I’d agree until you brought Scotland’s abject failure into it, two group games at home and still no qualification at what is it now, 8 tournaments? Bog awful and outdone by every other home nation.
Printable View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_BAqsuYC1I
it's a catchy tune :)
:hilarious If Scotland lost in the same circumstances I'd think I was dreaming.
I think it's you who is consoling yourself with this version of events. England did very well. They've got a great squad and will get better. Might not win the World Cup but the way things are shaping up we won't even qualify for it.
Something that struck me in the Kasper Schmeichel “has it ever come home” interview is he said “we are a country of 5.5 million”.
Why are Denmark so good and Scotland comparatively so bad? Same population, but Denmark are regulars in Competitions. We get to one every 23 years.
J
Starts from grass routes.
We make the kids play on huge pitches and instil in them the fact that they must win at all cost.
The kids who have grown the quickest always look better in this scenario so get more opportunities.
This then falls to pieces when the other kids catch up. We have loaded our youth system with players who grew quickly, but can't really play football very well. And in turn have lost a huge amount of players who were late developers.
We also have to get over this do anything to win at youth level. Youth football should have very little to do with winning, it should be about learning a well rounded skill set.
Invariably, there will be people here who think we should be building a "winning mentality", usually bringing up their own example of winning at youth level doing them no harm. Or that young players might not want to play if they don't win things.
Yet successful countries can see that this isn't true and isn't important.
And sadly, this is how the folk who run our game think. "Winning is the most important thing!" Might not be explicitly said by the coaches, but is endemic in the way kids are trained. And in turn, Scotland struggle to compete with countries who have seen past this.
I feel sorry for the guys who missed the pens. For heavens sake, how could you not?
They are earning millions and yet................
I think it's something more simple than that.
In our day you couldn't wait for school to finish to get out in the park with a football for a 10 HT 21 the winner game, and there were at least 2 before you were shouted in for tea.
Nowadays kids are more likely to be seen sauntering out of school head buried in a phone straight home to raid the fridge and up into their bedrooms for a game of football with their mates on the internet.
Of course not, it's been the same argument used since the national teams quality dropped: kids are too busy watching tv/playing computer games/on the internet/on their phones.
It's blaming kids for the arguments outlined in a previous post about athleticism, size and winning coming before education and quality.
No offense, but this is what is holding the country back. Not you obviously, but those in power are happy to fall back on arguments like this.
As someone else has said, do phones not exist in Denmark? How about in Wales? And in Ireland, who both have done much better than us over the decades.
All countries in Europe will face similar problems. Scotland needs to step up and deal with them.
(Again, this is not an attack on you, but the powers that be)
And yet if you look at our qualication record it's not just the last 23 years where we've failed. We didn't qualify for a World Cup between 1958 and 1974 and failed to qualify for the Euros between 1968 and 1992. The 60s in particular were a decade which featured some of Scotland's most lauded players yet we were never at a major championship. Mobiles/video games certainly didn't exist then so how do we explain that? Those five consecutive World Cups between 1974 and 1990 almost look like a curious anomaly when set against our overall record.
Definitely a contributing factor, but I’ll counter saying don’t English kids do likewise? (I know my son does).
That said he plays at weekends and trains during the week. Same with rugby, so I’m not knocking him personally. I played a lot more informal football than him (out in the park with my mates). He plays much more structured sport than me, playing rugby and football at a club since he was 5. I didn’t join a rugby club until I was about 15.
Wonder what a Croat or Danish 12 year old does when they get home from school?
J
TBF didn’t those early Euros contain 4 teams? Hardly the spectacle of sport we have now. Two semis and a Final.
Euro 92 only had 8 teams! A miracle we got to that. That said there weren’t the multitude of Ex Soviet or Yugoslav or Czechoslovakian countries then.
That’s another point worth thinking about. There’s just more countries to slip up against. (Not that that bothers Croatia and Czech Republic, mind).
J
Your link isn't working for me.
Like I already said, I saw a post on facebook which had a series of videos of trouble. It included one that other posters have already mentioned where **** batter fans leaving the stadium (including the one of a big fat bassa walloping a wee laddie).
Having just done a google search, there has obviously been a fair bit of purging of said clips, as there is SFA. However, I'm sure you'll find them if you're keen.
This one?
https://youtu.be/nqhJTzi1Tqo
https://youtu.be/nqhJTzi1Tqo
This is English fans attacking people trying to break into the stadium, yet widely advertised as being English fans attacking Italian fans.
I've honestly not seen anything else.
Not to say it hasn't happened, but have seen plenty things claiming the wrong thing.
I’ve only seen the bald (they are always bald) bassa in the checked Aquascutum shirt handing out slaps like he’s in charge of security and his name is Brian Clough.
I’m sure he’ll be getting a chap at the door fairly soon.
Not his business to get involved. That’s the job of security staff. And certainly not sucker punching some teenager and kicking them in the head while they are down on the floor.
I genuinely believe they were miffed that they spurted out 2 grand for a ticket and these scallywags were getting in for free. (In reality the “payment” was a kick from some 50 year old who should grow the F up).
J
Re Scotland and Denmark, I read this piece a few weeks back. It's quite interesting, I agree with most of it but find the conclusion slightly bizarre. I don't love the Glasgow media myself and I definitely think they have a role to play, but I'm not sure the lion's share of the blame lie with them.
From the POV of a Denmark-based Aberdeen fan.
https://thedandydons.com/what-does-d...otball-doesnt/
Team of the Tournament:
Donnarumma
Walker
Bonucci
Maguire
Spinazzola
Hojbjerg
Jorgino
Pedri
Chiesa
Lakaku
Sterling
As selected by the UEFA team of technical observers
The Guardian had it very similar, put in Shaw for Spinnazola, Chiellini for Macguire, Phillips for Hojberg and Schick for Lukaku. I was surprised to see Kyle Walker being a consensus, i thought there were more influential players than him, Dumfries for one. But opinions are like ********s of course.