After the dust has settled and English fans have had their fill of berating the Uruguayan referee, Jorge Larrionda and his assistant, Mauricio Espinosa for disallowing Frank Lampard’s clearly legitimate 38th minute goal, the greater truths about the state of the English team will have to be addressed.
Germany Win Convincingly
With first half goals from Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and a brace from Thomas Mueller in the second half it is fair to say that England were outplayed by an imperious German side in every position on the pitch. Right from the start the Germans were first to every loose ball, pressuring England’s Wayne Rooney in to schoolboy errors unbecoming of the Manchester United forward and threatening the players in red with their lethally clinical passes.
England’s World Cup Campaign in Tatters from the Start
This England team, dubbed the “Golden Generation” for its selection of highly paid and performing stars such as Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard and the aforementioned Wayne Rooney, had failed to set their tournament alight right from the word go.
Perhaps only Steven Gerrard’s early goal against a stubborn US side in the opening game and the ten minutes prior to half time against the Germans when West Ham’s Matthew Upson paid some amends for his woeful defending and scored a pounding header, actually showed the sort of form that upon scant few occasions this team is capable.
Capello Out?
There were countless tactical errors on show in South Africa that will be playing over and over again in Fabio Capello’s mind and that may lead to many calling for the Italian’s resignation. These include such fallacies as bringing the misfiring Emile Heskey to the tournament and stubbornly sticking to a flatfooted 4-4-2 formation that allowed for the Algerians to threaten the Three Lions in game two and for the Germans to pounce no less than four times in this last outing.
Lampard’s Disallowed Goal
Apparently, according to BBC commentators, the Uruguayan referee upon seeing Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal on playback at halftime uttered “Dios Mio” or “My God”. There is perhaps no better campaign launch for the introduction of goal line technology in the game, although, computers were not needed in this instance since the ball bounced twice behind the line before being recovered by German keeper Manuel Neuer.
Upson and Terry Display Hapless Defending
Regardless of the psychological boost that England would have received from the disallowed equalizing goal there is no excuse for a humbling of this magnitude. Germany has only looked threatening on the counterattack in South Africa and yet the pairing Upson and Terry misfired and four key occasions allowing for this debacle.
An Overhaul of the England Team Needed
Without question: the deadwood of yesteryear will have to be stripped away at once. Terry, Upson, Gerrard, James and Heskey have most certainly played their last World Cup. Rooney will probably survive another four years along with Milner, Johnson and Cole. Of course the great search for an able goalkeeper will continue as West Ham’s Robert Green has yet to show his ability to step up on the international stage fumbling and permitting Clint Dempsey’s goal for the US in the opening game.
So, once again, the English team flatter to deceive and hackneyed old sayings such as “England Expects” will be uttered and forgotten until the next time. England bow out of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa on June 27 in a humiliating fashion, outplayed and outclassed by a German side that condemned the Three Lions to their worst ever tournament defeat.
Richard McColl - I am a freelance writer from deepest darkest London but for the past 10 years or so I have been maintaining my extended "writing break" in ...
