Watching England Play

Going through the torture of watching another England World Cup match, this time they are playing Trinidad and Tobago and it is obvious they haven’t got a clue how to break them down. It is all looking like it will end up as a nil-nil draw which means England will face a real pressure match against Sweden which they will quite likely lose and then be out of the competition. The same old, same old story. It is shocking when you think about how much money these England players earn every week and yet how little they achieve. At some point the tide is going to turn and even the most moronic of England supporters is going to realise it just isn’t worth following them to the ends of the earth because it is clear that there are so many other countries that are now a hell of a lot better them. It is only rare occasions that England seem to play with flair, spirit and speed, which can when they are on song and which makes them so enjoyable to watch. This experience at the 2006 World Cup so far is not enjoyable however and it is difficult not to start to get bad feelings about it. Then again I am a pessimist and there will be countless thousands of people who if they read this would just laugh in my face and wonder just what it is I am going on about.

The paragraph above was written when it was half time in the England - Trinidad & Tobago match when the score was nil-nil. Now as I write this it is full time and the final score is 2-0 England and of course all my negative thoughts have gone right out the window. In fairness there was a lot more determination about England in the second half and after Sven had made 2 inspired substitutions by bringing on both Lennon and Rooney there was a sense that a goal from England had to come. Nevertheless they did leave until the 82nd minute before they found the back of the net courtesy of a well-taken header by Peter Crouch. Then in the final minute of normal time Steven Gerrard smacked one in from the edge of the box and that really was game over. All in all England were certainly a lot better than they were against Paraguay and for a golden minutes it was possible to conceive that they just might manage a couple of really good performances before they bow out. So all in all it is not doom and gloom then, and I guess I take back to a certain extent what I wrote in parts of the first paragraph. But then again, it is only a matter of time before reality well and truly comes a knockin’ at the door.