It was not just that incident, though, it was the amount of dodgy decisions against us throughout the game.
In my mind, we won that game, even though we scored against the run of play, those were our points. I am not bitter, just disappointed.
Well, all I have to say is that England didn't play well after the first 3 minutes of the match...staying too defensively in the game, and letting the Portuguese attack all the time. Also, I noticed some dodgy decisions against Portugal...including a few fouls given to England, and one ball which seemed to have entered the English goal but came out.
As for that English "goal", I still believe the English player got in the way of the goalie and his arm DID touch the goalkeeper, and impede him in a minor way. Granted, I believe the goalkeeper would still have not reached the ball in time...but the fact is that you had the Portuguese goalie obstructed by that English player.
Anyway, regardless of goal given or not, it was not a sure way of saying, 'had the goal entered, England would win'. There would have been still time for Portugal to come back. And besides, England had a chance at extra-time (if it had been Golden Goal, Portugal would have won there), and then at the penalties. It's their fault they missed it. So you can't say you were
robbed per se, because you still had loads of chances.
Now, talking about european football in general, I think European teams play too defensively. 1-0 up (like England for example) and they immediately shift to a defensive posture and rely solely on the counter-attack to create goals. You know what, I'd venture to say that this tactic isn't particularly great or very successful. No matter how defensive you are, you can still take goals! And one goal difference is no guarantee that the game won't turn around!
I think Brazil does so well in World Cups because it always plays offensively. We don't score 1 goal....then go hug the goal's area for the rest of the match, being as defensive as possible. We got out there and score some more! It seems that everywhere I look in Europe, the teams use the same tactic...1-0, 2-1, 3-2 up and they go defensive, relying on counter-attacks. Basically, going defensive puts you on a lot of pressure...IMO it's a tactic that should be avoided until you're 2 goals up or 1 goal up near the end of the game.
