Shots:
Italy 31 England 8

SOG:

Italy 18 England 4

Possession:

Italy 63% England 37%

Do you just selectively read certain posts in a thread? Read what crazy posted about Paul Scholes and his role for England. It took a herculean Joe Hart performance to keep Italy from scoring. That and some terrible decisions to shoot from Cassano.

Do you just ignore how Spain and Barcelona win championships? Are Germany's current young talents in the same mold as past physical players like Gerd Müller and Franz Beckenbauer? Is Cristiano Ronaldo the same type of winger for Real Madrid as Steve McManaman?

The way the game is played is constantly being shaped by managers tactical decisions and how the players adapt to said changes.

This post was edited on 12/21/12 at 2:58 pm

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Posted by RandySavage

Member since May 2012

31320 posts

Posted on 12/21/12 at 3:41 pm to thenry712

quote:
Shots:
Italy 31 England 8

SOG:

Italy 18 England 4

Possession:

Italy 63% England 37%

You left out the stat that matters...

Goals:

Italy- 0 England- 0

quote:
Read what crazy posted about Paul Scholes and his role for England.

This is much more legend than fact.

quote:
That and some terrible decisions to shoot from Cassano.

You take bad shots when you are frustrated because you can't break down a back line.

quote:
Do you just ignore how Spain and Barcelona win championships?

Nope, it's an effective model obviously. I'm not even getting into Barcelona in this thread because it's not the place so I'll focus on Spain.

They had to come through penalty shootouts in both of their Euro wins after being held without a goal for 120 minutes. Same thing as England just lost a shootout which has nothing to do with skill or style of play.

In their World Cup win again they went about 115 min. without scoring a single goal and had Robben been able to score on one of two 1 v. 1's with the keeper or Puyol been sent off as he rightfully should have been they wouldn't have won that either.

This after winning a gritty semi 1-0 on a late header off a corner from their center back, how English of them.

This is with their best generation of players ever and the major bonus that most of the national team plays together at the same club which is huge.

Now I'm not saying they didn't deserve those titles so don't freak out (like I know some will do). However, I'm saying the margins between winning and losing in soccer are smaller than any other sport and England's model has as good a chance to be effective as any other. The only time England really blew it in recent years is not qualifying for Euro 08 which really is inexcusable. Every recent tournament they have qualified for they have advanced to the knockout stages and generally given a good account of themselves, results wise, outside the 2nd half of a tainted Germany game in South Africa.