Spain 1 - England 0

[ken]

So what did people make of the game last night?

 

I thought it was like traveling back 20 years in time, Spain is supposed to be a western European country and their fans acted like a bunch of backward uneducated buffoons. it is bad enough that their manager is allowed to keep his job after his comments about Henry but the behavior of the crowd was shocking, Racism is one of the most ignorant things in the world and I hope that the Spanish are severally punished.

 

Anyway cr*p game wasn’t it

[Merv]

Two things come out of last night. The first, and most important, is the racism shown by the Spanish. The example set by the manager in his recent comments has obviously been taken on-board by the morons who were chanting on the terraces. Seems to me that whenever England fans get a bit naughty anywhere in the world, FIFA come down on us hard. But stabbings, riots and racism in some parts of (what is supposed to be) the civilised world seem to go unpunished. Good luck to the Sports Minister, Richard Caborn who got off the mark early today when he said that he is going to write to his counterpart in Spain. I just hope that FIFA and UEFA will act as quickly.

 

The second point, and one that has understandably been overshadowed in the papers today, is the dreadful performance by England. I can appreciate that the racism dragged them down, but even in the first half, before the chanting got really going, our passing was erratic, our playing off the ball was non-existent and our general approach to the game was pedestrian. I thought the Spanish players pushed the ball around really well and made good use of space.

[pabird]

Spain super 90 minutes of football with one bad kick from their keeper the only glimmer of hope for the superstars of England

 

England!!

Robinson, Gt penalty stop but looked on edge

G.Neville solid character only lacking the skills we all knew he lacks

J.Terry hesitant and did not impress

Ferdinand. rare bad game appeared lost and surprise surprise poor passing

Cole. poor game but understandable

Beckam. Awful passing awful dead ball kicks no signs of leadership

Lampard really tried but no one to play off

Butt. good in a good team but lacks skill levels to change game

Bridge. tried hard but not good enough to get to the dead ball line and put Spain under pressure (ever)

anybody forward of the mid-field wasted their time turning up getting less than zero service

Until

Mr Wright-Phillips came on, tackled,passed got into the last third of the field (attacking) and generally took two Spanish defenders to control him

write the game off!! maybe but drop Beckam, the energy that supplimented his lack of heading,pace or any signs of a left foot has gone and he now plays as if he is special without that early boundless enthusiasm

The Spanish crowd, slimeballs but will FIFA do anything??

 

 

I posted the above on the sport forum earlier

[Canvey_Specky]

I thought it was pretty embarrassing all round really. Poor performance by us, not much better by the ref (the penalty??), terrible behaviour by some of our players (although some of them had every right to be upset!) and the spanish fans should be ashamed. If the booing and jeering was that loud on the telly imagine how bad it must have been in the stadium.

 

What would FIFA/UEFA do if our fans would have behaved like that...........we'd be banned from every tournament for the rest of eternity!!

[ken]

England got off pretty lightly in our game against Turkey when the racism from our fans was awful. not as wide spread as last night but still intolerable