The 2026 World Cup — 3rd Place Playoff

Just asking, all the pundits making excuses about Rice carrying an injury, and making excuses about his performance, and he's playing again tonight?

Bullshit.

And indeed Pickford is dropped for Dean Henderson:

England: D Henderson; Quansah, Konsa, Guehi, Spence; Rice, Eze; Saka, Rogers, Rashford; Toney

Subs: Pickford, O'Reilly, Stones, Anderson, Kane, Bellingham, Chalobah, J Henderson, Burn, Gordon, Watkins, Madueke, Trafford, James.

It's game 69 of the season for Rice... while Everton's excuse for their abysmal finish to the season was that they were all tired because they had to play as many as 40 games. What utter rubbish.

Goodnight!

I think for a few seasons in the mid-sixties we had this in the FA Cup.

It was played amidst widespread apathy, as I recall.

Christy

Lol, Rice just made you eat humble pie my friend.

In truth Rice been poor in this tournament yes but outside Bellingham in most of them and Kane, nobody has stood out for me.

Jim, how did Rice make me feel humble pie?

He was crap in the last two games and they're playing for 3rd place.

Just saying, Jim.

Game being played as a friendly. Agreement in place not to hurt one another in a dead rubber.

Sensible.

Chill, Christy -- just a joke.

On a different note, I'm just sad that more games haven't been hosted in Mexico. The only true fervent football nation out of the three hosts.

Are the French surrendering here?

Think playing in the Arsenal midfield is a bit different to playing in the Everton midfield.

Chasing shadows half the season with your passes bouncing off your big dope front men's shin, protecting a 1-0 Lead for 70 minutes, with no right-back, a left-back who shits his undies if you give him the ball. Playing with the ball for 80-90% of a season is half as hard as trying to win games with 20% possession.

Not taking anything away from Rice, he's probably relishing it after being flogged by Moyes.

The French are on the beach and we think this game matters.

Not sure Deschamps would want to go out like this, Mark.

Jim, all good, my friend.

Just a pity they didn't have the same freedom against Argentina.

France getting embarrassed a bit here.

The game may be irrelevant but still...

It means nothing though, add in a bit of pressure and their arses go.

One thing though, England have players who can keep the ball, so why didn't he use them when it mattered???

Defensive manager takes the handbrake off:

4-0

None of these French superstars wants to pick up an injury before their Holibobs and they could not give a fuck. The commentator is getting a semi but we needed to win in the semi.

The game is a friendly and Deschamp won't give a toss. His job is gone and he won't care less. Les Blues won't feel blue for long they'll all be on a beach somewhere earning £200,000 a week taking in the rays, happy days.

Saka, Eze, Rashford and Toney starting, does it say anything?

The way that the English lad was allowed to turn for the for the fourth goal. Does anyone think he would have been allowed to do that in a competitive game?

Yes, it's nice to see us play well... but it's largely due to France not giving a fuck.

Piece of piss when the opposition can’t be arsed.

The so-called pundits are pretending this is a real game.

So that they can start their "our brilliant squad will walk the Euros" bullshit.

11 men behind the ball now in a 3rd-place non-game.. rattled England now.

Dan burn incoming: 4-3

Didn't England know there are two halves of a football game??

It will be interesting to hear what the pundits say about Henderson's performance!!!

I'm pleased that France are now at least trying a bit.

It's made for a better game.

Shit themselves. France just come out and said, "Oh, you're actually taking it seriously? Okay then..." and took the piss out of England.

If this wasn't a joke game, they'd be out of sight of England.

You can bet your life if Pickford was in goal here he would be slaughtered over these 3 goals England have conceded?

The best thing about this game is fortunately Pickford is not in goal.

England concede 3 goals for the first time since… the last time Henderson started instead of Pickford.

And the last time before that they conceded 3 was when Pope started ahead of Pickford.

And before that it was when Ramsdale started instead.

Can you spot the pattern yet?

At least Henderson is good... 👍😊😊😊😊😊

I meant shite

I haven't watched a lot of the World Cup games but this match exemplifies so much of what is brazenly obvious when it comes to considering the lack of commitment, courage, skill and cohesion in teams that's long since permeated so-called "professional" football in the past 30 years or so.

Easily 4-0 up at half-time against a team that showed none of the four characteristics I value, we then collapse en masse to concede three -- maybe because they introduced world-beating substitutes for the second half -- but Digne was one of them (!)

Am I right?

A game for losers played by losers. If you win, who cares? No good turning in a performance now loser, shoulda done it when it mattered.

Anyway, who did you beat -- an even bigger loser than you, big deal.

No interest in England...

If they lose, it will be Pickford's fault -- even though he is not playing. Fuck them.

Very enjoyable... but a game without a tackle.

David (9), thanks for that.

Saved me having to type it out.

Alan (33), bit unfair that comment. Sometimes there was no decent opportunity to put a tackle in because the movement and passing was so good.

Seemed to me that a lot of the England players were simply playing without the pressure of the occasion restricting them.

I see the BBC ratings are as poor as ever where our goalie is concerned.

England Player Ratings

Comedy ratings, Eric, how the hell would Burns be rated higher than Jordan?

Those who can, do; those who can't, write.

Joke.

Didn't even look at any other players Steve.

The Joke is:

Henderson plays 1 game, makes 1 decent save and conceeds 4 goals = 6

Pickford kept England in the competition with his numerous saves (5 against Argentina alone) kept 2 clean sheets and conceded 9 goals total, never more than 2 in any game = 6.

Ludicrous.

Expect Henderson to be up for save of the tournament ?

Chalobah, replacement call up, multiple options including Garner who can play at right back, and he plays all of 5 minutes. Asshole Tuchel.

Eric (39),

The joke is that you took this game as a serious one!

Back to the first comments on Rice and his performances. It was widely reported he'd been ill with a virus.

Not easy playing with a virus at the best of times.

I watched the second half and if there wasn’t that many tackles getting put in it was probably because the ball was getting moved on so quickly. Especially by the French, who played some lovely mesmerising football at times.

There was a great tackle on Watkins, that started the move for the French, first goal, but the key thing for me was the position of Watkins, battling for possession in the last minute, on the half way line.

What a fantastic goal by Bellingham, but something that would have never been allowed to happen if Harry Kane, had been playing from the off.

When I go to Bramley Moore, next month, I know that there will be loads of times in a game when Everton, will be under the cosh and they will be playing with eleven men behind the ball, all within thirty yards of our goal.

Why? How much real thought process is behind this? Seriously but if you want to run the clock down, surely you have got a better chance of doing this by keeping a player on the half way line at all times, especially when you’re playing against opponents who are chasing the game?

Just read an article.

3rd Place.
Success or failure.

I know what they call that in France, Spain etc but it certainly would not be "sucess"

Ian, you could argue Declan Rice is getting stick off a lot of great footballers, who have never been anywhere near a World Cup, semifinal, or you could listen to what those former great players are saying and actually agree with them.

Rice is a top player, different than Rodri, (who I thought was the best midfielder in the world before his injury problems) but equally as effective in his own right. (All opinions)

The biggest difference must be how we are taught to play football in this country, from an early age, compared to a lot of other countries imo.

I’ve written before about how a Barcelona coach was walking past a few parents who were watching their children playing in a football tournament a few years ago and asked “are you English?” How did you know asked one of the parents? Because the only kids who warm up in the goal, are the English, was the reply!

Things are changing but I see way too many boring drills nowadays (each to their own, it’s all opinion) but there is possession of the football, and dangerous possession of the football, and when I watch Rodri, he plays like he his the centre piece of a clock.

An outlet in the middle of the pitch, is not something in most football coaches vocabulary, imo.

Something to build on John? Tuchel has said things that need real thorough reflection on, imo, and this is without trying to absolve him from Wednesday night’s capitulation because it was clear he never had another plan which equates to him not trusting his squad enough for whatever reasons

Do you know the one about the special boots the Ajax Acadamy had produced for the kids, Tony?

Back in the days they produced a conveyor belt of stars.

I have never heard about that story John, but I think there is a lot to be learned from studying that Ajax academy mate.

I base it on Steven Pienaar, who was imo, one of the cleverest little footballers I’ve ever watched play for Everton. (opinions again!)

The reason I loved watching him play was because he had terrific movement and always offered his teammates an outlet because he constantly always came towards the ball.

Movement, speed of thought, and taking your opponent into areas that they don’t really want to go. If Pienaar, had been a little bit quicker, he would have been one of the best little players in the world, imo, because he was such a clever little player, and he his someone I’d love to see teaching our kids how to play football nowadays.

Pienaar and similar players should be the head of our coaching system Tony imo.
We need to indoctrinate their style of football into the club.

Ajax in youth football had special boots produced for the kids.
Paper thin leather, the thinking was the kids could learn to feel the ball with their feet, allowing them to get their heads up more.

It's hard to know what to make of that game, in the first half England wanted to win I think it's fair to say more than France, I think the French players thought they would easily win and didn't take us too seriously.

Second half the French players must have had their backsides kicked because they were much better and looked up for it.

Credit where it's due though, England played very well and there were some good performances. Spence's value doubled -- I'd say he looked a proper player.

English players have historically lacked that little bit of close control that some parts of the worlds teams possess. I think the main reason is our Leagues play more quick and physical than many others but I think the gap is narrowing.

What's noticeable now is the amount of black players in Englands squad and League teams, I think on the whole they are naturally more athletic than most of us whites.

Well we cannot get too enthused about the result of this game.

It was a mishmash of teams from the outset showing that the result wasn't that important after the disappointment for both sides after the semi-finals.

Generally it was more like an exhibition game but the whole competition underlined how so many small countries have advanced with their international players.


There were so many competitive games involving minnows that turned out to be more interesting than expected.

As I said when it started England have never had such a quality base to choose from and Tuchel could have picked another twenty players who would have served well.

With top class personnel like Pickford, Kane and Bellingham to add to a group of players who showed their best form it was no surprise to almost make the final.

However, Tuchel screwed up when push came to shove and he bottled it in the Argie game blaming the English squad's DNA.
What a load of cobblers !!!

I have to laugh, the BBC give Rice a 7, and then say he was carrying an injury, that's why he hasn't been at his best? He played in every game, utter bullshit.

Saka said he was fully fit, but Tuchel said he preferred to play Rodgers against Argentina, and he's not even a winger?

My Spurs mate's take on last night:

"It was like SoccerAid. All it needed was Vernon Kay up front and some fat bastard from Eastenders in goal!"

Raymond 50.

They are better dancers as well 😁

Dave #41,

I didn't even watch it.

555 John #54.

My Dad would have given a reason that can't be printed in this day and age!

Eric (55) Sensible Chap.

I didn’t watch it myself because I knew if either team won 6-0 it was far too late to make a blind bit of difference— far too little much too late.

They've also got bigger Blackpool rocks, Eric.

Dave,

Just read an article about teams building around one superstar.

Alfredo Di Stefano. "No player is better than a team playing together"

Sounds like he had no ego, mate.

I won't watch tonight either, Dave, but I will be up at 02:00 to wake up the wife so she can watch, and then I'll go back to sleep again.

John (59),

That's why I love team players -- they'll sacrifice their talent for the good of the team.

Di Stefano learned his football from his dad, who was a professional footballer, and playing in the rough and ready streets where he was born, that was the best place to learn all the tricks of the game.

Dave #57, sorry you missed it.

Helluva game. A wild and totally enjoyable ride.

Mike (62),

I'm glad you enjoyed it and I don't begrudge the pleasure you got out of it. Being honest, it had to be better than if it was a real game because it looks like none of the usual bad traits of the modern game were used.

Unfortunately, you won't see many, if any, games like that especially in the World Cup... but in the long run, it was a meaningless game like most friendlies are.

Me too Dave.

Brought up properly by the sounds of it mate.