England Fans: Would It Be Better Not To Qualify For the Next Round?

I love England. And I also love football, so naturally you would assume that I will be supporting my nation to the bitter end.

However, I am a realist and with our failure to defeat to lesser nations in the USA and Algeria, it leaves the whole nation wondering, what has gone wrong.

Fabio Capello impressed many, including myself, when he first took over from Steve McClaren in early 2008 – however, performances at this World Cup have lead to many criticising him and his players.

With his unwillingness to use players such as Joe Cole, Jermaine Defoe, and Matthew Upson; and with his limited tactics (can he only play 4-4-2?), it seems England can only get worse.

With players such as Jamie Carragher in the first eleven, it shows how wrong Fabio’s tactics have been at this World Cup.

All of England’s top stars don’t seem motivated and there is no cohesion in the squad making it hard for us to break even low ranked teams down.  When Emile Heskey has been our player of the tournament, you know something is drastically wrong.

England and USA are now fighting it out for second place it seems and with the US almost winning their game against Slovenia, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they went through instead of us.

Could this be a blessing in disguise?

If England are playing like they are at the moment against lesser teams than ourselves – what can we expect if we qualify and we play Germany?

With goalkeeping errors, a less than impressive defence, a midfield that looks like they have never played together and a strike force that can’t score – we could be looking at a huge defeat!

I guarantee all England fans remember watching the England team defeating our arch rivals, 5-1 in Munich in one of our best displays in the past twenty years.

Imagine if that happens to us? Imagine if Germany advance to the final and win?

Both are a possibility – I hate to admit it.

The Germans were not impressive in there last outing but were unlucky to be reduced to ten men – making it harder for themselves.  However, their first game showed the football world what they are capable of.

Quite simply, if we face bigger teams – we are risking an embarrassing defeat – making the England players and management, the most hated figures in England, much like David Beckham was after the France 1998 World Cup.

The public and press reaction could lead to a serious backlash against the England team – putting more pressure on them for our qualification for the 2012 European Championships.

The day after the World Cup draw, The Sun’s headline read, “EASY”.  How wrong they were.

I really hope I am wrong and that England step up next game and we qualify but if we continue like we are doing, I won’t be surprised if our boys will be on an early flight home from South Africa.