With the Euro’s only a matter of days away now England are going to the tournament unfancied, torn apart by injury and after France’s latest win in midweek completely up against it.
However, with two very credible 1-0 wins under their belts Roy Hodgson’s men should be going to Poland and Ukraine with a sprout of confidence in the camp. Any win away from home should be seen as a positive even if it is against a Norway side England should be beating. Considering Hodgson had only a few weeks to make up a prospective squad and get them into training, a win no matter how small the winning margin should be applauded.
Since the turn of the millennium England fans and the English media seem to be obsessed with performances over results. In an act of almost footballing snobbery suddenly football is decided on how a team plays not what the scoreline is. A prime example of this being Sven Goran Eriksson’s tenure as England’s head coach, he was always scrutinised for making more substitutions than he has fingers, for being the first foreign England head coach and for having an England side who weren’t world beaters, a side who wasn’t made up of the biggest and best players the world have ever seen but knew how to grind out a win.
And it was this basis which led England onto the brink of World Cup glory in the promised land of Japan and South Korea in 2002. Even though they only scraped a mere 5 points in Group F to finish second, after a convincing win against Denmark England found themselves in the quarter finals against a Brazil side who were world beaters. With a front line of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, England had to be resilient and with a head coach that has Serie A experience they were exactly that.
Ultimately the 2002 World Cup will be remembered in England for that goal by Ronaldinho. But yet had that goal not happened and England had managed to grind out another narrow win without playing exceptional, only Turkey and a Germany team who England had previously demolished on that night in Munich the previous year, would have been in England’s way on the quest for their second World Cup trophy.
It may be hypothetical but had England found a way to get passed Brazil then England would have been the team to beat and would have probably gone on to win the tournament. Now a decade later, with two narrow wins and more importantly two clean sheets maybe, just maybe this could be the year England finally live up to all the hype.
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