THE BRITISH THREAD II

By the way: every time, England plays versus Italy in a competition, Germany wins the tournament

Don't you have an octopus or something that decides those sorts of things?

Several animals by now after the octopus died.

But it doesn't work since England now aberrantly has a team with a goalie.

Wow, I was expecting a long ball/ pressing kind of game. This has been surprisingly exciting, actually.

In the 30 minute extra time, Italy just missed.

Sh't! I'd preferred that we played against England. (But Italy really was the better team.)

Well at least we went out on a high note. A lot better than the World Cup.

Italy was the better team for almost the entire match.

You think we don't know that? That why I said we went out on a high, we took them to penalties.

People don't seem to understand that we are not really into international football. The Premier League is where the money is. Our players are used to being urged on by up to 70,000 fans. There were 6000 at the match.

Have you any idea how many games some of our top players have been in for 9 months. They are exhausted.

How much money were they on for these games?

Black Caviar got up at Royal Ascot spendi but jockey Nolan ought to be sacked after that performance!

Unless you won the thing, then you'd be turning cartwheels.

Yeah right! Spendi is so full of it....I actually would have preferred a England vs. Germany match too, but it doesn't really matter who we beat, does it?

Spendi isn't full of it. Everytime we get knocked out of an international competition there is the debate about domestic football. Our player do play more matches than other leagues, and there's talk of introducing a winter break, and restricting the amount of foreign players.

I can't see it happening though, for the reasons Spendi suggested. Boxing Day football is a real tradition.

We did go into this with low expectations. Of course I would have been happy had we won, but I'm a realist. Taking the Italians to penalties is an achievement in itself.

I've been away, but I was unfortunately able to see this match in my hotel room.
England were as bad as they had been in the group games.
But I admire the Italian ability to commit mayhem when defending corner kicks without troubling the referee in the least.

I backed Germany at the start Cal. 11 to 4. They are more or less playing at home.

I thought Frau Merkel was very witty at the game with Greece. She flew a long way to get to the venue. She seemed to symbolise how the financial negotiations with the Greek government were going.

My prediction was 0-0 after extra time and England to win the shoot out. So I got 8-1 to half the money. We chose the wrong man for the 3rd penalty. Experience is required most. The pressure is very great.

On the Rangers situation, from The Scotsman blog.
Just in case you thought Rangers were only a football club.


Is there something deeper going on here with the Scottish People. ..................Thinking back most decent minded Scots have been appalled at the behaviour, antics, criminal, drunken, quasi political and religiously prejudiced baggage attached to Rangers FC over the years. ........................Sadly while obviously not the majority of their fans were guilty of that behaviour the numbers were such that there appeared no possibility of stamping it out. .............................It was after all the conduct and stated philosophies of the Club that attracted these types from all over Scotland, hanging onto their coat tails wherever they went in order to disperse their poisonous hatred and abusive behaviour. ..............Unfortunately even many of the decent Rangers fans while visiting the designated towns of their victims refused to "walk a mile in the other man's shoes" If they had they would have understood the reaction to Rangers plight from the general population. .............There is not a town visited by this Club that couldn't recount stories of hordes of malevolent, swearing drunken louts, using their weight of numbers to bully and intimidate anyone caught in their path. Their shoplifting, public urinating, verbal abuse of anyone "not in their gang" is something every place they have visited, has fallen victim to. ..............I remember as a boy growing up in Methil, asking my Mum why she wanted Rangers or Celtic to win at Bayview. ..................She told me it was safer for everyone if they did. I never understood at the time but as I grew up I caught on fast................Now it seems to me all these incidents, all these memories, all the bruises, damaged property, and being made to feel a victim in our own town on these Saturday afternoons have flooded back to us. ...............Our frustrations that our Chairmen, Boards of Directors and police forces seemed unable or unwilling to prevent us all being intimidated in our own stadia have resurfaced....................Effectively Rangers grew so powerful in their own country their lust for more power caused them to implode. Their own greed avarice and determination to use any means to transfer their fans intimidation of their counterparts into their team's intimidation on the field, ate away the very fabric of their institution, aided by an already sycophantic and equally corrupt media, unable but more likely unwilling to question the validity or merit of any of it. ............So as I see what we have witnessed over the last few weeks is an administration of a long overdue punishment by the people of Scotland who have suffered decades of humiliation at the hands of this Club. Unrestrained by the law, the media, Government or even the Football Authorities these victims have grasped their opportunity to meat out their own long overdue punishment, as they see it to Rangers. ...............call it vindictive (many Rangers fans do) call it justice (the majority of the people do) or call it fate but look at it this way. ...................................In a domestic situation on your street, is there a single decent Rangers fan out there, given the opportunity to finally get their own back on a vile and bullying neighbour would count themselves a man if they had not taken the same opportunity? ...................Rangers are as much paying the price for their fan's behaviour as they are for their past owners debatably criminal behaviour. Hopefully it is not the idiots who have posted all manner of threats and boasts about when "Rangers" come back who will be leading the way for the fans of the new club but people who realise that this game of football is a SPORT to be watched and enjoyed in the spirit of fair competition and camaraderie with opposition fans. ............A realisation that they represent the reputation of their Club when they visit other fans towns, willing to show friendliness and a desire to leave a good impression wherever they go. .............I don't expect many " Rangers" fans to agree with most of the above but if that is the case then fine, I'm sure the "they don't like us, we don't care" attitude will serve them in the same way some time in the future and if it does, if no lessons have been learned, people like Sandy Jardine are still representing your attitudes, don't complain when it brings you down again in the future, as it most certainly will. ..................................The Scottish Football Fans have realised how standing together and wielding their undoubted power will overcome even the most ingrained and corrupt areas of our game..............and they liked how it felt.

I keep checking this thread. No Smorgs. Leave.

I suppose that is a pathetic attempt to belittle the rest of us.

I didn't know things were as bad as that Mac.