The Official England World Cup 2018 thread

Talk about other football teams at all levels. AND ANY Glos City related threads, even if talking about the groundsharing.

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RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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The home of RNF England chat.

Got to be three up top for me. Rashford, Kane, Sterling.
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Shade
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I saw Shearer and Jenas pick an XI of Pickford; Walker, Stones, Cahill; Trippier, Rose; Henderson, Alli, Lingard; Sterling, Kane.

I think that formation is good but I would change a couple of players.
Butland over Pickford.

Alexander-Arnold over Trippier. He may be only 19 but he's played in a Champions League run and final which is more than most of the squad, and he's probably the best set-piece taker in the squad.

I'd be tempted to go with Dier or Loftus-Cheek over Lingard, just because I think we look a bit lightweight in the attack and RL-C is built...however, one is too defensive and sideways and the other i's obviously not very experienced. How I wish the Ox was fit.

Rashford over Sterling, just because Sterling is so unproductive for England. Vardy to come on, chewing 'baccy, against, hopefully, tiring defences.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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Alli the enigma for me. Not the right man for the front three. But not solid enough for the middle three.
asl
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Assuming we go 3-4-3 against the two minor teams:

Pickford;
Walker, Stones, Cahill;
Trippier, Dier, Alli, Rose;
Sterling, Kane, Rashford.

I wouldn't play Lingard AND Alli - but each is a replacement for the other. If we go 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 against Belgium, I'd drop either Rashford or Sterling for Henderson.

All I ask for is that England are *interesting* - if not *exciting* - to watch. In the last few tournaments, we've been as dull as dishwater and about as interesting to watch as drying paint.

And I do NOT want to see Kane taking corners - or free-kicks from the bloody half-way line.
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Shade
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If we play anything other than 3-5-2 with wing-backs I'd be amazed after the last few games.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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With the other big names being found out in their first games, tonight is a chance for England to lay down a marker, to show we are there to mean business.
leohoenig
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RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:With the other big names being found out in their first games, tonight is a chance for England to lay down a marker, to show we are there to mean business.
I would imagine something similar is being said in Tunisia?
They must see getting something in this game to being the key to reaching the knock out rounds
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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leohoenig wrote:
RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:With the other big names being found out in their first games, tonight is a chance for England to lay down a marker, to show we are there to mean business.
I would imagine something similar is being said in Tunisia?
They must see getting something in this game to being the key to reaching the knock out rounds
Let them dream. Should be a regulation England win. Hopefully we do more than that and turn on the fireworks.
Red Duke
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RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:
leohoenig wrote:
RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:With the other big names being found out in their first games, tonight is a chance for England to lay down a marker, to show we are there to mean business.
I would imagine something similar is being said in Tunisia?
They must see getting something in this game to being the key to reaching the knock out rounds
Let them dream. Should be a regulation England win. Hopefully we do more than that and turn on the fireworks.
Surely regulation wins and England in tournament football is an oxymoron?
asl
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This is RCS who said much the same about various "regulation wins" of Cheltenham Town over the last two seasons. Maidstone, springs to mind.

Luckily, I don't think Southgate nor any England player will underestimate any opposition in this tournament. After all, even Iran won.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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asl wrote:This is RCS who said much the same about various "regulation wins" of Cheltenham Town over the last two seasons. Maidstone, springs to mind.

Luckily, I don't think Southgate nor any England player will underestimate any opposition in this tournament. After all, even Iran won.
I don’t think they will either, hence a regulation win.
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Nesty
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why do we get cheated ? Tunisia penalty was so soft, then Kane gets wrestled to the ground TWICE and nothing, I thought the VR was supposed to be looking at stuff like that!!
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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Nesty wrote:why do we get cheated ? Tunisia penalty was so soft, then Kane gets wrestled to the ground TWICE and nothing, I thought the VR was supposed to be looking at stuff like that!!
It is supposed to be and they said before the competition started that they would be clamping down on that type of foul.

Corruption and unwillingness to penalise small players struggling against strong strikers. Same as Denmark vs Peru and Sweden vs South Korea. The smaller sized players were outmuscled by Nordic stature and the referees ruled in favour of the diminutive players more often than not.
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Shade
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Colombian ref, what do you expect?

Seriously though, the VAR wasn't even looking at replays of Kane as the one that was shown on the VAR picture in picture was focussing on the goalkeeper behind Dele.

Overall, encouraging start, poor finishing, should have had 2 penalties, Sterling just not good enough for England, frustrating as hell in the second half but, for a change, we grabbed the winner instead of another draw. Thank God for a proper World Class Striker at last, not the likes of Rooney who everyone kept saying was world class but never popped up in the right place at the right time in tournaments like Kane did twice last night. If we can get more of those early chances, but to Kane, then there's no reason we can't make the QF's, and then who knows if there is confidence and some others are chipping in with goals as well. Beat Panama on Sunday and we're through (assuming Tunisia don't turn over Belgium). What a nice difference that would be.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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P!ss easy. Great win.
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Shade
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What a refreshing change, in all aspects. Only thing I think we could have done better yesterday was pass it better at the back (some of it between the back 3 and Henderson was awful early on) and not switching off quite so much that we let them score.
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Shade
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So just over 24 hours until the biggest game in English football history.

Obviously, I say that slightly tongue in cheek but, if we win it, we have one hell of a chance of getting to the final as we are capable of beating Sweden/Switzerland and then Croatia or Russia in the semi final will be tough, for very different reasons, but also winnable.

However, I really can't make my mind up whether tomorrow will be the same old story or whether something good is actually happening all of a sudden. People say we've only beaten Tunisia and only stuffed a poor Panama but how many times have we been in tournaments and not beaten a team like Tunisia whereas this time we had Kane pop up with a winner, and how many times have we not hammered teams we "should" have hammered, settling for maybe a late goal or two to squeak a win? The Belgium game was a nothing and I'm sure has been forgotten about, as it should be. Tomorrow night really is the acid test. If we win tomorrow, I think we'll go all the way to the final. Maybe it will be Belgium A v England A, as we missed out on it in the group stage.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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Winner of tomorrow’s game will face Croatia in the semis.

If England lose before facing Croatia, I hope the latter go on to beat France in the final. I am still angry and bitter over ‘98 when France robbed a Croatian side who were the best in that tournament and full of heroes like Suker and Boban - still two of my favourites of all time.
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Shade
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If last night was anything to go by, Croatia shouldn't be any problem if we get that far imo. I really believe that Colombia are the most dangerous side left in our half of the draw. Not discounting poor performances but I feel like the team will ride the wave all the way.

France, Belgium or Brazil in the other half is a tough one to call. The French finally turned up on Saturday after dragging their way through a group that they should have won a lot more comfortably, and it's hard to judge them from Saturday as Argentina are a mess. Belgium haven't had to hit top gear, much like us, and Brazil have been pretty pedestrian by their standards. I hope Brazil go out to Belgium as Neymar really gets on my nerves and I'd like to see him cry again (but not because he scored against Costa Rica, this time...), and then I don't care who we play in the final between France and Belgium. We'd be starting as underdogs no matter who it is, and hopefully Kane will be on 13 goals for the tournament by then...

Interesting stat I saw earlier, that Neymar had scored 6 goals from 38 shots at World Cups, obliterating Messi and Ronaldo who took around twice as many efforts to notch 6 World Cup goals. They were basically saying it like it's amazing that he got to 6 so much quicker than the other two.
By my reckoning, Harry Kane is already on 5 WC goals and has had 4 shots. GOAT.
(And of course not forgetting Just Fontaine who scored 13 goals in just 6 WC matches and presumably had less than 38 shots)
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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Japan! Unlucky. Great spirit.
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Shade
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Well, Colombia were dangerous but not quite in the way I expected. The penno monkey is off our backs! (until the next time, as I'm sure we thought the same in '96)
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Also the ITV Curse has been broken.
asl
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The stupid thing is, if Colombia had spent the first 70 mins playing football instead of simply engaging in spoiling tactics, we may not even have got as far as ET, let alone penalties. Deserved what they got.
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Shade
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Red Duke wrote:Also the ITV Curse has been broken.
Glad I'm not the only one that thought that!
Still much rather watch it on BBC though as Tyldsley is the worst commentator in football, but somehow has the top job.
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Shade
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asl wrote:The stupid thing is, if Colombia had spent the first 70 mins playing football instead of simply engaging in spoiling tactics, we may not even have got as far as ET, let alone penalties. Deserved what they got.
Thank they engaged in those dirty tactics because we were all over them, really. They started, when, about midway through the first half when they'd barely had a touch. Even though they came back into it in the last 15 minutes, they still never troubled our goal until the 92nd minute when Pickford tipped that long range speculative effort around the post, and the goal followed. Then our players looked tired and down and they were up for it at the start of Extra Time. We came back in the second period, though.
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Nesty
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asl wrote:The stupid thing is, if Colombia had spent the first 70 mins playing football instead of simply engaging in spoiling tactics, we may not even have got as far as ET, let alone penalties. Deserved what they got.
spot on.
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Shade
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What are we expecting tomorrow then? A routine 2-0 victory? Nothing so simple as that, I'm sure... Maybe a good old fashioned terrible performance and a 1-0 defeat.

Could go all the way to pens again, the way Sweden can defend and the way we have struggled to break down teams like that. Whatever happens, it should be a much cleaner game than Tuesday.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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So far Sweden have:

Finished above Holland in qualifying
Beat Italy in the playoffs
Topped their group knocking Germany out

No mugs.

Another extra time affair I reckon.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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RegencyCheltenhamSpa wrote:Winner of tomorrow’s game will face Croatia in the semis.
And so it transpires.
ctfc-fan
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I think we’ll get to the final and that’ll be too far for us. Hope to be proved wrong but France and Belgium have been very good.
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Shade
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France and Belgium are definitely picking up form and peaking, but maybe we are too. I agree and think that we won't win it. I'm still not convinced we'll beat Croatia but they have been struggling since walking through what looked like a tough group so it's definitely a possibility. Trying to not to think about anything other than the next game, but...

Not sure who I'd rather we face in the final (or the third place play-off) if we get there...I don't think it matters much. There are cons and pros for both. France would probably just be preferred but then that would mean they've beaten Belgium, so it's swings and roundabouts. We'll have the underdog tag whoever it is.

Just thank whatever higher power you may believe in for allowing us to even contemplate it for the first time this century. Just hope it doesn't all end in tears on Wednesday night.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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The other three sides all play Premier League style football. Much more suited to our boys. We can have any of them.
kora
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Considering England were meant to struggle to get out of their group, they've exceeded all expectations by a loooooong way. Even if Croatia beat them decisively, and I don't believe they will, they've silenced the doubters and set themselves up, especially the younger players, to be potential winners of big tournaments for the next decade and with continuing good management, for far longer than that.
RegencyCheltenhamSpa
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Who on earth thought we’d struggle to get out of the group??
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Shade
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Silenced the doubters, maybe, but it won't shut the foreigners up. All I see on social media is Johnny Foreigner or Salty Scot slagging England off in one way or another. I hope we win just to shove it down their throats but even then they'll still say it was the weakest world cup ever, or some c!#p like that. Also, their inability to understand British humour regarding the whole "it's coming home" shows that we'd win the world cup for sense of humour easily.
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