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Round of 16: : LET THE (Knockout) GAMES BEGIN!


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36 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

Does anyone in Ireland actually consider that song as their national anthem?

Certainly not the case in Wales.

It may not be quiet as relevant to the younger people today, But given NI history then what "side" you are on depends on if you might consider God save the Queen as your National Anthem.   

 

 

I'm betting the Welsh Anthem doesn't have any vowels in it.

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21 minutes ago, Pebble said:

 

 

 

I'm betting the Welsh Anthem doesn't have any vowels in it.

I have posted it quite a few times on this board but it does seem to fall on deaf ears.

I really don't find jokes about the Welsh language funny.

If it was up to the English our language would be completely dead.

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16 minutes ago, Jordan La Cabra said:

Unfortunately, in Northern Ireland, we don't have an official national anthem, as it would take quite the genius to come up with one that doesn't divide the country. Instead, they decided to go with the United Kingdom's national anthem, 'God Save The Queen', which divides the country, anyway!

Just out of interest what's your opinion of the Irish Rugby system? Representing the island of Ireland regardless of borders, I feel that would be harder to achieve in football, where sectarianism is still alive and well.

Would Irelands Call be accepted, as an alternative to God Save the Queen?

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2 minutes ago, The BelgianBear said:

Just out of interest what's your opinion of the Irish Rugby system? Representing the island of Ireland regardless of borders, I feel that would be harder to achieve in football, where sectarianism is still alive and well.

Would Irelands Call be accepted, as an alternative to God Save the Queen?

It works well for Ireland Rugby, as they are one of the strongest nations in world rugby. As for the anthem 'Ireland's Call', I think it's a very neutral song and does a good job of representing the idea of the two nations coming together for the sport. However, as you say, there is still sectarianism in football in Northern Ireland, so I'd imagine the two countries combining for football would create more problems than it would solve.

Either way, if I were to make a composite XI of the best footballers from the North and the best footballers from the Republic, I think we'd be no better as combined national team as we are as two separate nations. A larger pool to choose from would be good - as would players from the North not having the option to play for the Republic instead, and vice versa. 

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12 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

I have posted it quite a few times on this board but it does seem to fall on deaf ears.

I really don't find jokes about the Welsh language funny.

If it was up to the English our language would be completely dead.

I apolgise,  I did not intend any offence.  For the record this English person has no problem with Welsh being the main official language used when in Wales.  As far as I'm concerned its Your country your rules.  

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2 minutes ago, Pebble said:

I apolgise,  I did not intend any offence.  For the record this English person has no problem with Welsh being the main official language used when in Wales.  As far as I'm concerned its Your country your rules.  

Sorry just a bit of touchy subject in Wales at the moment!

I know you didn't mean offence :) 

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England played an underwhelming game, only managed to score from a penalty and was an absolute wonder save from Pickford away from being sent packing, but apparently "it's coming home".

I also see a lot of the players saying it on social media. Being confident is good, but has history taught the English nothing?

I reckon they need to be a lot better if they're going to beat Sweden and then Russia/Croatia.

Colombia were incredibly unsportsmanlike, though, so good riddance to them. 

 

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The thing is, genuinely, when an international tournament begins, I tend to think it would be nice for England to do well.

Then they win a couple of games and the tabloids start with the jingoistic bullshit.

Then I feel like I can't really enjoy the tournament until England go out.

It's a cliche. But it's true. Look at that 'Go Kane' nonsense the Sun put out. Colombia. Drugs. GET IT?!?!?!? HAHAHAHAHAHA! 

Or their previous 'kiss Kane's boot for luck' stunt. Or pressuring the government to fly the flag during England games. It's one pathetic stunt after another, each less sincere than the last. These are the same papers who were rubbishing the team and the manager a few weeks ago. Now, Southgate has revolutionised coaching, Kane is the best England captain of the last fifty years and the Swedes are a mere formality to be disposed of. 

Not all English people and so on, and there's nothing wrong with excitement and enthusiasm. But there's always an unpleasant note to it all, an arrogance that is totally unearned. They're like that one loud kid in the back of the class who doesn't know when to shut up, except to make it worse, it's all an act to boost their own sales. The minute England go out, they'll be slaughtering the team and the manager to sell more papers.

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I thought the whole 'It's coming home!' craze was just ironic humour. I don't think many England fans actually believe that it is coming home. For the first time in many tournaments, though, they have a bit of optimism; they like their coach and they like the players - that's rare for England fans. They've got through the group stage, progressed through a knock-out game and have a favourable route to the final (doesn't mean they will get there, though). 

I saw some football page share something saying some along the lines of: 'Andy Murray didn't play in Wimbledon in 1966 - England won the World Cup. Andy Murray isn't playing in Wimbledon in 2018 - it's coming home.' The ridiculousness of the whole thing suggests to me that it's just a running joke that England fans are using, because for once there isn't an air of doom and gloom about the national team.

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8 minutes ago, Mme Erzulie said:

England played an underwhelming game, only managed to score from a penalty and was an absolute wonder save from Pickford away from being sent packing

Not really considering Colombia scored from the resulting corner.

England weren’t fantastically good and didn’t create much in the way of chances but they were largely in control of the game for most of it and conceded very few decent chances themselves. Well, until extra time anyway.

 I wouldn’t say they need to be a lot better to beat Sweden, Russia or probably Croatia based on their last game. To be confident of winning it’d help to be better but they could win against those teams being solid and nicking a goal. 

They’d probably need to be a lot better to beat whoever’s coming out of the others side of the draw but that’s not really a big concern.

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34 minutes ago, Jordan La Cabra said:

I thought the whole 'It's coming home!' craze was just ironic humour. I don't think many England fans actually believe that it is coming home. For the first time in many tournaments, though, they have a bit of optimism; they like their coach and they like the players - that's rare for England fans. They've got through the group stage, progressed through a knock-out game and have a favourable route to the final (doesn't mean they will get there, though). 

I saw some football page share something saying some along the lines of: 'Andy Murray didn't play in Wimbledon in 1966 - England won the World Cup. Andy Murray isn't playing in Wimbledon in 2018 - it's coming home.' The ridiculousness of the whole thing suggests to me that it's just a running joke that England fans are using, because for once there isn't an air of doom and gloom about the national team.

Not all England fans.

There's no 'ironic humour' in what the tabloids are doing. They don't really believe it, no, but they're willing to pretend they do, and not for the bantz either. It's about selling newspapers by manipulative means, which is what they do every day, to be fair, but they turn it up to 11 during tournaments. Hype becomes hysteria, and no less annoying because it's so cynical. 

If you know England fans that genuinely like the coach and the team and aren't getting carried away, that's lovely. I'm not talking about them, though, and I've taken pains to say so. 

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7 minutes ago, La Albearceleste said:

If you know England fans that genuinely like the coach and the team and aren't getting carried away, that's lovely. I'm not talking about them, though, and I've taken pains to say so. 

Wow. I wasn't even writing in response to you - my message was a response to what Mme had said.

PS: It's coming home.

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1 hour ago, Jordan La Cabra said:

Wow. I wasn't even writing in response to you - my message was a response to what Mme had said.

PS: It's coming home.

Apologies, but that wasn't clear, since you didn't quote him and posted immediately after my post. :)

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2 hours ago, La Albearceleste said:

If you know England fans that genuinely like the coach and the team and aren't getting carried away, that's lovely. I'm not talking about them, though, and I've taken pains to say so. 

In fairness, this English teams appears to lack the usual boneheads and dumb f**** of past teams, likesay Terry, Rooney, Gazza and so on and so forth. Of course, our English boarders will probably be able to point out one or two players, but I don't think anybody gets close to the level of mere boneheadedness of Terry. Well, maybe Vardy, but nah, still Terry wins that.

3 hours ago, lessthanluke said:

Sorry just a bit of touchy subject in Wales at the moment!

I know you didn't mean offence :) 

Just remember the Welsh language has more vowels than the English team titles. 

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19 hours ago, Eusebio da Silva ljkeane said:

Not really considering Colombia scored from the resulting corner.

England weren’t fantastically good and didn’t create much in the way of chances but they were largely in control of the game for most of it and conceded very few decent chances themselves. Well, until extra time anyway.

 I wouldn’t say they need to be a lot better to beat Sweden, Russia or probably Croatia based on their last game. To be confident of winning it’d help to be better but they could win against those teams being solid and nicking a goal. 

They’d probably need to be a lot better to beat whoever’s coming out of the others side of the draw but that’s not really a big concern.

Hah, I actually missed that, only really noticing the save when it was highlighted afterwards. Fair point.

I think Croatia has looked more impressive than Colombia this tournament (barring their lacklustre performance against Denmark), and Sweden, despite the lack of a single big name player (or maybe because of that), look like one of the most cohesive and tactically astute sides left in the tournament (especially now that Japan are out). And should you beat Sweden and face Russia instead of Croatia, well, all bets are off. I think you'd want at least a two goal lead going into the last few minutes of that game.

In regards to what our Scottish moderator is talking about, while there's enough level-headed people with some perspective on the whole hullabaloo that they probably constitute "most people" or the majority, there's an awful lot of people whose heads are very steeply inclined and who have zero perspective on anything.

Having watched one of the England games in the City (London's financial district), the songs about WWII and German bombers, the surrounding a short black guy and shouting "Danny Rose" at him for ages, the throwing of beer and assorted other liquids (the owner of the place said they had to stop serving jugs of beer, as people were throwing them), the general feeling of ramped-up testosterone, drunk and coked up blokes high on nationalism and imperial dreams of England ruling the waves, it all adds up to a rather unpleasant cocktail.

And again, the S*n is not a fringe tabloid, it's the country's biggest selling newspaper for decades, and one who prides itself on having the power to tip the scales in favour of their chosen candidate in a general election.

Add Brexit, UKIP and anti-immigration sentiments into the mix, and the lines between harmless and fun excitement at the English football team doing well and malevolent, xenophobic nationalism seem to blur a little too easily.

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