Friday 20 November 2009

Ingerland

I hate international breaks.

It means that I’m forced to thrash about under the blanket of the Football Supporters Moral Code. For instance, as an Englishman, I should want England to win, when in fact I get the same sick feeling in my stomach every time I watch them play outside of a major tournament.

Inexplicably, I actually want them to lose, and horribly, possibly just so it might possibly gag the people that are already saying that they will win the World Cup next year.

It’s not that I don’t want England to be successful; it’s just that I hate myself for wanting it. It puts me in the same group of people that extol Lampard as a ‘World Class’ midfielder - Chelsea fans. And that is one assemblage that no self-respecting Englishman wants to be lumped in with.

This is my issue with international football; it means that people – or, more bluntly, the media – force the idea that because a player is English he is innately up there with the best of them. This imply isn’t the case, he’s just ‘up there’ above the other English players that don’t make the team because their ‘up there’ isn’t very ‘up’ or ‘there’ at all.

Watching England play against Brazil on Saturday afternoon was at once heartening and demoralising at the same time, a bit like having porridge with lots of sugar but skimmed milk.

England, as it was massively stressed before, during and now after the game, were significantly short of ‘first choice’ players. The result – a one-nil loss - could therefore be seen as reasonably optimistic, as Brazil is ‘The Best Team in the World™’ and we only lost ‘a bit’.

First off, the positive. The game showed that despite the lack of first choice players available, England were reasonably organised in defence, something that can be put down to Capello’s coaching in the last year or so as much as anything else.

However the fact remains that Brazil completely dominated the style and tempo of the game, even when England had possession. Andy ‘State the Bleeding Obvious’ Townsend rained knowledge down upon us concerning the tactic of closing down in numbers ‘in this sort of heat’ and wildly applauded the English midfield for doing so.

The fact of the matter is that nothing that could be called ‘pressure’ was ever put on the Brazil midfield, allowing Kaka, amongst others, to stroll back into the middle four, pick the ball up and swipe it left and right without any danger of being caught.

It was Kaka’s presence that also foreshadows England’s other great problem. England lacks any semblance of creativity. England’s sole strategy is flawed. The defence pings – actually, that sounds a bit too useful – slogs a long hopeful ball up to the front man’s left armpit, praying that somehow he’ll bring it under control and hold onto it, then lay the perfect ball down at – probably – Rooney’s right foot to blast into the top corner. It’s all a bit too fantasy football.

Rooney was handed the captaincy on Saturday, a fact that seemed to rouse him for about the first ten minutes before he continued his run of losing the ball too easily and then getting fed up. Gone are the days that he would lose the ball and then chase it down like a rabid pit-bull with a wasps nest in its anus. Now he prefers languishing on his knees and slamming his hands on the turf like a spoilt child that has been refused extra custard.

Worryingly it was England’s general disinterest in the physical side of the game, coupled with a lack of ingenuity meant that time and again Brazil would outfight, out-muscle and outrun England, with no real exception.

With a midfield of Lampard and Gerrard, improvement should be possible, but not definite. All we can count on is Lampard taking ten pot-shots a match and hoping that one of them will deflect in off Gerrard’s left earlobe when they inevitably get in each other’s way.

The inclusion of the long missed Joe Cole will bring new life into the mix, but will he be fit? Has he ever been fit? At the last World Cup Cole was one of a handful of players that looked as though he would be able to produce something special when he had the ball at his feet. He is certainly one of about three that inspires the same intake of breath from the crowd as players such as Kaka do.

Will Capello start taking chances on players of Joe Cole’s ilk? I, completely unabashedly, put forward fast-tracking Jack Wilshire into the squad. He’ll be eleven by the time the tournament kicks off, but as the old adage goes, if he’s good enough he’s got grass on the wicket. Or something like that.

As it stands England have now played four of the best teams in the world under Capello, and been victorious in one of them. Spain thoroughly dismantled them, Brazil never looked troubled and France pretty much walked the distance to their victory. This does not spell too cheery a read for the same people that believe by some magical happenstance England will gloriously sweep to victory next summer.

In England’s defence, and to cover my back, the results that really matter have gone well. Capello’s record in qualifiers was fantastic, and I’m more than happy that we’ve qualified for a World Cup without having to rely on anyone else. It is not emphatically all doom and gloom. It’s just gloom.

This match was important. It showed that the England team is a long way off being ‘World Class’. It also showed how incredibly dull it is watching them play.

Tellingly, it was Brazil’s coach Dunga that summed up what they need to do to improve on the world stage, namely ‘…learn how to dribble.’

Quite.

1 comment:

  1. Finbar - I was at the game. It was a complete non event - training match for all in involved. The highlight was booing the Sheikhs for not taking part in the Mexican wave. This appeared like a once in a lifetime opportinity for the crowd to do so without the fear of being sans a hand.
    Now Brazil v Italy Beach Football World Cup QF last weekend. THAT WAS A GAME! 'Life is Life'.

    ReplyDelete