Euro 96 was fantastic with moments that will never be forgotten. Gazza's goal, that Holland performance, Pearce's penalty against Spain and the relief driven reaction afterwards that to this day gives me goosebumps when you think about it and what it meant for him, a proper English warrior for so many years, after the suffering he had in the WC semi.
It wasn't all great tho, the Swiss performance average at best, but you can forgive that with the pressure there must have been, the Spain performance was shocking and if I remember they had 2 perfectly legit goals ruled out so we were lucky to get through. Then the semi...yet again against the germans we played well and didn't get what we deserved. That miss by Gazza when he reacted a split second too late, then the pens.... say no more... altho they scored a golden goal that could've stood with other officials but that just added to the tension.
As for this year, I haven't been looking forward to a tournament this much for a long time. The main reason is we have a young, athletic, pacey and hungry squad that haven't been tarred with past failure and aren't being lauded as potential winners. As a result of this there is far less pressure and expectancy so they can hopefully just go and play and perform as they have proven they're capable of. If they get a good start they can build into the tournament and with a bit of luck they could do well. I just hope Roy doesn't revert to form and focus on not letting the other team score... we need to be on the offensive and let teams worry about us. We have a good blend and can hurt teams so play with less fear and impose ourselves.
It wasn't all great tho, the Swiss performance average at best, but you can forgive that with the pressure there must have been, the Spain performance was shocking and if I remember they had 2 perfectly legit goals ruled out so we were lucky to get through. Then the semi...yet again against the germans we played well and didn't get what we deserved. That miss by Gazza when he reacted a split second too late, then the pens.... say no more... altho they scored a golden goal that could've stood with other officials but that just added to the tension.
As for this year, I haven't been looking forward to a tournament this much for a long time. The main reason is we have a young, athletic, pacey and hungry squad that haven't been tarred with past failure and aren't being lauded as potential winners. As a result of this there is far less pressure and expectancy so they can hopefully just go and play and perform as they have proven they're capable of. If they get a good start they can build into the tournament and with a bit of luck they could do well. I just hope Roy doesn't revert to form and focus on not letting the other team score... we need to be on the offensive and let teams worry about us. We have a good blend and can hurt teams so play with less fear and impose ourselves.
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