comes down to tactics. Not tactics as in coaching tactics, like 4-4-2 but player choices. I can’t remember how many times I saw someone like Gareth barry lose the ball. THEY MUST PASS.
There is one thing all successful teams have in common.
THEY PASS. ENGLAND DON’T. You can’t dribble past 4 players.
Also I thought this was taught in under 9’s but you must run to the ball. The main reason they didn’t win, was because they waited for the ball. You can’t wait for the ball to come to you. It’s more of a collection of 11 prima donnas rather than a team.
You should learn something from your rugby team.
That’s a real team.
Also, the media, puts too much emphasis on the wins, and raises the hopes, until they realize how ordinary their team is. Remember the wins against Russia and Israel. People were literally on their heads, when it was against let’s face it pretty ordinary teams at the “fortress” of Wembley. Can you name one Russian player, maybe Akinfeev but no one else. How about Israel, perhaps Benayoun.
The thing is, after all the investment and everything, the truth is, England are not that good. Remember the loss against practically a German B team at home. Remember the draw against Austria, and Macedonia. The list goes on. The truth is England need to stop this unnecessary pressure.
This is a country of 52 million, and they can’t even beat a team that while technically very good, is beatable.
Australia drew against Croatia, if you remember, in Germany last year, with maybe one world class player in Kewell, and a few good players in Viduka and Neill. The truth is English fans are deluded, you need to forget the history, and especially 1966. It is continually regarded as a great moment in English Football, but if you remember, it was at home and required Extra Time. You need to forget about 66.
Only then will you go forward.
come on every-one! stop being so hard on Macca! OK he would not have been in my top 10 selection of managers but England should have still come out as the winner or even a draw!! Remember! England are still a better team than Croatia man-for-man and even a tired England should still win. On the night we lost the ball many time but so did Croatia!! but they were technically better than us - their passing was more precise. OK tatically you could blame Macca but we would have made up for that with a more technically superio team to match our status as a world football power.
We will be their in 2010 world cup.
Stop shiting, Croatia is better team than england - and they have proved it twice - and this is message to all arrogant englishman - you are all bunch of losers
I’m sorry before when I said that technique doesn’t matter.