England World Cup victory assured.

[Lianachan]

All the bleating about The Hand Of God is really funny, though. Except when Terry Butcher does it, as he's extremely bitter and hate filled. Even as Scotland's assistant manager, he spent an entire press conference complaining about it, and banging on about Maradona being a "cheat", instead of talking about the upcoming Scotland v Argentina friendly. Aye, that's going to endear you to Scotland fans Butcher you idiot. The two best things about that goal: Maradona later said he did it as a joke, and that he didn't think it would count; he also scored one of the best goals in the history of the sport in that match. Even though that idiot Butcher did end up scoring it in the end.

[LangfordG]

Originally Posted by Lianachan

All the bleating about The Hand Of God is really funny, though. Except when Terry Butcher does it, as he's extremely bitter and hate filled.

Imagine if Scotland were playing England in the World Cup quarter final in 1986 and Gary Lineker blatantly handballed the ball into the net, setting up England for a 2-1 victory (it would have finished 1-1 after the 90 mins if the referee had disallowed the handball goal) and England went on the win the World Cup. I'm sure the Scots would never have stopped bleating about it, especially whenever Scotland play England. The English doing so is nothing unusual.

[LangfordG]

Maybe the reason why the Scots excuse druggie Maradona's 1986 handball is because they committed a similar injustice 9 years earlier, when Scotland scored from a penalty Joe Jordan won despite the fact he committed a handball offence against Wales at Anfield in 1977 - and it helped Scotland to qualify for the 1978 World Cup which the Scots were adamant they would win.

Jordan punched the ball over his head and, incredibly, the referee awarded Scotland a penalty. He accused a Welsh player of punching Jordan. The arrogant Scottish commentator said it was a 'punch if ever there was one', even though he knew there was no way it could have been a punch as there was no Welsh player anywhere near Jordan. Don Masson despatched the resulting penalty and Scotland were on their way to the 1978 World Cup, where bad results against mighty Peru and Iran meant that Scotland were kicked out of the tournament they boasted they were going to win at the Group Stage.

I don't think I should be having lessons on football fairness from a bunch of Scots, to be honest.

[LangfordG]

Originally Posted by Lianachan

No doubt you are aware of the famous commentary quotation:The referee, then, should have stopped play. That's two goals you can chalk off!

If that's the case it would have finished 2-2 and the match would have gone to a replay and who knows what would have happened then.

But that doesn't matter now as England won 4-2, and we didn't cheat once (unlike West Germany in 1954 or the Argies in 1986).

There are rumours that the linesman who awarded Geoff Hurst's controversial goal did so to get revenge on the Germans over a WWII battle.

[LangfordG]

Originally Posted by Duthill

The New Zealand Soccer team is called the All Whites , and has not 'nicked' any players from Samoa, Tonga , Fiji or anywhere else . Despite this lack of imported players , the All Whites remain undefeated in the last world cup.
No soccer game was played between Ireland and New Zealand last night , or any other night in recent memory .

I'm tralking about the All Blacks rugby union team, who only win games thanks to them always having favourable referees and nicking players from other South Pacific nations. And the All Blacks beat Ireland 38-18 at the weekend, but the Irish were adamant at least two New Zealanders should have been sin binned.

As for New Zealand in the football World Cup they may have been unbeaten but you have to bear in mind the teams they came up against. They were in the same group as Slovakia, Paraguay and a very, very poor Italy team. I doubt New Zealand would have been unbeaten had they had Brazil, Germany or England in their group.

[Duthill]

Originally Posted by LangfordG

I'm tralking about the All Blacks rugby union team, who only win games thanks to them always having favourable referees and nicking players from other South Pacific nations. And the All Blacks beat Ireland 38-18 at the weekend, but the Irish were adamant at least two New Zealanders should have been sin binned.

This topic of thread is about the soccer world cup and England's part in that .
Do not attempt to hijack the thread to bolster your flagging argument.
Hijacking threads is considered a cardinal sin on internet forums .
If you cannot abide by the code why are you here ?

[Duthill]

Originally Posted by LangfordG

As for New Zealand in the football World Cup they may have been unbeaten but you have to bear in mind the teams they came up against. They were in the same group as Slovakia, Paraguay and a very, very poor Italy team. I doubt New Zealand would have been unbeaten had they had Brazil, Germany or England in their group.

Oh , has England not managed to have an unbeaten soccer world cup experience . Sour grapes perchance ?