Well, I watched the complete European Championship Cup Final ... and England lost on penalties.
The England team played well, but not quite well enough to beat a very experienced Italian team that has not lost a football match since 2018. I have already read comments about how the team should have done x better, that player y didn't play well enough and let the others down, and that the manager selected the wrong players to play during the match and/or to take the penalties. Frankly, that is just a wonderful example of perfect 20/20 hindsight. The simple truth of the matter is that by watching the match, I must have jinxed it!
This may appear to be a rather flippant remark, but it is just as valid a reason as some of the rubbish I have read on social media this morning ... and don't get me started on the blatant and explicit racist comments I have read from certain sections of the population who have blamed England's loss on its black players! Do me a favour and crawl back under your favourite stone and keep your opinions to yourself! (By writing this, I have probably offended some people who might read my blog. In response, all I can say is ... oh dear!)
As a wargamer, I have probably lost as many – if not more – tabletop battles than my fellow wargamers, and I have always learned more from my defeats than from my victories. I could have blamed the rules, or the dice, or any number of other reasons for my losses, but fundamentally my defeats were down to the decisions that I made at the time and in the circumstances as I saw them. Let us hope that when the initial furore had died down, there will be a rational analysis of what happened during the match, and that the England football team setup will learn from it.
Football didn't come home this time ... but it might do next time!
Well said, I agree with ALL your comments. It is a shame so many are just not rational, especially on social media, the main reason I have never subscribed !!!!! As for you jinxing the outcome, well maybe we both did as I did not expect us to win either !!!! Oh dear !!!! Regards Tony
ReplyDeleteTony Adams (Tony),
DeleteCheers! I was simple gobsmacked by so of the stupid comments I read on social media this morning, and felt compelled to write a comment. I would have loved England to have won, but they didn’t. So be it; there will be victories in the future that will more than make up for this defeat.
All the best,
Bob
When it goes to penalties, you may as well toss a coin to determine the outcome.
ReplyDeleteMartin Rapier,
DeletePerhaps they should throw a couple of D6s!
All the best,
Bob
Well said Bob.
ReplyDeleteAs sadly England lost the game, my assumption is that the better team won, is this the moment international wargaming comes to the fore and replaces football, tennis, cricket and golf as the entertainment of choice on the television.
Probably not but we can dream.
Stay safe and happy gaming,
Willz Harley.
The Tiberian General (Willz Harley),
DeleteCertainly the most experienced team won, and on the day, they played better than England.
As long as the international wargame competition used my PW rules (and I made a fortune!), it would get my vote … but I suspect that it will never come to pass! ;^)
Stay safe and stay well,
Bob
I think we did at least as well as we could have expected. We beat Germany and Croatia, finished higher than France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal. Were mistakes made? Sure. I think it was a mistake to put players on for the penalties who hadn't had a chance to warm up properly with playing time during the game. I consider that to be a major factor in the Rashford attempt - he looked very unsure and lacking in confidence on his attempt. But that happens, and if it had worked, everyone in England happy. As it is, most decisions were spot on over the tournament, so well done manager and team!
ReplyDeleteRob Young,
DeleteI agree with your analysis, and I am sure that the England squad and management will learn from the experience of losing. In some ways, I think that the delay from 2030 to 2021 helped England, and I hope that they will continue to improve by the time of the World Cup.
No one will be ‘beating’ Marcus Rashford up more than he will himself. He dummied the keeper and had an almost open goal to shoot into. He came within a matter of inches of scoring, and probably overthought what he was doing. I suspect that it is a mistake that he will not make again.
All the best,
Bob
We thought Italy were the better team overall on the night, so we didn't feel too bad when we lost on penalties, which are a lottery. At least it was eerily quiet afterwards in our area, other than people driving home from friends etc, so we got to sleep on time!
ReplyDeleteAs for the racist comments, I'm not shocked but saddened and sadly expected this to happen from the stupid minority of fans. As father of mixed race kids, it worries me even more.
Steve J.,
DeleteThere were times during the game when Italy dominated the field, and it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before they equalised. England played well, and were beaten by the better team. In a year’s time, I suspect that if the game we replayed, the result would go the other way.
Racism is such a wasteful and pernicious attitude, and whilst I was a teacher, it was one that I tried to counter whenever I came across it. Genetically, the difference between ‘races’ is minute, and if you unpick the genetic makeup of most people who like to call themselves English, there are very few are actually 100% Anglo-Saxon in origin.
All the best,
Bob
There’s a long line of jinxers Bob. Whether it’s people washing their lucky underpants, not drinking out of their lucky mugs, drinking all the luck out of the lucky mug…..personally I blame my friend who turned up before the match with Italian beer 😆.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the D6 idea. Do we get a plus one for being British?
By the way, I bet giving racist abuse to our players will be the same ones who were saying there is no racism to protest about.
Nundanket,
DeleteMy wife and I went to an Italian restaurant for lunch yesterday, which probably didn’t help matters! (The food and service was excellent, by the way.)
Brits only qualify for a +1 bonus if in line facing a French column.
My experience of dealing with racists is that they do not think of themselves as being racists, but staters of an ‘obvious truth’. You can unpick what they say in detail, and lay out and expose the fallacies behind their thinking … but they almost always remain unconvinced.
All the best,
Bob
I didn't watch the match apart from the penalty shootout but I understand from match reports that England played well for about 10-15 minutes and thereafter Italy played the better football. It is a lottery when you get to penalties.
ReplyDeleteThe better penalty taking team scored more goals than the other team. It is as simple as that. I would query the choice of some of the penalty takers e.g. why choose a young lad with limited international experience to take the vital 5th penalty when there were more experienced perhaps wiser heads available. But then again some of those wiser heads made an absolute mess of their own kicks.
End of story, look forward to the next chance.
Jim Duncan,
DeleteThe Italians certainly dominated quite large chunks of the game, and always looked as if they would at least equalise. On the night, they were the better team,
As long as the England team can learn from their mistakes and improve, then the future looks bright.
All the best,
Bob
PS. Was it possible in Scotland to watch anything but the football on the main TV channels last night? After a month of soccer and two week of tennis, I was becoming desperate to watch something that wasn’t sport or a soap opera!
Over the last couple of weeks I watched a couple of movies and several Youtube videos.
DeleteJim Duncan,
DeleteOver the past months we seem to have exhausted our supply of unlatched series on BBC iPlayer and other catch-up services.
All the best,
Bob
Well said. Sports should be enjoyable, not frustrating or something to blame on another. Something to keep in mind in other types of games, too. If you're angry at the result, play or watch something else.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall that shortly after England won the World Cup in 1966, they were defeated by a Scottish team that hadn't even qualified. If that isn't an example of how random a game can be...
Jennifer,
DeleteI totally agree about sport needing to be an enjoyable experience rather than a matter of life and death … although I know that there are some people who would not agree with this!
In 1967 the Scots beat the England team in a hard fought game, and showed that even the World Cup holders were not invincible. On that day - just like yesterday - the better team won.
All the best,
Bob
Watch this Jennifer.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSfA7xxBM3w
Jim Duncan,
DeleteIt’s well worth watching.
All the best,
Bob
You didn't jinx it Bob! I presume the best team on the night won, given the rules and conditions that applied.
ReplyDeleteAnd after all, it's only a game - it's not like it's a war, or something :)
btw I haven't watched football for decades either - if I started, would they win? Sadly we will never know...
David in Suffolk,
DeleteThe better team won on the night, but despite what some parts of social media might imply, the England team acquitted themselves with great credit.
I think that part of the game’s importance was that it was ‘good news’ at a time when people in England were feeling the effects on their morale of COVID-19. A win might have really given the population a much-needed boost. As it was, it has … but to a lesser extent than it might have done had the team won.
All the best,
Bob
I think football - and perhaps some other sports in which there are international competitions - have become a war substitute insofar as they are now the one area in which it is still acceptable to express nationalistic, jingoistic sentiments. By repeatedly showing film of fans behaving like boorish idiots as if this were itself 'newsworthy' without any criticism, television creates the impression that this sort of behaviour is not only acceptable but is actually expected.
DeleteBBC Breakfast descended to a new low a few days ago when Charlie Stayt thought the first thing he must do when interviewing Chancellor Rishi Sunak was to get him to promise to sing that wretched song about 'football coming home' on his next interview. I'm sure Mr Sunak is (secretly) very grateful England lost!
The ridiculous importance attached to football was for me epitomised when I was teaching a history class about the Christmas Truce in 1914 and mentioned the impromptu football match played in No Man's Land. They all wanted to know who won; when I said some sources suggested the Germans won 3-2 there were howls of dismay. I pointed out that it was far more important that the Allies won in November 1918 (and the replay in 1945)...
I often think Edward III was right to ban football and order that young men should do archery practice after church on Sunday afternoons. And that there was much good sense in Wellington's 'I never encourage these people to cheer...'
Best wishes,
Arthur
Arthur1815 (Arthur),
DeleteIf my memory serves me right, soccer has actually been the catalyst that started a war in 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras, although the underlying causes were economic and political. The war lasted about 100 hours (so slightly less than the coverage of Sunday's game!) and featured much use of old World War II equipment, including CORSAIR and MUSTANG fighters and M3 STUART tanks. The Salvadoreans invaded Honduras, and almost reached the capital before the war ended.
The drunkenness and violence that was shown on TV was condemned by the media ... who had done quite a lot to stoke up the situation beforehand. The example you give of BBC Breakfast presenter's behaviour towards the Chancellor or the Exchequer is exactly the sort of thing that helps to make these so-called 'patriotic' demonstrations of loutishness look right in the minds of the people who take part in them.
The wonderful myth of the Christmas truce in 1914 often gives people the impression that this extended along the whole of the frontline ... but as I understand it, such fraternisation was limited and soon ended once those higher up the chain of command got to hear about it.
Edward III might well have been right to ban football for both military and practical reasons. Trained archers were a useful adjunct to the armoured armies of the time, and football matches had a reputation for being somewhat more violent than the loutishness exhibited by so-called 'fans' on Sunday.
Good old Nosey knew well that a crowd that cheered you when things were going well were just as likely to cheer you as you were being taken to the scaffold! He was a wise general and politician.
All the best,
Bob
I am fortunate to be completely unaffected by the outcome of the match. The only sporting event I car about is one where my college alma mater hockey team plays against our historical rival. Even then, whether the Cardinals win or lose, the outcome is really only a matter of bragging rights for the season.
ReplyDeleteBeing security at an English soccer/football match? THAT was probably a good deal more gnarly than the action on the pitch!
Mr. Pavone,
DeleteThe problem with soccer is the huge amount of money generated by the TV rights to transmit coverage of live matches between leading teams. When it comes to major international competitions, a good performance by an individual player as a member of a national team can pretty well guarantee they will be snapped up by a major team and earn a huge amount of money.
Being part of the match day security team was … interesting. I got hit on the head by a bottle and punched and kicked several times. I once threw the same youngster out of the ground three times during the same match for climbing over the wall to get in without paying. On the fourth occasion he tried to climb in, a police officer was standing next to me and arrested him.
All the best,
Bob
Good comments Bob...being along (30plus years ) exiled Scot, my genetic ambivalence to England has worn off and I would not have minded if Your team won...although I don't think the same could be said for most Kwis, who seem to harbour quite an intense dislike if almost any English sports team! As soon as the Italians equalised, I said to a work colleague (it was about eight am Monday here) it will end one all after extra time and the Italians will win on penalties! At least the anticipated after match rioting did not seem to eventuate in any great degree!
ReplyDeleteRross,
DeleteYour comment about most New Zealanders disliking English sports teams was a bit of a surprise to me as I’ve watched international rugby matches in mixed (i.e. Brits and Kiwis together) and never experienced that.
An Italian equaliser seemed to be inevitable, and you are right, once that happened, a penalty shootout was always likely to go Italy’s way.
All the best,
Bob