So England made it to the soccer Super Bowl?

OMG the 1-1 and will this open the match? We've seen seemingly effortless top defense from the English for 50 mins but now they have to work for it again.

 

4 yellow cards for the Italians lol. Some blunt actions happening here into extended time. Here's Grealish and the English fans lose their shit as usual.

 

And once again it's penalty shootout time. It is what it is. Anything can happen.

 

Is there gonna be meltdowns?

 

Welcome to how Cleveland sports fans always feel.

 

And it's Italy for the win. Sad it had to go this way. England put on a majestic display. It wasn't to be. Congrats to an unconventionally exciting Italian team!

 

Ultimately, no complaints from this England fan. We scored too early (as the saying goes) and, though we were comfortable in the first half, didn't try to attack enough so just tried to sit back and defend during the second half. Once the equaliser goes on (possible handball from the near post flick-on from the corner?), it is difficult to change your mindset and start to attack. In addition to this, a few of our better players looked worn out and the players who came off the bench didn't do as well as the Italian substitutes (three of the English subs missed their penalties!).

Overall, I think the Italians looked the best team in earlier stages of the tournament and they had enough experience and ability to see it out in the final itself. Southgate very cautious as usual (7 defensive players in the starting line-up!), but it didn't work out well enough this time.

On a less positive note, no doubt there will be drunken morons causing chaos throughout England tonight and the Covid numbers in a week or so will be something terrible to behold.

 

Our fans, or at least a significant minority of them, have brought shame on this country throughout this tournament and tonight is no different with the storming of Wembley and god knows what else before the night is out. I feel sorry for the team who put on an great showing and really only missed out by the slimmest of margins, but as a country, I do think we needed this lesson in humility right now.

 

penalties are the bane of england

 

It did come home, but then took a long hard look at the crowd at Wembley and booked a flight to Rome.

 

England's demons persist

Cheers

 

I'd be all sarcastic about losing but then I found out that reports of domestic violence go up 30% when we lose.

It only goes up 20% when we win.

 

Didnt watch the game, went to sleep when it was 1-1 but from what I read (and the stats) the better team won.
Though IMO this is footballs strength and weakness compared to some other sports, theres a lot of luck and the better team often doesnt win, eg rugby last week nz vs tonga score 102 - 0 (16 - 0 in football terms) this never really happens in football 7-0 is like an absolute thrashing.
This can lead the game to be boring as it makes the teams play defensively but on the positive this can lead to more upsets, eg in the world cup from a few years ago, there was only one undefeated team NZ, and they are absolutely shit at football but managed to do what the winners (spain) could not do and not lose a game.

not sure how to fix this, maybe 2 nets? the current one is 7.32m wide
have one 5m wide in the middle goal is worth 3 points, 15m wide around it goal is worth 1 point. the seperator is a cord/net not a post like the outside, so its less likely to bounce off
Has something like this been trailed?

if you're 2-0 up which in normal game, often then just protect the lead, but here you sort of still have to attack cause you can still lose within a second

in basketball they introduced the 3 point rule, changed the game for the better

 

I only watched the first half, and for that half at least I thought England played quite well - a lot better than I've seen them play for a long, long time. A couple of half-chances to extend the lead that Italy defended against well.

I can't say I'm surprised by the outcome though based on England's history.

At least we don't have to put with the endless clatter in the media, parades, etc. we'd've had if England had won, and the bloody singing has stopped so that's a positive thing.

 

England has a very young team, so bodes well.
They sat back in second half so was only a matter of time until Italy scored.
England getting to final is miracle in itself.

 

I'd hope so.

So long as they don't get dog-piled for losing by the media and, oh I don't know, maybe a whole pile of racist abuse?

 

Who'd have thought that 'fans' who wanted to boo their team before a game for an act intended to promote anti-racism would end up sending racist abuse after a defeat? It's almost as though there should be some other name for anti- anti-racism.

 

This particular championship final is the only one in history where it's largely tolerated to insult the losing team and all their compatriots.

 

I'm afraid that ship has sailed. And to think only a few months ago our government commissioned an "independent" report which concluded we're not a racist country.

 

It is actually worse:
World Cup football is a risk factor for domestic violence | Lancaster University
11% on a win
26% on a draw.
38% on a loss.

Confirming my point about soccer fans once again.