Subtitle: Why England Always Loses
Group C
England
United States
Algeria
Slovenia
If you’re not excited about this group, and specifically the mouth watering first-game matchup between the United States and the country that once tried to rule us, then you have no heart or soul. This is a HUGE match for both teams. Huge if the US can win to finally declare that we are ready for European soccer, and huge for England if they lose, because they still can’t live down the upset lose to the US that occurred back in 1950 in their first ever World Cup, which was made even more bitter by the fact that the English squad at the time was considered to be one of the best in history while the Americans were a rag-tag group of delivery boys who’d never played together before.
In the interest of full disclosure, I root for the US through and through these days, but England is my team. Damn the odds and damn their history, I’m picking them to win the Cup. Taxation without representation? I’m so beyond that. Now I go to sleep at night to dream of the Three Lions and St George’s Cross. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.
Nickname: The Three Lions (the three lions come from the crest of the Football Association (The FA) which is the governing body of English Football, but originated with the English Coat of Arms)
Colors: White, Red (from the official flag of English Football, St. George’s Cross, which also originated from the English Coat of Arms)
Current World Ranking: 7
Manager: Fabio Capello – Only the second foreign manager to ever head the English National team, this Italian has a pretty balls-out stellar resume. He has the distinction of having won a domestic league title with every club he’s ever coached including Milan, Real Madrid (two separate times), Roma, and Juventus. He succeeded Steve McClaren who oversaw the team that shockingly failed to qualify for the 2008 Euro Cup (even though they lost, skipping work to go see the final qualification match for that tournament was one of the best days of hooky ever), and the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has never really lived up to his hype for any team he’s managed, but more on him later. It’s nothing short of a sin to hire a foreign manager for the English post but after decades of disappointment the FA decided it was finally time to bring in some serious European pedigree to get the team back in line. Since being appointed in January of 2008 Capello has performed admirably, ruling with an iron fist of discipline, but without question, his biggest challenge is still ahead of him this summer and if he doesn’t deliver, I have a feeling England will never see another foreign manager.
History: To be a fan of English soccer is to be a self-loathing masochist. This team will disappoint you time and time again while constantly getting your hopes up higher and higher. The English are some of the most miserable yet dedicated fans in the world. But still, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Britain is credited with the popularity of soccer and the spread of the sport to other countries. They played the first ever international game against Scotland back in the 1870’s. It was the establishment of British colonies in Africa and Latin American that started those countries history of the sport. In every sense Britain is the "Godfather" of soccer and therefore you would think the England National team would dominate at the international level, however the opposite seems to be the case.
It is also no coincidence that countries from the European Union tend to perform better than those from other parts of the world because they are closest to and have greater access to soccer knowledge/skills.
But England has only won one World Cup in 1966 when they hosted with their next best finish in the Semi’s in 1990. Their best ever Euro Cup finish was third in 1968. In fact, England was ranked 10th best in the world with a win percentage of 65% against all competition from 1980-2001, but the big trophies have eluded them. So…
Why England loses - some theories (true or false):
The hundreds of foreigners who play in the EPL - English players only accounted for 37% of minutes played in the 2007-2008 EPL season. However 37% is the greatest percentage for any other nationality in the EPL. No doubt the foreign players make the EPL one of if not the best league in the world, it just doesn’t help the domestic players when they have to compete against the best players in the world just to make a club team.
Also, the EPL is becoming one of the toughest leagues in Europe with the most amount of games and competition so another argument is that the English Players are just worn out when it comes to international duty.
The exclusion of the middle class - It seems absurd, but when it comes to English soccer the players who make it to the top of their clubs and national team are largely from the traditional working class. England is a fairly highly education country so this means that the players for the national team are being selected from a very small pool possibly hurting the quality of the English national team. Why does this happen? All the major English soccer clubs have academies that pick up kids at a very young age, some as young as 8, and raise them to play soccer and soccer only. As you can imagine for some working class kids going into an academy just to have a chance to make it in the sport is worth it because it’s their only chance. For the middle and upper class for which an education at a university is their destiny, going to a soccer academy isn’t worth the risk of not making it.
Freakish bad luck and everyone else cheats - In 1950 and 1970 the Brazilian and Mexican crowds wasted time by keeping the ball up in the stands while England was losing; In 1986 Maradona's infamous "hand of God" goal; In 1998 Diego Simeone playacting to get David Beckham sent off; In 2006 Cristiano Ronaldo tattling to the ref to get Wayne Rooney sent off.
Closed minds - England is the "Godfather" of soccer so to think that anyone (i.e. Italy or France) could do it better was blasphemous. Dating back to 1946 England has had 15 different managers, all of them English but 2. The current manager, Fabio Capello from Italy, is a step in the right direction to bring continental European know-how to the England squad. Hopefully some of that know-how will translate into World Cup success.
2006 World Cup: They came out on top of their Group having beaten Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago and drawing against Sweden. They barely got past Ecuador in the Round of 16, who played way better than anyone expected, in a game that was full of fouls (24 by Ecuador) and 6 yellow cards, on a goal by Beckham in the 60th minute. They then lost to Portugal in the Quarters in a game that has gone down as hugely controversial. England outplayed Portugal who was up to their usual antics of diving, hacking, and acting their way through the match. Wayne Rooney, believed by many to be England’s best hope for hoisting the Cup in ’06, was sent off in the second half for stepping on some dude’s nuts. All the replays showed it was clearly unintentional, but the player did his part to act like he’d been shot while Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney’s teammate at Manchester United at the time, did his part by ratting Rooney out. England were able to keep the game level at 0-0 through the rest of the match and through the two extra times, but unbelievably two of their biggest stars, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard both missed penalty sots in the shootout that Portugal won, 3-1, ending yet another disappointing international campaign.
Qualification: England absolutely cruised through qualifying, losing only one match to Ukraine after they’d already qualified. Since then they’ve had a rocky couple of friendly matches. They’ve beaten Egypt, Slovenia, and Slovakia, drawn against the Netherlands, and lost to Spain and Brazil. Those last three are most worrisome because if England is to win the Cup they’ll likely have to go through two of those three. Making matters worse, in the past few months the solid squad that made it through qualifying has been decimated by injuries and scandals, to the point that some very key positions on the squad are still undecided. But more on that in Part 2.
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