FIFA World Cup: Why England Lost Before Their South African Journey Even Began

   The excitement and expectation built up at the start of June as it does every 4 years when the World Cup comes around and the English are in town. Only this year seemed to hold an added amount of expectation among the fans of this once powerful nation as this was the year of English Football’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’.

Everyone was indulged in world cup fever as the squad was announced and the anticipation for our first match against our old rivals but also political pals and non-footballers the USA. Though, in recent times we have come quite accustomed to being in battle along side our friends across the Atlantic, this was a different story, this was football, our game. The whole country was anticipating the greatest achievement in the history of English football on foreign soil as Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney and Co set off on a mission to South Africa.

All the England fans were out in full force, packing into pubs to get a view of the game and St.Georges flags flying high all over South Africa. England was loving it. Even the old, failed and statistically worst England manager of all time, Terry Venables brought out his own single to kick start England’s World Cup campaign with Elvis Presley’s timely classic ‘If I Can Dream’. It was the anthem of The Sun’s world cup advert with Mr. Venables walking around the dark Wembley pitch with a very Tom Jones like swagger in appearance and even in vocal ability as he begged the higher powers of football to please ‘let my dream come true’. He wasn’t alone though as the rest of The Sun’s world cup experts sang in chorus with him in the form of the most well-spoken and intellectual figures in English football, Harry Redknapp and Ian Wright of course. As they winked and sang for the camera in a remarkable moment of cringe the words that encapsulated the thoughts of all English fans across the country shone out in the heart of the Nation’s favourite stadium – ‘Maybe, Just Maybe’.

Though, we all now know the truth was ‘No, just No’. We did dream but did anyone truly believe it would really happen? I must say as an optimist there were times when I thought it might come true but like many of us over-expectant England fans, I was wrong. A year of Andy Townsend and other poor quality ITV pundits constantly reminding everyone ‘it’s a world cup year’ whenever any English player gets the slightest of knocks in a game, especially when it was  Wayne Rooney all seems so pointless now. Though, I must say the downfall of England’s world cup campaign may date back to an infamous injury picked up in the Quarter-finals of the Champions League. It was on the 30^th March 2010 at the Allianz Arena when Mario Gomez tripped Wayne Rooney moments before Ivica Olic scored the winner in stoppage time to give Bayern Munich a home advantage win over Manchester United, though this did not affect only Sir Alex and his boys, but English football as a whole. The Germans plotted their revenge for 1966 and the Owen hat-trick in Berlin on that very night as Gomez, a German of course, took it upon himself to destroy the English dream. Wayne has not scored a competitive goal since that night. He has however scored in the friendly (though still rather embarrassing score line of 3-0) over the Platinum Stars, who finished 7 points from bottom in the South African premier league last season. Though, we must not blame Mario Gomez and his German compatriots as it was the faults of the English players and particuarly the Don himself, Mr. Fabio Capello.

They are the super-rich among us and in happy  times the pride of the nation, although at bad times they are ‘over-paid idiots who don’t care about the fans and show no passion for their country’. This is a view of all the jealous and typical English fans, though it is not a view I share as they deserve every penny they get. Football is about passion and joy and what it gives to the viewer and those players never would have been there in the first place if they didn’t have that passion every England fan shares for the game. The fact is they are just not good enough to win the greatest prize in world football. Capello made many errors with his strict and almost prison like style of discipline and his persistence on 4-4-2 and …Emile Heskey. I can’t blame Heskey though, if anything he was one of England’s best players (though that’s not saying much) but the squad selection was another gigantic step towards the embarrassment we suffered on African soil.

Theo Walcott, Adam Johnson and Wes Brown to name a few players who should have been sitting in first class on that plane to South Africa. Though, the name that was not on the list and ultimately meant mission impossible was the absentee Paul Scholes, the man who rejected the call-up. The greatest English footballer since the days of 1966 and Sir Bobby Charlton who also graced the Old Trafford turf like our beloved Scholesy. Though Paul’s rejection was very disappointing, it was understandable as again Fabio had made another error by asking so late and Scholesy had already booked his holidays and couldn’t let his kids down. In my opinion he is the greatest midfielder of the past couple decades, up there even with Zinedine Zidane – a world cup winner who captured the hearts of everyone and even literally in the case of Marco Materazzi, only it was with his head, not his feet. However, this is the figure we needed, a great midfielder who controls the orchestra instead of Gerrard and Lampard squabbling over the attacking midfield limelight. A man Zidane himself described as the ‘toughest opponent he ever faced’, the one and only Paul Scholes.

Instead we ended up with Gareth Barry looking like he’d never played the game before as he let Mesut Ozil glide past him even with a 10 yard disadvantage to create the fourth and the definitive goal that knocked England into a state of national embarrassment where we found solace in James Corden and his World Cup Live. Oh, how I miss the days of Terry Venables and his beautiful dream.