England out of World Cup
Lose on penalties to Portugal, Rooney sent off
England crash out on penalties (again) at the Quarter Final stages to Luiz Felipe Scolari's prosaic Portugal
Well, there was an certain inevitability about the events of Saturday afternoon at Schalke's stadium in Gelsenkirchen.
A red card that galvanises a half-decent display and is ultimately ended by penalties is an echo of England's 1998 exit to Argentina in France when David Beckham's sending off forced England into a rearguard action that saw the dreaded spot-kicks finish English involvement in that year's tournament.
Up until Rooney's dismissal, there had only been brief spells of good football from Eriksson's men and fewer from Portugal. It wasn't a great footballing display after the dismissal but it was a wonderfully gritty and brave effort from the ten men who even managed to carve out the better chances.
Rooney's sending off seemed to be deserved but not for the push on Cristiano Ronaldo. From replays it appears that the Manchester United man did stamp on Ricardo Carvalho's unmentionables but the referee, Horacio Elizondo, did not look like he was about to take any action outside of awarding a free-kick to Portugal until Ronaldo's intervention and Rooney's tame shove.
Up until that point, Rooney had not been able to replicate his promising solo front-running effort that he had produced against Ecuador and neither the central midfield duo of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard or the wide players Joe Cole and David Beckham could manage to get up in support. One had to feel sorry for the neutrals watching this miserable fare until the Rooney self-destruct button was pressed.
Extra time was more entertaining than most but with the game going to penalties you couldn't feel confident as an Englishman that the team could advance. And they didn't -- Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo put in a bravura performance, England took some weak penalties and the odious Ronaldo sealed a semi-final place for Big Phil's side.
Ronaldo is now public enemy number one in the English part of the British Isles (although the mincing, preening prannet couldn't have been very popular in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland previously). The tabloids are certainly not fuelling the flames in any way -- for an example of the typically restrained reporting see The Sun, The Mirror and The Star.
Normally I wouldn't like to draw attention to our gutter press but I'll make an exception for Ronaldo.
I can understand that you'd want to do anything to help your side win, but surely you draw the line at stabbing a teammate in the back? Or maybe that makes me a bit old-fashioned. For those who still say they would like Scolari to be England coach, maybe they'd like to consider whether they'd want to see England players behaving in the same manner. If the victory cannot be won purely by how your team plays and you have to resort to the sort of antics that Scolari is famous for, then the victory isn't worth it.
As for Sven, he hasn't managed to take the England side beyond the levels achieved by his less-heralded predecessors. The team always looked like they were playing with the hand brake on, the midfield imbalance was never resolved and the Walcott gamble failed miserably. Hopefully Arsene Wenger and a few Southampton fans can confirm that he does actually exist as a footballer.
Maybe too much blame is being heaped on Eriksson -- yes, he did make a number of errors with his sqaud and was very well paid (surely no crime). He was also foreign and had a number of well-publicised affairs, which goes down well (and badly at the same time) with the tabloid press.
But did England really have the players to win the World Cup? You could argue that yes they could: Despite there being a number of entertaining games at Germany 2006, there's not one outstanding side and both Brazil and Argentina have fallen at the quarter final stage, meaning the more physical qualities of the European teams have been triumphant, although Brazil never got going and France were definitely the better side in that match.
The BBC's panel were particularly scathing of Eriksson, constantly reminding the viewers that the players on display wearing the three lions on their shirt were "world class". But we hear that before every tournament and the truth is that since 1966, the English national side has not been world class.
So, why this apparent contradiction between the exploits of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard for their clubs and country? Taking those two players as examples, they are good players and technically sound enough to play in any league in the world, which has not been the case with English players in the past.
But these box-to-box, lion-hearted midfield generals can't seem to play together. And unfortunately a midfield needs a blend of skills -- I would argue that Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham provide a very similar range of abilities to the team. These players thrill TV audiences around the world with their exploits in the Premiership but the guile and craft in that league is provided by non-Englishmen. Even midfielders that failed to make the cut, like West Ham's Nigel Reo-Coker, also provide a tigerish, never-say-die element of steel that is wonderful but not sufficient to win international tournaments.
Where is the English Deco, Pirlo, Zidane, Ronaldinho or Riquelme? They're not being produced because the English game doesn't value them and has no place for them in the harum-scarum of a Premiership midfield -- Arsenal excepted but their fine midfield artisans are resolutely un-English.
Joe Cole is the prime example of a talent that would surely be utilised as a central playmaker for any other country -- to his credit he has played very well as a converted wide man for both Chelsea and England. The fact that England have one player of his ilk to point to, is pretty damning.
But then this has never been the English way. Maybe England could have achieved more by playing a more resolutely English game -- a 4-4-2 with plenty of running and a high tempo, the sort of game that is deep within the DNA of English players. Hard to maintain in the heat of summer but Germany seem to have done it -- they have played joyous, attacking football despite not being blessed with lots of technical players like the South Americans. They played with their shackles removed in a way not beyond the English -- in fact, Michael Ballack apart the English midfield and defence is surely superior although crucially they utilise a specialist holding player in Thorsten Frings.
What we need is a Jurgen Klinsmann. What we have is a Steve McClaren. I'll keep waiting for that success at international level and sit back and enjoy Match of the Day.
