The hottest day of the year so far, brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies. Surely a day to be out basking in the glory of the English countryside. Sadly, no. Instead every red-blooded English man, and a fair number of English women too, stayed inside, crowded round their television set and watched the national side face Germany in the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup.
Based on the pundit's predictions, victory was assured due to the inexperience of the young Germans. All that was needed was for the team to continue playing how it had against Slovenia. In the end, a 4-1 defeat showed that they couldn't have been more wrong. How was this possible, given the spectacular performances of those star players in the England side who regularly shine for their teams in the Premier League?
- John Terry displayed the same level of awareness and co-ordination with his fellow centre-back as you would expect to see from a new member of a local under-8s side.
- Wayne Rooney proved that his wife Coleen should have packed a pair of Gucci loafers rather than an expensive pair of football boots because the latter were certainly never used in anger during the game.
- Frank Lampard showed all his creative skills by continuing to pound the ball directly into the German defensive wall from every free kick he took in a dangerous area.
- Glen Johnson confirmed that he is totally incapable of passing the ball to a teammate until he has had at least three dithering touches himself and the opposition are firmly in place to defend.
Despite all this, the undoubted star of the fiasco was the manager, Fabio Capello. Some of his tactical choices were on a whole new level of incompetance.
- James Milner was selected to deliver dangerously placed crosses into the penalty box from which the forwards could score. To maximise the potential of this tactic, Fabio picked Jermaine Defoe as a lone striker against the two German center-backs, Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrich. Jermain stands at 5' 7". The Germans are 6' 6" and 6' 1" respectively. It seems apparent that the invisble step ladder Jermaine needed to compete against these defenders for anything in the air had been left on the bus.
- Late in the game, with England in desperate need of goals, Fabio replaced Jermaine Defoe with Emil Heskey. Jermain has scored 12 goals in 43 games whereas Heskey has only managed 7 in 62 games.
- Peter Crouch remained on the bench for this, and every other game in South Africa. His scoring record is 21 goals in 40 games. He is also 6' 7" tall which would at least have allowed him to compete in the air with Per Mertesacker for any crosses delivered in from James Milner.
At this time, Fabio has not confirmed if he will be continuing in his role as England Coach. One thing is certain, he has managed to destroy the international career and confidence of Rob Green by dropping him after making a simple error in the first game in South Africa. If he does continue in the job, will he apply the same selection criteria to players such as Terry, Lampard, Rooney and Johnson, who have either made monumental mistakes or failed to display the required ability during this campaign? Probably not.
On the bright side, qualifying for the 2012 European Championships gets underway in September. No doubt Bulgaria, Montenegro, Wales and Switzerland, who beat Spain in their first group match in South Africa, can't wait to prove exactly how poor the England side have become.
Cheers,
Quartzsoft.