I was going to write this after England's second game. I put it off long enough and England exited the tournament already. It wasn't a bad thing, in my opinion however, with a disallowed goal, people again will lose the focus. I don't know if it was fate or a curse, England always find a way for an excuse.
England is always considered a favorite despite her performance. Sure, they won the World Cup before, that was 1966, mind you; and what exactly they have done more recently? People always say Netherlands is the best team that never win the World Cup. Well, look at the last 40 years. Netherlands reached the final twice (74 and 78) and they won the Euro 88, so what did England accomplish during the same period of time? They never make to the final again after the 1966 win, and has the worst record among previous winners!
They always claim that "football" is their game, and they probably have the most fragile ego among the great football nations. I think they are still living in the past, and they are still nursing the wound from 1970. When they lost that quarter-final game to West Germany, a game they should have won, they also lost their confidence. They had a 2-0 lead in that game, but the German came back in the second half to tie it and won the game in over time. The key thing in that game was their number one keeper Gordon Banks was sick and was replaced by the back up Peter Bonetti. Most people think if Banks was healthy, they should have repeated as champion. And that dark cloud just hang over the nation for the next 44 years!
They totally missed out the 70's because the '66 squad retired and other European nations became football powerhouse such as Poland and Netherlands. England didn't return to the World Cup Finals until 1982. They came in with question marks, such as two of their best players Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking were injured. They stayed in the squad but didn't know when they would be fit to play. They actually started the tournament pretty good, won all three games and made to the second round. Back in 1982, they just expanded the finals to include 24 teams, so the second round was still a round-robin format with three teams in each group. England had the better schedule that saw them play Spain in the final game, knowing full well all they need is a 2-0 win and they would be in the semi-final. However, under these kind of pressure, they failed to produce. They even put Keegan and Brooking on late in the game but it proved too little and too late. The game ended in a 0-0 tie and they exited the tournament. It wasn't a bad tournament to England, especially when you consider this was their first return to the stage after 12 years. However, they seemed to find an excuse - they never lost a game and they were out (West Germany lost their first game to Algeria, and they moved on). Such self pity!
Four years later in 1986, they had the even bigger excuse - the Hand of God! They didn't lost to other teams, just to the Hand of God! Then in 1990, they again lost out to West Germany, this time by penalty kicks. They missed out in 1994, and when they returned in 1998, they failed again on penalty kicks, to Argentina this time. To add insult to injury, they can also blame David Beckham for being sent off early in the second half and put his team in a difficult position. They got their revenge four years later and ousted Argentina in the first round, but lost the quarter-final to another South American team Brazil, the eventual winner that year. And in the last tournament in 2006, they also lost in penalty kicks, to Portugal in the quarter-finals again.
So after all these miserable experience, what have they learned? Nothing, but more miserable ways to bow out of the world stage. You can almost see their fear and nervousness right from the first game. After that horrendous mistake by Robert Green, you can see all the uncertainty and lack of leadership in the team They never really have a number one goalie, so they struggled to decide if they should keep Green or get somebody else a chance. If Green was the number one and made this mistake, they should think it was an one time only mistake and go right back to Green. When you showed uncertainty in front of the media, it shaken the confidence of the team, and that was evidence as the tournament went on. When they tied with Algeria in the second game, I wished they would not make the second round and that could only do them good. When you failed in the worst possible way, when you are totally down and out, you'll need to completely look at the matter in all possible perspectives and make changes from the ground up. However, they sneaked into the second round and yet another excuse - a disallowed goal by the referee! If this controversy somehow overshadow the problems this team has, then it must be a curse or a spell that was put on them and the misery will continue.
The future of Fabio Capello, the coach is still up in the air. And whose brilliant idea of extending his contract before the World Cup? What kind of business decision was that? I think keeping Capello is not a good business sense. He had his chance and base on the result, you just have to give the job to someone else. And I think after trying a couple of foreign coaches, it really proved they don't made much difference. And right now, to re-install England pride is job one, so what do Sweden and Italian coach know about England pride? Or course, changes shouldn't end at this level. There were not enough real talent since 1970, so the youth development program must be looked at and make changes accordingly. You always hear about big clubs signing foreign 15 years old boys for the future (remember the Chinese boy signing for Man Utd?), what does that do to the local talents? Are they actually saying there are no local 15 years old talent that's worth signing? If so, there is your major problem!
I agree that England should have done a lot better, but they have to come out of the past and understand the reality. Other European countries made a lot of progress in the last 40 years, teams like Spain, Portugal, France and even Serbia are all moving forward. If England doesn't catch up with them, they will surly be left behind. Now it is no better time to look at the future and make the changes.
England is always considered a favorite despite her performance. Sure, they won the World Cup before, that was 1966, mind you; and what exactly they have done more recently? People always say Netherlands is the best team that never win the World Cup. Well, look at the last 40 years. Netherlands reached the final twice (74 and 78) and they won the Euro 88, so what did England accomplish during the same period of time? They never make to the final again after the 1966 win, and has the worst record among previous winners!
They always claim that "football" is their game, and they probably have the most fragile ego among the great football nations. I think they are still living in the past, and they are still nursing the wound from 1970. When they lost that quarter-final game to West Germany, a game they should have won, they also lost their confidence. They had a 2-0 lead in that game, but the German came back in the second half to tie it and won the game in over time. The key thing in that game was their number one keeper Gordon Banks was sick and was replaced by the back up Peter Bonetti. Most people think if Banks was healthy, they should have repeated as champion. And that dark cloud just hang over the nation for the next 44 years!
They totally missed out the 70's because the '66 squad retired and other European nations became football powerhouse such as Poland and Netherlands. England didn't return to the World Cup Finals until 1982. They came in with question marks, such as two of their best players Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking were injured. They stayed in the squad but didn't know when they would be fit to play. They actually started the tournament pretty good, won all three games and made to the second round. Back in 1982, they just expanded the finals to include 24 teams, so the second round was still a round-robin format with three teams in each group. England had the better schedule that saw them play Spain in the final game, knowing full well all they need is a 2-0 win and they would be in the semi-final. However, under these kind of pressure, they failed to produce. They even put Keegan and Brooking on late in the game but it proved too little and too late. The game ended in a 0-0 tie and they exited the tournament. It wasn't a bad tournament to England, especially when you consider this was their first return to the stage after 12 years. However, they seemed to find an excuse - they never lost a game and they were out (West Germany lost their first game to Algeria, and they moved on). Such self pity!
Four years later in 1986, they had the even bigger excuse - the Hand of God! They didn't lost to other teams, just to the Hand of God! Then in 1990, they again lost out to West Germany, this time by penalty kicks. They missed out in 1994, and when they returned in 1998, they failed again on penalty kicks, to Argentina this time. To add insult to injury, they can also blame David Beckham for being sent off early in the second half and put his team in a difficult position. They got their revenge four years later and ousted Argentina in the first round, but lost the quarter-final to another South American team Brazil, the eventual winner that year. And in the last tournament in 2006, they also lost in penalty kicks, to Portugal in the quarter-finals again.
So after all these miserable experience, what have they learned? Nothing, but more miserable ways to bow out of the world stage. You can almost see their fear and nervousness right from the first game. After that horrendous mistake by Robert Green, you can see all the uncertainty and lack of leadership in the team They never really have a number one goalie, so they struggled to decide if they should keep Green or get somebody else a chance. If Green was the number one and made this mistake, they should think it was an one time only mistake and go right back to Green. When you showed uncertainty in front of the media, it shaken the confidence of the team, and that was evidence as the tournament went on. When they tied with Algeria in the second game, I wished they would not make the second round and that could only do them good. When you failed in the worst possible way, when you are totally down and out, you'll need to completely look at the matter in all possible perspectives and make changes from the ground up. However, they sneaked into the second round and yet another excuse - a disallowed goal by the referee! If this controversy somehow overshadow the problems this team has, then it must be a curse or a spell that was put on them and the misery will continue.
The future of Fabio Capello, the coach is still up in the air. And whose brilliant idea of extending his contract before the World Cup? What kind of business decision was that? I think keeping Capello is not a good business sense. He had his chance and base on the result, you just have to give the job to someone else. And I think after trying a couple of foreign coaches, it really proved they don't made much difference. And right now, to re-install England pride is job one, so what do Sweden and Italian coach know about England pride? Or course, changes shouldn't end at this level. There were not enough real talent since 1970, so the youth development program must be looked at and make changes accordingly. You always hear about big clubs signing foreign 15 years old boys for the future (remember the Chinese boy signing for Man Utd?), what does that do to the local talents? Are they actually saying there are no local 15 years old talent that's worth signing? If so, there is your major problem!
I agree that England should have done a lot better, but they have to come out of the past and understand the reality. Other European countries made a lot of progress in the last 40 years, teams like Spain, Portugal, France and even Serbia are all moving forward. If England doesn't catch up with them, they will surly be left behind. Now it is no better time to look at the future and make the changes.
