This tournament has been historic. It will always be remembered as the first World Cup to go to Africa, in particular, to South Africa – a country that has suffered so much oppression, that has fought to show the world that it is safe and that has shown the world that white people and black people are co-existing in peace.
This assessment comes in three parts: vs. Germany; the tournament as a whole; and the future. As with my last post, I am very keen to get a discussion going at the bottom of the article. As I have experienced this afternoon, everyone has an opinion on what has happened and where to go – there is no right answer, so have a read of what I think and then I want to see what the World Cup Statistic’s readers think. We’ve been accustomed to England Football Jokes over the years, now we want to know what you think!
That weekend felt draining. I don’t think I’ve experienced so much footballing information in such a short space of time. Saturday started with the England hangover. Everyone has their own opinion as to why England continued their poor form with another failure. England fans weren’t the only ones feeling angry. The USA’s fans awoke to their own frustrations. They felt, quite rightly, that their side had been denied a 3-2 victory against Slovenia which would have capped an excellent turnaround having been two goals behind. Maurice Edu’s late goal was harshly ruled out by the referee.
As the World Cup started I agreed on a (slightly bold and rushed) statement with my housemate: ‘if England don’t win the World Cup it’ll be down to the players and not the coach’ – that statement doesn’t stand so true anymore. After the USA game I attacked the England players individually with some player ratings. Post-Algeria I don’t see any point to individual assessment. Everyone was poor. The team must be examined as just that – a team.
Following England’s draw with the USA last Saturday, WCS blogger Doron has put together a number of player ratings, where 1 is the worst, 10 is the best and 6 is your average solid performance. England will be hoping to get their World Cup hopes back on track when they play Algeria this Friday.
So England drew and collectively, a country groaned. Surprisingly the spark amongst the rubbish on show was Emile Heskey and not Wayne Rooney. I will argue that Heskey should not start England’s next game. I am no scout, I know very little about how Algeria play and therefore I am not considering that they may have a 4ft centre back who Heskey would dominate. I am writing this purely as an England fan who wants to see the England team do as well as possible and believes that in order to achieve this, Wayne Rooney is central to English plans.
The build up to this World Cup has been as much about who may not be there as to who will be there. Players have been ruling themselves out of matches or getting serious injury scares. It seems that a high proportion of these players, often influential players, are based in England and play in the Premier League.
England manager Fabio Capello has named his 23 man squad, which includes once surprising omission – Theo Walcott. Although Walcott has continuous flatter to deceive at International level, despite notching up a hat trick against Croatia in qualifying, he was generally considered to be part of the 23 that would fly out to South Africa. The 1966 World Cup winners and hosts will generally pin their attacking responsibility on Wayne Rooney, who will no doubt be the main man for the three lions in just over a week.
Theo Walcott has been left out of the final England squad by Fabio Capello. I have previously hinted that this is something I would have considered from the very beginning. I would have never selected Walcott in my initial squad. I then suggested that actually Walcott’s selection against Mexico and Japan may not have been all it seems – see point four.
On Monday I wrote about why I felt Walcott should go to the World Cup but only in an impact substitute role. Today the England team for the second and final World Cup warm-up match against Japan was announced: David James, Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand (C), John Terry, Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott, Tom Huddlestone, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent.
