Kitchandro

It doesn’t matter if their currency is ‘a bag of crap’. The idea that a right-wing government couldn’t or wouldn’t ever try to tip the balance with FIFA is absurd. If something has political value they will find a way. We can’t even rule out that they’ve approached specific referees, though more unlikely. Stuff like this has been done since the dawn of time, it annoys me that people still dismiss it. And Argentina themselves have previous for it. Also this is a distinct possibility.

I may have misheard, I thought he said he saw no foul on the keeper so assumed the foul was for the challenge on the defender.

Funny Darren ‘no favouritism, butter wouldn’t melt’ Cann doesn’t want to commit to an opinion! ‘

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm2g9g3v5gmo That’s Darren Cann under some suspicion then. It’s absolutely impossible for him to say if referees get approached by FIFA, what secret meetings happen etc. Impossible. It’s possible he’s just naive and one of the innocent ones, but protesting this much makes it sound like he’s lying. In the world of Darren Cann lawyers care about justice, politicians care about the public, everyone is honest all of the time and all referees are in it for the love of the game. I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again, the odds of football being the only industry in the world free of corruption are astronomical. He can’t seriously think we are this stupid?

Part of me thinks if you’re gonna lose at least it’s entertaining so I’m not mad, but realistically if you lose from 4-0 up it’s P45 time no matter the context.

If he’s willing to throw Tuchel under the bus we should promote him (next season).

Arise Sir Thomas. And you lot didn’t want to watch this.

So annoying to see people try to rewrite history, Jason on BBC saying France ‘blew away’ Croatia in the 2018 final when anyone who watched it knows they got two dodgy goals and then scored twice on the break in a match Croatia dominated. Also Keown saying it’s ‘14 years of dominance’ when they’ve only won one trophy. What is this coverage we have to put up with now?

Tuchel has said today that he doesn’t regret his decisions, so he’s already admitting that he refuses to learn from his mistakes. The reason he was hired was because the expectations were already that England win the World Cup. For me he has been a failure as there will never be a better chance to reach a World Cup final. Should not even get the chance to manage them against France, for me.

It can be both the manager and the players’ fault. We’ve seen that with Leicester. There is definitely a poor mentality in English football culture that has outlived any single player or coach. A lack of character, desire and togetherness. But there’s no defending Tuchel last night. If Kane and Bellingham or whoever were dropping too deep he should have hauled them off and brought on players with strict instructions to press Argentina at the half way line.

The disallowed Campbell goals in our Euro 2004 and France exits were a disgrace. Those were the unlucky ones, maybe the 2 semi-final exits to the Germans cos we kept hitting the post and played quite well. Even with some questionable refereeing we weren’t unlucky against France in 2022, we conceded a sloppy goal and Kane skied his penalty. Again, mentality.

It means something to smaller teams. Croatia were well happy to finish 3rd at France 98 for example. It’s a tradition, and the World Cup matters only because of tradition. The World Cup is supposed to be fun even when you don’t really care about the result. That’s the point of it. That’s why people still talk about Zaire 50 years later, or enjoy Cape Verde doing well or care that Colombia went through that one time because they had a nice kit and a keeper with a silly hairdo. No idea why so many so called football fans are moaning about an extra football match. I mean who cares if the players get injured, they don’t play for Leicester and I don’t care about them. Sure England fans would prefer to be in the final, but they weren’t good enough so they need to suck it up. Lighten up and have a barbecue with your mates with it on in the background.

I don’t agree with it, it’s bad form. But it does highlight how patriotic they are. It’s an advantage in international football. Look at how Croatia punch above their weight as well. How the Germans always had that winning culture through different generations. The Italians too at one point. Brazil are ashamed to score less than 3 goals in a match. All these countries go through bad eras where they don’t produce players but when they do, the players realise the importance of playing for their specific country and becoming immortal. John Stones was asked about the match and he’s just reeling off generic statements with no emotion. You can bet the Argentine players acknowledged the importance of the match in their interviews. That they grew up watching clips of Maradona, that they appreciate the rivalry, etc. They knew this was about pride and glory. English people aren’t patriotic and I get the feeling the World Cup is no different to the Champions League for the players. They want to win trophies, of course they do, but they don’t see the England shirt as this glorious thing that they are proud of and will treat like life and death. It’s so easy for Argentines to mix politics and sport because it’s the same thing to them. England would like to win, and have the potential to, but the determination isn’t on the same level. Some might disagree but mentality plays a huge part and over the years I’ve noticed England players feeling pressure and dread but rarely talking about the great England World Cup games they watched growing up or something like that. They aren’t even football fans in the traditional sense.

I bloody love this fixture as an appetiser to the final. The Germany 3-2 Uruguay, Turkey 3-2 South Korea, Brazil capitulating again against the Dutch. Not sure why everyone is in such a mood about it.

The Argentina players must have known the almighty abuse they would have got for losing to England. England fans are currently on the radio saying how grateful we should be to be here. Sound familiar?