导出博客文章NICE, France -- For England, the 2016 European Championship will be a tournament
few will ever forget -- for all the wrong reasons.The tournament started with
hooligans running amok in Marseille and ended with one of the national teams
most humiliating defeats.The 2-1 loss to tiny Iceland in the round of 16 on
Monday in Nice has prompted the usual questions back home.Are Englands
footballers overly pampered-millionaires who lack patriotism? Are they crushed
by unrealistic expectations that prompt them to play with fear? Or are they not
good enough, not fit to wear the shirt as the fans howled at them after another
crushing loss?These are traditional post-mortems that stretch back decades. Bar
a couple of semifinals in the 1990s, England hasnt caused a stir at a major
tournament since winning the World Cup in 1966, its only major
triumph.Goalkeeper Joe Hart said he was lost for words after the defeat, but
pre-emptively defended the team against any suggestion they hadnt tried hard
enough.I just want people to know how much we put onto this tournament and its
not down to desire or anything like that, he said.Co-coached by a practicing
dentist, Iceland fully deserved its victory. Well-drilled and tactically astute,
it was comfortable for much of the match.Englands players just couldnt come up
with a game plan and even resorted to long balls down the middle -- a throwback
to less-technical times in the English game. Wayne Rooney, in his new more
central midfield role, struggled to control the ball and make the most basic of
passes.It would be impossible not to have the expectations that we had, to have
a positive mindset to go into this tournament, Hart said. They look foolish now.
Weve gone out to Iceland. We are going to have to own that.Maybe England should
just accept its not a major footballing power. After all, its now half a century
since England won the World Cup.Since Marcus Rashford, the youngest member of
Englands squad, was born in 1997, England has won just two international
tournament knockout games, the last one a decade ago. Those wins were against
Ecuador and Denmark, neither team which can usually boast anything like Englands
talent.At the moment Im gutted, but I cant separate it from the other times,
said Rooney, who has experienced little but disappointment since he burst onto
the international stage at Euro 2004.Each failure piles more pressure on the
English players shoulders. That is accentuated by the fact that the Premier
League is the worlds wealthiest and has the biggest contingent of all at Euro
2016 with 106 players.Unquestionably, the Iceland defeat has caused dismay and
despair back home but England will have to re-adjust, qualify for the 2018 World
Cup and then, perhaps, consider it has a chance there.Coach Roy Hodgson, who
quit after the Iceland defeat, has already voiced optimism about the future
given that the team was one of the youngest team at Euro 2016, with the likes of
Dele Alli in midfield and Rashford himself. The fallout from the Iceland loss,
though, threatens to stunt their international careers.It is hard to see it now
but the future is bright, Rooney insisted.Perhaps so, but England has far to go.
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of Mont-Tremblant, Que., captured a World Cup downhill event Saturday, his
second this year and fifth career victory on the circuit. Houston?board of
regents chairman Tilman Fertitta had some strong words for the Big 12 in the
aftermath of Texas hiring of former Cougars coach Tom Herman.Houston experienced
immense success in Hermans two-season tenure there, going 22-4, including a 13-1
season in 2015 that included a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory over Florida State
and six wins over top-25 teams. Texas?hired Herman on Saturday, hours after
firing Charlie Strong.Fertitta, appearing on The Michael Berry Show on KTRH-AM
in Houston on Tuesday morning, took exception to the fact that a school in the
Big 12,?which explored expansion but eventually decided against it,?hired
Herman.Its disappointing that the University of Texas -- who wants to open a
campus in Houston and said they would never do anything to harm the University
of Houston, with all the football coaches in America, who said that they would
stand up for us to get into the Big 12 and then didnt even vote for us when they
met with the commissioner and all the schools -- had to come take our little
football coach, Fertitta told Berry. But thats business and its a great
opportunity for Tom and I wish him the best. I hope they all do well, but I just
hope we do better.Fertitta, also one of the Cougars biggest boosters (he donated
$20 million for the naming rights to the soon-to-be-renovated basketball arena
Hofheinz Pavilion, which will become the Fertitta Center), called the Big 12s
expansion vetting process a sham. Houston was considered one of the top
candidates to be added to the conference if the Big 12 moved forward with
expansion.I think it was a PR play to see how the NCAA and everyone else was
going to react since they dont have a championship game, Fertitta said. I truly
dont know what they were thinking, other than just, maybe, poor lack of
leadership.The Big 12 will play a conference championship game starting in 2017.
When discussing the interview process that potential expansion candidates
engaged in with the Big 12, Fertitta was critical.You know when I kneew we were
in trouble? Fertitta said.dddddddddddd There were three [university] presidents
who were on the [Big 12 expansion] committee and when we went to the interview,
they werent even part of the interview process. I walked out of that meeting and
said Wow, this is a sham. Theres no intention of doing anything.It was one of
the great shams in college football, and college athletics, and just college
period. ... It was a total sham and I sit here today and I laugh at the Big 12
and their leadership.Fertitta, an entrepreneur who owns the restaurant
corporation Landrys Inc. and is the host of a CNBC reality television show
called Billion Dollar Buyer, also discussed Houstons pending search to replace
Herman. Asked about former LSU coach Les Miles, Fertitta said Miles is on a
list. I think that tells you right there the quality of coaches that would like
to come to the University of Houston.When asked about whether he would hire Art
Briles, who was fired earlier this year amid the sexual assault scandal at
Baylor, Fertitta said, I wish that we could get more clarity on what has
happened out there [at Baylor].Were struggling with clarity, Fertitta said. I
can tell you this: There are a lot of Baylor supporters in this city and people
that are very close to the university ... [former Baylor president] Ken Starr,
the [former] athletic director [Ian McCaw], lots of senior people and senior
alumni, regents at Baylor, have said If you will meet with us, we will talk to
you about the coach and we will give you clarity of how much he didnt know.Do I
think that Briles got a bad rap to some degree? Obviously he did. But at the
same time, youre the boss, and there was an issue there. So theres an issue.
Does everybody deserve to be forgiven? Yes. Theres a lot of controversy
surrounding him. I think hes a great football coach, and well just have to see
where it goes from here. ' ' '
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