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Are England Still A Big Team |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 17,852
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Are England Still A Big Team
With one or two occasional exceptions, England have struggled to advance in every major football tournament since 1970, and even make hard work of qualifying.
As the English league is now deceptively strong, but in reality weak, in that there are hardly any English players, can England still be consider a "big" team? |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 834
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Of course they are still a big team. They are ranked 10 in the world.
...and I am not sure how they make hard work of qualifying. They have made quite easy work of qualifying in recent times. |
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#3 |
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Quote:
As the English league is now deceptively strong, but in reality weak, in that there are hardly any English players
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#4 |
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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They are still a big team, but they really NEED to bring in this competition!!!!
Will never forget the 1990 WC. Just a collection of truly trific players who would fight tooth and nail for their team (Butcher, Pearce, Parker, Walker, Linekar, Beardsley, Gazza, Waddle, Platt) etc. Never forget that year!!!! |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jun 2002
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I think that anyone who plays England will always treat them as a team to be respected even if they fancy their chances.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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One semi final in 40 years just isn't enough to be seen a a 'big team'. Germany have reached 8 semi finals in that time, Brazil 6, Italy 5, Netherlands 4, France 4, and Argentina 3.
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#7 |
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I would say big enough, but they are still essentially a quarter final team at best, on a par with someone like Portugal.
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#8 |
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Quote:
One semi final in 40 years just isn't enough to be seen a a 'big team'. Germany have reached 8 semi finals in that time, Brazil 6, Italy 5, Netherlands 4, France 4, and Argentina 3.
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#9 |
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Join Date: Nov 2002
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Quote:
One semi final in 40 years just isn't enough to be seen a a 'big team'. Germany have reached 8 semi finals in that time, Brazil 6, Italy 5, Netherlands 4, France 4, and Argentina 3.
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#10 |
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Have they ever been?
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#11 |
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Join Date: Jan 2009
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Depends how you define top team.
I'd make England a top 10 team after these: Germany France The Netherlands Brazil Spain Italy Argentina Portugal England So I'd put us as about the 9th best team in the world at the moment. Just my opinion. I know there are official rankings. |
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#12 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Quote:
One semi final in 40 years just isn't enough to be seen a a 'big team'. Germany have reached 8 semi finals in that time, Brazil 6, Italy 5, Netherlands 4, France 4, and Argentina 3.
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#13 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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Quote:
So anyone outside the world's top 6 is a small team. Gotchya.
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#14 |
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Quote:
Presumably you don't regard Spain as a 'big team' either then?
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#15 |
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Spain have a slightly different record, what with winning everything that matters in the last six years.
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#16 |
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I think we need to establish some criteria before we can decide whether certain teams are worthy of such a title.
In my time watching football (since about 1998) I've never thought of us as being in the 'top tier' of international sides i.e. Brazil, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and maybe Italy. Anyone outside that group I feel we can compete with. When I say 'compete with' I mean rival their records on the international stage. For example, in Germany's last 5 appearances at the World Cup they've reached the quarter-finals twice, the semi-finals twice and the final once. |
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#17 |
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Well obvioulsy its all relative but I think its clear in this case the phrase 'big team' applies to an elite group of teams, our international record is comparable to a team like Sweden.
1982 DNQ (Did Not Qualify for Finals) 1986 DNQ 1990 Group Stage 1994 SF ![]() 1998 DNQ 2002 Last 16 2006 Last 16 2010 DNQ 2014 DNQ England 1982 QF 1986 QF 1990 SF 1994 DNQ 1998 Last 16 2002 QF 2006 QF 2010 Last 16 2014 TBC Do I need to say anything or do the facts speak for themselves? |
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#18 |
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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Whilst England arent one of the elite teams in the world. They are a good team. How that translate into big, small, huge team I dont know, and it doesnt really matter.
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#19 |
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Quote:
Spain have a slightly different record, what with winning everything that matters in the last six years.
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#20 |
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An achievement, that I believe hasnt been replicated ever by any other team. That in itself speaks volumes. Who knows they may well add another WC to that.
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#21 |
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Quote:
Sweden
1982 DNQ (Did Not Qualify for Finals) 1986 DNQ 1990 Group Stage 1994 SF ![]() 1998 DNQ 2002 Last 16 2006 Last 16 2010 DNQ 2014 DNQ England 1982 QF 1986 QF 1990 SF 1994 DNQ 1998 Last 16 2002 QF 2006 QF 2010 Last 16 2014 TBC Do I need to say anything or do the facts speak for themselves? I'm not saying England are a bad team anyway, were just not up there with the best. We are improving though and since the Premier league started and all the foreign players came into the game our record has actually got slighly better. |
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#22 |
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We are consistently in and around the top 8 teams in the world, our problem is that when we play any other 'big' team like Germany, Italy, Brazil or Argentina we tend to fall short. So I think it's fair to place just England just outside the top few teams.
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#23 |
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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Quote:
Not if they keep on playing like they did on Friday they won't!
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#24 |
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Join Date: Sep 2011
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Quote:
Have they ever been?
They've never been a big team in the last 40 odd years and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. We have been too often flattered by Fifa rankings. We're an average team. |
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#25 |
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Join Date: Jan 2003
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Quote:
With one or two occasional exceptions, England have struggled to advance in every major football tournament since 1970, and even make hard work of qualifying.
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