Big names, big disappointment
England’s World Cup came to a crashing end on Sunday when they were beaten, sorry thrashed, by Germany in Bloemfontain in their Round of 16 match.
I’d predicted a 2-0 England win. I was confident because I felt that England had better players, with more big-game experience, than their German counterparts. I expected the fact that they were playing Germany to really focus our players and see England finally hit their stride after three performances that could be described as stuttering at best.
How wrong could I be?
When the time came for them to stand up and be counted England, and their team of highly-paid, much-hyped, players demonstrated everything that is currently wrong with our national team.
They played with no organisation, no energy, no passion, no teamwork and no skill.
Being a Gillingham fan, it was a stark reminder of our final game of last season, only this time the players were supposedly the best this country has to offer.
Yes, Frank Lampard’s goal should have stood and yes, that would have brought it back to 2-2. But let’s not delude ourselves. Germany were light-years better in every department. They were better organised, better conditioned, better motivated and better tactically. As individuals, they played for the benefit of the team and knew their roles. England’s back four looked like they’d never met before.
Of England’s big-name players, only Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole can come home from South Africa with any pride in their performances in the tournament.
Gerrard wasn’t anywhere near his mercurial best, but that’s hardly surprising. Our best midfielder was reduced to a tournament playing out of position wide on the left. But he did a job for the team and gave it his all. As did Cole, who was arguably the only England defender to come out of the tournament with any credit whatsoever. Between the sticks David James, who should have started from day one, brought more stability to the side against Slovenia and against Germany stopped a thrashing becoming a complete humiliation.
We were told that, player-for-player, we were better than Germany. Based on club performances, that’s probably true. But if those players can’t play as a team, they won’t last long in tournament football, as Sunday proved in emphatic fashion.
It’s the first time that England has gone out of a World Cup without putting up anything resembling a fight or a performance, and that, more than our exit itself, is what makes Sunday’s game so galling.
We’re out of the tournament because we simply weren’t good enough. Unlike past tournaments, where we’ve gone out on our shield, there are no excuses this time. No turning points, no sendings off, no unlucky breaks, no penalty shoot-outs.
We are out because we came up against a group of players who did what we couldn’t. Play as a team.