Now though, Southend have won 28 points from a possible 30 (my brother chose the one game they failed to win to watch in person... sucker!) and, apparently as suggested by both readers of the Guardian and also experts at the Metro, Southend look like genine title contenders - but can they stop moneybags Crawley? Having said that though, unless the whole stadium soap opera is sorted, I can't see Championship football returning to my hometown any time soon. Fossetts Farm shuld have opened several years ago... instead, it's not even a construction site yet.
The other teams I follow to some degree or another are Bath City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City, Chelmsford City, Ipswich Town, and AFC Wimbledon. Ipswich in particular hold a special place in my heart after the events that occurred in the days following the loss of Sir Bobby Robson - but that's another story.
Por favor...!
ad:
considering they had a full-strength team and we were missing gerrard, terry, ferdinand, wilshere, cleverley, young, rooney....
england somehow actually managed to beat spain so i was chuffed!
and i think ramos should have gone off. if not for a red for that two footed lunge, for another yellow when he bodychecked walcott, to go with the one for the lunge
funny game...
hock:If you press the shift key when typing you can get uppercase letters
If you press the shift key when typing you can get uppercase letters
Indeed, England got a goal from a set piece but didn't really threaten Spain in open play. In the closing stages of the match England had to defend wave after wave of Spanish attack and were lucky that Fabregas didn't score. You may get away with this in one match at a major competition but you are not likely to get away with it for the three or four knockout matches that you need to get through in a major competition.
Yes but it relies on you getting that chance and even Greece didn't get win in 90 minutes on all three matches as one ended up going to extra time. Greece had to play France, the Czech Republic and Portugal. As I remember it Euro 2004 was quite open with no teams expected to dominate at the start. This isn't the case these days with the likes of Spain, the Netherlands and Germany a level above the others.
When you get into the knockout stage you can no longer get away with a draw. If England just defend for 120 minutes and don't get a lucky goal from a set piece then it will go to penalties and we all know how that usually ends.
I'm not sure about that. In 2006 Italy went all out for attack in extra time against Germany as they knew what the result would most likely have been had it gone to penalties. If England in 2010 had just played for a draw against Germany then I expect they would have still been knocked out by Germany on penalties. It would be a good idea to go for the goal than risk penalties, at least there is a chance of scoring and wining the match. As I say we all know how an England match that goes to penalties usually ends.
Correct, it was actually two goals that Spain had disallowed. It didn't get England very far though as they got knocked out in the next round by Germany on penalties. In this match Germany had what would have been a golden goal in extra time disallowed. In the penalty shootout both teams scored all of their five penalties but then it went to sudden death. Southgate took the first sudden death penalty and it was saved by Köpke. Möller then scored the winning penalty to send England out.
