In things you might have missed, Harry Kane was mocked over the ‘worst dive ever’ while Ashley Cole baffles himself with his punditry.
On and off the pitch during this month’s international break, it has been embarrassing all round for England, and Tuesday night’s 4-0 defeat to Hungary summed it up.
Prior to the game, England were on a winless run, and while form was bad, nobody could have predicted such a thrashing, which seemed to stump everyone and led to Three Lions players and staff being booed off the pitch.
In the four games were played in 11 days, England didn’t win any of them, losing two and drawing two, scored one and conceded six.
England were forced to play the repeat of the Euros final against Italy behind closed doors at Molineux due to the crowd trouble last year. Even the kids booed the players’ bore draw.
Harry Kane was heavily condemned on social media in England latest game after fans claimed he produced one of the worst dives ever, as can be seen below.
An utterly EMBARRASSING dive from Harry Kane here.
You won’t see or hear a single mention of this anywhere though.pic.twitter.com/i6ymyoNVBd
— Dan ☯︎🏴 (@DanLewis1999) June 14, 2022
This is bad even for Kane #KaneCheatOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/RrEos4ruR4
— Did Harry Kane cheat today? (@DidKaneCheat) June 14, 2022
Many people firmly believe this is a cynical dive from the Spurs player, on first viewing it does indeed appear minimal, if any, contact was made.
Others however have defended him saying the right boot of Zsolt Nagy caught Kane’s left foot as the England star took the ball down.
Whether this was enough contact to warrant Kane’s reaction is clearly to debate about, but we’ve all seen penalties given for less.
This is what fans had to say as Harry Kane gets mocked over ‘worst dive ever’…
@KyleMuirhead24: 4-0, red card, Harry Kane dive, supporters booing and chanting you don’t know what your doing. What a night. Viva la Hungary. Viva la Southgate
@CraigDons32: Tom Daley would’ve been proud of that one.. Shocking!
@StevieP1967: Up there with Charlie Adams’.
@Arsenaljayd: A world class striker that needs to dive at any chance he gets probably shouldn’t be considering world class
@AndyBeav96: Words can’t describe how much of a cheat he is
@KyleMcC06: What is this? Horrendous. Maybe he hurt his thigh trying to control the ball…
@AjaySandhu95:
Horrible dive by Kane and not even a yellow.
Ridiculous, now 3-0 down and a red card 🤣🤣🤣
But still people believe they’ll win the World Cup 🤣
@damsickson: 😟 gets worse the more you watch it
@GoonerBadger: Trademark squeal and holding the ankle/foot. There won’t be one person in the media who calls him out for it though, and he does it every week.
@MrDarrenFox: Yeah this is embarrassing and this is coming from a Spurs fan
Meanwhile, after Gareth Southgate’s side slumped to their biggest home loss since 1928, sitting bottom of their Nations League group with potential relegation on the cards, Ashley Cole was asked about their performance live on Channel 4.
The former Chelsea left-back replied: “I thought they come up against a Hungary team… who was very hungry.”
He continued: “They had the desire, I don’t know when they last won in England, 1953? So it was a big occasion for them.
“I thought they played well, they were well organised, disciplined, they made it very hard for England.
“If you have three or four players off form like I said, you get punished.”
This is peak punditry. pic.twitter.com/FNXCXkqerD
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 14, 2022
Player ratings
England: Ramsdale (4), Walker (5), Stones (3), Guehi (5), James (6), Phillips (4), Bellingham (6), Gallagher (6), Bowen (5), Kane (5), Saka (5)
Subs: Sterling (5), Mount (5), Foden (5), Maguire (n/a).
Hungary: Dibusz (7), Lang (7), Orban (7), At Szalai (7), Fiola (7), Schafer (7), Styles (7), Nagy (9), Szoboszlai (7), Sallai (9), Ad Szalai (7).
Subs: Nagy (7), Gazdag (7), Adam (8), Nego (6).
Man of the match: Roland Sallai.
“We picked a young team with energy and when the game started to go against them, it started to look that way. That’s my responsibility in the end,” Gareth Southgate told Channel 4.
“I said to the players, our four matches is my responsibility. I have to balance looking at new players, rest players. We couldn’t keep flogging out our experienced players.
“It was an important experience for lots of young players in these games. We’ve learned a lot in Germany and Italy games. Hungary are a good side and we knew that. I gave them too much to do tonight.
“I understand the reaction in the stadium, what I would say is that in these sets of fixtures, these players have been unbelievable for the country. They have to stay with them.
“Tonight was the sort of night that my predecessors have had. It’s important to stand. I’m not going to say it doesn’t hurt.”
“We’ve broken a huge number of records and tonight we’re on the other side of it,” Southgate added in his press conference.
“I don’t think it [the recent poor run] is painful – because we haven’t been at full strength. We need to be at full strength to win matches and we’ve seen that for several teams across Europe in the Nations League.
“Tonight’s a difficult night. I’ve watched as a kid and a player, and I recognise those difficult times. But you can’t just be at the front when things are good, and not stand up when things get tough.
“I knew the role before I took it. It’s happened in ten days, not eleven months. But I’ve seen other England managers go through that – the great Bobby Robson was, and look how he was judged in the end.
“Football is emotion, and if the flak comes my way, you have to expect that. You can’t be England manager and have the run I’ve had for the last five years without also having some tough times.”
🗣️ “Football is emotional.”
More from Gareth Southgate after England lost 4-0 to Hungary last night 👇 pic.twitter.com/oT0unxoMib
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 15, 2022
England captain Harry Kane said: “I understand their [the fans’] frustration, we want to win every time we put on an England shirt. The crowd have to understand that. We have to keep working to have a successful World Cup.
“We’ve not had a camp like it for a long, long time. It’s time to keep our heads up and have a break now and then come back strong in September.
“It’s our first big defeat in a long, long time. The defence has been the structure of our success over the last few years. It’s a night to forget of course. We have to take it on the chin and move forward. We have to prepare for a big World Cup. That’s the most important thing. We have learned a lot from this camp.
“Let’s not forget where we’ve come from: our first final in 60 years [at Euro 2020 last summer], semi-final in the World Cup, compared to where we were in the last 50 years.”
Anton Ferdinand on Sky Sports News: “It’s massively damaging for England. I think performances like that can take us as a nation to what we have been for years, with no togetherness when it comes to the team, the staff and the nation.
“Performances like that will bring them apart like they were for years. There’s no excuse to be losing 4-0 to Hungary at home. It’s a disgraceful scoreline, I can’t believe I’m saying it. What’s more worrying is the fans booing, the shouts at Southgate that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
“We need to be sensible as a nation, and as media outlets. Southgate is the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey. He knows what he’s doing. Are there problems at the moment? Yes, there are, but the facts are in tournaments that he knows what he’s doing.
“He’s got enough credit in the bank, allow him to galvanise this squad and do what he’s done since he came into the job, which is to bring the nation and team together and take us into the World Cup where I think we’ve still got a great chance of winning it.”
Fans also reacted as Ashley Cole baffles himself with his own punditry as seen in the video earlier in the article…
@stegzy80: Even the pundits are running out of positive things to say about Southgate and are resorting to shit puns!
@HalTheBlade: Everytime I feel daunted by something I think I can’t do, I listen to Ashley Cole’s punditry and remember that he’s being paid for that. Suddenly I believe anything is possible.
@thecoldgun: I’m gonna come out and say it: I don’t think Ashley Cole is very insightful as a pundit. #ENGHUN
@AaronCro77: michael owen regen
@cm9798: Ashley Cole just described Hungary as being hungry without a shred of irony. Everybody’s had enough for the season now, even the clichés are running on fumes.
@REM_Monster: “A Hungary team that were very hungry” that’s the level of analysis offered by Ashley Cole. Channel 4 taken punditry to an all time low.
@darren_ridings: How can Ashley Cole justify that performance? Pundit are you having a laugh. Hungary where Hungry! At least Roy Keane says it as it is. England are shite!!!
@Elmo_ni2:
“Hungary was very hungry” Ashley Cole
Who knew Shakespeare was still kicking about
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