Euro 2016!

Engand to lose in the quarter-finals.

Group E looks pretty mental, Belgium, Italy and Zlatan will be tough opposition.

France, Germany, and Spain have to be clear favourites (and I only include France because while they will have a decent side, they also have the home advantage), with Belgium and Italy not far off the pace.

I wonder how many times we'll get to press this button.

A kind of weak top 10 Euro goals (but I'm too lazy to search for more - please add).

Inglan is a bitch vs Cymru has the potential for mass off-field carnage & got tickets sorted woo-hoo, nevermind the terrist threat, apologies in advance to the citizens of France if this erupts as badly as feared, plus both Irish teams.... ooooph

ironically, the Anglo-Saxons are due a bit of luck penalty-wise, might raise your Inglan quarter to a semi-final

some quality teams overall, just hope its a feast of goals not some nightmarish Paris-style intervention

(and if the gods could please keep Bale & Ramsey fit n healthy so at least we're competitive, ta)

go wales and iceland!

Jeez I just realized this almost completely overlaps with the Copa America Centenario. I'll probably watch more of that, but fuck there's no such thing as too much fut[e]bol.

Yeah I think the Copa America is gonna be balls to the wall madness.

Bring back Ryan Giggs for Wales I say.

i am making a public service announcement: i, against my better judgment, will be supporting England, the country of my mother's birth, in this summer's Euro Tournament.

Also that there's usually 5 spurs players on the pitch

Rather than diss your Mum (as Mums are gold),

think we've got a good chance against the Saxon hordes, prob blow it in the other games, but if you start with Rooney over either Kane or Vardy i'd fancy it even more.

Rooney gives the ball away in international tournament football and we're a respectable possession football side now. Come on a long way since Gary Speed's death and no-one ever predicted that.

1st time in a long time we've got a good chance of upsetting the odds.

And, cos its Inglan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGdQvqbIexk

Rooney will play in the midfield, probably at the top of a diamond.

The friendly against Turkey showed how limited Vardy is as a striker. We somehow need to find a way to fuse his pace with Kane's football brains and tekkers. I'd like to see a Kane and Sturridge partnership as the top choice.

My opinion of England has gone down after the friendly, Walker makes me shit bricks as a fullback. Yes he's good going forward but fucking awful reading of the game defensively. Clyne is better defensively, not as explosive going forward, but I'll take that. Rose was pretty solid. Stones will give the ball away at a crucial time. We'll probably start with Smalling/Cahill - not bad as far as CB pairings go.

Dier and Alli were good in the middle of the park, but I'd say Alli is odds on to get red carded in the group stages. If I were any of the opposing managers, definitely be telling my lads to fuck with him.

Raheem Sterling I feel is the most overrated England player since Theo Walcott.

Probably get rid of Drinkwater, either Henderson or Townsend, and Rashford (very good, but too raw - he'll be solid for the world cup).

Clyne and Bertrand are the best English fullbacks at the moment, should be starting ahead of the two Spurs lads.

Sterling isn't overrated, he's progressing nicely for a player his age (seen lots of criticism of his past season, which is nonsense), and as a youth player did a lot more than Walcott did at that level. Walcott at the end of the day relied too much on his pace, far more to Sterling's game than that. He needs to improve on his finishing, but you rarely see players his age reach double figures anyway.

No way Henderson is being dropped, he's England's best central midfielder right now.

Not that interested in this tournament to be honest, Ireland bore me to tears these days.

get rid of drinky

  On 5/24/2016 at 3:00 PM, caze said:

Clyne and Bertrand are the best English fullbacks at the moment, should be starting ahead of the two Spurs lads.

 

Sterling isn't overrated, he's progressing nicely for a player his age (seen lots of criticism of his past season, which is nonsense), and as a youth player did a lot more than Walcott did at that level. Walcott at the end of the day relied too much on his pace, far more to Sterling's game than that. He needs to improve on his finishing, but you rarely see players his age reach double figures anyway.

 

No way Henderson is being dropped, he's England's best central midfielder right now.

 

 

Not that interested in this tournament to be honest, Ireland bore me to tears these days.

Clyne better defensively than Walker, but not going forward. Need to fuse those two as well. Rose is better than Bertrand, no ifs ands or buts.

Sterling is vastly overrated - and I never said anything about Sterling's pace. The end product I'm talking about with him is not goals (he's not a striker, so why would you) rather the pass at the end of one his "mazey runs". It's all flair with no purpose. He just doesn't have much football intelligence - a failing in much of England's youth to be fair.

LOL: Town of Lens to ban alcohol in city centre for 24 hours around England-Wales match

  On 5/24/2016 at 6:04 PM, chenGOD said:

Clyne better defensively than Walker, but not going forward. Need to fuse those two as well. Rose is better than Bertrand, no ifs ands or buts.

 

Sterling is vastly overrated - and I never said anything about Sterling's pace. The end product I'm talking about with him is not goals (he's not a striker, so why would you) rather the pass at the end of one his "mazey runs". It's all flair with no purpose. He just doesn't have much football intelligence - a failing in much of England's youth to be fair.

Rose and Bertrand are at a pretty similar level, look at their stats, very similar both attack wise and defensively (Rose's were a little better than I thought they'd be, he's better in a few defensive areas, Bertrand better in others, but quite similar overall). Bertrand is a little more solid on the ball for me and has better delivery, so he edges it, but it's not a massive difference.

I never said you said anything about pace, you compared Sterling to Walcott, so I brought up pace, which was an important quality for Walcott, but less so for Sterling because he has far more to his game (and he's got bags of pace too). He's got plenty of purpose to his game, I've been watching him since he was in the youth teams at Liverpool (and he got 7 assists a few seasons ago). He did well this season in a largely dysfunctional City attack. Definitely worth what City paid for him, will go down as the best English winger since Barnes.

The only comparison with Walcott is that they're both overrated.

You couldn't even begin to count the number of times Sterling just ran into a clusterfuck this last season alone.

If he's even half as good as Barnes, it'll be a decent result.

  On 5/24/2016 at 9:17 PM, chenGOD said:

The only comparison with Walcott is that they're both overrated.

Nope.

England squad announced

I guess this means Rooney will be playing as a CAM for the most part.

Don't think Rashford will get much game time, assuming Sturridge is fit - which he must be if he's been picked to go.

German side announced as well. No fancy pictures.

http://www.dfb.de/die-mannschaft/team/

Looks like a 4-5-1 from them most of the time, possibly a diamond.

What a tasty looking bunch of mittelfeld spielers.

Guardian has an interactive bit on all the teams.

Very well done.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2016/jun/01/euro-2016-the-complete-guide-to-every-squad-and-every-player-in-france

Go Holland!

  On 6/1/2016 at 3:47 PM, Djeroek said:

Go Holland!

Enthusiasm for the 2018 World Cup!

if they manage to qualify for that one..

Roy Keane with Eire has potential for some forthright opinions

honestly p hilarious that northern ireland managed to qualify and scotland didnt

if they werent so drenched in Linfield/Glentoran Orange scum, as the land of me Ma i'd get behind them

as long as Cymru dont go down 3 or 4 nil to the Anglo Saxon hordes & IS stay away, a feast of summer footy is always quality

Can't wait for England v Wales game, split loyalties in my family will make it fun plus a rowdy expat pub down the road to make the perfect venue

I'm expecting an all Eire final.