Here we go again: England crash out
The dream is over and boy, is this country depressed right now.
England going out in the quater-finals on penalties after a brave performance with ten men- does that sound familiar? yep, World cup 98 second round game against Argentina. I can remember that night closing my eyes for the David Batty penalty that knocked us out. When the match came down to penalties again yesterday, I got that sinking feeling again. I had already come to terms with the fact that England were likely to lose but it was still a real blow anyway. It was such a brave and gutsy performance with ten men that for long I actually dared to believe that England might actually win. This was of course a very elementary mistake to make and I should have known better.
I've supported England since the 1990 world cup when I caught a glimpse of one of their group matches and for some reason was drawn to them. I've seen all their world cup games since 1998 and all their European Championship games since 2004, and I can tell you this was the most painful defeat of all. England played so well when Rooney got sent off and they really should have won the game because they were the better side. Rooney stamping on that guy's nuts turned England into a better team (that sentence sounds so wrong)although the role Ronaldo seemed to play in the whole affair means he would be well advised not to go back to England even to pick his belongings.
And I would also like to formally eat some humble pie with regard to Owen Hargreaves. When the tournament started I questioned his ability to play the holding role well- and this was borne from seeing him play for England in the past- but he was magnificent yesterday and indeed throughout the tournament. I was wrong about Hargreaves and that performance alone will probably guarantee him some kind of cult status with English fans in the future. As for Frank Lampard, the less said the better. This was a man who was voted second best player in the world and he was completely ineffective throughout the tournament, much like the best player in the world Ronaldinho who also had a world cup to forget. Certainly few people have ever seen Lampard miss a penalty, but he did as did Gerrard and Carragher in a very painful and almost unwatchable five minutes of penalties.
Adrian Chiles made a good point last night- when England step up for a shoot-out, they just don't look confident. On the BBC's highlights programme, they froze the camera on Lampard's face at the moment he stepped up to take the penalty and he looked absolutely terrified. Christiano Ronaldo on the other hand strode up as if he was walking into McDonalds to order a burger and you didn't think he was going to miss. He was just so confident that it was almost a swagger. Every England player on the other hand stepped up looking like death itself except Hargreaves- and again how amazing was he yesterday?- and you knew deep down they would miss.
The Germans are also ice-cold when it comes to penalties- they have never lost a penalty shootout in the world cup and I knew Argentina didn't stand a chance. How come the Germans take them so well and the English are so shit at them? A penalty shoot-out is really just psychological games, and the sad fact of the matter is the English just didn't- and never do- have the bottle. The Portugese did and so did the Germans as always.
And am I the only ones laughing at the Brazilians? They just looked like they wanted to win the entire tournament while playing in first gear. They seemed to take it for granted that the world cup was theirs already.
Back to England, it's only a little consolation to go out having been the better side, but history will probably point out quite rightly that this failure was largely down to the extraodrinary idiocy of Sven Goran Eriksson; a man who took 4 strikers to the world cup- two of whom were clearly unfit, one who had struggled to score goals all season and a little known 17 year old kid who never got a single second of action. His attachment to Beckham was also troubling- no matter how shit Beckham was on the field, you knew Eriksson wouldn't dare pull him off and that was annoying because like Lampard, Becks had a bad tournament. He only brought on Lennon because Becks was injured and once you saw Lennon destroying the Portugese defence everytime he got the ball, it just made you wonder why Eriksson needed an injury to bring on someone so good- Lennon was quite clearly much, much better than Beckham. With the squad he had, two world cup quater-finals and a European Championship quater-final is not exactly a good return on 5 million pounds a year. England was even a bit lucky to be in the quaters considering how terrible they had been leading up to the game. Some players will leave with their heads held high- Hargreaves, Joe and Ashley Cole and Lennon. Some like Lampard and Beckham will consider themselves lucky to have even been playing in that game.
Yesterday you could literally feel the very air had been sucked out of England. My ENGLAND shirt seemed to almost shrink around my body. On the news, I saw two women hugging each other and crying their eyes out when the game was over. I thought of all the flags and the T-shirts and the sudden strong wave of patriotism that had engulfed the country. I'm not English, but I felt like a big part of it and now it's all gone.
Funny, sometimes you can completely forget this was just a football game.....
England going out in the quater-finals on penalties after a brave performance with ten men- does that sound familiar? yep, World cup 98 second round game against Argentina. I can remember that night closing my eyes for the David Batty penalty that knocked us out. When the match came down to penalties again yesterday, I got that sinking feeling again. I had already come to terms with the fact that England were likely to lose but it was still a real blow anyway. It was such a brave and gutsy performance with ten men that for long I actually dared to believe that England might actually win. This was of course a very elementary mistake to make and I should have known better.
I've supported England since the 1990 world cup when I caught a glimpse of one of their group matches and for some reason was drawn to them. I've seen all their world cup games since 1998 and all their European Championship games since 2004, and I can tell you this was the most painful defeat of all. England played so well when Rooney got sent off and they really should have won the game because they were the better side. Rooney stamping on that guy's nuts turned England into a better team (that sentence sounds so wrong)although the role Ronaldo seemed to play in the whole affair means he would be well advised not to go back to England even to pick his belongings.
And I would also like to formally eat some humble pie with regard to Owen Hargreaves. When the tournament started I questioned his ability to play the holding role well- and this was borne from seeing him play for England in the past- but he was magnificent yesterday and indeed throughout the tournament. I was wrong about Hargreaves and that performance alone will probably guarantee him some kind of cult status with English fans in the future. As for Frank Lampard, the less said the better. This was a man who was voted second best player in the world and he was completely ineffective throughout the tournament, much like the best player in the world Ronaldinho who also had a world cup to forget. Certainly few people have ever seen Lampard miss a penalty, but he did as did Gerrard and Carragher in a very painful and almost unwatchable five minutes of penalties.
Adrian Chiles made a good point last night- when England step up for a shoot-out, they just don't look confident. On the BBC's highlights programme, they froze the camera on Lampard's face at the moment he stepped up to take the penalty and he looked absolutely terrified. Christiano Ronaldo on the other hand strode up as if he was walking into McDonalds to order a burger and you didn't think he was going to miss. He was just so confident that it was almost a swagger. Every England player on the other hand stepped up looking like death itself except Hargreaves- and again how amazing was he yesterday?- and you knew deep down they would miss.
The Germans are also ice-cold when it comes to penalties- they have never lost a penalty shootout in the world cup and I knew Argentina didn't stand a chance. How come the Germans take them so well and the English are so shit at them? A penalty shoot-out is really just psychological games, and the sad fact of the matter is the English just didn't- and never do- have the bottle. The Portugese did and so did the Germans as always.
And am I the only ones laughing at the Brazilians? They just looked like they wanted to win the entire tournament while playing in first gear. They seemed to take it for granted that the world cup was theirs already.
Back to England, it's only a little consolation to go out having been the better side, but history will probably point out quite rightly that this failure was largely down to the extraodrinary idiocy of Sven Goran Eriksson; a man who took 4 strikers to the world cup- two of whom were clearly unfit, one who had struggled to score goals all season and a little known 17 year old kid who never got a single second of action. His attachment to Beckham was also troubling- no matter how shit Beckham was on the field, you knew Eriksson wouldn't dare pull him off and that was annoying because like Lampard, Becks had a bad tournament. He only brought on Lennon because Becks was injured and once you saw Lennon destroying the Portugese defence everytime he got the ball, it just made you wonder why Eriksson needed an injury to bring on someone so good- Lennon was quite clearly much, much better than Beckham. With the squad he had, two world cup quater-finals and a European Championship quater-final is not exactly a good return on 5 million pounds a year. England was even a bit lucky to be in the quaters considering how terrible they had been leading up to the game. Some players will leave with their heads held high- Hargreaves, Joe and Ashley Cole and Lennon. Some like Lampard and Beckham will consider themselves lucky to have even been playing in that game.
Yesterday you could literally feel the very air had been sucked out of England. My ENGLAND shirt seemed to almost shrink around my body. On the news, I saw two women hugging each other and crying their eyes out when the game was over. I thought of all the flags and the T-shirts and the sudden strong wave of patriotism that had engulfed the country. I'm not English, but I felt like a big part of it and now it's all gone.
Funny, sometimes you can completely forget this was just a football game.....
posted by Minzo at 2:54 PM
2 Comments:
Minega, I am glad you finally took back your hating on Hargreaves. In all his international career with England, he held tough protecting the shaky English defence and that was his role. Unfortunately the english fans chose to think otherwise until yesterday when he got a go ahead nod to add attack on his arsenal.
I danced dingi dingi when Brasil crashed out (I am a Brasil fan, but this time I hated them with a passion). These are some retards that figured the cup is theres to pick, if they just showed up. They had alot of respect from refs and commentators and were assumed not to error. WRONG! Viva Francois...Ninsy I am sorry but this is the only way to treat my hang over.
I just realised something terrible, the world cup is at an end.nomore thoughtful football posts! how ever will i ever survive?
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