I see the England "fans" are doing us proud again.

With their witty anti IS chants and fighting with the police. Class lads class!

Makes a change from “No surrender to the IRA”. 🙂 But, yeah, not great scenes. I don’t imagine that’s the last we’ll see of it either. 😐

On the bright side, it’ll be nice and quiet at Gisburn for a couple of weeks.

I saw the videos of them chanting ‘You’re s**t but your birds are fit’ at the swedes. Not seen anything else yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36496823

such a gentlemans game

Tradition?

Wouldn’t expect anything less. Scumbags being scumbags.

TBH, if you want to kick off with the locals in France, I’d seriously recommend not doing it in Marseilles; the city whose major asked for the French Army to come and help stop the gang warfare in the city. She reckoned given the weaponry in use, only an Army could compete on an equal footing.

The local thugs settle scores with AK-47s, not with the Marquis of Queensbury’s rules.

perchypanther – Member
On the bright side, it’ll be nice and quiet at Gisburn for a couple of weeks.

😆

One of the many reasons why I no longer follow the sport..

Sad, really because the level of skill & athleticism in the game is sometimes quite simply out of this World!

“us” ??

English fans gonna English. Soccer fans gonna soccer.

mrlebowski

Sad, really because the level of skill & athleticism in the game is sometimes quite simply out of this World!

Um. Okay.

“us”??

them. 😉

We’ll be begging the EU to let us stay in.
The quality of idiot we ship out to them every summer is simply outstanding.
“Dear French police do what the **** you like with them.”

Could we opt out of the EU and close the borders before they start coming back?

Um. Okay.

Why don’t you have a go & then let us know how easy it was/how long it’ll be before you get the cast off your broken ankle…

Well they certainly aren’t doing it in my name..
I can’t bear football.

Lets hope the local gangsters, swiftly followed by the French security services keep them in order.
(by ‘keep them in order’ in mean batter them, but don’t want to offend the hand-wringers on here)

same scene in lots of UK towns this evening.
not news though

I thought the only fans kicking off would be in the sweepstake thread 🙁

To be honest, you add any amount of people + booze, and you’ll get a few idiots kicking off.

Lets hope the local gangsters, swiftly followed by the French security services keep them in order.
(by ‘keep them in order’ in mean batter them, but don’t want to offend the hand-wringers on here)

Why would anyone wring their hands over your incitement of violence? Wish bloody vengeance with pride!

Um. Okay.

How pissed would you be if someone said UFC fighters were just brawlers, and there is no skill?

Tank Abbot not included 😉

Several threads on and no one’s wished male rape upon them?

What’s French for “Bubba’s bitch?”

Sallop deBubba

mrlebowski
Um. Okay.

Why don’t you have a go & then let us know how easy it was/how long it’ll be before you get the cast off your broken ankle…

If that’s your idea of “skill and athleticism that’s out of this world” then you my rainbow flick would have blown your mind.

Hosting an England game in Marseille was very stupid indeed. Whoever thought of that should be sacked.
It is a lovely town but it was obvious there would be trouble.

If that’s your idea of “skill and athleticism that’s out of this world” then you my rainbow flick would have blown your mind.

Can you do it?

Have you ever tried?

I imagine not..

Enlighten the viewers with your perception of skill & athleticism…

edit: what is a “rainbow flick” dear heart? You’ve lost me..

To be fair every country has it’s hooligans but the English press only want to report English fan behaviour.

Just look at the troubles in the Greek, Turkish and Italian game.

We haven’t cornered the market at all.

Turkey

Greece

Italy

Enlighten the viewers with your perception of skill & athleticism…

Have you tried playing a game of even semi-competitive football? If you had you would know why that statement is very true.

We haven’t cornered the market at all.

Too true – in some cases what English fans get up to is really quite mild to what other countries fans manage to get away with..

Have you tried playing a game of even semi-competitive football? If you had you would know why that statement is very true.

Yes.

It was bloody hard, I got by being far fitter than anyone else but skill? Nah, I had none of that.

mrlebowski

Can you do it?

Yes.

Have you ever tried?

I imagine not..

Yes. I played soccer from no age, well into my 20s. I imagine I am not special in this regard.

Enlighten the viewers with your perception of skill & athleticism…

Oh, I dunno…probably something like this

edit: what is a “rainbow flick” dear heart? You’ve lost me..

I used to call it an Ardilles flick (just to give an indication of my age, that’s where I learned it) but that’s what the kids call it now, so I believe.

Oh, I dunno…probably something like this

I’ll give you that.

You must concede though, that the timing of a tackle or the controlling of a ball when your HR is going through the roof & it’s the 91st minute takes a degree of skill & athleticism thats worthy of admiration.

You can say no by all means & we” just have to agree to disagree?

mrlebowski – Member

Oh, I dunno…probably something like this

I’ll give you that.

You must concede though, that the timing of a tackle or the controlling of a ball when your HR is going through the roof & it’s the 91st minute takes a degree of skill & athleticism thats worthy of admiration.

You can say no by all means & we” just have to agree to disagree?

I just think that footballers are paid much more, and receive far more plaudits relative to their skill and athleticism than athletes in other sports.

I just think that footballers are paid much more, and receive far more plaudits relative to their skill and athleticism than athletes in other sports.

No argument here I can assure you!

Surely that’s down to Sky & BT throwing loadsamoney at the game, nothing else. I’m sure if said broadcasters threw as much money at, say cricket, then cricketers would also fall into that argument

I just think that footballers are paid much more, and receive far more plaudits relative to their skill and athleticism than athletes in other sports.

That isn’t the fault of the footballers though. And to get to where they have done will have taken considerable effort when they were kids. I am seeing it first hand right now with a good friend’s lad – he is on the books of a feeder club at the age of 9 and after his first season he has just been bumped up a level but already the pressure is pretty hard – he wanted to give up earlier this year as he felt he wasn’t good enough and already his spare time is pretty filled with football-related activities.

I feel really proud of him though – I told my mate several years ago that he had a real skill and he should be encouraged 🙂

Modern footballers:
Athleticism – yes, much more than most give them credit for.
Skill – sometimes – generally not that impressive compared to other sports
Professionalism – terrible

I actually quite enjoyed football until my mid 20’s when I actively began coaching in racket sports. When you spend hours a week watching athletes perform, seeing what they do well, what mistakes they make etc, then you go and watch football, what you see is horrific.

Give me footage of every goal scored in the premiership last season, and i’ll bet you I could demonstrate in 90% of them it came down to a basic defensive error that would be taught at under 14’s level.
Frankly, the number of basic errors footballers make, they would be a million miles from professionals in nearly any other sport.

I once played 5-a-side with some mates…one of them brought a ringer with him – well, not really, but someone who fancied a kick-a-bout. A semi-pro from some non-league outfit a few degrees away from the football league. Not a young guy by any stretch. To be honest, him and a keeper would have wiped the floor with the rest of us put together. I don’t think any of us realise the skill levels that players in the upper-league possess…even the defenders who don’t do much other than block.

Give me footage of every goal scored in the premiership last season, and i’ll bet you I could demonstrate in 90% of them it came down to a basic defensive error that would be taught at under 14’s level.

You’re a pound-shop Alan Hansen and I want my over-inflated prize. Frankly, that’s bollocks. Enjoy it. Don’t enjoy it. But don’t be making stuff up now.

😆 at DD

deadlydarcy – Member
Frankly, that’s bollocks. Enjoy it. Don’t enjoy it. But don’t be making stuff up now.

Football fanboi detected.
Seriously, go download 100 games, watch the goals, but watch the defensive play with a coaches hat on. 90% fails, 10% genuinely good goals.
Come back next week and tell us how you got on – and if you have ripped up your season ticket.

I once played 5-a-side with some mates…one of them brought a ringer with him – well, not really, but someone who fancied a kick-a-bout. A semi-pro from some non-league outfit a few degrees away from the football league. Not a young guy by any stretch. To be honest, him and a keeper would have wiped the floor with the rest of us put together. I don’t think any of us realise the skill levels that players in the upper-league possess…even the defenders who don’t do much other than block.

Similar experience here.

I thought “hmmm he’s a lot better than you but can he run?” (I was pretty fit at this time & fancied myself as bit of a box to box player.)… Oh F yes was the answer…..finished that game feeling very chastened…..& on the losing side I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear!

Give me footage of every goal scored in the premiership last season, and i’ll bet you I could demonstrate in 90% of them it came down to a basic defensive error that would be taught at under 14’s level.

Isn’t this stating the obvious? The beauty (IMO) of the truly skilled player is their ability to force opponents in to making mistakes or their ability to anticipate what that opponent is about to do (you could argue that the obviousness of some passes/moves are also a type of basic error).

As you teach racket sports, you must also understand the importance of this in those sports too? i.e. How many points are won in tennis by capitalising on a poor choice of shot or simply from an unforced error by the opponent? Probably not 90% (not sure it’s really 90% in Football either), but hugely important nonetheless.