World Cup: Group G: Tunisia vs. England, 6/18/2018

[PanniniClaus]

So much negativity around England. Tough place.

 

[Hadoop]

Enjoyed the exuberance of this young England squad.

 

[cgf]

Best player they've had in a generation. Maybe two.

Sounds about right for England

 

[Siamese Dream]

100% yes, they do.

The other thing is, a lot of English people don't really like the England NT to begin with. The NT routinely gets players injured and makes them play through meaningless qualifiers against teams like Lithuania.

I don't really find this to be the case to be honest, maybe I just never come across any absolute die hard fans of their clubs who might feel that way, but in my experience the vast majority of the population seem to go nuts for England during big tournaments

Last night's match was the most viewed thing on TV this year, beating out the wedding of Prince Harry, and it's only going to go up as the tournament goes on

 

[Incubajerks]

An England player last scored twice at a World Cup 28 years ago. Best player they've had in a generation. Maybe two.

If they have never won anything in their history there will be a reason, right?

 

[Havre]

He's not better than Ferdinand, Scholes, Shearer, Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Ashley Cole, or Beckham.

He can go win something or play in a big final first. Those players all did. Then we'll talk. International football is low standard football and everyone who watches these games should know it.

Some of those players were the single major reason their teams won finals. Harry Kane has never lifted a single team trophy in his entire life.

This “win something” argument is generally weak and especially so in this case. Some seem to forget football is a team game. Let’s have a look at the players you mentioned.

Ferdinand, Scholes and Beckham played together (partly as Beckham left - but Kane would of course win trophies without being a better player playing for RM and PSG). Those are only the English players and if you start including the top class foreign players they also played with you will quickly see Kane hasn’t got teammates remotely close to the same quality. Eriksen might have gotten in to some of these teams. Some of the other players could have been part players of those teams (like last seasons Vertonghen etc.), but none of them would have played any significant part. And the mentioned Vertonghen has never been consistent enough through his career to have been more than a squad player on average for Utd in those days.

The same is true for all the others with maybe he exception of Shearer.

Kane is at times so underrated it is ridiculous. On Redcafe there are now posters arguing Lukaku is the better player. Now - if he is better than the players mentioned I don’t know. Obviously he is not the most dominant player there is. If he loses that edge in and around the box he will quickly be forgotten (still a good player, but not special
as he is now). By the same token if he keeps scoring 20+ goals in the league every year he might at least be universally considered better than Lukaku when he turns 30.

 

[Evilo]

Michael Owen?

 

[koyvoo]

I’d say of that whole English “golden generation”, Ashley Cole is the one who put in the most quality and consistent performances for the NT.

 

[Shrimper]

Utter scenes in the pub I was in

 

[spintheblackcircle]

"'We wish we had Kane!'"

 

[cgf]

lol Bild gunna Bild...they are just the worst whenever they're doing anything other than serving as Bayern's media team.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

While Bild isnt exactly a great source of journalism..I don't think it's a stretch to say that Kane would be a cert to start for Germany up front.

 

[cgf]

While Bild isnt exactly a great source of journalism..I don't think it's a stretch to say that Kane would be a cert to start for Germany up front.

What would that have changed about the mexico match? Other than that he wouldn't have caught up to those through balls that Werner almost turned into the opener in the first 7 minutes?

Kane is not a midfielder.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

What would that have changed about the mexico match? Other than that he wouldn't have caught up to those through balls that Werner almost turned into the opener in the first 7 minutes?

Kane is not a midfielder.

He may have scored on one of those many balls into the box in the 2nd half. Who knows? Just in general, Kane seems to be a level above anyone we have at striker.

 

[cgf]

He may have scored on one of those many balls into the box in the 2nd half. Who knows? Just in general, Kane seems to be a level above anyone we have at striker.

I think Werner was on Kane's level last season, and was again until his concussion this year. They're different style 9s, but Werner's been lethal for both club & country, despite bottling a couple chances in his first WC match

But that's really missing the bigger issues that cost us the opener

 

[Ceremony]

cgf is putting in some shift this tournament. I'm almost at the point where I'd want England to beat Germany just to see his reaction. Almost.

 

[Stray Wasp]

An England player last scored twice at a World Cup 28 years ago. Best player they've had in a generation. Maybe two.

I rate Kane very highly, and given the beginning he's had I wouldn't be surprised if he went on to win the Golden Boot.

But, while it's plain fact he's achieved something no English striker had managed at a World Cup since 1990, I wouldn't want to make too big a deal of that. After all, two years ago I wouldn't have said that Vardy and Sturridge were better strikers than Kane because they scored during Euro 2016 and he didn't.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Do people really refuse to cheer for players on the national team if they play for their rivals? Seems short sighted

Cheering on, say, John Terry or Dennis Wise for a month just because they happen to be playing for the country I was born in would seem a good definition of short-sighted to me.

This England team offends me less than most, but I still chuckled when the mackem was beaten by the penalty. And if Jordan Pickford knew of my opinion, I very much doubt he'd care.

England isn't short on cheerleaders. Midfielders who can pass the ball properly, on the other hand...

 

[cgf]

cgf is putting in some shift this tournament. I'm almost at the point where I'd want England to beat Germany just to see his reaction. Almost.

I've made my feelings about Werner v Kane known many times prior to this tourney

 

[cgf]

Cheering on, say, John Terry or Dennis Wise for a month just because they happen to be playing for the country I was born in would seem a good definition of short-sighted to me.

This England team offends me less than most, but I still chuckled when the mackem was beaten by the penalty. And if Jordan Pickford knew of my opinion, I very much doubt he'd care.

England isn't short on cheerleaders. Midfielders who can pass the ball properly, on the other hand...

Too many of my childhood heroes of the 90s, early 2000s german teams were POS in hindsight for me to be able to take such a respectable position without being just the worst hypocrite

 

[Stray Wasp]

Too many of my childhood heroes of the 90s, early 2000s german teams were POS in hindsight for me to be able to take such a respectable position without being just the worst hypocrite

Even if it were hypocrisy to pick and choose which players exercise me on a whim, I'd be unrepentant about drawing the line at Terry and Wise.