Euro 2020 General Discussion

[Magrat Garlick]

probably foreigners who (allegedly) threw a black guy into the Thames too

 

[wpdavid]

Southgate bottled it again tbf. Their ire should be at him for selecting a 19 year old who's never taken a senior level penalty. As the 5th taker as well ffs.

It was a very odd choice. Almost a case of over-thinking it maybe? Surely Grealish, Sterling or even Shaw would have been better bets.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I didn’t realise at the time that Saka has never taken a penalty for any team he’s ever played for.

 

[sledger]

Still so mad he was made to take one, so dumb

 

[duffer]

It was a very odd choice. Almost a case of over-thinking it maybe? Surely Grealish, Sterling or even Shaw would have been better bets.

None of them wanted it so they sent the young lads to the front line.

 

[Shri]

has it come home yet

 

[wpdavid]

probably foreigners who (allegedly) threw a black guy into the Thames too

Admittedly this owes something to my impeccable liberal sensitivities, but I found the atmosphere in London pretty toxic in the hours before the match, so I can only imagine what it was like after we lost.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

It has been a tremoundously fun tournament and has reinvigorated my interest in watching football.

****ing hate penalty shoot outs though, especially in the final. Always feels like a cheap and unsatisfactory result to me at the end of a month long tournament. Not sure there’s any other better way though.

when I was younger, I used to love penalties. Usually wanted every game to go to the penalties. Not so anymore

 

[sledger]

Admittedly this owes something to my impeccable liberal sensitivities, but I found the atmosphere in London pretty toxic in the hours before the match, so I can only imagine what it was like after we lost.

Looks like a bombsite on the news

 

[GIMH]

Still so mad he was made to take one, so dumb

Nobody is made to take one though are they. He would have chosen to step up.

 

[sledger]

Nobody is made to take one though are they. He would have chosen to step up.

Southgate said he made the decision about who would take them.

 

[JOJOXI]

It was a very odd choice. Almost a case of over-thinking it maybe? Surely Grealish, Sterling or even Shaw would have been better bets.

I'd be interested if they put themselves forward if they both did and he picked Saka over them that is an iffy call at best but if Saka volunteers and the other 2 don't then I think I back Southgate in having Saka take a penalty although would have probably had Sancho take the 5th pen. If none volunteer then I definitely think Sterling/Grealish should've been given the responsibility but if Saka's pens looked far better in training at least give him a middle penalty perhaps.

There was a crushing sense of inevitability about that, yeah.

Doesn't excuse or mitigate the ****ishness one iota though.

Jonathan Liew pointed out a few days ago that, of our starting line up for the semi, only 3 of the 11 players aren't actually qualified to play for another country.

The racist nobends might want to think on that for a while.

Don't you know that mentioning a footballers non-English ancestry is race-baiting these days - at least that's what a section of Twitter seemed to think in a tweet along similar lines before the final - unfortunately the nationality and race of the players will be a completely fine topic to talk about now - like others including Lukaku and Benzema have said Belgian/French and in this case English when you win, in this case Black first and foremost now you've lost - no doubt some of the same people who'd be shouting race-baiting if any mention to Saka's race was mentioned had he scored the winning penalty.

 

[Spark]

Admittedly this owes something to my impeccable liberal sensitivities, but I found the atmosphere in London pretty toxic in the hours before the match, so I can only imagine what it was like after we lost.

If we're strictly talking about social media though then it's pretty plausible. Some of the most absolutely toxic types in football twitter - already a deeply toxic place - are definitely non-local fans, often obvious teenagers, who have built quixotic "support" of a single team or player into an entire online identity and, lacking any real connection to the actual place in question, feel free to say the most vile **** in the name of being edgy and "out there". Unfortunately I doubt these people are even that bothered by the backlash to their behaviour absent real consequences, they're basically trolls.

 

[GIMH]

Southgate said he made the decision about who would take them.

Yeah but he’d have not named Saka if he wasn’t willing. He will take the responsibility for it because he’s a good leader.

 

[sledger]

Yeah but he’d have not named Saka if he wasn’t willing. He will take the responsibility for it because he’s a good leader.

What teenage rookie in any profession is going to turn around and say to their boss "nah I'm not following your instructions, sorry", though? Not many who fancy staying in favour I imagine.

And good leader or no, it was a crap call.

 

[GIMH]

Anyway, I woke up absolutely gutted. Football hasn’t kicked me in the balls like that since May 2017 I would say. But when the smoke clears and the dust settles, this will be a tournament I’ll look back on fondly. Very few poor matches, plenty of great ones and the memories of getting to the final can’t be taken away. It wasn’t to be and that’s football. The best team won, there is no shame in that, I just hope these last two tournaments are a platform now and not a fleeting bit of happiness in a sea of failure

 

[sledger]

Yeah I'll miss it now it's over.

 

[GIMH]

What teenage rookie in any profession is going to turn around and say to their boss "nah I'm not following your instructions, sorry", though? Not many who fancy staying in favour I imagine.

And good leader or no, it was a crap call.

I agree he shouldn’t have taken it but there’s absolutely no way it went down how you describe. He will have known who did and didn’t fancy taking one of the first five, well in advance of any knockout game, and then decided accordingly.

 

[Teja.]

Admittedly this owes something to my impeccable liberal sensitivities, but I found the atmosphere in London pretty toxic in the hours before the match, so I can only imagine what it was like after we lost.

I'm definitely avoiding any online news/media regarding the 3 players for a while. Don't want to subject myself to thinly veiled racist takes like 'maybe he would have scored the penalty if he wasn't busy partying, getting tattoos and buying houses' etc

 

[sledger]

I agree he shouldn’t have taken it but there’s absolutely no way it went down how you describe. He will have known who did and didn’t fancy taking one of the first five, well in advance of any knockout game, and then decided accordingly.

Haha that is how I'm describing it though. And as above, this was an unfair and poor shout.