England 2-2 Czech Republic

August 20, 2008

England scraped a last second draw at the Wembley against the Czech Republic . Not a very confident performance before the world cup qualifiers.Milan Baros opened the scoring in the 22nd minute but Wes Brown equalised before half time from a corner kick header.

Jankulovski put the Czech Republic ahead after a magnificently curled free kick goal. Joe Cole equalised in the last seconds of the match.

Not a particularly convincing performance from England- so what’s new ?

Check out the goals.

First Half:

Czechoslavakia go ahead :

Joe Cole makes it 2-2:

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Its all over for England

August 16, 2008

OK-so it’s the opening day of the Premiership. How do you feel ? Excited ? Anxious ? Bored ? No matter how successful your club team there’s only one thing that will inevitably happen this season. England will screw up and have yet another disappointing year. Perhaps Capello will achieve something but if you’ve read Part One of this article you’ll know my views on this subject. England will fail- mainly because we play football too fast and without thought but also because most of our players have little tactical nouse or technique. Another reason is a more practical one. Unlike most other European nations our national team still spends too little time together. In the Club vs Country debate it is inevitably the club that wins and as a consequence our players like Gerrard, Terry ,Lampard, Ferdinand et al are unable to develop any international understanding. For any team to function whether its in Sport, or the Arts, or Business it must spend time together to learn to work together, to know each others strengths and weaknesses, to plan, to learn how to win. As a nation we do not give our players that time. For us the dominance of club managers and the success of our clubs takes priority, hence our international team fails. Lastly we fail because many of our players do not feel the passion for playing for their country that they do playing for their club. In club football players develop a loyalty to their team-mates, to their supporters, even to their city but most importantly it is their club who pays their over inflated ,rich boy salaries and therefore it is to their club that their main loyalty lies.Our players are spoilt ,cloistered and sheltered from the problems of real life; what does it matter to them if their country loses an international , doesn’t qualify for a championship ? A bit of unfavourable publicity –shake it off and come out with the same old ‘we cocked up’ routine. The bottom line is that our spoilt players don’t care enough. Other than pride they lose nothing if England loose; this has been made worse by a procession of inept international managers such as Mclaren and Ericsson.

Maybe Capello will be different but don’t waste your breath hoping.

Watch a real example of hurt- England vs West Germany. Quarter final of the world Cup in Mexico-38 years ago. 2-0 up and we lost 3-2. Does nothing change ??

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Why England will never win the World Cup

August 12, 2008

Why England will never win another World Cup or a European Championship .

We’ve only ever won one International Football tournament -the World Cup in 1066, sorry 1966. And we were lucky to do that. Mediocre teams in a mediocre tournament. Lucky to beat Argentina in the quarter final, lucky to beat Portugal in the semi-final. Sure we had one or two great players- Moore and Charlton for example but we were not a great team. And as a nation we’ve lived on the back of this success ever since.

Why have we never won anything else- we’re not good enough!! But there are a number of reasons for this; reasons which I’ll examine in this 2 part article.

Why do we have such a successful Premier League, supposedly the best in the world, and such a mediocre international team ?

There are a number of quality teams in the Premiership but too many of them play football the English way. What is the English way – too fast, too many long balls, too many balls hit high with the midfield being bypassed too often. English players still play football without thought, too many English players have too little technical awareness and too many managers don’t allow players the freedom to express themselves fully.

The best football played by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool tends to be in the champions League where the game is slower and the ball is played on the ground to players’ feet. Arsenal, in particular, displayed a fluidity in passing and movement which at its best was rarely surpassed last season. Football should be a game where the ball’s played on the floor and where players move into space to receive it.

How many times have you seen a premiership player , paid millions of pounds, meant to be amongst the best in the world ,give away the ball by passing badly when under no pressure ??

Countless times- why ? Because we play the game too fast and with no thought.

Until Premiership teams play consistently with thought and with tactical awareness we will never win another international football tournament. How many great players have come and gone, how many great players will come and go before we begin to understand that to win a football match at the highest level requires slow football, accurate passing and the ball to be on the ground.

The second reason that we will never win another international football tournament is that our players are, on the whole, less technically gifted than others. This is closely allied to playing too fast,our top players don’t have the time on the ball to develop sophisticated ,innovative skills. How many of our best players have truly great skills- Terry, Lampard ,Owen ?

Not really- Owen hasn’t dribbled a ball since he scored against Argentina in the World Cup when he was 18 and Terry and Lampard are gutsy,courageous, brave players but top in terms of skill?

If you think they are what planet are you living on ?

Where are our players with Brazilian flair, with European culture ?

We haven’t got any! We must slow our game down, starting at school boy level and teach how to beat a man, how to control the ball, how to have the ball glued to our feet. Only then will we begin to compete again at international level.

If you think the first part of this article is rubbish or you hate me for my views- good. I hope you’ll read the second part due out at the weekend.

Check out England below. Losing with an own goal !!

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