tfw england goes undefeated in qualifying but bombs out in the first round of knock outs :cool: calling it now.

That would be an improvement for us.

We haven't won a knockout game since Ecuador in '06. Last time we beat a top team (Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay) in knockout format was '96 (technically that one doesn't count as the match goes down a draw if it goes to ET & pens) or the '66 final (ET).

I don't think we've ever beat a top team in 90 minutes in a knockout.

i just think they'll go undefeated in the qualifying because they have an incredibly easy group. i was just seeing facebook comments about how great they've been playing, but the reality is they're facing weak competition. once it hits the knockouts it'll be business as usual.

I don't get why we have been so bad. It's not like we haven't had world class players over the years.

imo it's the same thing with every single group of players that come up through the system. "we finally have the right group of prospects that will bring us to glory" blah blah blah. the players always look great at the youth level but whether it be because of media hype or personal decisions (lol ravel morrison) very few players end up living up to the hype.

i remember reading an article (cant find it atm, still looking) about the top england prospects from 2010 or so and it mentioned where they are now. i think they covered 20-25 of them and there were maybe 3 or 4 who could actually be considered great players. i think it's just a matter of fans being upset and tired of losing (rightfully so), the english press being absolutely nuts, and the players lacking the mental toughness and support to survive and live up to the potential.

of course you've all been watching football longer than i have and actually live there so you would probably know better than i.

with that being said there are a ton of great young english players at the moment that i can only help will help turn things around in the future but you just don't know.

Yeah I've seen that article, had a few Arsenal players in it at the time.

We wasted 04-06, we wouldn't have won the World Cup but that European championship should have been ours. World class players all over the pitch and we actually played good attacking football. Great squad.

im not sure how the future will look tbh because there are a lot of teams that will only get better meaning more competition and requiring a better squad to stay relevant at the national level. i think there are a lot of great African nations that will become much more competitive in the future. Egypt, Nigeria, and Cameroon to name a few. there also seems to be a lot of fairly highly regarded nations starting to struggle, Netherlands and US come to mind first.

They are strange. They are either world class or below average, doesn't seem to be an in between. But this current slump is going on for too long, they are going to struggle to make the WC now. Automatic is clearly gone - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_F...3_UEFA_Group_A

Actually, no, I didn't: my sarcasm detector is in the shop.
:)

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