Some people fly,
Some people fall,
Others pretend they don't care at all.
If you want to fight I'll stand right beside you.
The day that you fall I'll be right behind you...
to pick up the pieces.
Those forty four years of hurt are about to continue and the heartbreak of watching another team life the trophy yet again, is almost too much to bear.
Why do we put ourselves through it every two/four years?
It’s like running for the bus that is just a bit too quick for you. It’s unlikely that you’ll get it and the reach your target but you try and hope, sometimes just for the sake of trying.
I didn’t assume that we had a automatic place in the final, I’m not that arrogant and I know that getting to the final takes incredibly hard work but going into a major tournament without believing we have a chance, is so ‘un-English’. The press build us up to be world beaters and although their intentions may be good, all they were doing was putting unnecessary pressure on the team. There was already enough pressure on Fabio and the boys after our almost perfect qualification campaign. That’s not an excuse by the way, I know that South Africa 2010 was inexcusable and I’m still searching for a proper reason for the disaster. It’s not as if we woke up on the 12th June and were instantly sh*t all of a sudden.
Well anyway, lets start from the beginning and try to solve the mystery:
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ENGLAND 1 USA 1
(Summed up in a few short sentences)
Good performance. Not the end of the world result-wise. Overall, quite positive but nowhere near world champions, yet. But we still believed.
ENGLAND 0 ALGERIA 0
Poor, poor performance. Not far from being the end of the world. Not many positives to take from the game, Fabio under real pressure for the first time since he got the job. We couldn’t have looked more unlike world champions. Did we still believe though? Of course we believed things would get better because it’s that sort of blinkered hope and optimism that gets us through football matches, they are qualities all football fans seem to have.
So after two disappointing draws, we were third in the so called ‘easy group.’
Win against Slovenia and we’re through, anything else and… well that wasn’t even worth thinking about.
Before we could play our ‘do or die’ match, there was a volcano of trouble brewing and it erupted, with horrible consequences.
Friday 18th – Wayne Rooney’s controversial comments after England were booed off. He stormed off the pitch at the final whistle but not before speaking into a nearby camera, questioning the England fan’s loyalty. Never a good thing to Wayne. I don’t agree with booing because I don’t think it does anyone any good in the end but those people had paid thousands of pounds and flown thousands of miles to get to South Africa. Instead of seeing courageous England, they saw a performance that did not reflect all the hype. We looked average and that’s putting it nicely. So, to be honest, they were totally entitled to their opinions. Yes, it was on the heat of the moment but think before you speak next time please?
Sunday 20th – John’s Terry infamous press conference. Honesty or the work of a trouble maker? I don’t know JT personally but I like to think that he cares for England and he is honoured to play for his country. So surely that press conference was just what we all thinking? Maybe what he said came out wrong but I respect him for saying it.
Fabio retaliation – In an interview, telling the world that John Terry had made a ‘big mistake’ in going public with his views. I hate to say bad things about Fabio (because personally I think he’s a genius) but I didn’t agree with this: Slating John Terry for saying too much to the media but yet he didn’t think to talk to John about this in private, he thought he’d do it through… the media.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Less than twenty four hours, John had apologised. I’m not really sure what he had said sorry for but we vowed to raise above all this and win on Wednesday.
So the big day was upon us, finally.
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ENGLAND 1 SLOVENIA 0
Finally, something to smile about: It was only one nil but it meant the world. The performance was a million times better than the previous game and we finally looked as if we were playing with confidence, with a smile on our faces.
Did we believe? YES. Of course, we were going through, it’s on again; a repeat of 1966 was still possible!
I wonder who we’ll get in the next round…
‘AND THE USA HAS GRABBED A LATE WINNER! THEY WILL TOP THE GROUP ON GOAL DIFFERENCE, LEAVING ENGLAND TO PLAY… MAYBE GERMANY.
Germany beat Ghana later on that day to set up a tasty last sixteen game with us. It was bound to happen and if we wanted to lift that trophy on July 11th, then we needed to beat one of the ‘top’ teams to settle those nerves and to prove the critics wrong. Why not start with the Germans?
ENGLAND 1 GERMANY 4
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So we’ve been dumped out, in spectacular fashion, by frankly an average German side. We were poor from the first minute till the last. You could argue that 4-1 flattered us slightly. We can talk about the disallowed goal until we’re blue in the face but that wasn’t the reason for our loss, dire defending from the back four killed us. David James was our best player, we were battered and he kept it from being an even more embarrassing score line. It hurts to talk about but there are so many questions that need to be answered.
What happened to Wayne Rooney? Well in fact, what happened to the whole team? You can’t pin point our failure on one particular player; the whole team destroyed their Premier League reputations. How can players on a hundred grand a week perform so badly on the world’s biggest stage?
One last thing to say – Fabio must stay. Chopping and changing managers won’t do us any good. If one of the best managers in the world can’t change us from being ‘un achievers’, who can? I don’t think a change in manager will help but I think a change of a few players could.
Who’s up for this all again in Rio 2014?
it's not always easy but i'm here forever....♥
