We’re coming home, we’re coming, England’s coming home.
Posted on June 27th, 2010 | 134 Comments |
The headlines tomorrow will read that England lost 4-1, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Any self-respecting football fan should be able to tell that a team that are chasing the game will have a different tactical setup to a team that isn’t chasing the game, and that was the story of the game for me.
After England found themselves 2-0 down, Matthew Upson managed to cut the deficit and give England fans a glimmer of hope and suggest that perhaps the game wasn’t quite over yet. That was until a legitimate goal was ruled out for England. Frank Lampard shot from the edge of the area only to see his shot rebound off the crossbar and bounce behind the line, yet despite the eyes of the world seeming to indicate that a legitimate goal was scored, the Uruguayan linesman, Mauricio Espinosa, managed to miss the fact that the ball had bounced some two feet behind the line. What a fecking joke!
Still, let us not let that disallowed goal get in the way of the fact that England were largly outclassed by Germany in a match where they were supposed to be equals in, if not the slight favourites. After that performance, one has to wonder why some bookmakers made us the favourite to progress to the next round of the tournament in the first place!
The excuse for the England defence, well there is none actually, and Germany’s opening goal came from some comedy Titus Bramble-esque defending from England. The German goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer lofted a goal-kick forward which bounced past John Terry only for Miroslav Klose to outmuscle Matthew Upson and prod the ball home past David James. 1-0 Germany.
It was 2-0 not long after, and it was another lapse in concentration in England’s defence that once again proved costly as Lucas Podolski took advantage and fired home from a near impossible angle. 2-0, not good. The deficit was cut in half by Matthew Upson when he headed home to make it 2-1, but then came that controversial talking point mentioned earlier regarding Frank Lampard and his goal that wasn’t given.
I won’t go into it too much right now, but had that goal gone in then who is to say that the complexion of the game may not have changed? England were forced to chase the game in the second half, which left them exposed at the back as they went in search of a legitimate equaliser that would have counted. That was the source of their downfall as Germany caught England on the break to make it 3-1 through Thomas Muller.
From that point it was pretty much game over, and Thomas Muller again capitalised on a quick break from the Germans to make it 4-1, which was how the game ended as England bowed out of the competition at the first knockout hurdle.
As I said earlier, the score was 4-1. but had that Lampard goal been given then perhaps the game could have panned out differently. At 2-2, there would have been no need for England to chase the game, which means there would have been no need for the defence to have only two men manning it and there would have been no need to have been caught on the break.
Gareth Barry was an embarrasment tonight, and for the third goal he could have made a tactical foul to take Mesut Ozil down at the personal expense of a yellow card. It was also Barry who gave possesion away on the edge of the Germany penalty area which lead to the fourth German goal of the night.
The inquest and renewed calls for technology to be introduced within the game will go on and on, but the the simple fact is that England just weren’t good enough, and never have been since the tournament began. This is probably the end of a ‘golden generation’ for England, and with the performances they have shown then perhaps it couldn’t have come soon enough!
Now is the time to build a team for the next World Cup. Get rid of the star names that won’t be around in four years time and build again. It’s easier said than done however, and only time will tell just what happens in the fallout from England’s 2010 World Cup debacle.
Germany: Neuer, Lahm, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Khedira, Muller, Ozil, Podolski, Klose.
Subs: Wiese, Jansen, Aogo, Tasci, Kiessling, Badstuber, Trochowski, Cacau, Kroos, Marin, Gomez, Butt.
England: James, Johnson, Terry, Upson, Ashley Cole, Milner, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard, Defoe, Rooney.
Subs: Green, Dawson, Lennon, Crouch, Joe Cole, Warnock, Wright-Phillips, Carragher, Heskey, King, Carrick, Hart.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
I’m sick of the excuses to be honest. We were second best and simply did not deserve to progress. End of.