The best game yet in euro 2000.
ricococo.

The two goal lead was flattering to England, and we were then systematically picked appart by a superior Portugese side.
England played a lot like Keegan's Newcastle - no problems attacking, but horrible defensively.
Entertaining match though - and what a goal by Figo!

SACK KEEGAN SACK KEEGAN SACK KEEGAN SACK KEEGAN

why don't you admit the midfield can't play and Owen and Shearer were poor. Keegan has nothing to do with that save for his selection policy. As much as Scholes scores, he does nothing else. England needs a midfielder with poise and Cole upfront. One day you'll admit it. A team comprising players of three clubs and they play like strangers. I say go for broke, play Beckham and Wise in the centre and drop Shearer. Its too late for Cole, so play Owen and Fowler.

What a game, what a game...
Best yet, no doubt.

And I believe it was a fair win.
Portugal played great and with creativity - a word the english team has got to learn if they wanna win the matches..

Figo's goal - already a classic http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

Btw. Scholl's goal against Romania was quite good too..

Oh Kevin Keegan, you w@nker, why oh why? Beckham was our only decent player - his crosses were brilliant! Come to think of it Scholes was good too, I went wild after his first goal! Worst performers, I hate to say were the defence and Shearer. I don't know why we bothered fielding a back line, the way the Portugese got in behind us, and as for Shearer, God, he didn't even get a shot in! He managed to direct a header past the post, and block a great chance for Scholes - Captain my arse. I've no idea why Ince started either, no good in my opinion, would Wise not have been a better choice? In my opinion England need Macca and Wise in the middle, Barmby on the left, and Beckham on the right. Put Fowler and Owen up front - I thought Heskey didn't look good either. Shearer's lost it, throw him out, and play Keown with Adams.
Now we need to beat Germany and Romania to go through - Mission impossible I'd say. For our sake though, I hope I'm wrong...

WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAHH!!!!!!!

HAAAAAAAAAAAA YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

The game was the best, they recovered a 0-2 score, and as that wasn't enough Figo scored a giga game, and João Pinto even better, DIVING!!
Keegan said they were cautious with Figo, but he never thought he could do something like that!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

If only we had these guys with Eusébio and Company in 1966

YYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!

http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Wow, England played really bad. Of course they scored 2 goals, but the rest? Only throwing the ball upfornt won't be enough, Keegan surely didn't set them up right.

And about Beckham - o.k, he can pass and shoot brilliantly. But can he play? I mean can he really create? He is a very good winger, but today he had the best winger in the world against him (who didn't even play at his favourite position), and you saw the difference: Luis Figo, you rule.

He, Bento and Rui Costa form the best midfield in Europe, better than France's. I see Portugall winning some more games, but they must play better defensivley (goal 2 was a scandal, no marking), and although today the had 2 goals scored by forwards, how great could this team be with a top striker?

England - you're out. Draw against Germany and draw or victory against Romania won't be enough I guess.

and remember...

They missed Paolo Sousa and Sa Pinto - two of their best I believe...

But I think England still have good chance beating both Romania and Germany.

Come again England, you play fare more better than the " old mens team" from Germany and Romania, in the group, so i hope you will go the next round.

ricococo.

ricococo, you my friend no nothing about football. I think england will lose every game if they keep playing like that. Maybe u remember WC 98? They got to connect the passes and keep on pressuring. Shearer has got to be replaced. he hardly even touched the ball. GO ROMANIA!!!!!!!!!

Kevin Keegan needs to drop Shearer. He played awfully. Keegan should play Robbie and Kevin. Come to think of it, aside from Macca and Becks, the entire team was awful. Scholes had his moments, and Heskey looked kinda threatening in the first few minutes. But other than that, they allowed Portugal to regain momentum after going up 2-0. They should have gone for the kill and finished Portugal then and there. Instead they gave Figo room. WHO THE HELL GIVES LUIS FIGO ROOM??? Chelsea did and they went home. Valencia shut he and Rivaldo down, and there went Barca. England deserved to lose. You never allow a team to get back into a game after you have scored twice. You kill them then and there.

Schumie ..... Kevin Keegan should not be sacked because his players blew that game. I am sure he did not tell his midfield to back off of Rui Costa and Figo everytime they got the ball. Although taking Owen out insted of Shearer was questionable. And even though I love the Guv'nor, Ince should have been subbed. I heard his name two, maybe three times during the game.

Oh well ..... looks like Shearer has two more games left in an England uniform. The way they played today, even Germany can beat them.

BTW ...... FIGO IS THE MAN!!! HIS GOAL WAS INCREDIBLE!!! NO ONE COULD HAVE STOPPED THAT SHOT!! NOT EVEN THE GREAT DANE!!!

Just my two cents: It was the most shocking/entertaining international game I've seen in more than a year.

Ince was awful, the coaches panel, if you watched every time a player in the middle was on the ball Ince would just back away, and away, I never saw Ince play as bad as he did today.

Scholes was just about the only player to do well, the coaches panel after the game said so too, Gary Neville was severely criticised though for the 3rd goal. btw the goals were awesome, you see goals like that once a year, it feels like we were blessed by soccer gods or something.

To me Nuno Gomes was the man of the match, and that goal disallowed for off-side he scored, well it probably wasn't...

Oh, and that man Abel Xavier is the freakiest dude ever seen playing football...

Of all the players on the field you single out Ince. I want to know who told Scholes he is the crafty playmaker who doesn't have to defend. As for Figo, the guy did nothing else but score the goal, which is enough, but , lets get serious, those teams are awful. Both of them are not any good at all. Everyone knows that Shearer is not the player he was. that Owen has had a poor season, that Ince is washed up(internationally), that Scholes forgot he use to be a solid defending midfielder until Keane does his work for him and lets him win headlines. I said oit a few days ago that Adams is waning(and I am an Arsenal fan). But stil, when everyone knows it they pick these lads. I would have preferred an adventurous selection of three backs, maybe Campbell, Ferdinand, and Woodgate or Southgate. What about a midfield of Lampard, Wise, Beckham, and Mc Manaman. And to crown it off, Cole and Owen. Let Keegan learn his lessons here, England will benefit for it, even if they win the tournament

Heskey? Shearer? Seaman? Ince? and they think they'll win hahahaha that's funny.
1- Heskey..came on for owen ,did nothing but covering the ball for throw ins!!
2-Shearer..he's costing England everything,same as heskey..no effect,no danger,nothing special,complete waste of fowler and phillips talents!
3-Seaman..manages to get a touch on every cross which makes it even more dangerous,very slow reactions,can't command his box anymore,did u see his save of rui costa's shot? he was unble to even dive!
Bring on Martin plzz he should get his chance!!
4-Ince..Rui Costa had an easy game with Ince unable to do his defending role,his place was the gap that Portugal were using to create danger,scholes wasn't helping him McManaman and Phil Neville both had a good game,Shearer should be dropped next game no Question about that,Keown needs a chance too,my god 7 or 8 players from the england squad did awfully!!
England desreved to lose and Portugal deserved the win, Figo is a star player really he's worth anything alongside Rui Costa!!
good luck for both of them next game..thanx fot the really good game!!
Cheers

I'm going to agree with antithesis here, I think a midfield of Lampard, Wise, Beckham and Macca would be England's best hope...unfortunately someone left poor Frank Lampard Jr. at home...grrrreaaat! Ince is out of his league at this point in his career - he was useless, and I agree that someone needs to tell Scholes to come back on defence (nice goal though).
To be honest this is was also the worst England defensive performance I've seen in years. Campbell and Adams weren't on the same wavelength and Seaman looked a little shaky (although he bailed us out with some saves).
I still think England could manage to sneak out of the group - I think they can beat Germany, and hopefully steal a win against Romania.
But what a goal by Figo....oh and apparently Owen was taken off because he picked up an injury - I read it at Skysports.com

Oh yes, and I actually felt sorry for poor Phil Neville - he was victimized time after time on crosses (even by Abel Xavier!) - but to be completely honest, unless they play Campbell as a left back no one else on the England squad would've been able to fill that position and perform well defensively. Too bad Keegan left Ben Thatcher at home....

WhoooHooo!!! Portugal showed they're a more mature team then in 96! Great win!

Who says Portugal can't score???

English Football is going to get worse and worse, because of foreigners!
It is killing English youth and it is not just happening in football, but Cricket too. Rugby will be the last to go though, because England Rugby team are still rated in the top 4 in the world! Can't say much for Cricket or football though.

You said it all Woody_007:

"...Instead they gave Figo room. WHO THE HELL GIVES LUIS FIGO ROOM???..."

How about this for a RADICAL change...gotta go for broke now!

Gk. Martyn
D. Ferdinand
D. Keown
D. Adams
D. Campbell
M. Beckham
M. Wise
M. Barmby
F. Phillips
F. Fowler
F. Heskey

Yes, that's right a 4-3-3. Three strikers!!!
WHY THE HECK NOT? What's to lose at this point...maybe it will liven things up a bit.

This match was incredibly entertaining mostly in the first half, and what a goal by Figo...actually every goal was beautiful. England simply just didn't play the full 90 minutes and that is why they lost...

[This message has been edited by Kevin_SG (edited 06-13-2000).]

Yeah, Figo only scored the goal...

Are you nuts? He and Rui Costa absolutely dominated the offense for Portugal, everytime one of them had the ball, it was crisis for England. You can give these guys the ball and they'll easily defend it for 5-10 secs before making a good pass: if you don't get the meaning of that, I'm sorry.

it's time to stop showing loyalty to shearer because he is no longer good enough for england. why not give phillips a shot. he's been the best english striker this year. owen might be better but as of now phillips is on fire. scholes scored, but i don't think he should be in the lineup

The critics are right. Keagan has made some bad choices. The only good thing I saw Shearer doing was cheering on his mates. Ince was so afraid of Rui Costa that he took absolutely no risks and backed away all the time. Figo turned and twisted Phil Neville like he wasn´t even there. In top football if your opponent stays with the ball on a 2 square meter area for more than 10 seconds without a challenge, you´re just not good enough. As a whole the entire england team lacked courage and spirit. Let´s hope for the UK that this was the traditional bad day for them. I loved seeing Portugal play one of their best games ever, but one thing is unfortunate; now everyone thinks Portugal will just zzzoooommm by Romania and Germany. Be aware! It might not be that easy.....

diablo2000,

England don't need more at attack, they need more defense, although Heskey was awful!

well my friend Fotbalguy, may be i don"t know much about soccer, but Hagi like Shearer is over the hill, okay if he could play like he did i in the UEFFA CUP final in Copenhagen he really would be an asset to Romania. but very often he drops out of the game, and start to shout and complain to his teammates and the ref of the game. and what is about danish refs and Romania, in Euro96 mikkelsen misjuged a clear goal to Romania and yesterday Milton dident see a clear penalty to Romania.
Ricococo.

First I would like to say, HOW SWEET IT IS!!!!!!

Finally Portugal show what they are made of!!

Antithesis: What are you on drugs? Did you even watch the game? "Figo did nothing" Doesn't seem you know anything about football.

I have to say that was a laser from Figo!! WOW!! I'm happy Portugal won, they proved to the world they aren't pushovers. I remember a coupla months back everybody in the media were saying England and Germany were gonna make it to the next round, I hope Portugal And Romania make it.

Figo & Rui Costa are superstars, Joao Pinto just proved to the board of directors of Benfica that they are a bunch of morons, Abel Xavier looking good!!!

I know that simonious_13, but sometimes the best defense is a good offense...and I was saying that more tonge in cheek than seriously. But...really, why not just go hellbent for broke??? Really pull out all the stops. You know, like us Yanks like to say "swing for the fences", "let it all hang out", "take it to the limit"...you get the point.......WHY NOT?

You know Diablo, you make a good point - enough of one for me to brave the chilly waters of this precarious thread on England. (And let's make know bones about it, this thread is all about England and much less about Portugal- or at least how everyone here is a better manager than Kevin Keegan.)

Firstly, I love England. And I want to thank them for begifting us another classic, beautiful tournament match. They did it for us in Euro 96 against Germany, in WC 98 against Argentina and now here in Euro 2000 against Portugal. None of these results went England's way, but in none of these matches was I really dissapointed in the England performance. On the contrary, I would argue that in each of these matches an agressive and inspired England team brought the best out its opponent and helped give us great football.

(BTW, all the pundits on BBC and ITV say if England play their remaing two matches the way they did on Monday they will surely go through. Most everyone here dwell on how piss-poor a performance England had. Doesn't anyone see how wonderful and flawless Portugal's comeback was?)

I will stick my naive neck out even further - I also like all three of England's managers in the above mentioned matches. (Yes, I even like crazy Hoddle. I think Polish was the only one with the guts on this forum to say that his firing was a "screw job," and I agree with him whole-heartedly.) Venebles, Hoddle, and now Keegan have all invigorated and reinvigorated the England squads to provide electricity in all three of these major tournaments. These squads have not had complete success, but have provided tremendous, entertaining football in all three tournies.

I shall close now and let all the superior football minds of this forum ridicule me for the fool I am (I don't really care though. I am a Yank, but practically my whole family lives in Ipswich, and nothing can ruin the promotion buzz I have going right now!)

Regardless, I would take England's Spectacular Fall to Portugal over Norway's result oriented grinder against Spain any day.

Sometimes you really do have to "go for it." Right on Diablo.

Duke

People are saying alot about how bad Heskey was. Was Shearer not even worse? I think Heskey got more of the ball in that short while than Shearer in the whole game.

I wonder will England's only goals come from midfielders? If so, I dont see them going far.

PS. dont go on about the Portugese mids coz they play very attacking mids and 1 striker who did actually score.

Drinky, I couldn't agree more about Seamen. What is he now, 38? That's nearly as old as a certain German defender I could mention... He missed so many crosses, and looked very weak (like Adams). Come on Kev - Martyn is our best goalie - so play him!!!

Let me kick in here with another opinion that is free from the blinders one gets when you are too attached to the particular subject. I am a Texan...no real ties to England, other than when WC 98 came out I loved playing with England because I was dating a girl from London ...man, she was SEXY and HOT...I loved that accent!!!!..she turned me on to many things that I won't mention here, but one was Chelsea... been a fan ever since!!!

Anyway, the way I see it soccer is a simple game...all this talk about tactics, matchups, letf sided, right sided, holding, attacking is all well and good but..., in my admittedly uninformed opinion, ... it complicates this game too much. No knock intended here, but I've never thought of England (whether discussing soccer players, women, politics...etc) as bieng the most creative or artistic. What I have always associated with England...soccer players especially... has been things like "BOLDNESS", "HEART", "FIGHT", that "never give up...balls to the wall...DIE HARD spirit", you know, the three Lions etc. Well, thats why I say...GO FOR BROKE...THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND...like John Daly says...GRIP IT AND RIP IT. I mean, put the 11 players with the most HEART, BOLDNESS...the real FIGHTERS...the guys that would take a bullet to insure the team wins...out on the pitch. Who cares if it results in a 4-3-3 or a 5-3-2 formation. Just put them out there and tell them to raise hell and find a way to win. I bet you anything they will make it happen!!!

I recall years ago when Magic Johnson was a rookie (many, many years ago)...the Lakers were playing the Philedelphia 76ers in the NBA finals and the Laker center Kareem Abdul Jabbar got hurt...the Lakers had nobody else to match up with Moses Malone...the very very big and tough 76er center...so they put Magic...a guard out there at center (thats like putting Kevin Phillips in goal or center back!)...Anyway, Magic stole the show...even as a rookie and way,way overmatched in terms of size and hopelessly out of position. He found a way to score 30 + points that night...shut down Moses Malone and win the NBA title...the guy was a winner, not a whiner. I dont know the English team that well...FIFA games do not have a rating for HEART, BOLDNESS or BALLS (I'm sure if they did it would be inaccurate)...but I'm sure the English team has more than their share of winners like Magic Johnson... Put the 11 most DIE HARD Lions out there...they will get you the result.

res ipsa loquitor

[This message has been edited by diablo2000 (edited 06-14-2000).]

[This message has been edited by diablo2000 (edited 06-14-2000).]

For weeks I've been trying to play down England's chances here in the opening game. Portugal are far and away the best side in the group. People on this forum have been saying how England are almighty etc. and have let their heart rule over their head. However, Fotbalguy is picking at the wrong target by having a go at Kevin Keegan because if he didn't say that he believed England were going to win then he would risk the wrath of the English red-tops.

Changes have to be made. Firstly, please shut up about Andy Cole. He has not produced the goods for England despite being picked by five different England managers - each match he has played, he has failed to live up to the tag that Man Utd fans put on him. He has been reported to have done little to forge relationships inside the squad, and has remained a loner. If Heskey, Owen, Fowler, Shearer and Phillips are close-knit, what is the point in breaking that up for a loner whose communicative skills for his country arenon-existant? His Man Utd goals? At club level, it is quite easy to bond players together as you have months and months to work on it. England have two weeks. If Cole can establish himself in training in September for the World Cup qualifiers, then maybe.

Secondly, drop Seaman. His international career should have been ended after World Cup 98 (or perhaps Euro 96) allowing him to go out on a high. Crosses are starting to trouble him and he looks nowhere near as mobile. Martyn has to be the confident replacement.

Next, weed out Phil and Gary Neville. Lacking in talent and confidence respectively, they epitomise the inability to break with habit, even if it would improve our chances. Gary Neville has looked naive all season and he has lost some of his awareness. Going forward is no problem, but that is not a problem either for England. Gareth Barry, Ben Thatcher, Kieron Dyer or even Steve Gerrard are all players who could fill the left (the first two) or the right (last two) back positions.

Centre backs need sorting. I would be tempted to go for the two younger men, Campbell and Southgate who are more agile, fitter, and would do the job much better than Keown or the injured Adams. Get them training together this week, Kev, forge a partnership, and really tighten it up.

Get rid of Ince from the midfield - he looks past his sell-by date. Steven Gerrard could be the find of the tournament and he deserves this opportunity against Germany. The left sided role will be vacated by McManaman due to injury, so the logical choice is Nicky Barmby. Less attacking than McManaman, yet still able to make the forward runs and crosses, he has hit form bang on time. Scholes and Beckham need no attention.

Up front is now a problem. Owen could well be out of the Germany game through injury. If fit, he should start. Shearer is where the problem lies. He is sluggish, unwilling to chase balls any more, and England desperately need to replace him. Kevin Phillips could be the ace up our sleeve against the Germans, with his tenacity and ability to make something out of nothing. With him, should Owen be unfit, I intend to be controversial and say Fowler. Perhaps its sentimentality, but I just think that his time is now. He should be fit enough to last the game (and he can always be subbed), and his finishing is lethal. Should England be falling behind, Heskey should come off the bench to replace Barmby and provide the pace and create the space. (When will you Heskey-knockers realise that there is more to forward play than being able to stick the ball in the net. Any fool can do that - it is creating that chance in the first place that Heskey excels at).

A team to beat Germany? Certainly - seeing as they were awful against Romania. Quarter finals? Sure... but we won't beat Italy to make the semis.

I reposted this because it seemed to get lost, unread and unloved in the other post http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif
I'm at this moment writing a couple of columns to coincide with the Germany game.

Oh dear.