{"id":18839,"date":"2024-06-30T18:18:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T17:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=18839"},"modified":"2024-07-01T06:24:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T05:24:21","slug":"sport-euros-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=18839","title":{"rendered":"SPORT; Euros \u201824"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

England vs Slovakia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ivan Schranz, scores for Slovakia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been watching a lot of football this Euros. More than ever before. Partly, well\u2026 no, completely, for therapeutic reasons, if I\u2019m honest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But putting aside my own baggage, and getting back to sports\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
France defeat Austria, 1-0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve watched every single match<\/em>, thus far. And I\u2019ve generally enjoyed doing so. There is one consistent exception to this. Watching England play. It\u2019s excruciating<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I type this we are 0-1 down to Slovakia. And it\u2019s the second half already. Southgate has made no changes, and it\u2019s still the samo\u2019 samo\u2019. Are we going out with a whimper?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Foden\u2019s equaliser disallowed; offside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even at this very instant, we\u2019re extremely lucky not to go 0-2 down, with unbelievable sloppiness in defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All<\/em> the pundits and commentators are stressing that changes must<\/em> be made. And yet none were. That\u2019s just plain bone-headed-ness, on Gareth\u2019s part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bone-headed?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everyone wants<\/em> to believe in Southgate and his team, but he\u2019s simply not<\/em> delivering. We\u2019re nearing 15 minutes to go. And, frankly, it\u2019s f*cking abysmal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gareth\u2019s gamble with a young team isn\u2019t<\/em> working. But he\u2019s not willing to face that fact, and make the necessary changes. The clock is running down\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Simona Leskovska.*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

* Is she<\/em> the reason Slovakia are currently beating us!? A former Miss Slovakia contender, turned sports commentator, she\u2019s referred to online as \u2018working with the national team\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so painful to watch I may not be able to bear it. Will I be glad when we\u2019re out, so that I no longer have to endure such depressing football? Hard to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Woah!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Holy heart-attacks, Batman\u2026 Jude Bellingham just scored a real peach of a goal, to keep us in the tournament. The match now goes to extra time. More torment? Penalties?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gooooaaaaalllllll!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Say wha\u2019!? Kane scores a header, just one minute into extra time<\/em>. And the game is transformed. Will we sit back, like we usually do? I hope not. Maybe a couple more subs, and another goal or two (for us!)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeez\u2026 being an England supporter – and I guess I kind of must be? – is a roller-coaster ride. I wish we could be a lot<\/em> better. And consistently so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain vs Georgia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A terrific match!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later on the same day, and Spain vs Georgia has more quality football and excitement in the first 20 minutes than there was in the entire England vs Slovakia match, even with the added time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad we won. But Spain, and even Georgia, make us look very lucky\/boring. Spain\u2019s team play – esp the lightning fast one-touch passing – is sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fabian Ruiz celebrates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spain totally dominated the game, with far more time on the ball than Georgia. But the plucky underdogs showed, on the counter, that when they had the ball, they had plenty of balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a hi-octane game. Whereas the England game was sluggish, and excruciatingly painful to watch, this was sooo<\/em> exciting, and such great fun to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
It rains on Spain, victorious on the plain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pictured above, Olmo celebrates the fourth and final Spanish goal (well, fifth, if you are include Le Normand\u2019s own goal!). As the commentators said, Georgia in defeat were still brilliant. What a match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England vs Slovakia I\u2019ve been watching a lot of football this Euros. More than ever before. Partly, well\u2026 no, completely, for therapeutic reasons, if I\u2019m honest. But putting aside my own baggage, and getting back to sports\u2026 I\u2019ve watched every single match, thus far. And I\u2019ve generally enjoyed doing so. There is one consistent exception … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “SPORT; Euros \u201824”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-4TR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18839"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18839"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18864,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18839\/revisions\/18864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}