As long as Christine and Neil Hamilton don’t put their one out again 
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Interestingly I think one thing I’ve felt as this tournament progresses is how easy it is to get to the later stages compared to something like the Champions League and that it is truly astonishing how badly England have been managed previously in order to fail as spectacularly as they have done. Like almost intentional sabotage.
Southgate could win this tournament and go down as the best England manager since Alf Ramsay and he really hasn’t done very much to get here. It didn’t require innovative tactics or particularly brilliant man management - just putting the team on the pitch has seemingly been enough.
Likewise the other big nations. It’s like entering a tiny little FA Cup with Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Rochdale, Accrington Stanley, Birmingham City, Oldham Athletic and Tranmere. Any “big” nation - who I am counting as England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy - nations who can count on year in, year out having an elite squad of the best players in world football should all be making the Quarter-Finals at the very least every single tournament and frankly anything less than that is total and abject failure.
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Schmeichel answered well. He did not mock England. I am annoyed at the headlines in the British papers. The journalist interviewed Schmeichel and his job is to ask questions regarding the upcomming game with a natural focus on Denmark (he was interviewing a Danish player!!!) Instead he wasted everyones time with a pathetic question about how Schmeichel felt about having to try to stop “England taking football home”. What the fuck is that disrespectful and pathetic question about? No one on the Danish team is spending time thinking of “England taking football home”, they focus on themselves and their own job, not some peculiar English cultural phenomenon about England taking it home etc. That is irrelevant for other teams obviously and when you interview a Danish player ahead of the game, you focus on the bloody game if you want to do an actual job and not look a retard when the player gives a proper logical response (which Schmeichel did, he could have not answered the question any better than he did)
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I like the song, not only that one but a few of them, World in Motion (especially Barnes’ part!) included. It’s catchy, it’s funny, it’s sarcastic, it describes well the culture around England’s national team for almost half a decade let’s say. England winning something (perhaps now) will not change it, it will still be good. Maybe opposition fans will then joke that England can’t win anything outside of England. That’s just good banter I guess, no problems.
On Croatians, I thought in 2018 Modric and a few of our other players got it really wrong. We have to separate the players & staff, fans and media. The English players and staff said nothing wrong at the time from what I remember, it was perhaps more the media and general perception. It’s funny when players comment on these things and then seconds later they say that they don’t pay attention to media headlines. React precisely to one of those 3 sections (players/staff, media or fans), what someone said or don’t react to it at all.
Fans? Well, that’s so vague in this day and age that I bet you’d find at least a solid percentage of arrogant fans at literally any level. I never had anything against fans being excited, thinking that their team is the best in the world, unrealistic, ambitious, etc. It’s just natural. Not every football talk needs to be serious and realistic. I like to see those scenes from England when people celebrate like mad. I can also joke about England’s failures for the past half a century, but part of me will be happy for them when they do win something. Maybe other people in general have that perception that your average Englishman is more arrogant than some others. That’s maybe it, I don’t know.
But yeah, the song is quality and other people should have no problems with English fans loving it and celebrating it. The rest, if something happens, we can discuss. But so far, I think Southgate and his players are respectful (can be boring, but at least you don’t say something stupid), at least from what I remember and what I hear now.
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I think people in general are hyper sensitive nowadays.
Football as we know it as well as many popular sports we’re invented in Britain. Who cares? I don’t go around with a chip on my shoulder thinking ‘who do those Arabs with their abacuses think they are? They can stick their algebra where the sun doesn’t shine’.
Their are some absolute cretins in Britain, but frankly I’m sick of being a white British male, honest, hardworking, love my family, faithful to my wife, etc but made to feel all the iils of the world are somehow my fault. A lot of it comes from the British empire. I haven’t had an apology from the Romans, Vikings, Norman’s, Jutes or Angles yet for invading Britain at some point for pillaging and killing the native population.
Humans have been incredibly inhuman to other humans throughout millenia. Any country which has had/has an empire has done terrible things. That’s why I think nationalism is a dangerous thing. By all means be proud of your culture, your heritage but variety is the spice of life.
I think the media should report the news but the media is more entertainment than news nowadays. Most media in most countries is over the top, looks for problems where there aren’t any.
I remember the Spanish media making a fuss of the This is Anfield sign when Real played us. No one at LFC was pointing at the sign, saying anything disrespectful about Real Madrid etc but the Spanish media made a fuss, saying This is Anfield… So what?
I don’t particularly follow England. Only game I’ve been to was vs Brazil in 1981. I would like them to win but given the choice of LFC winning the EPL, Champions league or England winning the World Cup/Euros then there’s no contest.
It’s nice to have no pressure riding on a game.
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At the risk of going off on a tangent, from the perspective of a minority where I am currently, it’s not so much about whether it is your fault or not. It’s more whether you acknowledge that there are structural inequities built into society that elevate some classes of people whether socioeconomic or ethnic while marginalising others, that are based on the luck of birth and contribute significantly towards particular life outcomes. Some will argue that luck of birth will always be present in some way or others, but not being conscious about that, and not helping to mitigate that where we can, is arguably the real problem with some in privileged classes. I’m not saying you are one or the other, but that that’s just the underlying logic behind those thoughts. It’s more for the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg to be smug and say they deserved their success, while others simply did not succeed solely down to a lack of effort. This often translates into a sense of entitlement that they deserve what they get, that is very off-putting to others.
In the same vein, I normally don’t want the English team to succeed in part because of the media, but also in large part because many players thought they were just entitled to win because they’re England, or they’re some big name. I will say though that if England win it this time, they did deserve it in a way because the team (apart from some of the usual suspect) are more grounded. I can’t remember where I read the analysis that Southgate had the team playing a lot more defensively because England couldn’t grind out wins against better teams because of defensive frailties. Of course against minnows it’s not really obvious and just looks bad, but so far it’s worked out this Euros, not that they’ve faced many great teams.
I’m still favouring Denmark though, just because of the underdog part.
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If I get it “all my way”, which I most probably won’t; Denmark beats England but lose to Italy. A win-win situation for me as a Norwegian. The underdog wins and a Scandinavian country goes very far, but not too far into the realms of becoming unbearable when it comes to intra-Scandinavian banter and mockery (which someone should write a sociological thesis about). So yeah, I shall sacrifice a goat for Denmark’s eventual defeat in a final if they hopefully beat England first. Proud Danes are okay, air-head Danes are really, really not and are in dire need of a sharpened needle ! 
I think you’re taking this a little too seriously 
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That must have been something back in 1992! 
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I am really not. I even added a smiley to make it clear that it was a tongue in cheek. But yes, we Scandinavians have some really, at times, hurtful and at other times “friendly”, way of mocking each other. It is a cultural thing. Norwegians mocks Swedes,Swedes mock Norwegians, Danes mock Norwegians; it is ingrained in our culture.
Foreigners should be aware of the Golden Rule though. No one mocks a Scandinavian country when they are not Scandinavians themselves. And by that I mean that you will then experience the Scandinavian cultural phenomenon it is to see people from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and even Finland, unite in persecution of the rude foreign element This cultural phenomenon can be often seen on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. It goes from brotherly mockery and demeaning each other to unified hatred of the “outside” element. It is a bit funny really. Most of us Scandinavians are guilty of it, it is kind of a subconscious thing ingrained in our culture. Most people don’t know of the Golden Rule (which is unspoken and not every Norwegian or Dane actually consciously know of it, and yet they act as if they follow it). A good example of the Golden Rule is if an American news story relates a story about a Scandinavian country that is inaccurate. Rest assure that Scandinavians from all countries will band together and let them know and loudly at that
Yup, that’s the key for me as well. He is a calm guy, rather unassuming and not linked to any big, polarising club in England from his playing days, like LFC, the mancs, or a big London club. That plays out well for him now. He has apparently been able to have everyone pulling at the same rope.
The big question is now the one of the overall quality, especially the mental one. Are they good enough to get one over a very close-knit group, playing together as if they were on a mission? Answer tonight, and then, maybe, on Sunday.
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As that’s a pretty much perfect summation, let’s leave the politics there, and focus on the game. There are other threads to talk about this!
Of course there are inequalities. I live in Guatemala. It makes laugh (ironically) to see their are probably about 10 important families in the country. Their are other rich, entitled and their kids have been given every opportunity going but struggle with depression, etc. I live in a small town, the parents take their kids to work in the countryside, cutting wood, carrying it home yet they are happy, polite, content.
We live in a complicated world without doubt.
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Come on - let’s keep this about the footy!
Right, let me get it back on track since I deviated to begin with.
Still rooting for Denmark.
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Sorry was still writing my post when you posted. Wasn’t ignoring you.
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Would have thought there was more Irish than English in Boston.
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To me this has been the most confusing bit of the whole tournament. I am 100% on board with people having a personal opinion he should play, but it’s the attitude that its an unequivocal mistake to not play him that confuses me. This is a team with far more attacking talent than it has defensive. Even the most caviler, Ossie Ardiles style selection would leave good players on the bench. but what Southgate has been doing since he got in the job is the opposite of just trying to win media plaudits by playing their favourites (AKA the Sven, AKA stealing a living) and instead concentrated on what delivers success at International football - finding a way to get players on the pitch that compliment each other and can have a coherent shape and style. It’s not pleasing to the eye, but it’s so far been relatively successful (I think an under statement) and is exactly what most fans have pissed and moaned about England not doing for pretty much my entire adult life. It is an approach that means good players will be sacrificed in favour of coherence.
I mean fuck me, Italy started the world cup final in 2006 with Totti on the bench and Luca “I wish I had the mobility of Peter Crouch” Toni playing up front, because Lippi didnt think he could get Del Piero and Toni on the pitch at the same time and maintain their style.
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David Ornstein has Saka starting on the right again. He’s been fairly plugged in to how England will set up before games.
Plastic Irish is a nice terminology for people who are 2-3 generations removed from the country their ancestors emigrated from and who are 100 percent American and 0 % percent European. I hope Americans will some day be more unified and stop categorizing themselves into sub categories such as Irish Americans and Afro Americans. Because for one, they are not really of those categories and second and more important, it divides them into sub category nationality which greatly weakens their sociopolitical fabric in society. Perhaps a century from now they can finally call themselves American without that idiotic qualifier (a Norwegian American removed 2-4 generations is no Norwegian, and a descentent of a slave from Ghana is neither slave nor Ghanan).