Yeah its a classic "its their cup final" type of game. Our pampered prem players will mince about the pitch for 90 mins on pain of getting dropped by their club manager for risking getting injured, while getting drowned out by the noise from 20K jocks, and then they nick a late win. We wont play them again for another 10 years so the bragging rights would last a long while....
I would genuinely be surprised by an England win....
Waiting to hear if my jock mate has got me a ticket or not. It pains me to say it but the atmosphere at the new Wembley is absolutely dreadful for England games. Always seems like 50% of people are there because work has offered them free tickets or because they got them for free for someone else not wanting to go or something,
Waiting to hear if my jock mate has got me a ticket or not. It pains me to say it but the atmosphere at the new Wembley is absolutely dreadful for England games. Always seems like 50% of people are there because work has offered them free tickets or because they got them for free for someone else not wanting to go or something,
Definitely true. Been to a fair few Wembley games and the atmosphere has been absolutely crap, apart from in the away stand.
Especially in the top tier, you are sitting a country mile from the pitch. When I saw England v Mexico there just before the last World Cup, I genuinely struggled to make out who our players were. No singing or excitement at all among the fans. I was truly amazed when they said that the attendance was 90,000!
Got my tickets for this one. If there is ever going to be a good atmosphere for an England game at Wembley, then it will be tonight.
Problem is that 99% of people sit at these games, whereas in recent domestic fixtures there has been Man Utd, Palace, Dortmund/Bayern fans standing in the tens of thousands behind the goal and occasionally across the whole lower tier. England matches at Wembley seem to attract a more 'reserved' group of fans and a lot of familys, which is good in many ways, but its not exactly going to sound like a Besiktas match.
Also its not cheap going to Wembley for the 'common man'. My tickets are behind the goal tonight in the lower tier, which is usually considered to be the cheapest area in most grounds. The FA thought it was ok to charge £45 though for this 90 minute friendly, i suppose i'm the mug for paying to go.
Also its not cheap going to Wembley for the 'common man'. My tickets are behind the goal tonight in the lower tier, which is usually considered to be the cheapest area in most grounds. The FA thought it was ok to charge £45 though for this 90 minute friendly, i suppose i'm the mug for paying to go.
Huge mistake IMO having a 'friendly' against Scotland. Hodgson will understandably treat it like any other friendly, make loads of changes, worry more about technical issues than final score. The Jocks on the other hand, roared on by 20,000 nutters with chips on their shoulders will get stuck in early doors and play like it's their most important game for years. Expect injuries.
My lifelong Scottish mates back home are all getting together to watch it. Who on earth bothers to do that for a friendly? One of them is in France, he thinks he's going to go to a French sports bar and commune with all the frogs in the 'auld alliance". How many French sports bars will show a friendly not involving France? That is the extent of their delusion.
I'm meeting my Spanner supporting client and we are going to studiously ignore the whole thing.
Huge mistake IMO having a 'friendly' against Scotland. Hodgson will understandably treat it like any other friendly, make loads of changes, worry more about technical issues than final score. The Jocks on the other hand, roared on by 20,000 nutters with chips on their shoulders will get stuck in early doors and play like it's their most important game for years. Expect injuries.
My lifelong Scottish mates back home are all getting together to watch it. Who on earth bothers to do that for a friendly? One of them is in France, he thinks he's going to go to a French sports bar and commune with all the frogs in the 'auld alliance". How many French sports bars will show a friendly not involving France? That is the extent of their delusion.
I'm meeting my Spanner supporting client and we are going to studiously ignore the whole thing.
You seem to be going out of your way to not be bothered by the game which kind defeats the object
There are probably enough young(ish) Scotsmen and women living in London to fill Wembley twice over. I am relishing the return of the world's oldest international .. England should walk this ... BUT a draw would not surprise me in the least.
So Greaves in for Hunt from the world cup winning team. And Greaves is England's greatest striker ever.
The late great Jim Baxter doing keepy uppy, let's be honest Scotland or England fan, Scotland won convincingly that day.
field Red Said:
Stand corrected Sheffield for some reason I thought Moore and B Charlton were not playing must be getting old. My comment still stands though they win a friendly and claim to be World Champions and frankly if I hear about the f******g keepy uppy one more time I will scream!
Can't say I'm looking forward to it, particularly after the U21s debacle. My local when I'm back home received a police warning about its racist chalkboard advertising the fixture. Scotland v Them. Some people will take offense wherever they can find it.
Apparently there was some trouble with Russians who showed up and started throwing bottles.
We'll set aboot them
Are you seriously trying to tell us that there are NOT a large number of Scots with prejudice against England?
I do agree that it's a soppy over-reaction though.
Anyhow, I am looking forward to it as always, no more or less than any other England game. If I wasn't I wouldn't take the time and trouble to go on an Internet forum to tell people about it...
Yes, the Scots are weak, hey? Fancy needing a football match against the auld enemy as an excuse to get drunk and probably enjoy yourself too. Us Poms do it in lots of locations all over Europe every Summer, hey?
Huge mistake IMO having a 'friendly' against Scotland. Hodgson will understandably treat it like any other friendly, make loads of changes, worry more about technical issues than final score. The Jocks on the other hand, roared on by 20,000 nutters with chips on their shoulders will get stuck in early doors and play like it's their most important game for years. Expect injuries.
My lifelong Scottish mates back home are all getting together to watch it. Who on earth bothers to do that for a friendly? One of them is in France, he thinks he's going to go to a French sports bar and commune with all the frogs in the 'auld alliance". How many French sports bars will show a friendly not involving France? That is the extent of their delusion.
I'm meeting my Spanner supporting client and we are going to studiously ignore the whole thing.
You seem to be going out of your way to not be bothered by the game which kind defeats the object
On the contrary. We both have Scottish mates. By ignoring their hysteria about the game , we wind them up even more. That is the object.
(If it was a WC qualifier, we'd have a completely different attitude to it. International friendlies have become a parody of competitive football)
Can't say I'm looking forward to it, particularly after the U21s debacle. My local when I'm back home received a police warning about its racist chalkboard advertising the fixture. Scotland v Them. Some people will take offense wherever they can find it.
Apparently there was some trouble with Russians who showed up and started throwing bottles.
We'll set aboot them
Are you seriously trying to tell us that there are NOT a large number of Scots with prejudice against England?
I do agree that it's a soppy over-reaction though.
Anyhow, I am looking forward to it as always, no more or less than any other England game. If I wasn't I wouldn't take the time and trouble to go on an Internet forum to tell people about it...
Oh god no. There'll be a lot of idiots frothing at the mouth. A chalkboard that says Scotland v Them 7:45 Wednesday seems a very low level of bants to start getting knickers twisted over...
Huge mistake IMO having a 'friendly' against Scotland. Hodgson will understandably treat it like any other friendly, make loads of changes, worry more about technical issues than final score. The Jocks on the other hand, roared on by 20,000 nutters with chips on their shoulders will get stuck in early doors and play like it's their most important game for years. Expect injuries.
My lifelong Scottish mates back home are all getting together to watch it. Who on earth bothers to do that for a friendly? One of them is in France, he thinks he's going to go to a French sports bar and commune with all the frogs in the 'auld alliance". How many French sports bars will show a friendly not involving France? That is the extent of their delusion.
I'm meeting my Spanner supporting client and we are going to studiously ignore the whole thing.
You seem to be going out of your way to not be bothered by the game which kind defeats the object
On the contrary. We both have Scottish mates. By ignoring their hysteria about the game , we wind them up even more. That is the object.
(If it was a WC qualifier, we'd have a completely different attitude to it. International friendlies have become a parody of competitive football)
Agree. I'd increase the number of countries in each qualifying group and have less groups, the international calendar fills up with competitive games only, more interest in the fixtures. I'd permit 2 friendlies before a tournament.
The February international date has been scrapped from 2014 onwards, so there's already one international date a year that's been removed to accommodate club football.
C'mon England! Friendly or not, if we did lose they'd never let us live it down!
One of them being interviewed on tele this morning bought up Bannockburn, and they moan about the English commentators talking about 1966! LOL.
Please stop all the bollocks about friendlies being "pointless". How the hell else are you going to find out how well players react to international football, and how well they play with each other? Would you like to find out that players A B and C just can't cut it half way through the game in Ukraine when we are three nil down, or after a non competetive match against the Scots or the Dutch or whoever?
Getting nice and lively in Trafalgar Square right now. A few Scots in the fountains, aided and abetted by several thousand more. The tourists look a bit bemused.
Comments
I would genuinely be surprised by an England win....
So the premier elite could build a stash
And foreigners now rule the day
While we slink out down Wembley way.
If there is ever going to be a good atmosphere for an England game at Wembley, then it will be tonight.
Problem is that 99% of people sit at these games, whereas in recent domestic fixtures there has been Man Utd, Palace, Dortmund/Bayern fans standing in the tens of thousands behind the goal and occasionally across the whole lower tier.
England matches at Wembley seem to attract a more 'reserved' group of fans and a lot of familys, which is good in many ways, but its not exactly going to sound like a Besiktas match.
My tickets are behind the goal tonight in the lower tier, which is usually considered to be the cheapest area in most grounds.
The FA thought it was ok to charge £45 though for this 90 minute friendly, i suppose i'm the mug for paying to go.
http://ticketing.thefa.com/
My lifelong Scottish mates back home are all getting together to watch it. Who on earth bothers to do that for a friendly? One of them is in France, he thinks he's going to go to a French sports bar and commune with all the frogs in the 'auld alliance". How many French sports bars will show a friendly not involving France? That is the extent of their delusion.
I'm meeting my Spanner supporting client and we are going to studiously ignore the whole thing.
England team in 1967:
Banks
Cohen Wilson J Charlton Moore
Stiles Ball Peters B Charlton
Greaves Hurst
So Greaves in for Hunt from the world cup winning team. And Greaves is England's greatest striker ever.
The late great Jim Baxter doing keepy uppy, let's be honest Scotland or England fan, Scotland won convincingly that day.
field Red Said:
Stand corrected Sheffield for some reason I thought Moore and B Charlton were not playing must be getting old. My comment still stands though they win a friendly and claim to be World Champions and frankly if I hear about the f******g keepy uppy one more time I will scream!
I do agree that it's a soppy over-reaction though.
Anyhow, I am looking forward to it as always, no more or less than any other England game. If I wasn't I wouldn't take the time and trouble to go on an Internet forum to tell people about it...
(If it was a WC qualifier, we'd have a completely different attitude to it. International friendlies have become a parody of competitive football)
No doubt it will heal in time for Man Utd match against Swansea on Saturday.
Hopefully the Scots in the ground will make the atmosphere half decent for once.
The February international date has been scrapped from 2014 onwards, so there's already one international date a year that's been removed to accommodate club football.
Please stop all the bollocks about friendlies being "pointless". How the hell else are you going to find out how well players react to international football, and how well they play with each other? Would you like to find out that players A B and C just can't cut it half way through the game in Ukraine when we are three nil down, or after a non competetive match against the Scots or the Dutch or whoever?