Am I seeing things or did England win a penalty shootout?

And into the Euro U21 Final too. What's that all abaht?

We always win against Spain and Sweden, It's the other 205 teams we have trouble with with shootouts.

BanTheOther205Teams!

204.


Wales don't count.

I'm sure we'd manage to stuff it up against your mob as well...

How the fudge did they let a 3 goal lead go though?

They are coached by a Sith Erfrican?

Worse - Stuart Pearce. A guy whose wife had to point out to him - having picked his first side for Notts Forest and showed her, with a proud "that looks strong, doesn't it?" - that he'd selected 12 players and no goalkeeper.

I've no idea how England made the final as they spend the majority of their games hoofing the ball away and allowing the opposition to dominate possession.

That won't prevent Sky labelling it the 'golden generation' should they win...

I sincerely hope that the next person who insults Stuart Pearce in this thread dies.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:I sincerely hope that the next person who insults Stuart Pearce in this thread dies.

Indeed.

He's pretty much the only English manager around at the moment that you can see as a genuine (successful) England manager in the future. The man is a winner. And thankfully he must be learning a shitload from Cappello, someone who I imagine fits his management style perfectly.

Edit: As an aside, he is the best England left back of all time, BAR NONE.

*cough* Mick Mills *cough*

JKLever wrote:*cough* Mick Mills *cough*

Oh please, mentioning im the same sentence is sacrilege.

Nothing, has come close to seeing Stuart Pearce greet the fans every Saturday at the city ground and then watching the opposition cower in fear whenever he was running with the ball up the left wing or putting in a rock hard tackle.

Incidentally augustus, are you too young to remember Pearce or did you grow up watching him as I did?

Stuart Pearce scored the first goal I ever saw at The City Ground - a swirling free-kick from near the byline to equalise against Middlesbrough. This must have been in the 96/97 season. I also saw his first game as manager where we beat Arsenal with Haaland scoring twice and Ian Wright getting sent off. Great match - my first Forest win.

JKLever wrote:That won't prevent Sky labelling it the 'golden generation' should they win...

It's a bit of an artificial thing really the U21's, as players at the upper end of that age group (which actually seems to be about 23 for some reason) will usually already be in the senior side by that stage if they are going to be world class. There's players in there with more U21 caps than they are ever likely to get for the full England side, that's if they ever get a full cap at all - I mean, the likes of James Milner and Steven Taylor are virtually the same age as Rooney who's got 50 full England caps!

I guess there's some in there who will play a part for England in the coming years and for them it's great experience, particularly if they actually manage to win a tournament. But expecting this team to be lining up in the World Cup final in 2014, I don't think even Sky's publicity machine could make that sound realistic!

I think there are some decent players in this side; Hart, Milner, Richards, Agbonlahor. Quite a few players do have senior caps it's just that Pearce wanted to take them along. It does say a lot when a Tottenham reserve player is getting a game though - what the hell?

To be honest, the reason why other nations end up being much better is because they improve the most in the next four years. They start playing 40 matches a season somewhere, and being taught about how to play football. In England they'll probably end up playing 12 matches on loan at some hoof-ball merchant who drives the technical ability out of them until they're Kevin Davies.

vilkrang wrote:We always win against Spain and Sweden, It's the other 205 teams we have trouble with with shootouts.

Given Spain's record in major tournaments, they'd be a dream draw for anyone, surely.

Zat wrote:

vilkrang wrote:We always win against Spain and Sweden, It's the other 205 teams we have trouble with with shootouts.

Given Spain's record in major tournaments, they'd be a dream draw for anyone, surely.

They have a better record than us in penalty shoot outs. And they've just gotten rid of the chokers tag by winning Euro 2008.

I still fancy them to choke at the world cup though.

If they can throw it away against the Yanks in the Confederations Cup it's not a great sign for the big one next year... technically they are probably the best side but have never won a World Cup.

No European team has ever won the World Cup outside Europe of course, which means it's either Brazil, Argentina or a real outsider who will be lifting it in a year's time.

This time,more than any other time, this time....

Chivalry Augustus wrote:I think there are some decent players in this side; Hart, Milner, Richards, Agbonlahor. Quite a few players do have senior caps

No Walcott?