The Euros....Go England!

We are doing well! We even beat Germany!

And a four nil win against Ukraine!!!

Just watched it.....great win.
Maybe football really is coming home.

I love being out while the game's on and hearing the roaring coming from people's houses and the pubs

Well...let’s just stay focused on putting out some positive energy.

We are in the final, first time since 1966.

Sunday 11 July 8pm
England v Italy.

Syl wrote:

We are in the final, first time since 1966.

Sunday 11 July 8pm
England v Italy.

Thought for a minute that was 1066, I knew it was a while but..................

I've always thought Southgate was good as manager, since he stepped up as temp manager in 2016... And he has proved his worth alright!


I did also pick Italy to win this euro tournament... So we'll see. .

Let's hope you were wrong then.

Good luck lads.
I am getting nervous....and I dont usually follow footie.

Only four more years!

There is one "English" bar in Fort Worth. I went for a bike ride and decided to have a beer. Wasn't even thinking of the game, it was just on the route amd it's got a patio for my bike. It's a regular stop.

I walked in about 5 minutes after the shootout. Those were the saddest faces I'd seen in quite some time.

Thankfully they were all inside, and I went outside.

We haven't won a major title for 55 years, this time we were so near.

Syl wrote:We haven't won a major title for 55 years, this time we were so near.

And it's supposed to be called English Football.

Original Quill wrote:

Syl wrote:We haven't won a major title for 55 years, this time we were so near.

And it's supposed to be called English Football.  

Well similar games were played way before we English developed football into its present form, but I think most people would want the game to be none inclusive of ownership, race or colour now....all are welcome.

Sad though to see racism is still alive and well in the game. This morning news is coming out about the horrible online comments targeting the young black lads who missed their penalties.
Marcus Rashford, who has done so much towards helping others off the pitch, has fared the worse as usual.
Odd how the best people are targeted by the worst in society.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/sport-marcus-rashford-mural-defaced-hours-after-euro-2020-final-defeat-20210712

It was only the Euro football tournament... The world cup is the one...

This young team could do brilliantly when the world cup comes around.
Hopefully Southgate will still be managing, he has done a good job.

I don't like the fact that he brought on those 3 who missed their penalties.


It appears to me that he was influenced by political correctness and he was trying to make these 3 black players a symbol of England being a success... But it spectacularly backfired!!!

Tommy Monk wrote:


I don't like the fact that he brought on those 3 who missed their penalties.


It appears to me that he was influenced by political correctness and he was trying to make these 3 black players a symbol of England being a success... But it spectacularly backfired!!!

No I dont agree. For one thing Marcus Rashford (from MU) is a good goal scorer. I think the main mistake (if there was one) was to have lads who weren't really warmed up to take the penalties....he should have brought them into the match sooner.

No, he brought them in to be the faces of victory for the England squad, forever to be shown as positive spin for black people.


They are all professional footballers earning more in a week each than the average person earns in a year!!!


Kicking a ball from a spot towards a goal is basic bread and butter stuff for all of them!!!


But wtf was that twat rashford doing with his silly dance up to the ball before missing the goal completely!!!???


Bell end!!!

Syl wrote:Sad though to see racism is still alive and well in the game. This morning news is coming out about the horrible online comments targeting the young black lads who missed their penalties.
Marcus Rashford, who has done so much towards helping others off the pitch, has fared the worse as usual.
Odd how the best people are targeted by the worst in society.

It is sad...sad to see that England has such racist elements within it. It shouldn't be a surprise. They spawned the south in this country, and sided with them up until they needed our northern production for WWI & WWII.

No surprise if you follow social media. The cat's out of the bag.

For the record, my youngest never missed a PK in her life.

Syl wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:


I don't like the fact that he brought on those 3 who missed their penalties.


It appears to me that he was influenced by political correctness and he was trying to make these 3 black players a symbol of England being a success... But it spectacularly backfired!!!

No I dont agree. For one thing Marcus Rashford (from MU) is a good goal scorer. I think the main mistake (if there was one) was to have lads who weren't really warmed up to take the penalties....he should have brought them into the match sooner.

How often are your best scorers not on the pitch during overtime?

I didn't watch the match, but were these 3 guys on the bench the entire game until right before the end of overtime?

Original Quill wrote:

Syl wrote:Sad though to see racism is still alive and well in the game. This morning news is coming out about the horrible online comments targeting the young black lads who missed their penalties.
Marcus Rashford, who has done so much towards helping others off the pitch, has fared the worse as usual.
Odd how the best people are targeted by the worst in society.

It is sad...sad to see that England has such racist elements within it.  It shouldn't be a surprise.  They spawned the south in this country, and sided with them up until they needed our northern production for WWI & WWII.

No surprise if you follow social media.  The cat's out of the bag.

Obviously the mindless idiot who defaced Rashfords mural was local, but apparently a lot of the online abuse was not from England.

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:

No I dont agree. For one thing Marcus Rashford (from MU) is a good goal scorer. I think the main mistake (if there was one) was to have lads who weren't really warmed up to take the penalties....he should have brought them into the match sooner.

How often are your best scorers not on the pitch during overtime?

I didn't watch the match, but were these 3 guys on the bench the entire game until right before the end of overtime?

Two were brought on right at the end. Saka had been in the game for a while.



https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1015239599/prince-william-and-boris-johnson-denounce-the-racist-abuse-of-englands-soccer-te?t=1626128152956

This is heart warming. Locals cover up the racist grafitti on the mural of Marcus Rashford.

Syl wrote:

Maddog wrote:

How often are your best scorers not on the pitch during overtime?

I didn't watch the match, but were these 3 guys on the bench the entire game until right before the end of overtime?

Two were brought on right at the end. Saka had been in the game for a while.



https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1015239599/prince-william-and-boris-johnson-denounce-the-racist-abuse-of-englands-soccer-te?t=1626128152956

Well, it sure as heck backfired. The three brought on for their shooting abilities screwed the pooch as we say over here.

People get really wrapped up in sports. They do things after losses, often fueled by alcohol, that they would never do a day or two later.

There was a S American (Colombian?) Player killed when he returned home after missing a kick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar

It was an own goal.

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:

Two were brought on right at the end. Saka had been in the game for a while.



https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1015239599/prince-william-and-boris-johnson-denounce-the-racist-abuse-of-englands-soccer-te?t=1626128152956

Well, it sure as heck backfired. The three brought on for their shooting abilities screwed the pooch as we say over here.

People get really wrapped up in sports. They do things after losses, often fueled by alcohol, that they would never do a day or two later.

There was a S American (Colombian?) Player killed when he returned home after missing a kick.

It did backfire and Southgate has taken full responsibility for the way he handled it.

Had it gone the other way and we had won the penalty shoot out everyone would be rejoicing at his wise decision to play the youngsters at the end.

I agree that people get overly worked up, and football seems to be a sport that brings out the best and the worst in people.
But racists are racists no matter which way the match goes.

Creeping out in the dead of night to daub racist graffiti on a local hero's mural sort of proves that.

I’m not a football fan (wrong shape of ball for my liking) and I didn’t watch the match, but naturally I was disappointed that England didn’t win.

But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

Fred M. wrote:But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

We've politicized catching a virus...may as well politicize kicking a football too.

There are some people who are dyed in the wool bigots, the three blokes happened to be black or were chosen as symbolic whatever, these people making offensive remarks and graffiti would probably have still made offensive remarks if the players were white, the fact they were black was a bonus. People with that mentality will always find a target they'll even turn on their own kind given the right circumstances.

Original Quill wrote:

Fred M. wrote:But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

We've politicized catching a virus...may as well politicize kicking a football too.

Maybe, old boy. But I’m too old and too tired to get myself into what we old Englishmen call a tizzy to take sides. I am just bloody worried about what this is leading to - for the sake of my grand children and now my baby great grand daughter.

Vintage wrote:There are some people who are dyed in the wool bigots, the three blokes happened to be black or were chosen as symbolic whatever, these people making offensive remarks and graffiti would probably have still made offensive remarks if the players were white, the fact they were black was a bonus. People with that mentality will always find a target they'll even turn on their own kind given the right circumstances.

That is perfectly true, Vintage. Yobs will always be yobs…and also cowards basking in the anonymity of social media usernames.

My own feelings on this matter are that, regardless of the colour of their skin, those lads are footballers chosen to represent my country, and in my book they gave their all and did their very best, God bless ‘em. I honour them.

But….I absolutely abhor the manner in which actually failing to voice active support for “taking the knee” is condemned as being an affront to anti racism (Pritti Patel has faced more racial obscenity than these otherwise over paid, over privileged football players will EVER face).

I will NEVER kneel in supplication, other than in honour of my God and my sovereign…or in the unlikely event that I will ever again feel the need to ask a woman to marry me or (probably even less so) aim a weapon against one of my country’s enemies.

Priti Patel has every right to say she would never take the knee....though not so clever in seeming to give football fans the go ahead to boo the action.

It should be up to the individual, if they want to go down on one knee why should that bother anyone else?

Also, some of the racist abuse these three lads have received is disgusting. A white player may be insulted by these same morons, but not for being white....no one should be judged and insulted like this because they are a different colour.

Where is this racism...!?


All I've seen is people complaining about the alleged racism... But no examples of the alleged racism...!

Fred Moletrousers wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

We've politicized catching a virus...may as well politicize kicking a football too.

Maybe, old boy. But I’m too old and too tired to get myself into what we old Englishmen call a tizzy to take sides. I am just bloody worried about what this is leading to - for the sake of my grand children and now my baby great grand daughter.

I agree, Fred.  Neither science nor sports should be politicized.  They each have their own form of validity: with science, it's empirical evidence; with sports, its the score.

But that's not what we are seeing.

Syl wrote:Priti Patel has every right to say she would never take the knee....though not so clever in seeming to give football fans the go ahead to boo the action.

It should be up to the individual, if they want to go down on one knee why should that bother anyone else?

Also, some of the racist abuse these three lads have received is disgusting. A white player may be insulted by these same morons, but not for being white....no one should be judged and insulted like this because they are a different colour.

Again I agree. That was her one mistake. But I’m glad you said  “seemingly” because her words were actually “…it’s their choice.” To have actually condemned a demonstration (booing) against knee taking would have been  to take sides, which is what BBC reporters have tried desperately to corner her into doing.

Charlie Stayt, co-presenting today’s BBC breakfast programme tried exactly the same tactic with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay who was the nominated government interviewee. But he’s  too old an hand at dealing with typical BBC “when did you stop beating your wife?” loaded questions to have fallen into the trap….much to a clearly miffed Stayt’s annoyance. Brilliant.

Tommy Monk wrote:


Where is this racism...!?


All I've seen is people complaining about the alleged racism... But no examples of the alleged racism...!

Racist grafitti was daubed across the Rashford mural for a start. You dont go on Twitter and Facebook do you?

"TWITTER has deleted more than 1,000 racist posts towards England players in 24 hours.

A barrage of abuse was aimed at Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after the Three Lions were beaten on penalties in an agonising final.A string of public figures including Prince William and Boris Johnson have now slammed the trolls - with Twitter confirming they have taken action.

The social media platform said over 1,000 tweets have been deleted that violated its policy and a number of accounts have also been suspended.

A spokesperson said: "The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter."

Facebook confirmed it also had removed comments and accounts following the abuse."







https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/15571088/twitter-deletes-racist-posts-england-players/

Fred Moletrousers wrote:

Syl wrote:Priti Patel has every right to say she would never take the knee....though not so clever in seeming to give football fans the go ahead to boo the action.

It should be up to the individual, if they want to go down on one knee why should that bother anyone else?

Also, some of the racist abuse these three lads have received is disgusting. A white player may be insulted by these same morons, but not for being white....no one should be judged and insulted like this because they are a different colour.

Again I agree. That was her one mistake. But I’m glad you said  “seemingly” because her words were actually “…it’s their choice.” To have actually condemned a demonstration (booing) against knee taking would have been  to take sides, which is what BBC reporters have tried desperately to corner her into doing.

Charlie Stayt, co-presenting today’s BBC breakfast programme tried exactly the same tactic with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay who was the nominated government interviewee. But he’s  too old an hand at dealing with typical BBC “when did you stop beating your wife?” loaded questions to have fallen into the trap….much to a clearly miffed Stayt’s annoyance. Brilliant.

By her saying, "It's their choice", she was giving it the OK though Fred.

Boris was far more straight when he was asked about the graffiti on the Rashford statue. He said the perpetrator should crawl back under the stone from whence he came.
No fence sitting there.

It shows the mentality of some, well an increasing amount of the population it seems, that decided they would storm in because they had no tickets but had been trying for a long time to get some so decided they'd get in anyway and to hell with any consequences for anyone in their way.
The disgusting graffiti is beyond words but its heart warming to see people out there covering it up and adding messages of support and being there in solidarity.

Vintage wrote:It shows the mentality of some, well an increasing amount of the population it seems, that decided they would storm in because they had no tickets but had been trying for a long time to get some so decided they'd get in anyway and to hell with any consequences for anyone in their way.
The disgusting graffiti is beyond words but its heart warming to see people out there covering it up and adding messages of support and being there in solidarity.

It's reported now that people have come from all over the country to leave messages of support.

Syl wrote:

Fred Moletrousers wrote:

Again I agree. That was her one mistake. But I’m glad you said  “seemingly” because her words were actually “…it’s their choice.” To have actually condemned a demonstration (booing) against knee taking would have been  to take sides, which is what BBC reporters have tried desperately to corner her into doing.

Charlie Stayt, co-presenting today’s BBC breakfast programme tried exactly the same tactic with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay who was the nominated government interviewee. But he’s  too old an hand at dealing with typical BBC “when did you stop beating your wife?” loaded questions to have fallen into the trap….much to a clearly miffed Stayt’s annoyance. Brilliant.

By her saying, "It's their choice", she was giving it the OK though Fred.

Boris was far more straight when he was asked about the graffiti on the Rashford statue. He said the perpetrator should crawl back under the stone from whence he came.
No fence sitting there.

Even gentle and inoffensive old me would be tempted to boo either BLM leaders who wear Black Panther paramilitary uniforms and give the clenched fist salute before taking the knee OR far Right neoNazis who greet each other with a Fascist salute. In my book they are both repugnant and deserving of the condemnation and contempt of “the man on the Clapham omnibus” - the Victorian legal description for a hypothetical ordinary and reasonable person.

Fred Moletrousers wrote:I’m not a football fan (wrong shape of ball for my liking) and I didn’t watch the match, but naturally I was disappointed that England didn’t win.

But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

Both ‘sides’ wouldn’t be doing anything if one side hadn’t started with the racism.

Actually, it’s likely most fans would be piling condemnation on the three lads, in a very non racist way, if the racists hadn’t immediately jumped to their first instincts of ‘racism’ in the first place. Instead, what would have been a run-of-the-mill denigration of millionaire footballers (a la Beckham in 1998), has instead become a hero worship of (let’s be honest) Euro penalty flops - and rightly so, since regardless of those awful efforts, no one deserves to be attacked on the basis of skin colour.

Major own goal by the Right tbh (not that dumb hooligans are examples of all the Right, but if we had to guess their voting patterns; well, come on…). And yes, Patel and Johnson knew which crowd they were pandering to when they said ‘it’s ok to boo taking the knee’, and what passions saying that enflamed.

Eilzel wrote:

Fred Moletrousers wrote:I’m not a football fan (wrong shape of ball for my liking) and I didn’t watch the match, but naturally I was disappointed that England didn’t win.

But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

Both ‘sides’ wouldn’t be doing anything if one side hadn’t started with the racism.

Actually, it’s likely most fans would be piling condemnation on the three lads, in a very non racist way, if the racists hadn’t immediately jumped to their first instincts of ‘racism’ in the first place. Instead, what would have been a run-of-the-mill denigration of millionaire footballers (a la Beckham in 1998), has instead become a hero worship of (let’s be honest) Euro penalty flops - and rightly so, since regardless of those awful efforts, no one deserves to be attacked on the basis of skin colour.

Major own goal by the Right tbh (not that dumb hooligans are examples of all the Right, but if we had to guess their voting patterns; well, come on…). And yes, Patel and Johnson knew which crowd they were pandering to when they said ‘it’s ok to boo taking the knee’, and what passions saying that enflamed.

You know, all choices aren't binary.

You can think taking the knee and racism are both ignorant.

The bigger problem might be those that insist people pick one or the other.

Maddog wrote:

Eilzel wrote:

Fred Moletrousers wrote:I’m not a football fan (wrong shape of ball for my liking) and I didn’t watch the match, but naturally I was disappointed that England didn’t win.

But having said that, both sides of the political and racial divide are now milking the issues raised since for all they are worth and stoking up the rhetoric, insults, accusations and counter-accusations…and that is something that I find seriously worrying. We are entering dangerous ground.

Both ‘sides’ wouldn’t be doing anything if one side hadn’t started with the racism.

Actually, it’s likely most fans would be piling condemnation on the three lads, in a very non racist way, if the racists hadn’t immediately jumped to their first instincts of ‘racism’ in the first place. Instead, what would have been a run-of-the-mill denigration of millionaire footballers (a la Beckham in 1998), has instead become a hero worship of (let’s be honest) Euro penalty flops - and rightly so, since regardless of those awful efforts, no one deserves to be attacked on the basis of skin colour.

Major own goal by the Right tbh (not that dumb hooligans are examples of all the Right, but if we had to guess their voting patterns; well, come on…). And yes, Patel and Johnson knew which crowd they were pandering to when they said ‘it’s ok to boo taking the knee’, and what passions saying that enflamed.

You know, all choices aren't binary.

You can think taking the knee and racism are both ignorant.  

The bigger problem might be those that insist people pick one or the other.  

Never said it was binary, and of course many can and do think that.

But when Patel and Johnson made their statements on the issue, they did do knowing full well the crowd they were playing to. The same crowd made up a % of those who voted them in, obviously. And let’s not pretend those sending racist attacks are not also likely to be those booing.

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see Patel and Johnson were giving a nod and wink to the racists, without actually openly saying they’re ok.

Or they think kneeling and racism are both lame..

No doubt the ignorant see what they want to see. Should politicans tailor their comments to avoid setting off tiny minorities of fools?

Either support kneeling or you encourage racism is a false dichotomy.

Yeah, let’s just assume the best of two people who have proven time and again to be pretty awful human beings.

They knew who they were sucking up to.