Holmes_and_Watson

England were the better side after the game's opening minutes. But, despite lots of attacking options, Russo looked isolated in the middle. The deliveries were mostly from Hemp into a lone attacker. James was a little deeper, and wider and did have a decent effort saved. Bronze got in an overlap, but England didn't get bodies in the box to capitalise on it. Toone has been pretty much nullified by Italy. They shut her support out almost completely. This gave Walsh a bit of early space, but that became less as the half went on. The result of England not putting pressure on the Italian defence was that the pace of the game slowed. That suited Italy, who started to pass forward well. Their goal came from a combination of good skill, down their right. But England had chances to clear it, as the ball came across, bounced off Bronze, before being controlled well, and blasted home. England responded immediately, but briefly. The end of the half saw more Italy possession in England's third. The second half may well see Italy naturally drop back. England will have to commit more players into the box, which they should have been doing anyway. But Italy have a very experienced front line. You can see them positioning to take advantage, with balls behind the defence. Girelli, as usual, is leading their line really well.

It's those caring touches that will be why SOG said the hostages were safer with Hamas.

SOG being singled out for his extreme comparisons, even by AI. Now revised to...

And BBD to complete The Spine of Victory 🙂

Good points Gio. It's a mixed bag for me. We get a versatile, at least or at most depending on your mileage, Championship player. He's not currently first choice, so should we have been more ruthless? There was a while where we were desperate to get in a centre half. Since then, we've had a succession of more talented, and far less useful players, than Jack. For example Salisu, ABK, DCC etc. SR might have found talent. But we ended up with a fractured, relegated dressing room of want aways when we first went down. I think the club have looked at that and wanted someone, who can play a part but is a club oriented attitude setter, in the dressing room. As you say Gio, you know exactly what you're getting with Jack. We've had Walcott back, and Adam is still there to sell tourist maps of Liverpool. Jack will be an influence in the dressing room. Jack being a leader isn't a vast compliment in a squad that should have been staging a multiny at being sent out to get beat every week. Successive seasons of making our players system drones, continues to bite. Had we a squad of very motivated players, perhaps this wouldn't be necessary. But we clearly don't. We've no idea how many players SR will look to shift this summer, or those that want away. For me, Jack's behind Bedders and THB. We'll need to see how he competes against Quarshie and Edwards and then Wood, Taylor and Sanda. Jack can fill in elsewhere too, although there's plenty of faces there as well. But we'll have to wait until the end of the window, to see where he sits in the pecking order. The more inexperienced the players we have left, the more influence he will have. It seems a bit odd to have this one sewn up, while we have so many. But I get the feeling the club will be moving through some players in this, and windows to come. SR seem determined to continue with paying as low an individual wage as possible. I'm sure the contract suits both. We're still looking at up and coming players or players with something to prove. SR look to pay around top Championship wages for PL talented players. The goal being to make a profit, rather than build determinedly towards something like Europe. Recruitment hasn't been good enough to see how they would invest repeated profits. They set themselves up for a fall, by failing to reinforce key positions. Jack is a decent Championship player, there to teach the others in the dressing room, while getting some minutes. As you say Gio, there's nothing stopping him wanting a move on the future or going out on loan. Although, this deal seems to suit both parties. Is it the move of a club driven to succeed at a higher level? No, it's not. But then SR want to succeed through player trading. And that shapes their expectations and planning.

The big Plymouth/ Southampton question involving Jack is, would he associate the Mayflower with Plymouth or, like you, thinks it should be on the Southampton badge. 🙂

I wouldn't insult our cat, by lowering him to the level of humans. 🙂

Stake

Willow

Yup. A team like that. In a lower division. I don't want to get carried away. But they might get more than the 12 points most of them amassed last season. 🙂

That. And also SOG never being able to separate the Israeli government from Jewish people in his attacks, believing in a hierarchy of racism where he said it's only anti semitism when you mention the holocaust, saying that the hostages were safer with Hamas than with the IDF and trying to score points when civilians were killed on a safe route. We also have a thread where his views went right past the extremes of Palestinian supporters in this country, past Palestinian activists and past Palestinian politicians who apologised for saying things SOG agreed with. That's just off the top of my head, and they aren't things I'm trying to remember. A "poor me" or a post completely ignoring points people have been saying to him for years, should have the context of his history here.

As a nation, they feel they've underachieved for 15 years, and pen shootouts haven't gone their way Euros 2013:Lost pen shootout to Denmark World Cup 2015: Lost pen shootout to Germany World Cup 2023: Lost pen shootout to Australia That last one is the key one here. That was under the current manager, and they had drilled for penalties in training. It took 20 pens for Australia to win 7-6. Note that going in to this tournament, Bonadei has emphasised his refusal to do the same things to get the same results. That applied not only to dropping some experience, but to his approach to penalties. "We worked a lot on (penalties) before the 2023 World Cup in a specific way, and this time, I preferred not to overload them with this too much, because we don't know how it happens," Bonadei told reporters. "Last night, we saw players who were really under pressure. And, yes, you can actually put them under pressure during the training, but it's not the same as during the game. When it's the game, when they are tired, when there's a pressure of the audience, maybe it can be completely different. "The players do it in an individual way with their own pace at the end of every session, sometimes they try two, three, four, or five penalties, but it's very difficult to recreate the context of the game." It might not replicate game pressure, but repeatedly putting pens right in the bottom or top corner, does make you better at doing it when you need to.

There weren't many corners. But Renard never needed many to cause chaos. Malard was as close to a target as their thinking got, and she didn't disrupt their defence. It was odd to hear that because they felt they over practiced penalties before, they didn't insist on practicing this time. It was left to individual choice after training.

It would still be antisemitic.

Coat

Always harsh to go out on penalties, but Germany fought really hard to get to that. Berger's water bottle got shown again. ITV said they'd "analysed it." And the information on it, proved accurate enough. Not the sort of thing to show, if it can get communicated to a bench. Presumably, it didn't make it onto the big screen. If it did, and France stuck to it, then silly them. Germany had worked so hard, that their subs struggled to match the intensity. France have plenty of top players, and will regret no putting more direct, physical pressure on the German backline. It's something Sweden do well, and they could have learned from. Speaking of learning, a lot more penalties aimed higher, to good effect. As a postscript to this one, no doubt the French manager will get stick for the players he dropped. I recall reading one is just waiting to tell her story.

Malard hit the bar with seconds left. That would have been harsh. Germany worked so hard to get to pens. France just didn't have a way of getting through. Earlier, the camera showed Berger's water bottle with faces and likely penalty spots. Really shouldn't be doing that.

She's having a good game, with good positioning, but also using that experience to relieve the pressure. Hoffman must have been tired, but I was still surprised Germany took her off. She was key on the occasions did get the ball up the park. Even Brand was racing back to make important tackles at the end of that first half of extra time.

Ten woman Germany frustrating France, and into extra time. Germany had a penalty saved, that would have won it for them. At the time, I was thinking that, even if they scored France would get level. But they have done really well at the back. France did put the ball in the net, but VAR made the right call. When Cascanino wasn't enough to stretch the play, they brought on Baltimore. But the Germans countered that. Cascanino then went off to bring in a more central threat in Malard. But Germany happier to be compact in the middle. France still have that numerical advantage. But Brand is capable of creating, and there's always pens.

Somehow, the French player stayed on her feet, and just put out her arms in exasperation at the hair pull. Contrast with screaming man-child Cucurella rolling about. A women's football selling point, as discussed above.

"Pet surcharge? Ma'am, when I said I was the Forum Lion, I didn't mean I was actually a lion...no, I do not want to travel in a crate in the hold.!" 🙂

There you go folks! Gio would pay a fiver for my posts! Who will give me £10? Thank you madam! That's £10. Now, who...sorry madam? Oh, it was £10 to stop.....oh, well...SOLD!

My favourite scene is when Jancker challenges the creature to a penalty shoot out, to allow the ship to escape.

Bag

I heard you were changing your username, to Stripey McStripe On Both Sides Shirt, in protest. 🙂