As far as the memory stretches, major tournaments have seen England exit with a succession of hard luck stories and with sympathy bestowed upon them. From Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’, penalty shoot-out’s (too numerous to mention specifically) to contentious sending offs, England – and importantly, the English public – have had the crutch with which to prop up their lack of success, a ready made reason for their failures to be ignored and blithely brushed aside. That it would all be different ‘next time’.
World Cup Perspectives: The Cold Realization About England’s Soccer
A telling aspect of England’s latest exit, or rather, capitulation, from a major tournament was that whilst they were the victims of a hideous piece of officiating when Frank Lampard’s shot (that shouldn’t even have required the use of video replay or technology to determine it has crossed the line) was adjudged to not be a goal, there is no hand wringing or a feeling of ‘they’re out to get us’. But the post-mortems that are being penned, blogged and voiced have resisted the temptation to cry foul. A cold realisation appears to have hit home that England are simply not good enough.
England fans are often a myopic bunch, cosseted with the belief from the Sky Sports propaganda that the Premier League is the best league in the world, so naturally the eleven who wear the Three Lions by rights should have a legitimate claim on winning tournaments, despite the weight of history that proves otherwise.
And admittedly, whilst the dust has not even settled on England’s exit let alone decisions been taken as to where England’s ‘golden generation’ now go, there is a palpable sense that the manner of the defeat has managed to extinguish the one emotion that England could cling to – hope. The one commodity that seemingly sustains a nation throughout failure upon failure.
Heading into the game with Germany, England had been installed as favourites with the relative inexperience of the German side counting heavily against them. The way though in which England were dismantled by a rampant attack, contributed heavily to their own downfall meant there was nothing – not even a botched decision that would have brought them back on level terms heading in at half time – to hide behind.
Looking at the German performance yesterday, and that of Spain and Argentina for example, in stark contrast to that of England (and indeed France and Italy) shows that there has been a shift in how football is being played at the top level. Swift, incisive play is being rewarded and some nations (England included), have been left behind with the belief that stoicism and desire are sufficient to bring success.
Maybe time – and qualification for Euro 2012 and the next World Cup – will gloss over the failings and paper over the cracks but at this point there is a very real sense that the nation will no longer fall into the familiar trap of believing the hype that is whipped up every time the team heads to a tournament. There are only so many times you can get stung.
To trot out the old John Cleese line from Clockwise: “It’s not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand.”
Perhaps not any longer though.
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