Forty year hurt set to end?
As a nation, we’re a cynical lot when it comes to sport. I was speaking to an Italian gentleman after the Trinidad game and he thinks we’re all crazy. “You have 6 points!” he said with a smile, “What are you complaining about. Sure it wasn’t pretty but what have you done wrong?
“In Italy, we think we’ll win the World Cup if we win our group games!” He had a point. This World Cup has sprung a few surprises at both ends of the scale. Now, it seems, the World Cup is living up to its name. We have seen the American, Asian and African nations making a major impact on the world game and truly competing on a world class level, showing that anybody can beat anybody in this competition. The top teams have not performed to the standard expected, with the possible exception of Argentina who put forward one of the best footballing displays so far, but the second rung of teams like Spain have impressed. With this level across the board, no team should be taken to beat any other. In context a seven-point finish is an excellent group performance.
Of course the unfortunate news of Michael Owen’s injury has complicated matters and may prove to expose the flaws in our squad. The reluctance to play Theo Walcott is baffling, after going through so much trouble to pick him. We have Peter Crouch scoring and a very fiery and passionate Wayne Rooney ready to carve up the planet - and we may only need one of them. This is where the true quality of our talent shows through. Lampard, Gerrard and Joe Cole can all easily slip in behind the striker, plus we have Michael Carrick to fill in the midfield. Even the often-criticised Owen Hargreaves is starting to settle into the side. We’re starting to learn how to play along the ground and play fewer long balls. By the end of the World Cup we may have even stopped Rio Ferdinand going up for corners.
I do acknowledge, however, that we are far from faultless. We seem to fix one weakness for something equally feeble to appear in the next game. If we attack well, the defence looks shaky. If we play the ball around, we fall out of position. We can’t seem to get the whole package. Even the rock solid John Terry has had one or two slight slips despite his unbelievable defensive displays. Against Sweden we looked strong but conceded silly goals from set plays, an area that we are normally strong on. Surely this is slightly pedantic however, even for us. The criticisms we level at England can be levelled at most other teams in the competition. For me, Argentina and Spain have shown real strength in depth but are the only two that really stand out. The only consistent teams tend to sit at a mediocre level and are beatable if we raise our game. Other than that, nobody has stood out as a runaway favourite. Maybe we should be looking around us before we are too quick to judge.
We have a real competition on our hands and the knockout stages will sort out the men from the boys. We have a problem when we look at England, we have no justification to say we can win the World Cup easily but also no reason to say that anybody can knock us out. The key to take from the group performances is that we are showing a steady improvement game on game and we clearly have another gear left. We’re not playing our best and we have the players to raise their game to achieve our potential. There are only a handful of teams, such as Brazil or Argentina, who can make that claim. We may not have the experience, as a national side, of the later stages but we are a very strong unit and have adaptable players.
It’s time to start believing we can really do it this time.
By Sean Henderson
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
